i've realized recently that a big part of the problem is al jazeera, which is state controlled (states that are as extreme right-wing as you get) media targeting western opinion, and that this is accurately described as foreign interference by fascist arab governments. however, i'm not going to argue that al jazeera should be banned, and i strongly opposed and continue to oppose banning russian media. you don't change how people think by denying them access to information, you do it by maximizing access to information.
likewise, rounding them up and putting them in jail is just going to martyr them, and the idiots love martyrs. that's a non-solution. that doesn't solve anything. they just come out more resolved than ever.
engaging in discourse is hard work. it'll take a long time. it's a fight on our hands.
but this is what we're fighting for - the superiority of discourse. this isn't an ethnic conflict.
the biggest problem we have in front of us is that we've lost the small-l liberals, because the stupid conservatives took away all of their media. the toronto star, the globe and mail and dozens of smaller liberal media publications all got bought out and dismantled or demented by conservative publishing firms who thought doing so would hep them win elections, and the government did nothing to stop it. now, we have no liberal media left in this country, and what you're seeing here is the result of it. all we have left now in this country is failing old tory legacy media outlets that nobody wants to support. small-l liberals end up tricked into reading al jazeera instead, and it just confuses them with propaganda, because that is the purpose of it, it's the reason al jazeera exists in the first place, to interfere in western democracies by generating propaganda for naive liberals to consume.
if this turns into intolerant christians arresting intolerant muslims at gun point because the muslims are offending the christians, we've already lost.
you gotta get in the trenches and do the hard work and if i can find the time i'll help but i'm swamped. there's no easy answer to this.
but step one is that the small-l liberals need their local media back. you'll never get anywhere with this without that first.