". . . For instance, a prominent account called “MAGA NATION” (with 392,000+ followers) turned out to be posting from Eastern Europe, not America. Other examples include “Dark MAGA” (15,000 followers, based in Thailand), “MAGA Scope” (51,000 followers, based in Nigeria), and an “America First” account (67,000 followers) run from Bangladesh. Other large political, crypto, and even public health influencer accounts claiming U.S. roots — many of which are also MAGA-aligned — are similarly being outed with locations traced to countries like India, Nigeria, and elsewhere. In each case, an account that gave every impression of being an American political participant — complaining about gas prices or vaccine mandates, cheering or mocking candidates, reacting to debates, and posting memes about things like the border or inflation — was run by someone who isn’t even in America." See: https://weaponizedspaces.substack.com/p/x-just-accidentally-exposed-a-vast
Thank-you for your work Terry. As a reader, who can one trust/believe? For example, Conservatives seem to prefer the National Post. Liberals seem to prefer The Globe and Mail. If a paper publishes a story contrary to a particular perspective it’s, well that paper is biased and not to be believed. The NP is an American Paper. Whatever…. We have an opposition leader that attacks any legacy media that asks a question he doesn’t like. I don’t know. 🤷♂️ Perhaps it is simply that civility has gone out the window. It takes courage to do what you do. I am grateful to the brave journalists who put themselves at risk to ask questions others are afraid to ask. The fourth estate is a pillar of democracy. As citizens we need to wake up and get back to supporting our papers and not Google, FaceBook etc…. People are addicted to those platforms. I wish there was a treatment. I am one of the few (I guess) who stayed away from them. That is a big challenge given it seems to be how we communicate now.
The disappearance of the free press in Canada is the undoing of a nation. When no one is there to push back on unscrupulous governments, democracy is the next domino to fall.
I prefer the old days of Ann Medina, objective journalism, and paper newspapers, but they’re gone for good. Throwing money at legacy media only hastened its demise. Will Joe Rogan, Megyn Kelley, Matt Gurney podcasts morph into trusted replacements? Who knows? But we seem to be more informed, but more poorly informed, than we were in the days of people we trusted, like Knowlton Nash and Barbra Frum. Great column
Brian, I think it can be argued that faith in our foundational institutions is now at an all-time low. I'm left to ponder the possibilities. Have the fairness and integrity of those organizations declined so rapidly or was I previously living in a fool's paradise. It certainly requires more critical thinking now to wade through the volume of disparate opinions from independent media. It is a far cry from the Ann Medina era where, despite the objective professionalism, the narratives emanated from a much smaller circle of journalists. I am as yet undecided which model best serves the reading public.
. . . For instance, a prominent account called “MAGA NATION” (with 392,000+ followers) turned out to be posting from Eastern Europe, not America. Other examples include “Dark MAGA” (15,000 followers, based in Thailand), “MAGA Scope” (51,000 followers, based in Nigeria), and an “America First” account (67,000 followers) run from Bangladesh. Other large political, crypto, and even public health influencer accounts claiming U.S. roots — many of which are also MAGA-aligned — are similarly being outed with locations traced to countries like India, Nigeria, and elsewhere. In each case, an account that gave every impression of being an American political participant — complaining about gas prices or vaccine mandates, cheering or mocking candidates, reacting to debates, and posting memes about things like the border or inflation — was run by someone who isn’t even in America." See: https://weaponizedspaces.substack.com/p/x-just-accidentally-exposed-a-vast
“… cultural subset … that tends to be wholly disconnected with the concerns and the values of ordinary, “normal” Canadians…”
That’s what many mainstream Canadians see and feel very deeply, it’s what erodes trust, IMO. I was reading about Samuel Huntington, (Clash of Civilisations) and thinking about the fact that more people in Canada are in the radical subset of society than are in the mainstream. It’s dystopian and ghoulish. Where does this come from? Are we the proverbial slowly boiling frog?
“The way I’ve tried to put it is that it’s not just that truth doesn’t seem to matter anymore, it’s that it doesn’t seem to matter that the truth doesn’t matter anymore.” You hit the nail on the head here Terry.
Loyalty to a particular tribe has now superseded loyalty to a pursuit of the truth. If you carry your beliefs with a religious fervour, the end justifies any means.
Well they are the only two countries defending their sovereignty and standing up to those that wish to see the fall of our Western civilization. 🇨🇦 🇮🇱 🇺🇦 🚀🚀🚀
When I grow up I want to be like Christy Blatchford , RIP. And you, Terry, are a crusty old dude I’d sure like to have lunch with one day. It wouldn’t matter what or where we eat. Your words are palatable and feed my soul. And I might bring dessert. Something sweet. I think you need it.
