THE FAIRY CREEK HOSTILES – Examining the Content of the Comments.

 Forty-four abusive comments, (below) were taken from the CHEK News comments section, two others were added from Face Book. In general, there was no attempt to form rational, empirically based arguments against the defenders or in favour of cutting old growth. It is all emotionalism, all abuse, as though they could not come up with counter-arguments and in frustration, simply raged on.

The largest number of negative comments by far were accusations that the defenders did not work and were on welfare. Accusations of hypocrisy were the next most numerous as “Do you not live in a wood structure.” Almost as numerous were claims that the defenders were stupid, uneducated, and ignorant. Conspiracy theories were a fairly common explanation for the blockade as in “they were paid to cause a confrontation” and “someone is getting rich.” Other accusations include being terrorists (3) were spoiled brats (3) criminals,(2) racist comments (2) hippies (1) and outside agitators. (1) There were also three threats of violence against the defenders.

Anyone conversant with social history will immediately recognize the long history of these accusations. Virtually every progressive movement from the Abolitionists on, has had similar, and worse charges hurled at them. They are all part of the reactionary push-back and are the common currency of what might be called a right-wing culture.

Immediately apparent was the fact that there were only two racist remarks and no misogynist ones. This is in spite of the important role played by women and Indigenous people in this movement. (The Fairy Creek action was founded by women and the majority of leadership comes from women according to spokesperson Pamela Laila Rai.) Of course, the hostiles might not wish to express such feelings in a public forum like CHEK News, and who knows what they are saying in closed groups like “Loggers Up.” which I have not been able to access.

I will now examine the comments in more detail. The two largest groups “Not working” and ”Stupid, uneducated” can be taken together as the right has always used this line of attack. The Wobblies were “the bummery”, and the membership of mass movements were always dismissed as gullible and ignorant, easily manipulated by their leaders for nefarious purposes. You can see how such a line of thought leads inevitably to conspiracy theories.

Social and political stances are usually rooted in one's psychological state. One has to ask what is behind the accusations of stupidity and laziness?

Progressive movements are today made up usually in the main of students and white collar/professional workers. I suggest that the hostiles, being less educated and having to do manual labour, unconsciously feel inferior to these educated people and thus project accusations of laziness, ignorance and stupidity upon them. As well, one of the core elements of right-wing culture in regard to “radicals” is demonization. If you turn your opponents into monsters you can project anything you like upon them. (Think of the German Jews, totally assimilated and innocuous, yet Nazi propaganda turned them into Christian civilization-destroying parasites in the eyes of masses of Germans.)

That old right-wing standby, anti-intellectualism, must play a part. Since the defenders are articulate and well educated, they become the target of “I know trees, not those scientific types.” Where prejudice begins, a scientific understanding ends, and thus people well versed in biology, climate science and ecology are dismissed as ignorant.

Another key element in right-wing culture is envy. In the case of Fairy Creek, I suspect it is a matter of jealousy that young people can take time off work or studies to protect some trees, then go back to their nice clean jobs or classrooms when it is over, “while I continue to slog.” Accusations of being welfare bums shows a hostility toward the poor. It may also indicate the anxiety of potentially losing their jobs and ending up on welfare. While the protestors are plainly not on welfare, THEY might end up on it, as logging jobs continue to disappear due to mechanization.

Let's examine the accusation of hypocrisy. This is based upon the straw man fallacy that environmentalists want to ban logging. Five minutes of Internet search shows this to be dead wrong. What they want is sustainable forest practices like they have in Europe. Practices that would actually increase the number of forestry jobs. The straw man fallacy is a common trick of right-wing ideologues. (and left-wing extremists as well) It was used earlier in the TMX protests and as an attack upon the Green New Deal. The gradual phasing out of petroleum usage was straw-manned as immediately turning the taps off, and thus enviros who used petroleum products were deemed hypocrites.

