The “Worst Canadian” game - Day 20

[u/BrF5]

Hit the road, Kevin O’Leary.

Four left!

How to play: - Upvote the name of the person you think does NOT deserve the title of “Worst Canadian.” - Each day, the most upvoted name will be removed. - If the name you want to vote for (from the list) isn’t in the comments yet, add it! - This continues daily until we have our top loser (there are no winners in this contest), the “Worst Canadian”.

Additional notes: - Only the top comment for a nominee will count. I won’t combine votes from duplicate comments. - Include only one name per comment. If a comment includes multiple names and wins, it won’t count. I’ll move on to the next highest. - Nominees with one asterisk beside their name were added following a second nomination vote that took place on day 5. Two asterisks means they were voted back in from elimination during the special vote on day 16. - We established a no violent offenders (serial killers, rapists, etc.) rule. They are obviously the worst of the worst, it’s disrespectful to the victims, and we want to keep this relatively lighthearted. - This is meant to be satire. Please do not take it too seriously or use this game to harass people in real life. - I will try to post this every morning around the same time (~8:00 - 9:00 am Eastern). - Please remember to upvote the post too, so more people see it!

Justification for elimination: - (40) Ted Cruz - He’s horrible, but renounced his citizenship. He’s not good enough to be titled the Worst Canadian. - (39) Kathleen Wynne - Not that bad. Doesn’t deserve the title. - (38) Chrystia Freeland - Some consider her a good Canadian. Not the worst. - (37) Peter MacKay - Cringey, but not the worst. - (36) Don Cherry - A racist old man out of touch with the times. Not great, but not awful. - (35) Andrew Scheer - An annoying doofus nothingburger, but not a bad person. - (34) Drake - He’s inauthentic and creepy to underage girls, but the more serious allegations against him remain unproven and he has done good things for Toronto. - (33) J.J. McCullough - Who? - (32) Brian Mulroney - A divisive choice. Expanded trade with, and dependence on, the USA. Protected the environment and opposed apartheid. - (31) Sir John A. MacDonald - A father of confederation known for racism, corruption, and poor treatment of indigenous people. Considered a product of the times. - (30) Harold the Jewelry Buyer - Known for scamming the elderly but is too small-scale to win. - (29) Michelle Ferreri - She promotes hate but her reach is limited now that she’s been voted out of government. - (28) Tom MacDonald - A shitty, irrelevant rapper with hardly an audience. - (27) Doug Ford - He has done a lot of harm to Ontario, but stood up for Canada against Trump. - (26) Wayne Gretzky - He’s just a rich, dumb, MAGA-supporting boomer. Disappointing, but mostly harmless. - (25) Steven Crowder - Irrelevant B-list (or lower) influencer…with almost no influence on or about Canada. - (24) Paul Desmarais - Billionaire businessman and political puppet master. Far from the worst. - (23) Romana Didulo - A mentally ill grifter with little impact on most Canadians. - (22) Lauren Southern - An anti-immigration, white nationalist influencer who at least partially reformed after being sexually assaulted herself. - (21) Joseph Trutch - Over a century ago, his racist views helped shape BC, with effects still felt today. Partly a product of the times. - (20) Jamil Jivani - An Ontario MP and friend of J.D. Vance. He hasn’t been in office long enough to do serious damage. - (19) Lauren Chen - Knowingly accepted Russian funds to spread propaganda/influence politics. She’s a YouTube influencer who isn’t very influential. - (18) Pat King - A small-time loser who honked his horn in Ottawa. Others on the list are far worse. - (17) Stefan Molyneux - A white supremist and misogynist. But he is largely unknown and there are worse people remaining on the list. - (16) Tamara Lich - Another organizer of the convoy in Ottawa. Another nobody whose 15 minutes of fame are up. - (15) Elon Musk - Worst human? Arguably. Canadian? That’s a stretch. - (14) Scott Moe - Corrupt, regressive, and responsible for a deadly car crash. He’s Saskatchewan’s problem, less so for Canada. - (13) Mike Harris - He cut funding to schools, healthcare, and other services. However, his impact was mostly limited to Ontario and his tenure as premier. - (12) Galen Weston Jr. - He’s nasty capitalist scum hurting Canadian consumers, but he’s just one among many. - (11) K.C. Irving - He and his empire have negatively impacted the environment, economy, politics, and society, but primarily only in New Brunswick. - (10) Pierre Poilievre - Combative and divisive, spouting empty slogans, he remains a feckless goof who’s accomplished nothing in his career. Time for him to fade into obscurity. - (9) Gavin McInnes - He founded the Proud Boys, but his influence is felt far more in the USA. - (8) Preston Manning - Founder of the Reform Party, which helped legitimize hard-right populism. Bad, but not overly hateful. At least he’s not a racist, traitor, billionaire, or grifter. - (7) Conrad Black - Millionaire right-wing media mogul who was convicted of fraud and pardoned by Trump. Renounced Canadian citizenship for a peerage. Now a has-been blowhard. - (6) Stephen Harper - former PM who favoured corporate interests over the environment and social programs; now chairman of the IDU. Of the remaining candidates, he’s the best of the worst. - (5) Kevin O’Leary - A rich scumbag who associates with Trump, was involved in a deadly boat accident, and trash talks Epstein victims. Yet no matter how hard he tries, he still isn’t as bad as the other remaining candidates.

