- Matt Gurney: Anti-Harper Facebook group picks and chooses its censorship
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I was on the air today with my friend Charles Adler, a guest on his show, discussing the creation of a Facebook group protesting the Harper government's decision to prorogue Parliament. I think that Facebook groups are just about the dumbest way to advocate a political cause because, as I said on air, they draw out the lowest common denominator. Case in point, the group under discussion (Canadians Against Proroguing Parliament) has been overrun by internet cretins who have posted photoshopped pictures of the Prime Minister on the page. Examples include Harper as Hitler, Harper in the generalissimo's uniform of a dictator, Harper and Governor General Michaelle Jean offering Nazi salutes, and my particular favourite, the Prime Minister butchering a kitten with a knife, with blooding dripping into his lap.
Nice guys over there, eh?
Posted: January 05, 2010, 2:25 PM by Matt Gurney
Filed under: Matt Gurney,FullComment
The interweb has been ablaze today with the hilariously unimportant tale of the anti-prorogation Facebook group , so in the interests of balance, I thought I'd bring this other group to your attention. It's called "Canadians Who Don't Care if Harper is Proroguing Parliament." You can find it here.
At last count, it only had two members — me and the creator (of the group, not the Lord God, Creator of All Things, though arguably He's a member of every group), but with your help, we can turn this two-man group into a grassroots uprising of fury, and outrage, and passion, and other words that sound exciting, but don't really hide the fact that what's being discussed is utterly pointless and will soon be forgotten.
Join now! Will it accomplish anything? Of course not, it's a Facebook group. A bajillion people joining groups to end the genocide in Darfur or unwarm the globe hasn't done much so far, so I hardly expect this to be any more effective. But if any of you are feeling a transient urge to make a petulent gesture of no import (like I was), now you know where to go.
Matt Gurney, National Post
- Jonathan Kay: Oh dear, who showed the Toronto Star how to use the new, fangled Interweb?
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Uh oh: It looks like brain trust at the Toronto Star learned about that “Internet” thing from their grandchildren over the Christmas holidays. They even learned about a new fangled web site called “Facebook,” where people meet to exchange photos, gossip, and talk politics. Why, it’s just like the Tuesday bridge club — except you don’t have to put out folding chairs or make sandwiches.
We know about the Star editors’ foray onto the big exciting Interweb because of the newspaper’s front-page headline on Monday: “Grassroots fury greets shuttered Parliament.” The breathless story suggests Canada is on the verge of some kind of violent 1917-style revolution — a “growing public uprising” no less, complete with “protest rallies” from coast to coast, and young activists full of unhinged, wild-eyed rage. The evidence for all this: 20,000 people joined a Facebook page called “Canadians Against Proroguing Parliament,” which urges Parliament to “Get back to work.”
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