Exactly how much hate should I pour into a pair of socks?
It sounds liken a stupid question and, on its face, it is. But there are people in this country for whom it’s legitimate, given the tendency of some to take a $100,000 vehicle and cheapen it with a buck-fifty bumper sticker expressing a profane dislike for a prime minister.
Being a prime minister is not something for the faint of heart, nor is it a means to engender popularity among the Canadian masses. For many prime ministers, being disliked by people is just the way it goes, a part of the job I suppose. The dislike, for most, is something that often fades when the politician leaves office and leaves the national conscience.
For most, but not for this one, not for Justin Trudeau.
I honestly can’t remember a prime minister in my lifetime being so viscerally unpopular as the current one, unless you count his father, Pierre Trudeau. In parts of Western Canada, I’m wondering if the hate for one hasn’t simply been morphed into hate of the other. That if one of Trudeau’s children became prime minister at some point in the distant future, they’d face this enduring antipathy as well.
If God were to come out of the clouds and tell his flock “HEY, THIS GUY’S WITH ME.” It wouldn’t make one shred of difference. (God speaks in capital letters)
A recent survey was conducted by a reputable polling company to get a look at the unpopularity of the prime minister nation-wide. Unsurprisingly, 52% of men and 44% of women indicated a dislike for Trudeau. Also unsurprisingly, 36% of men and 26% of women dislike him a lot, enough to make public pronouncements using their vehicles.
Two such pronouncements I saw only today, but it’s a daily thing. Most are a bumper sticker that has a raised finger with the caption FU*K TRUDEAU. The other one I saw today said FU*K TRUDEAU AND FU*K YOU FOR VOTING FOR HIM. Nice stuff.
I’ve never been inclined personally to denigrate a politician to the point where I’m going to drive around in my car expressing general profanity towards them. But I get I’m cut from a different cloth from these types, and to be certain, I like my cloth better.
I guess some kids get a real kick out of riding around in a vehicle that profanely expresses the vitriolic anger of their parents, and by extension themselves. My kids wouldn’t. They’d be embarrassed. I’m happy for that.
So what makes a man get his testicles all twisted up about Justin? Well, his name for one, not the Trudeau, which is bad enough, but the Justin which has to some ears the sound of feminism, both literally and figuratively. Many like to mock him by adding an “e” at the end to make it Justine, which I suppose to them is pretty much the most unflattering thing you can do to a man. It kinda says something about their attitudes toward women generally and the LGBTQ+ community in particular.
They don’t like his hair. It’s too nice, and men shouldn’t have hair that’s put together that nicely, or sits atop the head as easily as Trudeau’s does.
They don’t like his socks. They’re too colourful, too prominently displayed, and we all know that a man shouldn’t be walking around revealing so much ankle. He’s trendy, to be sure, and for the crowd that can stretch a pair a socks to last a full week, a PM who changes his every day is threatening. For the record, I don’t like his socks either, but I’m not ready to fly off the handle over them. The man is a fashion horse, plain and simple, but it’s off-putting to some.
He has wealth and good looks, and this comes across as privilege and arrogance to those who can’t bear to see all that good fortune walking around in the same body. It makes people without these things angry, an anger borne out of simple and primitive jealousy.
For some, particularly males, Trudeau is viewed as a feminist who makes things easier for women and harder for men. They ascribe to traditional gender roles in and out of the workplace and are aghast that a prime minister would openly promote equality to their self-perceived disadvantage. These are the types that wear a cloak of importance about them simply because they’re male. Having the male-dominance of society called into question and backed by attempts to reconcile the imbalance threatens their place in society. And they don’t like it one bit.
Anger. It can blind some of us to the point where no amount of evidence to the contrary can shift our preconceived way of looking at things.
I’ll judge the man, and anyone else, by how he comports himself and, perhaps more importantly, how he treats others. I’m pretty sure the dude isn’t perfect, but neither am I and neither is anyone else.
It’s said that hatred is a poison that sickens the hater more than the hated. Even if true, it won’t stop those who have made up their minds and have entrenched their bitterness into a defining personality trait.
As I said, I like my cloth better.
NEWSMAGRENFREW 