Michael Hardner

1. Yes 2. But you don't want to do anything ? Do you know that the USA embarked on a 20-year war over an attack that caused around 3,000 deaths ? 3. I disagree that it's over the top. 4. by a factor of 10 ? I think we can just disagree on this - you aren't teaching me anything new and I just disagree with you.

1. Ok. 2. Like I say 10,000s dead. A response is more than called for it's required. If you are feeling fear then deal with that. I use information to make decisions, whether or not it spooks me is a side matter.

1. You say 'symbol' and I see an angry old bald man with mushroom-sized warts and giant eyebrows/mustache. Not a flaunty pompadour. Symbols. 2. Disagree. Every leader does this in the form of nationalism, so no. Kennedy made Cuba a threat but not a strongman. 3. I agree that he's trying to appear 'strong' and it doesn't mesh with the flouncy cute boy... but neither does blackface or skipping Reconciliation Day so he has to become.. something. 4. We're not arguing we're discussing and mostly agreeing.

1. They were there. 2. What is this nonsense ? You would expect all of this without a pandemic ? 3. What is IFR ? Tens of thousands dead so yes a response makes sense.

Mussolini and Tito and Stalin and Hussein ... not dashing 😂

1. Then he's not a strongman nor will he be one. 2. That wasn't a strongman talking. That was a wimpy kid talking about scary bullies. Trump would have simply said I'm going to crush them... I'm going to stop them... Complaining about racists isn't a strongman thing - telling your people you're going to squash the criminals is. I don't believe I have to explain this to you.

1. At the tail end of the epidemic, the rationale for actions becomes a little more nebulous so Liberals and Conservatives will start to fall back on their ideologies in reaction to day-to-day. 2. It's controversial if people say it is. The "f*** your feelings" people are showing their feelings... holding babies on highway overpass railings and waving flags... over... something. Believe it or not, leftists used to have the market cornered on us-vs-them politics long ago...

1. Right... but an aging lothario is still no strong man. 2. No idea what you are talking about there. The Libs play the polls, period.

1. How so? For the classic strongman, appearances are everything... And tito, Mussolini and the like did not try to come across as teen heartthrobs.. Furthermore, he games the polls when it comes to his positions. If you feel he's being bold and brave somehow, you're actually getting suckered by his own PR

1. Especially on this board. 2. The more thinking, the less emoting ... the less we'll see of such things 3. The car/SUV figures were in that tweet, and it was 276 non-big-truck vehicles. 4. The last thing we want

1. It is - 113 is a lot of trucks. But what can we learn from this situation ? - The claim that our institutions are "lying" can't be taken seriously if pro-convoy media is claiming 50,000 people. Let's just chalk this up to "hype" and leave it at that. - Regardless of all of that, people are really excited about the convoy. 2. For sure hundreds of trucks in Ottawa. 3. Yes people are excited. If only this energy and excitement could be leveraged to actually help working people in need, and not small business people but people who are truly in trouble...

This is called throwing the baby out with the bathwater. There's a lot more consensus around the efficacy of boosters, don't reject all of public health because there was some bad advice...

Telling is the utter absence of mentions of "United We Roll" which was essentially the exact same kind of protest. Completely forgotten and it was just a few years ago.

They don't care about 'Canada' - they only took this on when it affected them. And they're punching way above their weight - with 113 trucks this is more spectacle than anything. I just heard on the radio from Toronto Public Health that a 3rd booster means you are 40-50X less likely to die from Covid. You are also less likely to get it and spread it to your fellow citizens. So STOP the grandstanding. You are NOT a brave hero for refusing to make a healthy choice for your community. And stop the conspiracy theories too, you're a detriment to everyone spreading rumours and falsehoods.

I call them an anti-vaxxer. If they protest, then they're contradicting the principle that the individual gets to decide for themselves how things should be, ignoring community values...