Love you for that. I'd have you over for lunch but you'd need a fourwheel drive and sufficient stamina to make it through my checkpoints and brigades of loyal security guards.
I didn't take notes because I wasn't there as a working journalist, and the mere presence of a notebook would have been enough to put some people on their guard. I have a very, very dim view of much of the commentary and the low-information questions that were put to me. I hate to say that kind of thing because it makes me sound arrogant. But there remains an overwhelming assumption that the way to deal with this strange new world is to "regulate the internet," which strikes me as both naive and oblivious to the dismal record of Canada's attempts to do that so far. What would be useful is an EU-led alliance of liberal democracies with a shared strategy - exposing bot farms, properly identifying disinformation produced by hostile state actors. . . and as for the X's and Meta's, somehow taxing the bastards. Some remedies are plainly obvious but unachievable, like suspending accounts from any anonymous users, and properly verifying user identities. Probably not going to happen.
A statement of truth may come across as arrogance to those who prefer not to have it discussed. The listless engagement you describe makes me wonder whether this was a CPD event for the legal profession and they were there to get a box ticked for annual license renewal credits.
I believe you're right, with Canada's continuing attempts to regulate the internet. I also think that the goal will be to use AI in order to achieve it, one of the reasons for the creation of the ministry for former journalist and Eurasia Group employee Evan Soloman. The Eurasia Group is an entity that seems to have a lot of clout with our ruling class but continues to remain deep in the shadows, but I digress.
The question that people should be asking, in my opinion, if regulation of the internet is the end goal, who gets to decide what is, and is not correct. You've identified the issues with AI and how unreliable it can be, it's simply a matter of the information that is used to train it. Even in the early days of my computer science education (late 70's time frame), the term "garbage-in, garbage-out" was popular. If the Liberals or worse, some bloated bureaucratic agency, are going to assume that mantle, then we are well and truly toast.
Excellent column. Canada as a "post-National" state has given way to mendacious ideologies which profit their purveyors while bombarding the digital reader with entertaining distractions. Lost within the cacophony of mind numbing fluff and calculated deceptions, our leaders slowly but inexorably inculcate us into a state of learned helpless wherein we find ourselves casting our vote for who we "hope" to trust among all too frequent untrustworthy options. But you good sir, you steady us by connecting the dots while inadvertently advancing the well earned skepticism we bemoan. Still, keep us thinking sir Glavin, and never surrender, never surrender.
Great post, Terry. But now I’m even more worried about Western democracy and whether we’ll ever close some of the gap between the Left and the Right. I guess I’ll just carry on carrying on.
The gap between the "left" and the "right" has never been narrower. "Canada is a useless woke nanny state and Alberta should separate" is functionally identical to "Canada is an irredeemably racist colonial settler state and we should give the land back to Turtle Islanders."
The only thing that surprises me in this piece is that somehow 39% of Canadians still trust the MSM.
I understand the danger of foreign interference, I’m far more worried about our own governments trying to control the flow of information because they ARE the largest source of mis/dis/malinformation, in canada, the USA, Europe.
There is an acceptable narrative and all of them adhere to it, and it gets worse as media becomes more dependent on tax $$$.
I will continue to support this site even though I think you have your blind spots like anyone else ( the nonexistent climate emergency).
Anyway, I’m still floating from the Riders righteous win last Sunday. I need my circus too!!
I'm also surprised trust in MSM is that high. USA is only 28% and their media doesn't survive on government welfare cheques. I would have guess trust in MSM in Canada would be more like 18% - 20%.
UPDATE:
". . . For instance, a prominent account called “MAGA NATION” (with 392,000+ followers) turned out to be posting from Eastern Europe, not America. Other examples include “Dark MAGA” (15,000 followers, based in Thailand), “MAGA Scope” (51,000 followers, based in Nigeria), and an “America First” account (67,000 followers) run from Bangladesh. Other large political, crypto, and even public health influencer accounts claiming U.S. roots — many of which are also MAGA-aligned — are similarly being outed with locations traced to countries like India, Nigeria, and elsewhere. In each case, an account that gave every impression of being an American political participant — complaining about gas prices or vaccine mandates, cheering or mocking candidates, reacting to debates, and posting memes about things like the border or inflation — was run by someone who isn’t even in America." See: https://weaponizedspaces.substack.com/p/x-just-accidentally-exposed-a-vast
Thank-you for your work Terry. As a reader, who can one trust/believe? For example, Conservatives seem to prefer the National Post. Liberals seem to prefer The Globe and Mail. If a paper publishes a story contrary to a particular perspective it’s, well that paper is biased and not to be believed. The NP is an American Paper. Whatever…. We have an opposition leader that attacks any legacy media that asks a question he doesn’t like. I don’t know. 🤷♂️ Perhaps it is simply that civility has gone out the window. It takes courage to do what you do. I am grateful to the brave journalists who put themselves at risk to ask questions others are afraid to ask. The fourth estate is a pillar of democracy. As citizens we need to wake up and get back to supporting our papers and not Google, FaceBook etc…. People are addicted to those platforms. I wish there was a treatment. I am one of the few (I guess) who stayed away from them. That is a big challenge given it seems to be how we communicate now.
