The format of a My Take is 150 words – no more, no less – to express an opinion on a different topic each week. This week’s topic was the Freedom Convoy
The best reporting of the Jan. 6 storming of the US Capitol had no reporting at all. An outlet scrapped all the raw cell phone footage on a social media site and sorted it chronologically. It took two full days to watch through, but the emotional story was truer than any smirking media coverage.
Thanks to social media, a massive ball of anger assembled at the same place and time, and a thin wedge of tactically-focused individuals positioned themselves in front and waited for the sheer weight and inertia of generalized discontent to roll in their direction.
At the centre of this convoy fundraiser, we find separatists, supremacists, and conspiracists. It must be acknowledged. Populists want to use them. Democrats want to debate them. Both reactions are perilous.
Organizers overestimated when they predicted 30,000 truckers. To underestimate a coalition on the move is also silly.
