{"id":31461,"date":"2024-02-26T18:23:31","date_gmt":"2024-02-26T23:23:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/blog\/?p=31461"},"modified":"2024-02-29T15:29:50","modified_gmt":"2024-02-29T20:29:50","slug":"have-conservatives-finally-become-irredeemable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/blog\/have-conservatives-finally-become-irredeemable\/","title":{"rendered":"Have Conservatives Finally Become Irredeemable?"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

<\/g><\/svg><\/i> \"Loading\"<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

\"Godzilla<\/a>I<\/span>n the past, whenever I read news about any<\/em> conservative leader, party or government \u2014 small-c conservative, including the Canadian federal and provincial Conservative parties, the American Repugnicans, and the British Tories \u2014 I always have to ask myself, “Can they get any<\/em> more corrupt than this?” Then I ask, “Can they be any<\/em> more dishonest?” And then “Can they be any<\/em> more batshit crazy?” And every time I look further, they surprise me by scraping the metaphorical barrel deeper, diving to new depths of ignorance, unethical behaviour, corruption, cronyism, pathological lying, and incompetence.<\/p>\n

Nowadays when I venture into the shrill sensationalism of traditional or social media, where conservatives and their utterances are featured I end up asking myself “Is there anything left of their humanity? Have they completely given in to far-right ideology, to racism, nationalism, misogyny, pseudoscience, conspiracies, blind loyalty, and pseudo-Christian Talibangelism?”<\/p>\n

Sadly, the answer to the former seems “No!” and to the latter, “Yes!” Conservatives worldwide have<\/em> moved to the far, totalitarian right in lockstep with their Putinesque leaders. Only in the unlikely event that they throw off the yokes of these fascist-wannabes will those supporters even be able to resurface from the deep pool of despicableness and inhumanity they’ve sunk themselves within. Irredeemable? Perhaps. It’s difficult to see how they can extricate themselves, being handcuffed to their leaders whose motives and agendas only drag them down further into the inhumane muck.<\/p>\n

If you think it mere hyperbole to call Trump and wannabes like PoiLIEvre and Stephen Harper fascist, consider what Jason Stanley, \u00a0author of How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them<\/em><\/a>, said in an NPR interview in 2020<\/a>, shortly after Trump lost the election:<\/p>\n

…fascism is a cult of the leader who promises national restoration in the face of supposed humiliation by minorities, liberals and immigrants. He represents the cities as corrupt, filled with foreigners and disease, and the heartland as the true nation that he represents. And then he takes over a political party, transforms them into a cult of the leader and says only he can deal with the problem.
\nThe heart of fascist politics is the destruction of truth. Fascist politics is based on a friend\/enemy distinction where your enemy’s not a legitimate opponent. Your enemy is hiding terrible crimes, and you can’t treat them as any kind of normal opponent. And this is the purpose of conspiracy theories like QAnon.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"Jeff<\/a><\/p>\n

Can anyone not<\/em> see modern conservative parties in that description? If you can’t, then you’re not looking. In his book, Stanley wrote: “Fascist politics includes many distinct strategies: the mythic past, propaganda, anti-intellectualism, unreality, hierarchy, victimhood, law and order, sexual anxiety, appeals to the heartland, and a dismantling of public welfare and unity… In the United States today, Republican politicians employ these strategies with more and more frequency. Their increasing tendency to engage in this politics should give honest conservatives pause.”<\/p>\n

“Honest conservatives” seems an oxymoron in the age of Trump.<\/p>\n

Why, I wonder, are these supporters so blind to what the rest of the world can see? What sort of person with even a shred of decency left in them would willingly accept the outright lies instead of policies, the insults and accusations instead of solutions, the brazenly broken election promises, the blatant grifts that benefit themselves and their cronies but hurt the populace, the outright nepotism and cronyism, the fake victimization, the dog whistles and gaslighting, the deliberate rage farming, the gobsmackingly unbelievable conspiracies, the attacks on science, education, bureaucrats, veterans, and medical experts?<\/p>\n

