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Will Canada become the next domino to fall to right-wing populism? Its been successful just across the border. Why not here?

The emerging movement of angry populism, the so-called alt-right, has already turned U.S. politics upside down. Its exponents, such as Donald Trump and his adviser Stephen Bannon, are at the top of their game.

They aim to permanently replace traditional democratic institutions with a modern autocracy free from legal, journalistic or institutional accountability.

Along with constant attacks on the media, courts and government oversight agencies, Trump promises to spend billions on the military and security services, while eliminating funding for arts, humanities and poverty programs.

Some Canadians feel this country needs a Trump, to drain the swamp in Ottawa, take down political and cultural elites and kick out unwanted foreigners.

To them, Justin Trudeau embodies everything thats wrong with Canada: hes from the wealthy elite, hes politically correct, he advocates for feminism and even welcomes refugees.

The alt-right wants us to heed the lessons of other countries where populism, nativism and mistrust of institutions are taking hold. Look at Trump, they say, or Brexit. Look at Europeans who are embracing right-wing parties in reaction to immigration, free trade, working-class stagnation.

In Poland, authoritarian President Andrzej Duda is restricting immigration, cracking down on the media and undermining judicial independence.

The French might well elect Marine Le Pen of the anti-immigration National Front party. She promises to expel undocumented migrants, severely restrict legal immigration and build prisons.

All these alt-right parties claim to be nationalists and patriots, as if you cant be either of those and a democrat. They laugh off the threat of Russian or Chinese manipulations and laugh off climate change as a hoax.

They insist Islamic extremism is the real threat to western civilization and want the borders closed to Muslims or anyone of suspect ideology.

But is the alt-right really ascendant? Theyre strong now, but there are limits on their growth.

Last week, Dutch voters rebuked the extreme right in national elections. Prime Minister Mark Rutte was re-elected in a clear rejection of anti-immigration Geert Wilders and his Freedom Party. Turnout was 82 per cent. The Freedom Party, supposedly surging, got 13 per cent.

In Poland, public support for Dudas Law and Justice party is under 40 per cent, despite a program of generous monthly handouts to families.

Recent polls suggest even the mighty Trump can barely hold a 40 per cent approval rating.

It could be the populist right is rising as a byproduct of decline among the left. The U.S. Democrats, the U.K. Labour Party and Canadas NDP are mired in leadership and directional crises.

Even so, alt-right ideology faces severe challenges here and not because Canadians are nicer than other people.

Trudeaus Liberals are hogging the political middle like a Hummer in a parking spot. They are generous with refugees but vigilant about borders. Theyre both pro-environment and pro-pipelines.

They understand Canadians value stability over ideology, that the country isnt perfect but isnt broken either. Theres no need for ideologues to fix Canada.

The alt-right poseurs among the Conservative Party leadership candidates have underwhelmed. Canadian Conservatives really are conservative: preferring cautious and incremental reforms to demolition of state institutions.

Still, anything is possible. If Trump does restrict trade and impose border controls, Canadas economy will get a brutal shock. Maybe that would bring on the tough times the alt-right needs to be successful.

I think its more likely the alt-rights achievements elsewhere will undermine the movement here. Every day, Canadians see more clearly what a vote for Trump-style leadership means: its a vote for kleptocracy, autocracy and bigotry. Its a vote for the rich against working people. Its a vote for fraud.

And unless something significant has changed, those still arent winning values in Canada.

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LEGER: Alt-right agitation won't work in Canada | The Chronicle ... - TheChronicleHerald.ca

Following up on Neil Gross introduction to The Good Fight last week, Social Media And Its Discontents brings the alt-right to the Good universe. In broad strokes, the episode does a pretty solid job of capturing just how horrifying and concerted the alt-rights online harassment campaigns are. If you think The Good Fight exaggerates the violent language used by the alt-right, then youve probably never been on the receiving end of this particular brand of personal attacks waged on the world wide web. As a queer woman of color who writes for the internet, I can certain testify to the veracity of this pointed and perceptive portrayal. Its all summed up pretty succinctly by the moment when Neil Gross asks Reddick, Boseman, & Kolstad to organize flagged posts across his siteswhich include a Facebook-like social media platform called Chummy Friends and a Reddit stand-in called Scabbitin order to develop a new terms of service code and the lawyers decide to make a racist pile, an anti-Semitic pile, a threatening pile, and a misogynistic pile. The moment is far from subtle, but so is the alt-right. The Good Fight doesnt hold back in its critique, which makes the episode hard to watch at times.

