An abuser will spook his victim, then prey on her fears to manipulate and control her. Having been stripped of any sense of individual confidence and self-worth, the victim may see her abuser as her protector. Here we have something akin to mass formation psychosis or Stockholm Syndrome. 

Losing any sense of self-worth and worn down to the point of submission, many of the abused will then do and say what meets with the abuser's approval. Critical thinking skills are erased and the victim will blindly conform to authority. They will do what they are told when they are told without question.

This psychological dysfunction not only applies to individuals in relationships, but also to citizens and their governments.

During COVID, Canadians were subjected to mandated vaccines (which were ineffective) and were denied their right to travel, attend religious services, work, visit friends and family, and go to restaurants, gyms, and bars. Children were denied their right to attend school and likely suffered two years of intellectual (and probably psychosocial) delay. People who had social gatherings in their own homes were snitched on by neighbors. People had to wear masks which were useless, given that the gaps in these masks were one thousand to five thousand times the size of a COVID virus. They were nevertheless an effective means of control. After all, if you can get someone to wear a face diaper, what can’t you get them to do? Adding insult to injury, polls indicated that most people supported this tyranny. They were only too happy to subordinate personal freedom for some false notion of state mandated security and safety. And all this for a virus that was not fatal for children and young adults and had an overall survival of 99.75% -- or was it 99.8%?

Woe to those who had the courage to fight back. Members of the Freedom Convoy had their bank accounts frozen and their trucks impounded. They were subjected to hefty fines, arrests, imprisonment, and, for good measure, they were roughed up by our state-sanctioned police forces. Right to peaceful protest was denied in a so-called free and democratic society, and too many cheered this on. They believed without question what government and authoritarian health bureaucrats told them. Doctors and nurses with the courage to challenge the prevailing orthodoxy were fired and stripped of their licenses. Alcohol and drug abuse, excessive weight gain, social isolation, depression, suicide, and suicidal ideation all spiked. The economy tanked and money was printed hand over fist, but there was never input from farmers, small business people, economists, and accountants. And at no time did our Liberal government hold the People's Republic of China to account for deliberately spreading this virus to the world by continuing to allow flights in and out of Wuhan.

Fast forward to Canada in early 2025, and President Trump's troll about Canada becoming the 51st state. Liberals, under new leadership, pounced by convincing many Canadians that the United States was an existential threat. People were spooked and fears were exploited for political gain. Contrary to even a scintilla of common sense, many genuinely believed that Donald Trump was going to annex us, and, only Mark Carney could save us. All this despite Pierre Poilievre's professed patriotism and his constructive proposal to drill baby drill and get pipelines to both coasts, so as to expand our fossil fuel markets to Europe and Asia and make us less dependent on the American market. By contrast, Carney promised the Quebec government that he would respect their demand that there be no Energy East pipeline to the Atlantic coast, and he committed himself to Bill C-69, which restricts fossil fuel exports to Asia. Oil and natural gas would lessen Asia's dependence on coal and be a win for the environment.

One wonders about people who take jokes, metaphors, figures of speech, and snarky sarcasm literally. Is it low intelligence? Mental illness? Both? Neither? It is a personality flaw to be sure.

In any event, the abused remain with their abuser, who has a renewed mandate to carry on with tyranny, censorship, a soft on crime catch-and-release policy, fiscal profligacy, and economic incompetence. The ship and crew responsible for the past nine-and-a-half years remain. The only change? Captain Hook replaced Peter Pan.

Image: AT Via Magic Studio