The disappearance of the free press in Canada is the undoing of a nation. When no one is there to push back on unscrupulous governments, democracy is the next domino to fall.
Plural n'est pas? Nations
Any nation without a free press is losing its democracy.
I prefer the old days of Ann Medina, objective journalism, and paper newspapers, but they’re gone for good. Throwing money at legacy media only hastened its demise. Will Joe Rogan, Megyn Kelley, Matt Gurney podcasts morph into trusted replacements? Who knows? But we seem to be more informed, but more poorly informed, than we were in the days of people we trusted, like Knowlton Nash and Barbra Frum. Great column
"... more informed, but more poorly informed" Good way to express it, Brian.
Brian, I think it can be argued that faith in our foundational institutions is now at an all-time low. I'm left to ponder the possibilities. Have the fairness and integrity of those organizations declined so rapidly or was I previously living in a fool's paradise. It certainly requires more critical thinking now to wade through the volume of disparate opinions from independent media. It is a far cry from the Ann Medina era where, despite the objective professionalism, the narratives emanated from a much smaller circle of journalists. I am as yet undecided which model best serves the reading public.
UPDATE:
. . . For instance, a prominent account called “MAGA NATION” (with 392,000+ followers) turned out to be posting from Eastern Europe, not America. Other examples include “Dark MAGA” (15,000 followers, based in Thailand), “MAGA Scope” (51,000 followers, based in Nigeria), and an “America First” account (67,000 followers) run from Bangladesh. Other large political, crypto, and even public health influencer accounts claiming U.S. roots — many of which are also MAGA-aligned — are similarly being outed with locations traced to countries like India, Nigeria, and elsewhere. In each case, an account that gave every impression of being an American political participant — complaining about gas prices or vaccine mandates, cheering or mocking candidates, reacting to debates, and posting memes about things like the border or inflation — was run by someone who isn’t even in America." See: https://weaponizedspaces.substack.com/p/x-just-accidentally-exposed-a-vast
Sad to read but thanks Terry for being the only writer I know to present this information about the news media. Je me souviens.
“… cultural subset … that tends to be wholly disconnected with the concerns and the values of ordinary, “normal” Canadians…”
That’s what many mainstream Canadians see and feel very deeply, it’s what erodes trust, IMO. I was reading about Samuel Huntington, (Clash of Civilisations) and thinking about the fact that more people in Canada are in the radical subset of society than are in the mainstream. It’s dystopian and ghoulish. Where does this come from? Are we the proverbial slowly boiling frog?
You’ve given us plenty to think about here.
“The way I’ve tried to put it is that it’s not just that truth doesn’t seem to matter anymore, it’s that it doesn’t seem to matter that the truth doesn’t matter anymore.” You hit the nail on the head here Terry.
Great article.
Loyalty to a particular tribe has now superseded loyalty to a pursuit of the truth. If you carry your beliefs with a religious fervour, the end justifies any means.
WHY defend Ukraine and Israel?
Well they are the only two countries defending their sovereignty and standing up to those that wish to see the fall of our Western civilization. 🇨🇦 🇮🇱 🇺🇦 🚀🚀🚀
When I grow up I want to be like Christy Blatchford , RIP. And you, Terry, are a crusty old dude I’d sure like to have lunch with one day. It wouldn’t matter what or where we eat. Your words are palatable and feed my soul. And I might bring dessert. Something sweet. I think you need it.
Love you for that. I'd have you over for lunch but you'd need a fourwheel drive and sufficient stamina to make it through my checkpoints and brigades of loyal security guards.
Stealth and silence are my strengths. Just need your coordinates.
Oh, you are so right on Christie Blatchford. She is very missed . She did not tolerate the bull sh*t.
Great post, how about a group lunch for all fans of Christy snd Terry?
"It’s the epistemology, stupid". Yes, yes, yes. What we know today we didn't know yesterday and what we will know tomorrow, we didn't know today.