Terrorism and Conspiracy. Far right media like Fox News and Rebel Media have been pushing the irrational notion that people who take the violence of the state upon themselves and do not reply in kind are terrorists. That words have meaning seems lost on them, but this is, of course, part of the demonization process. Trump supporters and alt-right neofascists have done the same with Black Lives Matter and the movements against fascism. (The much demonized “Antifa.”) The Alberta Government and Rebel Media have pushed the idea that anti-pipeline protests are the result of a conspiracy of some nefarious American group, possibly funded by George Soros. The idea has been floated that the environmental movement and the Green Party are gaining financially from the Fairy Creek struggle and thus, they are behind the scenes pulling the strings. The problem with that is the defenders have their own fund raising and if anything this is diverting funds away from those organizations. Furthermore any direct or indirect aid that the NGOs like the Sierra Club, Greenpeace and the Suzuki Foundation give, COSTS them money.

Spoiled. Students and white collar/professional workers can appear as privileged, and in some cases are, even though most will probably earn less than a logger. As with the other abusive terms, this is pure emotionalism, devoid of real content. Spoiled people do not have the internal where with all to get a university degree and work as a nurse, a teacher or a technician. Spoiled people do not risk health, safety and career for a principle. Spoiled people do not freely endure endless abuse and do not have the self-discipline to neither flee nor fight back when faced with police violence. How many of the hostiles would go through this ordeal for a principle? Many might do so if it involved self-interest like protecting their property, but risking their lives for a bunch of trees? Closer to reality – though still unfair – were two comments that came to my attention recently. The protestors must be “insane” for risking their lives up on those tripods and that they are “zealots.” Both commentators seem unaware that every movement for change has been accused of being full of zealots and crazies.

Anything outside of conventional politics is deemed criminal, crazy or dangerous. The hostiles seemingly have no knowledge of how we got what few freedoms and reforms we still have. They came from a long struggle. Sometimes it was non-violent like the Chartists or the Wobblies, other times it involved workers mano a mano with the cops, riots, window smashing, insurrections, dynamite, Winchesters and Colts. They ought to give thanks that we don't have the latter. Some claim they believe in the right to protest – but as long as they don't block the roads. This more liberal view actually boils down to “I am in favour of protest as long as it is not effective.”

The accusations hurled at the defenders indicate that the hostiles have no understanding of the practice of non-violent civil disobedience, nor the history of that movement. Perhaps they think non-violence is all hearts and flowers. It isn't. It is a form of warfare without violence. Non violence is people standing for a principle like independence for India, civil rights or protecting the environment and enduring arrest, beatings, prison, lynch mobs and death, yet never retaliating with violence themselves. Yes, they are crazy. Crazy like Gandhi, crazy like Martin Luther King, crazy like Goodwin, Schwerner and Chainey, crazy like Greenpeace in the atomic test zone, crazy like the man in front of the tank at Tienamin Square, crazy like Paul Watson defending the whales.

We are facing a growing climate crisis, that if not dealt with will be devastating for humanity and the biosphere. Governments, enthralled to the corporations are dragging their feet. A fire must be lit under them. We need more, far more, of the spirit of the land defenders to fan those flames. To paraphrase a great revolutionary “One, two, three, many Fairy Creeks!”

LIST OF HOSTILE COMMENTS

Hypocrites

well I'm glad you woke up in you modern heated house to hop on you computer or cellphone all of with has a mass of carbon footprint to show your a strong land Defender contributor my advice to you if fuck off as hard as you can pal these guys can protest all they want but get the fuck off the road,

Do you not live in wood structures do you wipe your ass with toilet paper do you not sit on furniture the list is endless get real you tree huggers ,

Do you live in a house made from trees ?,

Let's protest about the forest. Yet they are burning wood sitting on wood, Where did you get the nice chunks of firewood??You cut down a tree. Total hypocrisy.

Lmao! SAVE THE FOREST…theirs a lot going on in this picture that wouldn’t be happening if it wasn’t for logging…for example, that nice folding WOODEN stool/table, that lovely processed lumber they are using as a bench

how many of these " loose nuts" have furniture in there house's ...and for a better question....what's the furniture made of....?

