@davidgerard oh hooray they’ve replaced programming with code review, a task that is famously well taught in CS programs, very easy to do well, and which every engineer loves.
… I mean I enjoy it but I’m a weirdo; getting anyone else on my team to do it is an uphill slog.
@crispius @gemelliz I think this might have legs seeing as this is their third excuse for why Poilievre can’t get a clearance. The first was “he wouldn’t be able to talk freely” IE he’d have to lie slightly less. Then they tried “he doesn’t need it, it’s redundant”. Now they’re going with “actually he has a ton of embarrassing stuff in his background and it’d leak for sure”.
Like… wait what?
@chris @alchemistsstudio Eh I think there's an alternative option, and it's to go full pro wrestling. Trudeau goes into the next election in full heel mode, and intentionally jobs for Singh. Similar vote consolidation benefits, *much* less risk of rejection / non-participation from anti-Liberal negatively polarized NDP voters.
@chris @alchemistsstudio The "left wing alliance" you're talking up is just how left-wing politics is organized in France; it's not at all remarkable, though it did manage to pull itself back from the brink of dissolving due to infighting.
You're also ignoring that Attal, the outgoing Macronist Prime Minister, was organizing ENS withdrawls in the second round, over Macron's own personal objections. And even when candidates did not withdraw, he encouraged voters to coalesce behind the leader.
@chris @alchemistsstudio Okay, so why did the the left-wing alliance secure 188 seats in the National Assembly? Walk me through the steps. Because the original post you replied to was not talking about the Popular Front (the formal alliance of four left-wing parties that Macron was trying to fracture), but the "election pact", the second-round deal, which was sometimes referred to informally as a "popular front".
Who was involved in the second-round deal?
@chris @alchemistsstudio you're just totally wrong here. *Macron* did not make the "popular front" second-round deal, no. *Macron's party* did, over his (vocal and public) objections.
But this wasn't out of the goodness of their pure and noble Left-wing hearts. Once the far-right's seats had been limited in the Assembly, Macron's party gleefully went along with his maneuvers to freeze the left coalition out of government.
Which is why the French gov't is now a Macronist/conservative alliance.
@alchemistsstudio @chris I've seen 24 in a few reports, but many of these same sources reported "40 and growing" had *signed* a week and a half ago. So I think we're in a place where no-one involved has an incentive to tell the truth, which is *not great*.
@alchemistsstudio @chris Ah, double-checking reporting this morning, it looks like Wayne Long from NB has also publicly confirmed himself to be one of the 80... Wait, no 40... Uh maybe 25? MPs that have signed.
Long has a history of aggressively supporting oil pipelines and directly attacked Gaza ceasefire protestors, though he also voted for the NDP pharma bill in Feb 21, so who knows what's up with him. Looking at NB election results, though, he's gotta be feeling funny RN.
@alchemistsstudio @chris I'm not sure how you're able to tell this; no-one's naming names except for the one guy from PEI, who's got some shall we say interesting donors.
I'm in Halifax and I'm not seeing the same levels of totally done as you are; in fact, everyone seems to be assuming that *everyone else* is totally done, which makes for some WILD conversations.
@chris I think that is the wrong play. First, there is every indication that deadline was set by a tiny minority of the caucus to force their unpopular, regressive views on the rest. I don’t want them to have power.
Secondly, we need the election to happen as scheduled next year so the economy can recover. Poilievre is already losing it about how the Bank of Canada cut rates just to embarrass him. If Trudeau leaves, he should leave on the eve of the election. No sooner.
@chris I dunno if Trudeau steps down it seems pretty important why he steps down. If he gets ousted by the Liberal Austerity Squad or for being too pro-queer rights or for being an insufficiently enthusiastic cheerleader for certain Middle East allies, that bodes very differently for the future of the country than stepping down for, say, a younger, more articulate progressive Liberal.
@chris I can’t help but note that we’re down from estimates of “30 or 40 and growing fast” to “about 20”, which is to say probably the same blue Liberal rabble rousers.
@mick @bonaventuresoft the bad part.
@chris idk about the Liberal supporters claim - iirc polling seemed to show that the rump BCU support split itself between the NDP and the BCC? That would seem to have worked at least?
@fifilamoura @chris @akurjata not just the normies; to get anyone who isn’t on board to give up. This is why you see targeted right wing messaging at particular marginalized groups - racialized communities, religious organizations, even queer folks - trying to persuade them to stay home and stand aside.
And it works. “I can’t support the non-right wing party; they once did something I didn’t like.”
@chris I have so many questions about this person’s politics
@chris I'm going to keep being annoying and chipper and linking you to stories about the 2023 Manitoba general: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/election-day-manitoba-polls-1.6981200
"Just before the polls opened, the skies over many voters did, too. A series of thunderstorms rolled through parts of southern Manitoba, prompting voters to bring out their raincoats and umbrellas."
@chris @hamishb @dan613 but where does that desire for change come from? Where do people get the information that leads to it? If the root of that desire is people absorbing a constructed narrative through exposure to mass media and regurgitating that narrative, then trying to address it through policy or political changes without challenging the narrative signal will be futile.
Do you really believe the people you've spoken to are immune to propaganda?
@chris @hamishb @dan613 And I'm saying that amplifying a media narrative hands power to those that constructed it, particularly if it's presented as objective observation rather than constructed narrative.
The Canadian left is never going to be able to win if we keep playing roles that are written for us because they look immediately convenient.
