A lone figure takes to the stage, a giant maple leaf flag rippling on a screen behind him as he gingerly approaches the microphone.
“I’m not a lumberjack, or a fur trader,” he tells the crowd. “I have a prime minister, not a president. I speak English and French, not American. And I pronounce it ‘about’ – not ‘a boot’.”
The crowd, indifferent at first, grows increasingly enthusiastic as the man works his way through a catalogue of Canadian stereotypes, passing from diffidence to defiance before the climactic cry: “Canada is the second largest landmass! The first nation of hockey! And the best part of North America! My name is Joe! And I am Canadian!”
In response, Canadians have taken to acts of patriotism, small and large: one pilot flew his small plane in the shape of a maple leaf; sports fans have booed US teams; hats insisting “Canada is not for sale” have gone viral; consumers have pledged to buy only Canadian-made products – a pledge skewered in a viral sketch in which one shopper berates another for buying American ketchup.
While you’re not wrong, this is exactly how nothing ever gets done. The whataboutism of pointing to another problem whenever any issue comes up is a surefire way to ensure that both problems never get dealt with. It’s not only destructive because of this though, the other issue is that the person that started derailing the positive momentum obtains a false sense of accomplishment, and they harm the cause that they were originally fighting for. So while your cause is valid, you’re coming about it in the most destructive way that won’t help anyone. If you truly care about indigenous rights, you should take a solutions-oriented approach instead of one of negativity and vitriol.
So your solution to centuries of systemic erasure is… tone policing? The irony of demanding “positivity” while sidestepping the core issue is almost poetic. The problem isn’t the delivery; it’s the refusal to engage with uncomfortable truths.
You talk about “getting things done,” but progress doesn’t sprout from feel-good platitudes. It comes from dismantling the structures that necessitate this critique in the first place. If calling out settler colonialism feels destructive, maybe it’s because the foundation was rotten to begin with.
This isn’t about “false accomplishment”—it’s about accountability. If you’re more concerned with the tone than the content, you’re not advocating for solutions; you’re advocating for silence.
Nope. I’m just saying the way you’re approaching this will absolutely not work and actually harms the cause you fight for more than it helps. The more rhetoric and logical fallacies you use, the larger a divide you create.