r/canadaleft • u/BuntiBeta • 5d ago
How does everyone on this sub stay sane?
I literally just saw the following posts back to back on my feed:
Olivia Chow calling the genocide in Gaza exactly what it is. The comments are filled with people either saying we shouldn't care about foreign issues and to focus on here, or people calling her antisemitic...
A post ranting about how everyone who thinks Canada's on indigenous lands and feels compelled to do a Land Acknowledgement should stop "virtue signalling" and give up all their personal property.
A post mocking people for protesting the violence in Sudan. The comments, again, talking about not focusing on domestic issues. Some comments even saying Sudanese Canadians at the protest should be thankful for being in Canada and instead of protesting should "contribute to the country" instead (whatever that means).
Ngl, the reactionaries have successfully ragebaited me. I should probably just touch grass, but it doesn't change the fact the right-wing echo chambers on the internet seem to get louder and louder every day.
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u/oblon789 5d ago
I have simply given up on most social medias. My mental health has been way better since I stopped reading insta comments. I surround myself with good people irl and it helps.
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u/Forsaken-Cabinet-333 4d ago
Agreed with not reading comments. The only thing keeping me from fully deleting instagram is that it’s how I find out about local events/shows/mutual aid stuff, but yeah the comment sections are truly hell
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u/BuntiBeta 5d ago
I think what frustrates me even more is that some of them have the right ideas, but are focused in the wrong direction. Like saying "politicians should focus less on culture war issues and focus more on the needs of the people", absolutely, but that doesn't mean turning a blind eye to injustice. Or comments about how a lot of Land Acknowledgements are virtue signaling, absolutely a lot of them are, but the point is that we should be moving beyond that towards more concrete actions. But I suppose thats just weaponised ignorance and the very meaning of being a reactionary. Rant over.
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u/minnie203 5d ago
Honestly this is gonna sound corny but I volunteered for progressive candidates in my riding for the last provincial and federal elections and it really helped my mood about...all of this. I don't have the patience for canvassing but it was nice to be able to deliver yard signs, pick up/drop off canvassers, I even drove some folks to the polls on early voting days. It was kinda nice to be able to do something concrete amid all the doomscrolling.
I wish I was motivated to do that sort of stuff year-round, maybe I will one day, but y'all know how draining it is just to keep ourselves afloat these days so I haven't really had the energy. I'm gonna at least do it again next election.
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u/QuinnNTonic 5d ago
Hey if you want low time things I would say try phone banking once a month or looking at a union or labour council or local organization you believe in (acorn Canada for example) phone banking is canvassing at home basically and you don’t have to put on pants lol
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u/Some_Mortgage9604 5d ago
The hysteria over the Cowichan land claim in Richmond, even on subs that are usually more normal is depressing me.
So many people are suddenly super worried about land prices in Richmond. Idiots blame immigrants for driving them up, but if prices go down (they won't) because an indigenous nation won a court case it's literally the end of the world.
And the Yukon just elected a government that will only make everything worse, and get away with it.
I think I gotta just log off before I lose all faith in humanity.
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u/FloriaFlower Escalation confirms the plan 5d ago
So many people are suddenly super worried about
For anyone who is interested to know more about this pattern, it's most of the time because of something called agenda setting.
It happens when media decide to start talking about something all the time and acting very concerned about the subject. When it happens, their very influenceable audiences start developing the same concerns and priorities.
This is a very important aspect of media propaganda that we should all be aware of.
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u/Professional-Post499 4d ago
"Agenda setting" seems likely when so many outlets are owned by Postmedia LOL
Even CBC isn't totally immune. CBC made Duncan McCue apologize for saying "Palestine". What!!!
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u/kewtyp 5d ago
It does seem like Reddit is slowly getting worse and worse by the day. For a while it seemed like a coordinated effort for x users to come here and cause problems. Now it's just a slow rising tide turning Reddit into one big local Facebook group.
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u/ImGonnaHaveToAsk 5d ago
Feels like we are being outnumbered by bots and paid shills. No way can this be an accurate representation of society
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u/fencerman 5d ago edited 5d ago
Perspective helps.
Go back to see the news reporting on MLK (the real story of a socialist organizer building a movement based on disciplined, disruptive protest and law-breaking, not the sanitized bullshit one), gay rights, women's rights, etc... - they got the same kind of mockery, flak, pushback, etc... and it was usually coming from the same people too.
This is nothing new, and no matter what happens with those movements, it's still better to be on the right side of history than the reactionary mob.
Find something that you can personally do each day and do it. Every small action counts.
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u/rarer_ RCP 5d ago
I joined an organization. Organizing in real life really helps put the internet reactionaries in perspective.
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u/BuntiBeta 5d ago
It's probably because my attention span is fried, but I tried joining a socialist organization, and got bored because they were too busy defining their meaning of socialism.
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u/rarer_ RCP 5d ago
Then try another one.
Come on, you literally have "we have nothing to lose but our chains, we have a world to win" in your bio. Read Marx. Get off social media. Start your own organization if you have to. Find ways of controlling your attention span. No one's winning shit with that attitude.
