How dumb do they think we are?
The Yukon government’s ads on its Peel principles bear the fingerprints of a sophisticated ad agency. The ads are manipulative and cynical and they are designed to mould public opinion. In short, it is not public information; it is propaganda.
In 1984, George Orwell’s totalitarian “Ministry of Truth” gave us “doublespeak” as a tool of government manipulation. Good is Bad, Freedom is Slavery, Peace is War and so on. The Yukon government ad is a disquieting example of mind manipulation: opening to industry is “protecting the Peel, a policy of road-building is “minimizing the footprint that both individuals and industry leave,” and wide-open development is “balance.”
Note also that the impacts of individuals is implied to be equivalent with that of industry. By the same doublespeak, violating the letter and the intent of the UFA planning agreements becomes “respecting the First Nations’ final agreements.” I could go on.
Propaganda. Thought manipulation. Doublespeak. This is exactly what the Yukon government is foisting on the people of the Yukon using our own tax dollars! This is as cynical and as unscrupulous an abuse of position as you can find in the sorry annals of government. The Yukon Party has no business running political manipulation ads under the name of a government department (Energy, Mines and Resources) as if they were public information postings.
The Ministry of Truth has relocated to Whitehorse.
This must stop. The Yukon government has no business trying to mould public opinion prior to the Peel consultations, on the taxpayers’ dollar. Especially using doublespeak. Yukoners don’t need the government to tell them what to think. The manipulation of truth and using taxpayers’ dollars to propagandize is wrong. Leave persuasion to the special interest groups where it belongs.
I urge one and all and especially MLAs of all parties to object. I can’t imagine that this kind of manipulation with public funds is actually legal. If it is, it shouldn’t be. How much of our money have these ads cost?
Conrad Frieslander
Whitehorse