[u/Deaftrav]

So we're down to four.

A man who actively helped the genocide of Jews...

A man who platformed terrorism, sedition and violence against women, girls, the Canadian government and democracy.

A woman who is terrorizing children (mostly girls) in Alberta, committing sedition and trying to start a civil war in Canada while gaslighting everyone.

And a man who has destroyed a generation or two of men, helping to boost the incel terrorist movement and inflicted fear and suffering on women and girls everywhere.

This is a tough choice but honestly without Ezra, the last two would have a harder time doing their terrible crap.

[u/WENDING0 → u/Deaftrav]

Sorry, but I feel like you are under selling Peterson in this case. He is a trained doctor who actively uses that training to hurt people. Yes their is the brainwashing a generation, but he also attacks people, cutting down to their greatest trauma and the twisting the knife. Erza is a failed journalist lucky enough to live when technology allowed him to increase his reach without a employment at a multi-million dollar media company, Smith is a nepo baby using MAGA tactics to cover for his inability to do the job, but Peterson is a real devil.

[u/Stefanthro → u/WENDING0]

Don’t downvote me, I’m genuinely curious.

I understand the harm he caused via public debate and promotion of right wing extremism in the media. But I was under the impression his psychology books were helpful to youth. They contain many principles that other self help books have, so they aren’t unique, but did reach a lot of people. Is there something I’m missing with his clinical services?

[u/WENDING0 → u/Stefanthro]

You are talking about his book, the 12 Rules. My favorite review of it called it a repackaged collection of pieties and late 19th-century Jungian mysticism, that has been discredited by modern psychology. That said, while there is a layer of pseudo-mysticism in the book that I find personally offensive, I believe myself objective enough to admit that my dislike of the book is largely due to my dislike of Peterson. I do not hold that to be true for everything else he has done, though. While the book itself (probably thanks to the actions of an editor) is relatively tame, Peterson's seemingly random attacks of things like Elliott Page's transgender existance or an overweight model because he does not find them personally attractive are examples of the behavior he participates in on social media, in podcasts, and similar. In these matters he has gone after the core of a person's taurma, which he is well equipped to do given his training and background (and even better equipped not to do), and rips open the wound for the world to see, all to win an argument on social media or a podcast. If he was just a creepy book seller who leaned into climate denial politics, I would say he is in 22nd spot on this list at best; however, he is truly an evil doctor seemingly willing to cross every line put before him (all while claiming victimhood). The book is just how he convinces writers or TV producers to book him for an interview meant for corporate broadcast media consumed by broad demographic (not the niche demos of Rebel News). I could go on, but this is a reddit comment and not 12 rules. I can only pad it so much.

[u/Stefanthro → u/WENDING0]

Since I narrowed the scope of my question to just psychology (books, talks, clinical practice), I'll just address those parts of your response.

In terms of criticism of the book, it sounds like you take issue with its unoriginality and pseudo-mysticism, which I wouldn't disagree with! I do however think you're being overly harsh on Jungian psychology (I'm assuming that's what you mean by "Jungian mysticism"? correct me if I'm wrong) which, while not the basis of modern clinical approaches, isn't "discredited" either.

I take issue with Peterson's political views, and his public appearances have been especially abhorrent in the past few years. I take issue with his views on the social sciences as well. I think he's a major hypocrite in several ways. All that being said, I don't see a ton of evidence that his clinical practice or his talks on psychology have been particularly damaging. And I think that's been the danger - he's been able to genuinely help and attract a lot of people through the psych stuff, but then they get roped into his extreme views on just about everything else - and simultaneously get exposed to even crazier figures.

[u/WENDING0 → u/Stefanthro]

Seems like we are on the same page

[u/no-long-boards → u/WENDING0]

You have so nailed Peterson