Canadian journalists hate you.

They hate you for ruining their sheltered utopia way back in the late 1990s when the Internet became something any nobody could communicate to on a global scale. Before then, the profession were the gate-keepers and the communications bouncers who could make or break careers. They learned the rules of that ecosystem and thought that (a) was static reality, and (b) they were special.

The Internet altered the ecosystem completely. Anyone could post online. Blogs (known as web logs back in the day) were the first ones to allow you to start your own media outlet. Then came MySpace. Search engines (Netscape, Yahoo) allowed you to be seen.

This was the Mass Web V 1.0.

Because this change was in its infancy, the early adapters were seen as rough around the edges: they didn’t have the budget, but they learned from their mistakes as technology responded to their feedback.

Then came social media of a different sort: Twitter, Facebook, Ning, and YouTube. Google arrived and, unlike Netscape and Yahoo, had some very important features, such as Google Cache. PayPal allowed the first simple monetization avenue for indie outlets.

This was Mass Web V 2.0.

Web cams got better. Better editing tools came along. GoPro cameras and selfie sticks all allowed for sleek production without the heavy equipment.

This last point cannot be overstated: journalists always knew their advantage was the heavy, expensive equipment, and they knew the average citizen could never afford it nor figure out how to use it because there too many parts. With the new consumer tools, you now could run a media outlet from your bedroom and have beautiful, clear output that was better than the clunky bygone mess journalism was providing.

Zoom, Instagram, Twitch and Discord also allow for better avenues to promote and gain audiences. Calendly even allowed you to book guests without an endless email exchange.

This was all devastating to the profession. They found out their rules were useless in this new world, their old ways out of sync with the new reality, and people preferred to watch other points of view from people with ordinary jobs who didn’t wear a suit and tie or read from a script.

But instead of going back and figuring out how to become relevant, the profession doubled down. They were superior; they were special. Their columnists were issuing decrees, telling the little people what to think and how to think about it. They needed supply, but they were losing it and suffered a series of narcissistic injuries.

And plunging profits.

Because people who were silenced for decades could finally say, You lied about me. You lied about my people. You silenced us and changed the trajectory of our lives. I don’t trust you.

And then they could communicate to the world about their pain the you never get over.

There was never going to be a mea culpa from the profession. They weren’t sorry: they were actively, collectively scheming how to go back to the abusive days, all while ratings and circulation plummeted. Their focus groups couldn’t save them.

In Canada, media outlet owners saw an out: get the federal government to bail them out. They owed them, after all, because while journalists were hanging out in the corridors of power, they saw corruption and scandal and kept their mouths shut.

So what was supposed to be a “temporary” (read: permanent) corporate welfare bailout is still going on seven years later.

Now, if you are arguing that you need a cash infusion to save your industry and the infusion does nothing to save your industry, that should be a big hint that you’re wrong, you’re not going to recreate the past, and it is time to move on.

Nope. Not these meatheads.

Now it’s about wanting to censor people online for pointing out the lies and propaganda disseminated by journalists. Lies and propaganda so blatantly obvious that even a casual observer can see it.

This, of course, won’t work. Journalism is dead for a reason. This is irrational thinking fuelled by psychopathy. It makes as much sense as your spouse dying, and you say to people: Okay, if you give me money for seven years, this will help resurrect him. People reject this delusional request, but you talk someone with power to grab their money to fund your lunacy, anyway.

And…seven years later, your spouse is still dead. Now you want to go after everyone who tells you: Moron, your spouse is dead. Move on.

And you run and come crying to the same goon to make people stop telling you that your spouse is dead.

What do you think? People get silenced and are going to join your cult rantings? No, they’ll hate you even more and still know the skeleton you’re lugging around is dead.

And sooner or later, people start circling the goon and say, “Enough.”

And then they circle you. They are not going to indulge you forever. People may be slow to act, but they act. Just not quickly or overtly.

Because what are you going to do when people turn on you for taking away their supply?

Censoring people’s disdain doesn’t make the disdain go away. It just finds better and stronger outlets to express itself.

Silencing people about their children’s drug use doesn’t make the knowledge go away or the child snorting coke, getting arrested, or dying. Silencing people about the spouse’s infidelity doesn’t make the knowledge go away or stop said spouse from having an affair, giving you a STD, or killing you for the insurance money.

The irony is for a profession that is flapping their gums about press freedoms and freedom of speech, they want to silence anybody who doesn’t cheerlead them. They want to be the only ones allowed to speak, and these days, it’s always calling for a wahbulance because their fortunes collapsed because of their collective psychopathy, narcissism, and Machiavellianism.

The only thing silence does is speed up the consequences of dysfunctional systems. No moral person would work for a legacy outlet in 2026, knowing how that system actually works, who gets promoted, and how it takes money away from struggling taxpayers who are asked to foot the bill of parasitic elites.

It’s just about hoping your tarnished crown will mean something again if you artificially rig the ecosystem so you can live your fantasy at the expense of everyone else. It’s transparent, pathetic, and a game that never had charm, especially not in a world being transformed by AI where performing in front of a crowd is rightfully shunned for productive work that allows for focus and sensible feedback, or, what journalism should have been all along.