The Non-Politcs of the Booster Class
Mayor Sim fumbles while Vancouver burns
by Vancouver Community Organiser Sean Orr - visit his Substack
Amidst the deliciously Debordian spectacle of Ken Sim hopping on a Peloton during a media scrum to justify converting a City Hall meeting room into his own private gym, was a fascinating tidbit of pure neoliberal doublespeak.
In his defense of the “mojo dojo casa house” Ken Spin, apologies - Ken Sim - said that city councilor Pete Fry, who discovered the room and posted it on social media, was just ‘playing politics’. This is a stunning statement from the mayor of a major Canadian city. Everything is political! Everything is ideological!
…ideology is realized through the institutionalization of state apparatuses and via the interpellation of ‘individuals’ as subjects. Ideology is manifested through everyday actions and practices.
Althusser, in disagreeing with Marx, said ideology is realized through the institutionalization of state apparatuses and via the interpellation of ‘individuals’ as subjects. Ideology is manifested through everyday actions and practices. It is in this way, not through repressive hegemony, but rather the Gramscian notion of cultural hegemony, that the ideology of the ruling class becomes somehow non-ideological. This is what happens when you run government as a business, in true neoliberal fashion.
Boosterism is simply an extension of your civic duties and those left behind are a tragic consequence of bettering the lives of “regular Vancouverites”. That Park Rangers were confiscating coolers on the hottest day of the year is a necessary inconvenience of presenting ourselves as a World Class City™. Anyone who disagrees is just playing politics!
Boosterism is selling off the naming rights to city parks even though it runs in opposition of your stated commitments to upholding UNDRIP. Boosterism is holding a press conference to announce you’re opening a pool in August at the cost of $1 million a week, and of course, it’s not playing politics when you post on X that the Park Board voted down a fully funded AAA bike lane when a fully funded bike lane already exists:
This is why we have a map of where to buy beer in Ontario but not where to find a family doctor.
This is the politics of the extreme centre. Purely performative, and utterly vacuous. This is why we have a map of where to buy beer in Ontario but not where to find a family doctor. And while all this is happening, you’ve got the far-right talking about rounding up drug users against their will. You’ve got the so-called “left” parroting Zionist propaganda about a softball game, while being silent as Israel bombs a soccer game. You’ve got Tommy Robinson galivanting across Canada and Rebel News freely spreading their islamophobia.
We saw what it takes to beat the far-right in France. Nothing short of full mobilization and cooperation. The left in Vancouver has to form a consensus, or ABC will dupe the normies into thinking he’s some apolitical frat boy, magically void of ideology and simply promoting his shiny shell of a city to the world.