The decision to make the hateful posts of these angry, racist white men more dynamic by including interstitials of these men delivering their diatribes to the camera instead of just showing the posts on screen or having another character read them aloud is an effective one. Online harassers often hide behind screennames and faceless icons, but The Good Fight gives them faces, makes it clear how real these people are. But other than that, the shows critique of the alt-right is weirdly impersonal, even though its character have clear personal stakes when it comes to the ideology perpetuated by these racist, sexist trolls. The only time we see those personal stakes at all is when Maia brings up her own history of harassment in the wake of her parents scandal, but even that moment feels forced.

And the plot mechanics of the episode just dont work at all, completely taking you out of the moment. The Good Fight stretches the reality of legal procedures like any other legal drama, but the specifics of this ChumHum plot are especially unbelievable. Luccas appeal process idea isnt too far-fetched. Twitter, in fact, has an appeal process for suspended accounts. But the specific appeal process she ends up suggesting includes an in person hearing...with the corporations top lawyers. That makes no sense at all. What it does do is put Felix Staplesa smug and dramatic Milo Yiannopoulos-like alt-right leader played by John Cameron Mitchellin the same room as Diane Lockhart, Adrian Boseman, Barbara Kolstad, Lucca Quinn, and Julius Cain to debate free speech, identity politics, and harassment. There are strong moments in there, and Mitchells performance is undeniably one of the best parts of the episode. But Social Media And Its Discontents isnt as narratively tight as the rest of the season has been, and a lot of the Felix Staples stuff just doesnt feel organic. The episode offers a striking depiction of the horrors of the alt-right, but the issue overtakes the story, and the characters get a bit lost in it all.

In the beginning of the episode, Barbara and Adrian notice that Neil Gross addresses Diane more than them. The characterization of Gross this season is interesting. On The Good Wife, he always came off as an arrogant asshole, but The Good Fight reveals another insidious side to him. He just keeps on insisting how much he loves Black people, which can in and of itself be a sneaky form of racism, which certainly seems to be the case here. He brings up over and over how thrilled he is to be at an African-American firm, and it all screams Im overcompensating! Here he is, talking about how much he loves his Black law firm, but he only looks at Diane Lockhart, the highest ranking white person in the room. But in this episode, it almost feels like The Good Fight is doing the exact same thing as Gross. Barbara, Adrian, and Lucca are all in the room with Felix, but Diane gets the last word in with him. The episode is about racism and yet never really gets into how the Black characters in its main cast are emotionally, psychologically, physically affected by racism perpetuated by the alt-right. Diane instead gets her grand moment of standing up to Felix. Well, its supposed to be a grand moment. But her monologue is muddled and ultimately flat, and it left me wondering if Robert and Michelle Kingwho co-wrote the episodereally do know why the alt-right is so scary. The episode takes lots of hits on the alt-right but then gives a weak final blow. And whereas we see the personal stakes of Maias reaction to the misogynistic language used by the trolls, that same specificity and grounded character work isnt seen in how the episode engages with racism.

And it all just really underscores how Julius Cain is really not working as a character. Hes more plot device than character, a way to exacerbate the in-fighting at Reddick, Boseman, & Kolstad brought on by the ChumHum account. The episode uses Cain to represent a dissenting side of the issuealbeit a much more reasonable and innocuous other side than what Felix Staples represents, but hes just a walking talking point, and its still unclear why he is conservative. None of his motivations have been explained or explored, which makes it seem like his politics are just a plot convenience.

Theres a lot of hand-wringing over legal distinctions for what constitutes hate speech and threats in the episode. Im certainly glad The Good Fight makes no attempts at humanizing the alt-right or making a character like Felix Staples anything other than wholly hateable. Social Media And Its Discontents isnt entirely surface-level in its critique, and it doesnt play it safe either. But the storyline just doesnt quite click, especially because of the unreasonable set-up for this appeal process. At times, it feels like the episode is just a debate rather than a story that organically unpacks the different sides of the issue.

