Justin Trudeau Says 'Sorey, Eh' About 'Peoplekind'

It’s not often I say this, but I think Justin Trudeau is being unfairly criticized. This may be the first and only time, actually.

When I saw the stories about Trudeau interrupting a young woman at a town hall event last week who said “mankind,” telling her it should be “peoplekind” instead, I just figured it was another dumb liberal moment from another dumb liberal. It’s Trudeau, right? It’s Canada, the most PC country on earth. Sounded about right.

Then I watched the video:

Yeah, it seems like he was just making a joke to me. Poking a bit of fun at the Western world’s political correctness and misandry, where pointing out unpleasant facts is “mansplaining,” and there are 37 genders, and anyone can become any of them just by saying so. It wasn’t a great joke, but it was a joke. The young lady and the rest of the audience seemed to enjoy it. It’s just a politician working a crowd, right? That’s what they do.

Which is exactly what happened, Trudeau now says:

PM on “peoplekind”: it’s a little reminder to me that I shouldn’t be making jokes even when I think they’re funny #cdnpoli pic.twitter.com/MWK27BxlOl

— Vassy Kapelos (@VassyKapelos) February 7, 2018

This happens all the time. Politicians say stuff in jest, and people pretend it was serious because nobody’s allowed to lighten up.

Just the other day Trump got slammed for making another crappy joke, saying the Democrats were “treasonous” for sitting on their hands at the State of the Union address. Does he really know or care what the definition of “treason” is? No. Is he going to throw the Democrats in jail? No. He just… says thing. He has no filter. That’s why so many people like him, we’re told. I’m not a big fan of that style, and I’m not going to become one anytime soon, but it doesn’t send me into a panic either. This is who he is, guys.

Obama joked about sending Predator drones after the Jonas Brothers if they messed with his daughters. He also joked about sending the IRS after his political enemies. As it turned out, only one of those things came true.

Then there was this classic from President Reagan in 1984:

Everybody flipped the hell out. Reagan was a moron who was going to get us into World War Three. The guy from Bedtime for Bonzo was going to bring about the end of the world. (I don’t remember the world ending, but it’s been a while, and I wasn’t really paying attention to politics back then.)

And remember the time Abraham Lincoln said John Wilkes Booth’s stage acting was “so wooden I could build another cabin out of it”? We all remember how that one turned out.

Yeah, these guys are world leaders, controlling the fate of nations, and maybe they shouldn’t be joking around like that. Maybe. But they’re also just people, and people say a lot of stupid $#!+. They make bad jokes, they mangle words, they embarrass themselves.

Maybe everybody should just calm down, myself included. Most of the things politicians say have no connection to reality, but sometimes that’s by accident. Sure, outrage clicks put food on the table, but…

Oh.

Okay. I get it now. Never mind all that. Let me try again:

Who the hell does Justin Trudeau think he is, talking to a woman like that? What, she’s too stupid to know that “mankind” means? He can’t let her finish a sentence because she doesn’t have a penis? Take your paternalistic cisgender misogyny and shove it where the snow don’t fall, pretty boy!

There, that’s more like it.