politics are sport.

the more time i spend (waste) perusing the political blogosphere, the more strongly i feel that politics are, in the end, little more than sport. or, at the very least, my interest in politics amounts to nothing much different than the average person's interest in sports.

i think it's pretty hilarious to watch a bunch of corporate shills whack at each other in terms of policy and morality. i mean, the right wing is a joke; they're obviously just playing for the benefit of any number of diverse corporations and profits. and for some reason, they think that there exists a sort of natural association between profit-hungry corporations and hatemongering religious fanatics. now take note, that whole sentence there was hyperbole. there's no backroom conspiracy featuring james dobson and the halliburton oil board of directors. it's a bunch of hawkish idiot corporate types who think they're achieving their ends by stringing along a bunch of hawkish idiot evangelical types who think they're achieving their ends by stringing along a bunch of hawkish idiot corporate types. to think that there's any kind of well-thought-out cabal of power-mad villains is to grant these people a hell of a lot more credit than they deserve. i mean, if there was a focused, determined cabal, maybe i'd be more supportive of the right wing. cabals are probably a tricky business, i bet there'd be some intelligent types involved there.

but there's no focus, no rhyme nor reason, they're just a bunch of fools. conservativism makes sense in a lot of ways, but modern conservatives are like the three stooges of politics, and the citizenry is the one that keeps getting poked in the eye. if i was an american liberal, i'd say "go for it, guys!" and get the hell out of dodge as soon as possible, laughing all the way. because everyone's laughing at your country, folks. aside from a bunch of islamic idiots, who are even stupider than republicans for taking them seriously, we all know that all the republican party is doing is digging a big ol' grave for themselves and america. and since i'm a canadian social democrat, i can sit here laughing at stephen harper's belligerent fuming, and digging the gains that the NDP are inevitably going to make in our next election. because canadians are creeped out by you, stephen, and even if they elect you, you're not going to be able to do half the shit you'd like to do. and once you're elected, you're going to prove what a shitty person you are, what a shitty party you have, and we'll all go back to voting liberal.

not that the left wing establishment is a hell of a lot better, of course. a 'liberal' prime minister should not, in my books, be the head of a massive corporate empire. he's just as much of a corporate shill as harper; his only saving grace is that he arbitrarily chose to ally himself with people who don't want to dictate their morality to others via the law. and please tell me i'm not the only one who doesn't give even half a shit about the sponsorship scandal? the only reason it even exists as a scandal is because the canadian media are so friggen desperate for something canadian to sensationalize and blow way out of proprotion.

the ndp, for all their failings (remember bob rae?), are a decent party, and they've got my vote anytime an election comes around. things i like about them:

- jack layton (doesn't own a car, is married to someone ethnic, has a bitchin' mustache)
- socially-minded policy (rehabilitation vs. punishment, improved social programs, workers' rights, etc.)
- support legalization of marijuana
- biased against corporations (i think anti-corporate bias is like 'liberal bias' in the media. it's less a 'bias' in the traditional sense than a 'truth bias.' yeah, maybe (VERY maybe) the news media writes alot of things that reflect negatively on conservatives. why is this a bias, and not simply the result of what we academics tend to call 'accuracy'?)

but in the end, it's all just a game. all the hot-button issues don't matter to me, personally, in the least. same-sex marriage; i'm not gay, and even if i was, i wouldn't be one of those faux-hetero queers who just wants to be domestic like mom and dad. sponsorship scandal; already said, i don't care - i'd rather they didn't waste my money, but hey, at least that wasted money can't be spent on say, the military. and i'm having trouble thinking of any other issues. i guess that's why politics are a game to me, because canadian politics are so low-stakes.

i'd love to see a better world for everyone, but my world is just fine as it is, so i've got no reason to bitch. i wish marijuana was legal, but i don't have any trouble buying and smoking it, so i can't say i really care. i wish any number of different laws were reformed, but i don't have any trouble flaunting the ones i don't like, so again - don't really care. in the end i guess, armchair politics are a way for people to feel important, like they're part of something. just like sports fandom, i suppose. but no matter what the political, social, or legal environment, you're going to carve out your little life however you choose to live it, so i think that you may as well get over it.

c'est tout.