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Stalwart champions of free speech censor student

Alberta's stalwart, self-proclaimed champions of free speech, who bleat on incessantly about the so-called radical leftwing extremists' cancel culture crusade to police the public's thought and impose groupthink, are at it again.


High school graduate Jesse Drwiega, who won a $5,000 scholarship for performing and visual arts, had some words of criticism for the UCP government, which has not exactly worked hard to establish a reputation as caring one iota about supporting the arts.


Quite the contrary.


In his brief, 90-second acceptance speech, Drwiega says he's saddened the current assembly has undermined arts and education in the province, and quoted the speaker who previously said arts simply aren't in the government's mandate.


Adding insult to injury for the thin-skinned UCP, the student hailed the previous assembly in other words, the NDP for creating the award in the first place to foster needed support for arts and culture.


His address, that could only be considered offensive by the most sensitive of easily-triggered snowflakes, was not surprisingly barred from airing during a ceremony, effectively censoring the student from Red Deer.


A government spinster, I mean, spokesperson, essentially dismissed his speech as partisan, saying Drwiega was oh-so-graciously granted an "opportunity to re-film his video after it appeared to dismiss the non-political nature of the event."


The UCP turns basically everything into a political squabble, so it's nothing short of nauseating to listen to a propagandist pretend the student's completely legitimate words of concern were somehow inappropriate.

If Drwiega was fabricating a false narrative, fine. But nothing he said was wrong.


Conservatives have an abysmal track record for funding arts, and the UCP is no different.


In fact, the award he was presented would not even exist if not for the NDP, and one can safely bet a government like the UCP would never in a million years have prioritized the implementation of such a scholarship.


Of course conservative supporters undoubtedly are fine with this, as so many of them hold the arts in the highest of contempt. But frankly, anyone who holds the arts in disdain is invited to never again buy an album, watch a movie or a show, or adorn their walls with any paintings or photography. Let them enjoy a life void of creative expression.


And conservatives must quit crying about the leftwing's attempt to police speech if they remain utterly silent on conservative efforts to do precisely the same thing.


Sadly, stifling dissent is nothing new among rightwing ranks, who pretend only the left has a tendency to be reactionary.


Alex Nowrasteh, an immigration policy analyst at the Cato Institute's Center for Global Liberty and Prosperity, penned in 2016 a column run by the Washington Post, wherein he coined the term Patriotic Correctness, which he essentially describes as a toxic reactionary response to Political Correctness.


As the op-ed is behind a paywall, here are a couple of highlights from his eloquently articulated piece.


"Conservatives have their own, nationalist version of PC (edit for clarification: political correctness), their own set of rules regulating speech, behavior and acceptable opinions. I call it "patriotic correctness." It’s a full-throated, un-nuanced, uncompromising defense of American nationalism, history and cherry-picked ideals. Central to its thesis is the belief that nothing in America can’t be fixed by more patriotism enforced by public shaming, boycotts and policies to cut out foreign and non-American influences."


He elaborates his position, shining a bright light on the nauseating levels of hypocrisy dripping from conservatives who actually harbour these views, that typically label as unpatriotic and treasonous anyone who dares question or criticize the government.


"Complaining about political correctness is patriotically correct. The patriotically correct must use the non-word "illegals," or "illegal immigrant" or "illegal alien" to describe foreigners who broke our immigration laws. Dissenters support "open borders" or "shamnesty" for 30 million illegal alien invaders. The punishment is deportation because "we’re a nation of laws" and they didn’t "get in line," even though no such line actually exists. Just remember that they are never anti-immigration, only anti-illegal immigration, even when they want to cut legal immigration."


"The patriotically correct rightly ridicule PC "safe spaces" but promptly retreat to Breitbart or talk radio, where they can have mutually reinforcing homogeneous temper tantrums while complaining about the lack of intellectual diversity on the left. There is no such thing as too much national security, but it's liberals who want to coddle Americans with a 'nanny state.'"


Canada has tragically been far from immune to Patriotic Correctness, with "news" outlets like The Rebel, which regurgitate nearly identical reactionary rhetoric to the likes of Breitbart, garnering no shortage of viewers and supporters.


Especially in Alberta, where the government is, without a shred of accountability or transparency, spending tens of millions of tax dollars on an oil and gas industry propaganda machine.


Yet Kenney's government apparently trembles at the thought of a student freely expressing himself.


I got to give it to the UCP.


Just when I think they can't sink any lower and that I couldn't possibly be more embarrassed to be an Albertan, they out-do themselves and manage to set the bar even lower.


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