Tips to help fend off despair of living in a world gone mad
By Lethbridge Herald on February 7, 2025.
Editor,
How can we survive the film-noire we’re currently living in? First, don’t buy American products and don’t travel to USA. Second, recognize the root cause of all this, that is conservative politicians (under various names like PC, UCP, Republican), sowing seeds of chaos to breakdown our society so that, ultimately, the ignorant masses will look towards them as the only way of restoring order, thereby giving them absolute power. Trump is the best at this and the most dangerous. He’s a fascist oligarch who must somehow be stopped. There are many local copies, such as Polievre and Smith, and others, all trying to appeal to the redneck down your road wearing the MAGA hat. We all need to find ways to re-engage politically to stop potential dictators from seizing and holding control. That can take us in strange directions. After a lifetime of backing Green and NDP, I’ve bought a Liberal party membership so I can vote in Mark Carney, a proven economist with an inspiring environmental sustainability commitment. Incidentally, he’s a local Alberta boy, having grown up in Edmonton and gone to the same schools as me. He’s the only person with an outside chance to overtake the lead the Cons have established with Polievre, their current charlatan.
And I don’t want the conservatives to get in power and sell-out Canada to Trump. Thirdly, on the personal level, I will continue my letters to editors on environmental and political issues, and now some political re-engagement.
All to try to make change, but also to fend off that personal feeling of helplessness and despair that it’s so easy to slip into nowadays. Fourthly, I’ll continue regular long bouts away from it all doing outdoor activities breathing fresh air and appreciating nature. What are you doing to survive the film-noire?
Richard Quinlan
Lethbridge
7-6
Agreed. But hope you have a good FLACK jacket in the closet to ward off the vitriolic musings of the usual suspects in these columns.
Geez are you out of touch. Carney a globalist who wrecked the bank of England and came up with GFANZ at the WEF.
https://youtu.be/ULSIlRPjbAQ?si=EkZXUxRdlGlKd_wO
Carney supports more tax, more debt to Canadians, more globalization, more woke ideology. All not good for canada
^the usual suspect in these columns
man, you are so sold on junk info…you know, like junk food?
carney oversaw britain through some rather turbulent times, not least of which were brexit and a falling pound, and covid, and a banking system that was faltering in general. lt looks like he left things overall for the better. i suppose there are those, such as yourself, that are unwilling/unable to acknowledge the financial implications of climate change – let alone the social/geopolitical/environmental/agricultural/sustainability related consequences.
2 easy reads on his run as britain’s bank gov
https://www.nationalobserver.com/2025/02/07/opinion/mark-carney-tariffs-Trump-Trudeau-election
https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/the-staggers/2020/03/mark-carney-leaves-bank-england-governor-legacy
i have too little trust in any of the sleaze balls that the masses somehow rally behind, but he looks to be the most experienced and knowledgeable of the lot we have running in canada right now.
Arm yourself with critical thinking skills.
https://www.monash.edu/student-academic-success/enhance-your-thinking/critical-thinking/what-is-critical-thinking
Seek out and support trustworthy sources of information.
Take note and speak out when norms are broken.
Organize locally. Pro-democracy groups are mobilizing. Get involved.
AB Resistance, Public Interest Alberta, Friends of Medicare, Support our Students Alberta, Common Ground, Council of Canadians
Call the offices of Lethbridge East MLA, Brian Jean, Rebecca Schulz, Adriana LaGrange, Demetrios Nicolaides, the Premier — daily if possible – to register your opposition to undemocratic legislaton and the lack of transparency and accountability from this government.
The time is now. Start small. Move on to the federal level. Don’t stop.
One should always remember what makes an “Extreme Right Party” and its always an Extreme Left. So when you have NO ONE willing to occupy “slightly left center or slightly right of center” then you get this chaos.
If there was a middle of the road party that did not choose to redefine doctorine, change interpretations as if appointed by God him/herself, destroy our Countries history, or crush societies built over centuries because theyl are suddenly “offended by it” , then people like Trump would have been kicked to the curb before this even started!
I am not going to go into the instances where you chew away at society to a point most do not recognize it any longer because you prefer that, over being offended! It’s old or fakenews depending on what group of nutbars you align with!
So before one cusses out the exteme right, for what they are doing just remember you are exchanging nutbar lefts for nutbar rights each time an election occurs. No one wants centrists, you, believe it or not, prefer chaos, so you have it !
My wife and I are seriously thinking of canceling our annual trip to Vegas and doing Canada. Also, we are finally looking for made in Canada labels on our purchases. Saving a few dollars by not buying USA is worth it. Thanks Orange Man for opening our eyes to supporting our great country. Now to get rid of those nazi conservatives trying to destroy Canada.