I'm curious how Terry's presentations were received by those paragons of impartiality and champions of blind justicee who attended. Belief? Denial?
I didn't take notes because I wasn't there as a working journalist, and the mere presence of a notebook would have been enough to put some people on their guard. I have a very, very dim view of much of the commentary and the low-information questions that were put to me. I hate to say that kind of thing because it makes me sound arrogant. But there remains an overwhelming assumption that the way to deal with this strange new world is to "regulate the internet," which strikes me as both naive and oblivious to the dismal record of Canada's attempts to do that so far. What would be useful is an EU-led alliance of liberal democracies with a shared strategy - exposing bot farms, properly identifying disinformation produced by hostile state actors. . . and as for the X's and Meta's, somehow taxing the bastards. Some remedies are plainly obvious but unachievable, like suspending accounts from any anonymous users, and properly verifying user identities. Probably not going to happen.
A statement of truth may come across as arrogance to those who prefer not to have it discussed. The listless engagement you describe makes me wonder whether this was a CPD event for the legal profession and they were there to get a box ticked for annual license renewal credits.
I believe you're right, with Canada's continuing attempts to regulate the internet. I also think that the goal will be to use AI in order to achieve it, one of the reasons for the creation of the ministry for former journalist and Eurasia Group employee Evan Soloman. The Eurasia Group is an entity that seems to have a lot of clout with our ruling class but continues to remain deep in the shadows, but I digress.
The question that people should be asking, in my opinion, if regulation of the internet is the end goal, who gets to decide what is, and is not correct. You've identified the issues with AI and how unreliable it can be, it's simply a matter of the information that is used to train it. Even in the early days of my computer science education (late 70's time frame), the term "garbage-in, garbage-out" was popular. If the Liberals or worse, some bloated bureaucratic agency, are going to assume that mantle, then we are well and truly toast.
Excellent column. Canada as a "post-National" state has given way to mendacious ideologies which profit their purveyors while bombarding the digital reader with entertaining distractions. Lost within the cacophony of mind numbing fluff and calculated deceptions, our leaders slowly but inexorably inculcate us into a state of learned helpless wherein we find ourselves casting our vote for who we "hope" to trust among all too frequent untrustworthy options. But you good sir, you steady us by connecting the dots while inadvertently advancing the well earned skepticism we bemoan. Still, keep us thinking sir Glavin, and never surrender, never surrender.
China and A.I. are scary:
“The First Large-Scale Cyberattack by AI”
With basic tech and little human oversight, Chinese spies apparently exploited Anthropic’s Claude Code.
https://www.wsj.com/opinion/the-first-large-scale-cyberattack-by-ai-4a1e1a30
Here’s a free reference:
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/nov/14/ai-anthropic-chinese-state-sponsored-cyber-attack
Saw that. I'm overwhelmed, just trying to keep up with the multi-front war China is waging on the west.
Great post, Terry. But now I’m even more worried about Western democracy and whether we’ll ever close some of the gap between the Left and the Right. I guess I’ll just carry on carrying on.
The gap between the "left" and the "right" has never been narrower. "Canada is a useless woke nanny state and Alberta should separate" is functionally identical to "Canada is an irredeemably racist colonial settler state and we should give the land back to Turtle Islanders."
Whole heartedly agree. It’s not the distance between left and right. It’s that neither share the same fact base anymore.
The only thing that surprises me in this piece is that somehow 39% of Canadians still trust the MSM.
I understand the danger of foreign interference, I’m far more worried about our own governments trying to control the flow of information because they ARE the largest source of mis/dis/malinformation, in canada, the USA, Europe.
There is an acceptable narrative and all of them adhere to it, and it gets worse as media becomes more dependent on tax $$$.
I will continue to support this site even though I think you have your blind spots like anyone else ( the nonexistent climate emergency).
Anyway, I’m still floating from the Riders righteous win last Sunday. I need my circus too!!
GO RIDERS! NB I think you missed the main point. The MSM is no longer what you think it is.
No, I understand..
The msm is now stenographers
Narrative control
I'm also surprised trust in MSM is that high. USA is only 28% and their media doesn't survive on government welfare cheques. I would have guess trust in MSM in Canada would be more like 18% - 20%.
What is the MSM? It isn't legacy media anymore. This newsletter set out to describe the new MSM.
Could easily be a push poll.
“Do you believe Putin or the MSM more”?
For me that would be a tough one to decide unless I could ask a few more questions such as which MSM journalist.
Thank you Terry for your article. It is very sad about the decline of journalism, reporting and the loss of local newspapers and larger newspapers.
The age of misinformation poses grave risks to democracies and the bad actors who seek to destabilize them.