What sort of person looks at 91 felony charges against a presidential candidate<\/a> and still believes he’s the best person to run the country? What sort of person looks at a huckster with a long history of business cons, failures, and frauds<\/a>, now selling supremely tacky running shoes, and thinks he’s the most honest person to run the country? What sort of person looks at a self-confessed abuser of women<\/a>, who boasts about removing their rights<\/a>, and thinks he’s the best man to oversee their rights?<\/p>\n

What sort of person looks at a criminal convicted of fraud, and defamation<\/a>, and ordered to pay hundreds of millions in penalties and fines<\/a>, and thinks he’s the most moral and ethical to run a country? What sort of person looks at a candidate who promised violent revenge and retribution on opponents<\/a>, threatened “death and destruction<\/a>” on prosecutors and judges for being indicted, promised to invade a neighbouring country, jail the homeless, escalate the death penalty, increase taxes on all but the wealthy, stiff his nation’s long-time allies to aid a foreign dictator, make pollution worse to deliberately ruin the environment, force schools to teach his ideology, shut down dissenting media, pardon convicted Jan 6 criminals, fire tens of thousands of civil servants, and build cities with flying cars, and still think he’s going to make life better for Americans?<\/p>\n

\"Putin's<\/a>What sort of person listens to a man who has praised Hitler, and used Hitler’s own words in a speech about eliminating his opponents, calling them “vermin,” and still thinks he’s going to be good for the country?*<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

What sort of person hears Trump lie for the thousandth or more time about the 2020 election being stolen from him,\u00a0 and falsely claiming election fraud, despite mountains of proof to the contrary, despite Trump losing more than 60 court challenges over it<\/a>, and knowing that the Big Lie<\/a> incited Trump’s followers to storm the US Capitol in an attempt to violently overthrow the government, and not see the parallels with Hitler’s 1923 putsch? Is it possible they don’t care? That seems increasingly likely.<\/p>\n

What sort of a person looks at a grifter who isn’t even the official party nominee demanding his political party pay his legal fees and fines for criminal charges and convictions related to his private business frauds, and think he’s the best person to run a country’s finances and economy?<\/p>\n

What sort of person looks at images of children separated from parents and being held in cages on the border and thinks the president behind this barbarity should be re-elected?<\/p>\n

What sort of Canadian looks at his party’s leader who approves when his MPS wine, dine, and have photo ops taken<\/a> with an avowed neo-Nazi, and thinks that leader is the best choice for prime minister? What sort of Canadian looks at his party’s leader marching with an avowed far-right extremist<\/a> who broadcast calls to “bring down the government” online, and thinks a leader who unapologetically associates with such people is suited to be prime minister?<\/p>\n

What sort of Canadian sees a CONservative MP promote a petition for Canada to withdraw from the United Nations<\/a> and from the World Health Organization, while the party leader remains silent on this overt attempt by a sitting MP to further Putin’s goals, and still wants him to become prime minister? (Lewis is one of the CONservative MPs who also wined and dined with an avowed neo-Nazi<\/a>)<\/p>\n

What sort of person accepts the egregious lies that spew from their leader’s mouth \u2014 a daily occurrence from PoiLIEvre and his mentor, Trump, but distressingly frequent from lower-tier cons like Danielle Smith and Doug Ford \u2014 without even the pretense of fact-checking or verification? When did honesty become a negative virtue for conservatives? **<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

But yet there they are on both sides of the border: convoys of conspiracy-addled, Talibangelist-incited<\/a> insurrectionists occupying Ottawa; armies of Trump-addled, Talibangelist-incited<\/a> insurrectionists trying to overthrow the legal government in Washington; puerile drivers with Fuck Biden and Fuck Trudeau stickers on their cars; protestors waving swastika and Confederate flags, Talibangelists preaching racial hate and violence from their pulpits, neo-Nazis marching in the streets, anti-science anti-vaxxers harassing nurses and doctors and spreading false information online.
\n\"Trump<\/a>
\nIt’s difficult not<\/em> to believe these supporters are willfully stupid, deliberately blind to facts, and monumentally gullible. But maybe they are well aware of their leader’s negative views about democracy. Maybe theyr are helping deliberately push Putin’s agenda to destabilize democracy so their leaders can install a dictatorship. because that will certainly come if Trump is elected, and likely with PoiLIEvre.<\/p>\n