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"Social Media And Its Discontents" The Good Fight TV Review The ... - A.V. Club

Media Matters for America (blog)

NY Times Public Editor Helps Out An "Alt-Right" Harassment Campaign Media Matters for America (blog) This morning, The New York Times' public editor fell for an alt-right harassment campaign against a reporter of color for the paper, devoting her entire column to scolding the writer over a tweet. On Wednesday, the rapper Bow Wow sent an ugly tweet ... The New York Times Public Editor's Alt-Right Blindspot - The Daily ...Daily Beast all 2 news articles »

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NY Times Public Editor Helps Out An "Alt-Right" Harassment Campaign - Media Matters for America (blog)

Amy Schumers latest foray into comedy, a Netflix standup special titled The Leather Special, has failed to gain her many new fans, as bored viewers inundated it with thousands of bad reviews. Her fans really hate it, and theyve been keen to voice their dislike. But Schumer blames those bad reviews on the alt-right. She also believes that Trump is out to get her.

Schumers decline in popularity over recent monthshas been well-charted. Jumping from one controversy to the next, the comediennes tired humor about her genitals and her constant attacks onHillary Clintons detractors have become the subject of mockery by other comedians, including the writers ofSouth Park. The public has taken notice.

Can I give half a star? I couldnt even get through this. Amy needs to expand on the joke subject matter a bit and stop talking about her swampy, stinky, lady-business area, reads one review.

All she talked about was how bad her poon smelled, wrote another.

Thousands of the reviews complained about her tired routine. Some commenters highlighted Schumers theft of other peoples jokes.

Schumer argues that her comedy is great and that the only reason its getting bad reviews is because of her politics. Writing on social media, she opened fire on Reddit users, who she blamed for brigading her showdeclaring them all to be members of the alt-right. She also attacked journalists for reporting on the publics negative reception, and blamed their actions on the Trump Administration.

I am so proud of my special and grateful to all the people spreading love on line [sic] about it, she wrote on Instagram. I am the first female comic who is selling out arenas all over the world and so grateful for that.

I am embarrassed for the journalists who report on trolls [sic] activities as if its news. Its indicative of the administration right now. Anyone who reported that viewers arent happy with my special, it would have been cool if you did a moment of research before posting, she continued.

The alt right trolls attack everything I do. Read the @splitsider article. They organize to get my ratings down. Meeting in sub Reddit rooms. They tried on my book and movies and TV shows and I want to thank them. It makes me feel so powerful and dangerous and brave, said Schumer, making no sense of how her detractors bad reviews make her anything other than an unlikeable comic.

It reminds me what Im saying is effective and bring [sic] more interest to my work and their obsession with me keeps me going, she continued. I am only alarmed by the people printing their organized trolling as news this is what the current administration wants.

Or perhaps, Amy, the only reason youre getting bad reviews is because your show simply isnt funny.

Ian Miles Cheong is a journalist and media critic. You can reach him through social media at@stillgray on Twitterand onFacebook.

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Amy Schumer Blames Trump and the 'Alt-Right' for Bad Reviews - Heat Street

Amy Schumers new stand-up special for Netflix is receiving overwhelmingly negative reviews, and she thinks she knows who's to blame.

"The Leather Special" debuted on the streaming service last week, and it's already gotten hundreds of one-star reviewsfrom Netflix subscribers.

Schumer responded to the backlash Wednesday on her Instagram account, citing a report from Splitsider that claims hundreds of alt-right trolls are behind all the negative reviews.

The alt-right organized trolls attack everything I do. Read the @splitsider article, Schumer wrote. They organize to get my ratings down. Meeting in sub Reddit rooms. They tried on my book and movies and TV show.

She also called out the media for reporting on the negative reviews and the fact that her special appears to be a critical flop.

I am only alarmed by the people printing their organized trolling as news. [T]his is what the current administration wants, she argued.

She said the trolling actually reminds her that she is "powerful and dangerous and brave," and that's why she's being targeted.

"Call me a whale. Call me a thief and I will continue to rise and fight and lead," Schumer wrote. "I know who I am. I am strong and beautiful and will use my voice my whole time on this earth."

"Journalists, do better. It's embarrassing. Trolls, see you on the next one!"

Let us know what you think in the comments.

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Amy Schumer Blames Her Netflix Special's Poor Reviews on 'Alt-Right Trolls' - Fox News Insider