A Toronto Sun article from last August entitled ‘It’s Time for a Tax Revolt in Canada’ is illuminating in terms of how mainstream media is sometimes employed to play the role of ‘controlled opposition.’
Certainly when mainstream readers see media outlets calling for a ‘revolt’ it may stoke the fires of their internal grievances towards government for a little while; however, satisfied that someone in the media has their back, and feeling there is nothing we can really do other than shout and stomp our feet for a few moments, those readers will most often just snort out a bit of that suppressed energy before moving on to another topic.
Controlling The Narrative
The underlying role mainstream media plays in our lives today is to tell us how and what to think. In this case, the aim is to take our well-justified anger about government policy and channel it into a monolithic narrative about the nature of the problem and its causes.
The reason we need a tax revolt, according to writer Lorne Gunter, is due to his discovery that we in Canada are paying more taxes than six of the seven G7 nations. That includes our neighbours to the south and the Italians as well. Oh, my!
While this might draw in some of the ire we feel about the overall enslavement brought on by taxation, it cleverly reinforces the idea that the system of taxation in Western countries is absolutely legitimate. Gunter feels, though, that there are limits beyond which citizens need to take up arms! That limit seems to be a taxation rate of around 42%, based on what I can glean from the impressive statistics he provides.
Where Does Our Tax Money Go?
Gunter would have us believe our anger should focus on how much of our tax money is being consumed in Canada. He highlights two sources: the salaries of public servants (accounting for 50% of taxes collected) and government waste.
But again, this is clever misdirection. The article notes that public servants “now earn salaries that are on average 10% higher than those of private-sector workers doing comparable jobs. Plus, they also have much better pensions, job security and benefits, work shorter hours and retire earlier.”
Should we, the non-public-servant, vent our anger towards those who have managed to carve out a decent standard of living for themselves? I personally don’t begrudge public servants for this. What I do begrudge them for is that they are servants of an oppressive system, not the public. But that is a topic for another day.
Government Waste?
Then there’s the issue of Government waste. We are told that despite the tireless efforts of the Attorney General, billions of dollars continue to be unnecessarily wasted by our government every year.
But this too is a smoke screen. Why? Because our government does not waste money. I repeat. Our government does not waste money. They give it away. To a small and powerful set of people—bankers, corporate heads, and the like. Through systemic means and devices designed to obfuscate what is happening.
Think about it. Money is simply a means of exchange. In the big picture, it cannot be wasted. It can only be passed to someone else. A piece of fruit that is not eaten when it is ripe is a waste. But then fruit grows on trees. Money, as they say, doesn’t.
The Attorney General and its ‘scathing’ reports on government waste are all part of this same mind-control system (govern • ment: control • the mind). The fact that the government can bypass this ‘simply by ignoring AG’s recommendations’ should in itself erect our red flags. If the Attorney General has no power to enforce any of their recommendations, of what use are these taxpayer-funded reports? The fact is that nothing short of an all-out citizen revolution would prevent the powerful group of people referenced above from sucking money out of the government coffers.
The Ever-Present Dichotomy
However, before we even get a chance to entertain such ideas as our true right to representative government, the article evokes the tried-and-true Liberal/Conservative dichotomy, chastising the current Liberal government for its attack on the middle class:
Remember all the Liberals’ high-minded talk during the 2015 federal election campaign about standing up for the middle class?
Several campaign ads featured Justin Trudeau claiming a Liberal government would ask the rich “to pay a little more,” so his party could give middle-class taxpayers some much-needed relief.
Now those same Liberals are talking about small business owners and farmers – the very soul of the middle class – as if they were criminal tax cheats.
Following this line of grievance, our only recourse for action is to ‘vote for the other guys’ in four to five years, as though there is not a clear pattern that new governments come in to parliament and essentially run things the same way as their predecessors ever since before we were born.
Reinforcing Our Powerlessness
One of the primary tasks of mainstream political reporting, then, is to reinforce the idea that there is nothing concrete we can actually do to oppose government policy. Here, then, we are powerless to combat the high taxes levied upon us, akin to serfs living under the rule of feudal lords.
I believe we certainly have grounds for an uprising, though perhaps it is an uprising of consciousness rather than militant action. We can begin to learn more about our true rights and freedoms as Canadian citizens. We can question whether or not it is even strictly legal for the Canadian government to levy an income tax on its citizens at all.
Word on the alternative media street is that there are actually Canadian citizens who have legally gained the right to live tax-exempt for the rest of their lives. Bringing these matters to light, which certainly could help contribute to a powerful movement to create a shift in the oppressive taxation in our country, will be one of my aims over the coming weeks and months.
But returning to the article in question: what is the mainstream version of a tax revolt? For Gunter, it consists of sharply worded rebukes of the government, including ‘Enough is enough.’ And ‘Stop it. Now.’
Oh, my. That will really spark a citizen revolt, won’t it?