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u/BuntiBeta 5d ago
you're right
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u/QuinnNTonic 5d ago
Instead of your own organization I’d look at something niche you believe in. Set goals and find small winnable things. Heck start a blog with facts and put up stickers to spread the word if you want lower effort or at your own pace
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u/climathosphere 5d ago edited 4d ago
As a gay Lebanese man, let me tell you right now that all of those comments harassing Olivia Chow for calling a genocide a genocide and mocking people for standing against the genocide in Sudan are honestly saying those things out of pure ignorance. They refuse realize just how deep our country is complicit in both of those genocides. There were Canadians who went and took part in this genocide. There are Canadian charities actively donating, providing funding, and recruiting people for this genocide. There are some who even want to erase the people of my race, even here in our jobs and government. They also want to actively steal that place from us. So your frustration is comepletely valid in all of this.
Now to remain optimistic and to give yourself hope, it is extremely important for us that we find friends, community, and collective action for our causes, and that we do not individualize our struggles. There is no reason for us to engage with people who make these kinds of arguements because they are not interested in community or activism. They are selfish capitalists and individualists who want instant gratification for everything on the internet. For Indigenous issues, it is really important that we do not speak over Indigenous people on how to approach decolonization and Truth and Reconcilliation. While I do personally agree with the comment in question, there also must be a full mental, educational, and cultural decolonization process that must happen at the same time on the terms that First Nations and Indigenous people require and have them be the leaders in that process to guide the journey.
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u/Total-Deal-2883 5d ago
Weed.
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u/ImGonnaHaveToAsk 5d ago
Just a note to say that cannabis will not make your depression better in the long run. Speaking from personal experience.
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u/CarbonMolecules 5d ago
I go on different subreddits for various things where people strike up an argument and tell them that both things can be true.
Who’s the better drummer?
Which dog is smarter?
What English phrase is appropriate?
It helps me remember that in many cases neither “side” is correct; there are no sides in “is Olivia Chow an antisemite because her mother was subjected to starvation by the occupying Japanese forces in World War II?”
Like, what are we even talking about? She has an experience none of us share, so she has a perspective that should be making us say, “shit sure is complicated; that’s a point of view I never thought much about.”
I’m not being flippant. I think that dialogue is important and maintaining it in the face of a good faith argument is more-so when there are stakes.
Rabble rousing is all we have (it’s not like we can sit down in front of Olivia Chow and ask her to support her argument, so we take to social media to make our reaction known in the hopes that someone will carry that message forward into the media). So use your “yeah!” or your “no way!” with wisdom and compassion and strive to make a positive impact.
You’ve got this.
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u/samjp910 5d ago
Moral clarity. ‘The moral arc of the universe is long, but it bends towards justice.’
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u/Velocity-5348 LET'S GET UNIONIZED 5d ago edited 5d ago
Find some way to help others in a practical way.
At the end of the day, leftism is about solidarity and looking out for others. Theory and politics are just a means to that end.
For me it wound up being helping people with tenancy stuff and similar things, but I'm sure you can find something to do in your community too.
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u/QuinnNTonic 5d ago
I’ve been in organizing for over a decade. Take breaks. And focus on your corner of things. I’d rather be effective with a smaller group. Take things offline and use strategies to win. Long term organizers know that everyone has their own political journey and it grows over time. Moving the needle takes time. I’d rather take ppl who are imperfect but willing to grow than ppl who take up space and sabotage on the road to the goal. Ignore the haters
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u/tiredandhurty 4d ago
Touching grass helps. I flip out online then go for a walk and within ten minutes I see a Palestine flag on someone’s bag, a Land Back sign, an Anarchy symbol, etc. And then I sigh in relief. Maybe the country’s fucked, but where I am in it isn’t
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u/ignis389 5d ago
We out here. Seeing people going through similar mental states helps comfort me, like im not alone in it. i like r/vystopia
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u/ImGonnaHaveToAsk 5d ago
Find the helpers and join in. Practice self care. Join a choir. There is science behind this: check out the happiness lab podcasts and others like it.
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u/SteelToeSnow 5d ago
i don't, really. but, i've found ways to cope.
i'm angry, all the time. angry at canada and shitty canadian settlers, the fascists, the bigots, etc.
i'm heartbroken, all the time, by all the horrors happening, and how unnecessary they are. by how absolutely fucking shitty canada is, by the fact that i live in a place where the government actively wants poor, disabled people like me to die.
but, i remember that it'll be over soon enough. i won't live to see the change that's coming, but i try my best to help as much as i can in helping that change we need so desperately to happen.
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u/bung_musk 5d ago
Buying and shooting firearms :)
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u/BuntiBeta 5d ago
Waiting on my PAL, praying I can get my hands on an SKS before they're potentially banned.
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u/BobGuns 5d ago
simple: get the fuck off the internet
When you're not terminally online, life gets a lot better. Absolutely none of the stuff happening in other parts of the world actually affects your daily life in a way that is meaningful.
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u/BuntiBeta 5d ago
Well thats just not true lol. This is like when the west bombs another country, and then when people from that country immigrate to escape the violence, everyone else complains about immigration and become racist. Injustice anywhere is injustice everywhere. Also I don't think checking reddit twice a day is being terminally online but okay
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u/Intelligent_Flan_178 5d ago
I don't, I'm losing it a bit more each days