Rage Against the Mainstream
Welcome to today’s issue of The Run. I’m Jen St. Denis, Tyee reporter devoted to all things politics this election season. For the past few months, I’ve been submerging myself in the right-wing media sphere and my, what a strange world it is.
I’ve dipped into the very extreme, dark world of the openly racist group Diagolon, whose leaders reach audiences through livestreams, podcasts and videos posted to Rumble and X. Diagolon recently made a foray into the real world with a tour of Canadian towns and cities.
I’ve watched recent videos made by Lauren Southern, a B.C.-based far-right influencer who frequently posts anti-immigration, Islamophobic content. The executive director of the BC Conservative Party, Angelo Isidorou, was involved with organizing a speaking event featuring Southern in 2019 and has frequently replied to her social media posts. Our story trying to unravel how Isidorou feels about Southern and her content was published Monday — an inquiry particularly relevant after a U.S. indictment alleged a social media channel Southern posted videos to was secretly funded by Russian operatives.
On the more mainstream side of the spectrum we have Jordan Peterson, a University of Toronto psychology prof who became famous after refusing to use the preferred pronouns of his colleagues and rejecting “political correctness.” Peterson interviews academics, celebrities and Republican politicians — and, this July, posted a nearly two-hour long interview with British far-right, anti-immigration activist Tommy Robinson on YouTube.
This summer, BC Conservative Leader John Rustad made the trip to Fairview, Alberta, to speak with Peterson. The two share a distrust of climate science, and were able to finish each other’s sentences when discussing examples of climate science skepticism.
There’s a line that runs through right-wing social media: anger at the establishment, a belief these content creators have been persecuted for speaking about certain topics and the sheer exhausting length of their videos. (Thank goodness for YouTube’s transcription feature.) But it’s important for political reporters to be tracking right-wing media: following the social disruptions of the COVID-19 pandemic and the convoy protests, many Canadians have been drawn to this content — something you can hear in Pierre Poilievre’s speeches, when the audience is quiet while he attempts to explain economics, but reacts when he brings up the World Economic Forum conspiracy theory.
If you’re interested in learning more about the right-wing media sphere in Canada, I recommend following journalist Rachel Gilmore on any social media platform, subscribing to Justin Ling’s Bug-eyed and Shameless newsletter, or checking out Luke LeBrun’s reporting on Press Progress.
Some of my friends and colleagues have been asking me how watching this content affects me. Self-care is important, and much of this material is very transphobic, so my colleague Michelle Gamage recommended a detox with the Instagram stylings of Pattie Gonia — a drag queen from Portland, Oregon, who loves the outdoors. Enjoy!