Certainly, the real winner is these culture wars is Putin. Russian troll farms<\/a> have been loud and voracious in attacking every non-conservative party, commentator, and candidate, and have interfered in elections in democracies worldwide. They’re still spreading anti-Ukraine lies and hatred online<\/a>. Who else but Putin’s puppets would pursue his agenda so eagerly? Yet none seem aware that Putin will not treat them as friends for their efforts because Putin “detests and takes advantage of weakness. He uses those he can use and disposes of them when they are done.” As the scorpion said the the frog<\/a> after stinging him, “I couldn’t resist the urge. It’s my character.”<\/p>\n

Author David Rothkopf has recently written in The Daily Beast<\/a> that,<\/p>\n

It is time to move beyond the political spin offered by GOP propagandists and Internet trolls and acknowledge that Trump and the MAGA movement are today active assets of Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin, as essential to Russia\u2019s future global ambitions as that country\u2019s own armed forces…
\nAfter more than eight years of compiling evidence that demonstrates Russia\u2019s efforts to co-opt the American right is perhaps the most successful intelligence operation of our time…
\nIn the past two weeks alone, there has been the evidence that the core of the GOP sham impeachment effort against\u00a0President Biden\u00a0turned on the testimony of a man with ties to Russian intelligence; Trump\u2019s invitation to Putin to do \u201cwhatever the hell he wants\u201d with Europe; the MAGA right\u2019s decision to postpone further even considering aid to\u00a0Ukraine;\u00a0Tucker Carlson\u2019s jaunt to Moscow to amplify the Kremlin\u2019s lies<\/a> about itself; the refusal of Trump to condemn the murder of\u00a0Alexei Navalny\u00a0in Russian prison; and the\u00a0arrest\u00a0of yet another American for no good reason in Russia.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Rothkopf adds that Putin has coopted Congresspeople “who have accepted Russian-linked aid (like Johnson)<\/a>” and pointed to “Trump\u2019s plans to exit NATO, active support for other Putin allies like Viktor Orb\u00e1n, weakening U.S. institutions, embrace of Putin\u2019s ethno-nationalist ideology, the Russian infiltration of the NRA<\/a>, pilgrimages by Trump-linked and GOP leaders to pay homage to Putin<\/a>, and even a Russian-linked operative<\/a> working atop the FBI\u2019s counter-intelligence division.” And despite all of this being presented in the media, despite the threat he poses to their own way of life, Trump’s supporters are still rabidly behind him. How can such deliberate ignorance ever be redeemed?<\/p>\n

Even the Der-Sturmer-wannabe National Post warned about Russian trolls<\/a> spreading disinformation and lies in Canada:<\/p>\n

Russian-sponsored disinformation is trying to exploit one of Canada\u2019s most divisive issues to shape opinions here about its invasion of Ukraine, says a top Global Affairs Canada expert on the topic.
\nUsing troll farms that post on Facebook and other social media sites, the campaigns often target the minority of Canadians opposed to COVID-19 vaccines and vaccine mandates, and others deeply distrustful of government, said Philippe-Andr\u00e9 Rodriguez, deputy director of the department\u2019s Centre for International Digital Policy.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And who is that “minority” of disaffected, suspicious, conspiracy-addled Canadians? PoiLIEvre’s far-right supporters and convoy insurrectionists (whom he loudly praised during the occupation). And which party voted against aid for Ukraine under invasion by Russia? PoiLIEvre’s CONservative Party<\/a>. Which party didn’t want the committee to investigate Russian interference in our politics and elections even though CSIS identified Russia<\/a> as one of two states “that attempt to influence ‘decisions, events and elections ‘for their own benefit'”? Right again: PoiLIEvre’s CONservative Party. Which party leader refuses to get his security clearance<\/a> which could expose any connections to foreign governments? Pierre PoiLIEvre. Sure smells like collusion to me.<\/p>\n

