HOW TO WIN AT DATING AND POLITICS (IF YOU'RE A SKEEVY DOUCHE CANOE)

Hate the player AND the game.

Are we being negged?

25% tariffs!
It will be disastrous for Canada… for Mexico… for the USA.

It’s all stressful… and likely won’t happen.

I mean, it could… but it’s unlikely.

Welcome back, stress and frayed nerves.

Remember waking up each morning from 2017 to 2020 and checking Twitter to see what asinine thing had been decreed by the leader of the free world?
Remember how weird Trump’s inauguration speech was?

Once again, Donald Trump is revving up for his turn as President after a winning election campaign based almost entirely on telling people how shit everything is.

It’s a winning tactic.
In skeevy dating circles they call it ‘negging’.

Negging is a manipulative dating tactic where someone makes backhanded compliments or subtle insults aimed at lowering another person's self-esteem to gain their attention or make them seek validation. The idea behind it is to create a power imbalance, making the recipient feel self-conscious or insecure, and, in theory, more interested in winning the negging person's approval.

For example, a comment like, "You’re pretty for someone who doesn’t try too hard," might seem like a compliment but is designed to undermine confidence.

It’s widely criticized for being emotionally harmful and is not considered a healthy or respectful approach to building connections.

Mainly because it is not healthy or respectful and is a dickish thing to do.

Things are not much different up here in Canada.

I scroll by a lot of what Pierre Poilievre’s team posts (and they post… a lot, and do it distressingly well) but two recent posts caught my attention.

One, a long screed outlining how shit everything is… but that had a unexpected whiff of panic to it.

That was followed by him quote tweeting his own post with the one line statement, “Everything is broken”.

This bothered me.

I will wholeheartedly agree with him that many many things are broken and need to be fixed.

Healthcare.
Though that’s a provincial mess.

Grocery prices.
Though Loblaw’s aren’t suffering and saw a 25% increase (!) in profits in Q3 this year.
Weird, eh?

Rental Prices.
Though the Ontario government removed rent caps that saw some rents jump by hundreds if not thousands.

Even the CBC.
Bloated executive pay and bonuses are horrendous optics and bad in general.

So, yes… there are many things to be fixed.
There is also more than enough fault to be spread around to both provincial and federal governments.
Let’s fix stuff.

But here’s what irked me about Poilievre posting “Everything is broken”.

First of all, ‘everything’ is not broken.
Look around.
Construction is happening.
Restaurants are packed.
Airports are full.

And note, I’m not saying “everything is not broken” to suggest there are no problems at all.
There are lots of problems that urgently need fixing.
I’m stating, quite confidently, that many things are very not broken and therefore not ‘everything’ is broken.

What irked me about Pierre tweeting “Everything is broken” is that it is an obvious psychological play.

People are stressed.
People are living paycheque to paycheque.

Telling those people that ‘everything is broken’ is akin to saying to them “Listen, everyone thinks you’re ugly… but I think you’re cute.”

It’s an attempt to break people down and make them feel like everything has gone to hell so anything looks like a better option.

And people fall for it.
All the time.

For those who are burnt out, or living with severe stress, depression, or anxiety, telling them everything is broken is catastrophic confirmation.
It could squeeze out the last drops of hope.
Absolutely dastardly.

Do I believe Pierre Poilievre actually believes “everything is broken”?
Gosh, I hope not.

Do I think this negging tactic will work?
Gosh, I hope not… but maybe.

Should Pierre become Prime Minister, I wish him well and I hope he fixes the problems we’re facing and makes life better for all Canadians.

Do his campaign tactics and negging give me hope?
Not so much.

I want hope.
I want to be reminded we have something amazing that is worth fixing and saving.
I want to be reminded that we’ve got enough to make sure everyone gets enough.

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