It was a hard and somewhat unfocused conversation to follow in detail, which is common when two people are effectively interviewing each other in a conversational style...which can feel like eavesdropping on a neighboring dinner table. the full context is sometimes hard to follow without being privy to your prior exchanges and positions on every issue. But I did want to give you some honest and hopefully constructive feedback on some things that came up in your conversation.
I an an American who has spent ~20% of my adult life living in Canada, which I feel gives me some credibility about opining on Canada and Canadians than a Canadian who just watches American life on TV or follows it through the self-appointed elite that columnists like Douthat or Goldberg represent, who are far from the everyman/woman they often claim to understand and speak for. One can care about, sympathize/empathize with or even vaguely admire people in their tenacity to their beliefs without agreeing with them, just like a bigoted grandparent or idealistic child. I think most Canadians and Americans inhabit a protean consensus within a middle ground of wanting to comply with the "experts", but many of us are feeling frustrated that there is no clearly defined endpoint to the constantly evolving restrictions in a pandemic that has now reached endemicity and ubiquity.
IMO, the "class war" lies in the fact that some folks are compelled to follow rules at risk of shunning and sanction (think of the Quebec party plane to Cancun) while others aren't. Trudeau (G7), Boris Johnson (partygate), and Biden (shopping in Nantucket) come off as hypocrites, even if you strongly favor mask mandates. Hypocrisy causes you to shed more support from diametrically opposing POVs than gaining the support of two opposing constituencies. Bonnie Henry was the uber-doctrinaire health officer in BC who went to a BC Lions game and took selfies of herself without a mask. That was a dumb thing to do, even though she is a very bright person.
I didn't care as much for the broad generalizations made by you and Doug about Americans vs. Canadians in valuing status based on academic pedigree, because in *my* personal experience, Canadians tend to be just as hypocritically doctrinaire and virtue signalling...and just as status oriented and just as hasty to draw conclusions on flimsy information as Americans. Although there are clearly cultural differences between the US and Canada, both cultures tend to elevate the opinions of white male Anglophones to a kind of exalted status based on identity over (apparently) prosaic things like facts and reasoned arguments. If the politicians (and some doctors) don't themselves sincerely believe in what they have been saying to the public, then why should anyone else?
It was a hard and somewhat unfocused conversation to follow in detail, which is common when two people are effectively interviewing each other in a conversational style...which can feel like eavesdropping on a neighboring dinner table. the full context is sometimes hard to follow without being privy to your prior exchanges and positions on every issue. But I did want to give you some honest and hopefully constructive feedback on some things that came up in your conversation.
I an an American who has spent ~20% of my adult life living in Canada, which I feel gives me some credibility about opining on Canada and Canadians than a Canadian who just watches American life on TV or follows it through the self-appointed elite that columnists like Douthat or Goldberg represent, who are far from the everyman/woman they often claim to understand and speak for. One can care about, sympathize/empathize with or even vaguely admire people in their tenacity to their beliefs without agreeing with them, just like a bigoted grandparent or idealistic child. I think most Canadians and Americans inhabit a protean consensus within a middle ground of wanting to comply with the "experts", but many of us are feeling frustrated that there is no clearly defined endpoint to the constantly evolving restrictions in a pandemic that has now reached endemicity and ubiquity.
IMO, the "class war" lies in the fact that some folks are compelled to follow rules at risk of shunning and sanction (think of the Quebec party plane to Cancun) while others aren't. Trudeau (G7), Boris Johnson (partygate), and Biden (shopping in Nantucket) come off as hypocrites, even if you strongly favor mask mandates. Hypocrisy causes you to shed more support from diametrically opposing POVs than gaining the support of two opposing constituencies. Bonnie Henry was the uber-doctrinaire health officer in BC who went to a BC Lions game and took selfies of herself without a mask. That was a dumb thing to do, even though she is a very bright person.
I didn't care as much for the broad generalizations made by you and Doug about Americans vs. Canadians in valuing status based on academic pedigree, because in *my* personal experience, Canadians tend to be just as hypocritically doctrinaire and virtue signalling...and just as status oriented and just as hasty to draw conclusions on flimsy information as Americans. Although there are clearly cultural differences between the US and Canada, both cultures tend to elevate the opinions of white male Anglophones to a kind of exalted status based on identity over (apparently) prosaic things like facts and reasoned arguments. If the politicians (and some doctors) don't themselves sincerely believe in what they have been saying to the public, then why should anyone else?