\"CCCP<\/a>I’m not suggesting small-l liberals don’t ever lie, but generally, liberals consider honesty better than dishonesty, that facts matter, and that ethics and morality are important attributes. Besides, they lack the open cesspools of lies, conspiracies, fear, and propaganda like Breitbart,\u00a0 the pro-Putin Tucker Carlson, and oleaginous Rebel Media that help further Putin’s agenda by fuelling the conservative rage and conspiracies.<\/p>\n

I’ve watched historical scenes of the Brownshirts marching in Germany in the 1930s and the Nazi rally filmed in Triumph of the Will<\/a><\/em>. How did we come to this parallel today? How did we come to emulate that awful time? Why can’t these conservative followers see where they’re being led? Or maybe they can and that’s exactly where they want to go: into the maw of a totalitarian, post-truth state. Are they not aware of what they will lose should that happen? And how quickly they will lose their freedom?***<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

In her seminal work, The Origins of Totalitarianism<\/em> (p474), Hannah Arendt<\/a> wrote,<\/p>\n

The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the convinced Communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction (i.e., the reality of experience) and the distinction between true and false (i.e., the standards of thought) no longer exist.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And that ability to distinguish fact from fiction seems evident with both Trump’s and PoiLIEvre’s followers. In his book,\u00a0 The Death of Truth: Notes on Falsehood in the Age of Trump<\/em><\/a>, author Michiko Kakutani wrote that Arendt’s words “sound less like a dispatch from another century than a chilling mirror of the political and cultural landscape we inhabit today \u2014 a world in which fake news and lies are pumped out in industrial volume.” The Rand Corporation<\/a> called it truth-decay” ” an increasing disagreement about objective facts…[and] the diminishing role of facts and analysis in American public life.” When did openly and consistently lying become a desirable attribute for a politician? When did honesty become so unpopular?<\/p>\n

A piece by Josh Jones about authoritarian culture on Open Culture<\/a> is titled, “Hannah Arendt Explains How Propaganda Uses Lies to Erode All Truth & Morality: Insights from The Origins of Totalitarianism.<\/em>” It notes:<\/p>\n

Why the constant, often blatant lying? For one thing, it functioned as a means of fully dominating\u00a0subordinates, who would have to cast aside all their\u00a0integrity to repeat outrageous falsehoods and would then be bound to the leader by shame and complicity. \u201cThe great analysts of truth and language\u00a0in politics\u201d\u2014writes\u00a0McGill University political philosophy professor Jacob T. Levy\u2014including \u201cGeorge Orwell, Hannah Arendt, Vaclav Havel\u2014can help us recognize this kind of lie for what it is.\u2026 Saying something obviously untrue, and making your subordinates repeat it with a straight face in their own voice, is a particularly startling display of power over them. It\u2019s something that was endemic to totalitarianism.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It’s not merely single lies that authoritarian politicians like Trump and PoiLIEvre spout: they exude an avalanche of lies, one after another, each one building on the last, repeating lies to reinforce them.\u00a0 As Jones wrote:<\/p>\n

The result of a consistent and total substitution of lies for factual truth is not that the lie will now be accepted as truth and truth be defamed as a lie, but that the sense by which we take our bearings in the real world\u2014and the category of truth versus falsehood is among the mental means to this end\u2014is being destroyed.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Arendt also wrote what might be her most Orwellian statement:<\/p>\n