Not working

Maybe if Cerb ends one day, these lovely folk would consider getting a job.

People that dont work and dont contribute to society, people who leech off other people, and people that have nothing to offer and dont care

Take away their food stamps

Must be nice not to have to work

Nice to see welfare dollars at work,

Must be nice to protest and not work. I guess when the welfare runs out they will go home.

Imagine if all these people just got jobs and put money back into the economy

I feel so badly for the RCMP having to deal with these dead beats who don’t go to work and the poor loggers trying to do their jobs. I hope we have a cold snowy winter maybe that will get these law breakers to go home

Lock these parasites up till winter hits.

Our welfare system at work.

Collection of losers and culls who won't work but mooch taxpayer money

Shouldn't these young people be working,oh ya they're parasites that live off other peoples hard earned pay.throw the book at em and make an example of disobeying the rule of law.

Parasites burning old growth trees.

Protesters on wefare Get a job!!!!

and take your welfare and stuff it up your smelly ass real people work. I've never taken a payment from any government payday fucktard...as I said

Ya u scum bag mud licker disgusting excuses of worthless shit are the real criminals get a fucking job and for that matter a life.un informed hippie pieces of garbage leaving shit pigs

Terrorists

The eco-terrorist blockades at Fairy Creek will continue for a very simple reason. The coffers of the terrorists, the Wilderness committee and the Green Party would suffer a major decrease if they don’t have this conflict! It’s all about the $. (From a personal FB page)

Throw the book at those hypocrites maybe they’ll go out and get real jobs to find a use for their spare time instead of whining about the environment they know nothing about and committing eco terrorism

Hope the rcmp leave us alone pretty sure we can deal with these terrorists they better hope they lose in court

they are criminals and wont follow any court order

Threats

Referring to man on tripod - “Just light the fire “

Video of a toy bulldozer running over a doll - “Give those turds what they deserve”

Something many protesters need - a good slap in the head

go fuck your hat hope to see u one day

Conspiracy Theories

They get paid to cause a confrontation, They are paid shit disturbers and they are there to trigger everyone they can. Fairy Creek is not the first time paid protesters try to instigate forestry workers then try to play the victim.

All a bunch of zombies following a group begging for money...Someone is getting rich.”

Ignorant, uneducated

These people are so ignorant they're the reason why California is burning to the ground people like them has nothing to do with global warming has everything to do with not harvesting

So protestors go home. We are tired of your stupidity. Cut down the trees and replant and in 60 years we can cut them down again. Its one of the few sustainable resources

Don’t call them old growth defenders like their uneducated and short sighted stance has some sort of nobility

Most don't even Know what old growth is. The places I logged back in the 60's - 70's - 80's that were replanted - most PROtesters - if any - would be able to tell they were even logged

“Bunch of loosers. the bunch of u. under educated granola eating arm chair quarterbacks. beat it ...go fuck yourself we grow trees as a profession and you fucktards just cock off about bullshit

Anti-Indigenous Racism

About Indigenous support - “I would like to see the government break away from giving giving & more giving... We pay to every village in Canada, millions of dollars, who pays us white people millions, nobody. What was done way back when is over, let it go, not my fault or yours, has to be put to rest I had to pay for my land, they don’t, so who’s land is it? So tiring to see on media, they want more & more.”

In reference to Indigenous dancers - “Thats nice, the blockaders are providing entertainment for security. Maybe get a beer truck out there and make a party of it.”

Outside Agitators

I was told most of them don’t live in BC

Where do the protestors receive their money ? No one seems to want to mention that do they ?

Somebody is paying these folks don’t kid yourself!!

Spoiled

So now they are acting like spoiled children throwing a temper tantrum.

It is a disgusting display of self righteous spoiled brats.

Said by a white guy – of course Gosh what attention seeking posers these middle class white brats are.