Opinion
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Justin Trudeau and Gerald Butts in 2016. Gerald Butts / Twitter

February 9, 2018 (The Bridgehead) – Justin Trudeau has now come out—very briefly—to say that his interruption of a young woman during a town hall meeting to correct her use of the word “mankind” to “peoplekind” was a bad joke, attempting to interrupt the global gale of mocking laughter he managed to incur.

I joined in the fun with a few of my friends, attempting to get the hashtag #peoplekind trending on Twitter (which, after a few hours, it was.) From Ben Shapiro to Piers Morgan and across the political spectrum, the consensus seemed to be that Trudeau had managed to morph into a parody of himself. And if he was joking—something most people still very much doubt—the point stands, as many have already highlighted, that everyone believed Justin would definitely say something like that.

Most people in Trudeauland are ducking their heads and hoping that the whole thing will blow over. Town halls usually play very well for the prime minister—his skill at handling hecklers generally make him look pretty good—so the hammering he sustained by comparing refugees to returning ISIS fighters, telling a Canadian war vet who lost a leg in Afghanistan that veterans were asking the government for too much, and mansplaining “peoplekind” to a young woman—seems to have accomplished the opposite effect. And that has obviously gotten a few of Trudeau’s people, including his old college buddy and now jack-of-all-trades advisor Gerald Butts (known as the “shadow prime minister” in some political circles) quite bent out of shape.

Butts likes to spend a lot of time on Twitter trashing anyone who disagrees with his boss, but is also hyper-sensitive enough to block anyone who responds to anything he says, myself included. His response to the general hilarity incurred by his boss’s stupid “peoplekind” comment apparently really got his goat, because shortly, he tweeted out this: “The lesson to take from this joke being torqued by Infowars and other alt-right nazi friends of the Rebel is they’re paying attention. Game on, #TeamTrudeau.”

Got that? If you think that Trudeau’s peoplekind “joke” was stupid, funny, or just ridiculous—you’re a Nazi. Or a “alt-right nazi friend of the Rebel,” which is Ezra Levant’s online commentary outfit. So Ben Shapiro, Piers Morgan, PragerU, and thousands of others—all Nazis, because they had the guts to laugh at Gerald Butts’ buddy. Or perhaps Butts was just attempting to draw fire from Trudeau, considering the fact that he immediately managed to draw bipartisan fire to his own asinine comments, which presumably led to another round of Butt-hurt Twitter blocking.

Hilariously, it was Piers Morgan who decided he’d had enough of Butts attempting to call journalists who laughed at Trudeau Nazis, noting that: “a) I’m not a Nazi. b) It wasn’t a joke. c) If you’re one of @JustinTrudeau’s chief advisors, no wonder he’s making so many gaffes.”

He then followed that up by pointing out that, “The whole world laughed at your boss & his absurdly politically correct, virtue-signalling #peoplekind nonsense. If you choose to condemn everyone who did so as being a Nazi, then I politely suggest you’re a complete & utter halfwit.”

He ended by referring to Butts as “’one sandwich short of a full picnic.’ Incredible that someone so close to your Prime Minister is able to spout such dangerously inflammatory nonsense on his behalf.”

So. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau may have said that we should say “peoplekind” instead of “mankind.” But his advisor and good friend Gerald Butts says that those who found this hilarious or ridiculous are Nazis. It would appear that bad judgment is a running theme on #TeamTrudeau.

Editor’s note: This article first appeared at The Bridgehead. It has been reprinted with permission from the author.