How is the CBC Radio 1 program "Day Six" like the Campus Conservatives?

O.K. It may seem like a tough one. Let me give you some clues. First to Calgarygrit for context regarding the CampusCons. To quote commenter drewski:

If I learned on thing as a kid, the really cool kids don't say they're cool, everyone knows it. So if they're trying this hard, it means only one thing, THEY ARENT COOL!

The strategy is obvious. Fool some naive first years to a meeting and expose them to all of the usual nonsensical conservative garbage and hope to catch a few of the mentally unbalanced ones. It reminds me of a fake ad in the Getaway. (The Getaway was a bi-annual spoof version of the Gateway, the U of A student paper). It went something like this:

The U of A Communist Club is renaming itself the U of A Ski Club. At least this way someone will come to our meetings.

As for Day Six, it puts a lot of effort into being hip. Brent Bambury prattles on about all of the latest trends. But as with the the Young Conservatives, it is just a Potemkin Village. Once they have lured you off the main street, it quickly becomes apparent that it is a vehicle for extremely loony right wing views. Last week, a featured guest was Ezra Levant. The day after he was confirmed to be full of it. Having Levant on the show just validates his distortions of reality.

Being a fair-minded sort, you might be inclined to think "But it all happened so close to the broadcast time there wasn't an opportunity to pull the segment and replace it with something else". Fair enough. Maybe it was a coincidence.

Fast forward to this weeks episode and the discussion on Harper's desperate effort to not be the first P. M. to lose Canada's regular turn on the Security Council. And the guest to discuss this issue with? John Bolton. Yes that John Bolton. The angry walrus mustached neo-con who, as U. S. Ambassador to the U.N., disrupted Security Council business as best he could. Almost as though he was following the Harper manual. A man whose appointment to the post was so controversial it could only be done as a recess appointment. A man who was instrumental in neutering the U.N. attempt to prevent the invasion of Iraq. Out of all of the former U.N. Ambassadors this is the one they chose?

The answer to the question posed in the title should now be apparent. Both try (and fail) to draw people in by being kewl to subject them to all sorts of right wing wackiness. I don't grudge the Conservative effort. They have to trick people into listening to their addled message.

In the case of Day Six, it is just another example that this is not the CBC of Gzowski days. Standing up to bullying by the right is so last century. They recognize the implied Conservative threats to the Mother Corp funding and have utterly capitulated.

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