Image Credit: The Associated Press

By Perry Grunenberg

Sound Off

SOUND OFF: Rothenburger’s extreme Trump, truckers rhetoric divisive, dismissive

Jan 26, 2024 | 10:30 AM

MEL ROTHENBURGER’S JANUARY 17 COLUMN states that if Donald Trump gets elected in 2024, it will be the worst of all our worries for the future.

This sort of nonsense is becoming typical of sensationalistic journalism, where every global event is shocking, catastrophic, extreme, and a crisis. And since both sides of the political spectrum promote use of these terms, it does nothing but divide the electorate further into two distinct factions. The right are church-going Nazis led by Hitler, and the left are socialists led by dictators following Marxist monolithic philosophy. A critical observer will conclude that neither of these is true.

Mel seems to have become afflicted with TDS (Trump Derangement Syndrome). TDS is a spreading virus resulting from overly sensationalized media coverage. Non-critical thinkers absorb this extreme journalism as if it is truth, and political parties use this to their advantage. Society responds more strongly to fear than other emotions, so what better way to swing votes than by inducing fear. Both sides state “it will be the end of democracy if (insert leader here) gets elected.” How ridiculous.

There is one particular theme that is forming that is of utmost concern. That is, if you lean to the left of the political spectrum, you cannot “believe” that anyone would vote for the representative on the right. No matter who that representative is, they will be viewed by the left as unworthy of leading the nation. In essence, the left perceives half of the population of society as unbelievable idiots. Trump does serve himself up to the media for ridicule by his laughable statements; however, many voters seem able see beyond the frivolous social media posts to what positives he might be able to offer. And many prefer him as the option. Who are we to hold them in contempt for that decision? This is how democracy works.

I understand the that there is some merit in having Mel’s points of view placed into the media in order to be thought provoking. But his views are perhaps overly subjective in their opinion, and the fear is that readers will view his opinion as facts. And without an opposing opinion voiced alongside, there is no alternative position.

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Where is the opinion piece that provides evidence that Trump will actually do more good for America than the Democrat alternative? In general, all the media outlets echo what Mel wrote in his anti-Trump opinions — yet half of America would vote for him. Where is the opinion piece that reflects their views?

Where is the article that summarizes why the Trucker Convoy was well-founded in its effort to protect Canadian freedoms from forced measures imposed by the Trudeau government? Why, when the highest court in Canada concludes that imposing the War Measures Act was overly heavy-handed, would an experienced columnist continue to imply that the truckers were so out of hand that the army had to be brought in?

It has been shown that everything that Mel summarizes as bad behavior by the truckers was done by a few individuals, with the main body of the protest either cleaning up messes or, in the case of swastika flags, removing bad people from the protest. If one is to use Mel’s generalizations of what a bad protest looks like, then War Measures should be used in all protests, since all protests will make some people uncomfortable, and they will contain a number of individuals who are just there to do bad things. The level of tolerance just depends whether or not you agree with the focus of the protest. In the case of the truckers, many would say that they were correct in protesting how the Trudeau government was heavy-handed in imposing restrictions that made it difficult to freely make a living. And more would say that, from what is now known about the virus, those restrictions did nothing to reduce the pandemic.

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Editor’s Note: This opinion piece reflects the views of its author, and does not necessarily represent the views of CFJC Today or Pattison Media.