The aim of totalitarian education has never been to instill convictions but to destroy the capacity to form any.****<\/strong><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This brings to mind tyrannical Repugnican state laws like those in Florida banning books<\/a>, outlawing teaching history<\/a> and arresting librarians and teachers for daring to use their Constitutional right of free speech to do otherwise. The CONservative policies in Alberta and Ontario of funding religious, charter<\/a>, and private schools with public money, while underfunding the public system, and promoting homeschooling, lead in the same direction. Canada also has its share of Talibangelist-backed book banning.<\/a><\/p>\n

Authoritarians always fare better with uneducated and illiterate masses deprived of the necessary tools for critical thinking and analyses of their lies. In her book, The Human Condition<\/em><\/a>, Arendt commented it is “far easier to act under conditions of tyranny than it is to think.”<\/p>\n

Arendt, writing in the 1950s, looked at the rise of dictatorial regimes in the USSR, Germany, and Italy during the 1930s and ’40s, and the tactics of their leaders, all of whom blatantly and egregiously lied to their followers, just as Trump and PoiLIEvre do daily now. Arendt concluded<\/a> the leaders fostered a “mixture of gullibility and cynicism with which each member\u2026 is expected to react to the changing lying statements of the leaders.” Gullibility, I suggest, is even higher among rightwing followers these days thanks to the firehose of disinformation and conspiracy twaddle spewed in an unending stream of rage-farming falsehoods by far-right propaganda sources like Fox Newz, Rebel Media, InfoWars and qAnon. Followers lacking any ability for critical thinking easily fall prey to the constant propaganda.<\/p>\n

As Arendt also wrote:<\/p>\n

In an ever-changing, incomprehensible world the masses had reached the point where they would, at the same time, believe everything and nothing, think that everything was possible and nothing was true\u2026 The totalitarian mass leaders based their propaganda on the correct psychological assumption that, under such conditions, one could make people believe the most fantastic statements one day, and trust that if the next day they were given irrefutable proof of their falsehood, they would take refuge in cynicism; instead of deserting the leaders who had lied to them, they would protest that they had known all along that the statement was a lie and would admire the leaders for their superior tactical cleverness.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Similarly, today his followers praise Donald Trump for being intelligent \u2014 because, of course, he obsessively tells them he is,<\/a> therefore it must<\/em> be true despite all evidence pointing to him having at best an average IQ (some claim it is lower than average<\/a>), a goldfish-short attention span<\/a>, an inability (or refusal) to read<\/a>, a low-grade reading and comprehensive level<\/a> when he does manage it;\u00a0at best a grade-4 vocabulary<\/a>, serious cognitive issues<\/a>, and the inability when speaking to express a coherent thought<\/a>\u00a0or follow a simple script. And that doesn’t even touch on his spouting of wild lies, untruths, and simply wacky pseudoscience notions, let alone his adultery, sexual abuse crimes, fraud, and utter lack of morality.<\/p>\n

Yet there he is, a man without a shred of decency, a moral compass, or even the pretense of interest in anything but his own wealth: the top candidate for the Repugnican Party. And in Canada, the CONservative party and its leader bend over backwards to emulate Trump and his MAGA movement to destroy America’s democracy.<\/p>\n

Are conservatives irredeemably lost to the fascist side of their parties? Lost their humanity so thoroughly it can no longer be seen? Fallen prey to the firehose of propaganda and disinformation sprayed by their leaders, the Talibangelists, and the pet media? If they continue to cling to dishonest, corrupt, lying leaders, I’d say yes.<\/p>\n

Remember: #NeverVoteConservative<\/strong>. Democracy and your freedom depend on it.<\/p>\n

\n
Notes<\/h5>\n

*<\/strong><\/span> Trump’s own words<\/a>, repeated on his social media platform, [Un]Truth Social, were, “…we pledge to you that we will root out the communists, Marxists, fascists and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country that lie and steal and cheat on elections.” in 2018, Trump commented to his chief of staff<\/a>, John Kelly, “Hitler did a lot of good things.”<\/p>\n

\"Trump<\/p>\n

**<\/strong><\/span> It is often perspicaciously noted on social media that every one of Trump’s and PoiLIEvre’s accusations and lies is\u00a0really a confession<\/a>. A standard tactic of the rightwing is to accuse your opponents of doing what you yourself are guilty of. An article in the Tyee, April 2023<\/a>, noted, ” Conservatives stole from Trump\u2019s playbook. And the risks it poses for the party and Canada… no matter what he and his allies will say publicly, Poilievre\u2019s direction for the Conservatives clearly was inspired by Donald Trump\u2019s Make America Great Again movement… He\u2019s employed many Trumpian tactics, including attacking the media and a nebulous class of \u201cgatekeepers,\u201d exploiting social media\u2019s honeycomb of echo chambers, darkly characterizing the nation as \u201cbroken\u201d and demonizing Trudeau the way the MAGA wing of the GOP villainized Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden.”<\/p>\n

***<\/strong><\/span> Hitler, the most obvious historical leader model for both Trump and PoiLIEvre<\/a>, was elected into office. He was appointed Chancellor of Germany in January 1933. A presidential decree in late February prohibited freedom of expression and allowed police to arbitrarily search houses and arrest people. Political opponents were outlawed. In mid-March, opposition parties were officially banned and more than 10,000 were arrested. At the end of March, the Reichstag passed the ‘Enabling Act’ allowing Hitler to enact new laws without interference. All other existing political parties were banned. Trade unions were disbanded to prevent workers from organizing any opposition. Opponents and anyone considered hostile to the state (including Jews) were “cleansed” from jobs, businesses, and government positions. Within six months of Hitler being appointed Chancellor, Germany was a single-party state. This is what is in store for the USA if Trump is re-elected. Pierre (who also used the name Jeff<\/a>) PoiLIEvre mimics every Trump move and if elected Prime Minister will attempt to do the same sort of destruction of democracy here.
\nAs Arendt wrote, “Totalitarianism differs essentially from other forms of political oppression. . . . Wherever it rose to power, it destroyed all social, legal, and political traditions of the country.” That’s the world these conservative leaders want \u2014 and intend \u2014 to implement.<\/p>\n

****<\/strong><\/span> Susan Sontag, in a 1975 book review<\/a> titled “Fascinating Fascism,<\/em>” wrote what could be a description of a modern Trump rally:<\/p>\n

Fascist aesthetics … flow from (and justify) a preoccupation with situations of control, submissive behavior, extravagant effort, and the endurance of pain; they endorse two seemingly opposite states, egomania and servitude. The relations of domination and enslavement take the form of a characteristic pageantry: the massing of groups of people; the turning of people into things; the multiplication or replication of things; and the grouping of people\/things around an all-powerful, hypnotic leader-figure or force. The fascist dramaturgy centers on the orgiastic transactions between mighty forces and their puppets, uniformly garbed and shown in ever swelling numbers… In both fascist and communist politics, the will is staged publicly, in the drama of the leader and the chorus.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Words: 3,703<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

<\/div>\n

<\/g><\/svg><\/i> \"Loading\"<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

In the past, whenever I read news about any conservative leader, party or government \u2014 small-c conservative, including the Canadian federal and provincial Conservative parties, the American Repugnicans, and the British Tories \u2014 I always have to ask myself, “Can they get any more corrupt than this?” Then I ask, “Can they be any more dishonest?” And then “Can they be any more batshit crazy?” And every time I look further, they surprise me by scraping the metaphorical barrel deeper, diving to new depths of ignorance, unethical behaviour, corruption, cronyism, pathological lying, and incompetence. Nowadays when I venture into the \u2026…… click below for more \u2193<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1200,62,1760],"tags":[1943,1942,729,1159,1160],"class_list":["post-31461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ideologies","category-world-politics","category-rightwing-claptrap","tag-arendt","tag-authoritarians","tag-conservatives","tag-fascism","tag-totalitarianism"],"a3_pvc":{"activated":true,"total_views":591,"today_views":0},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31461"}],"version-history":[{"count":40,"href":"https:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31461\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31525,"href":"https:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31461\/revisions\/31525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ianchadwick.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}