On rhetoric around “African gangs”
Barry Welch writes: Re.”‘African gang’ rhetoric goes beyond dog-whistling” (Monday)
That Peter Dutton would be totally reliant on the “fear and division” button is a given. After all, Dutton was first elected in 2001 on the back of Tampa and 9/11 and his first major campaign function featured none other than Phillip Ruddock. Dutton’ s lack of brains — he has as much inside his skull as on top of it — will see him sticking to the same old, same old. Because if it worked once it will work forever.
Chris Larkin writes: Re.”‘African gang’ rhetoric goes beyond dog-whistling” (Monday)
Reading The Age over the weekend it was depressing to see how ingrained racism can sometimes be. Two stories side by side on their mobile front page. One about a white, white collar crim, not even an Australian citizen, who happened to live in Sydney for a few years growing up being described as an “Aussie” despite his crimes being committed in the US.
Two stories up, local kids doing bad things tagged as “African”.And this from The Age who probably should know better.
James Burke writes: Re.”‘African gang’ rhetoric goes beyond dog-whistling” (Monday)
Happy New Year Crikey, but hey, this ain’t Trumpism. Trumpism means constantly saying things that are ludicrous, easily disproven, often contradict what you said earlier, and to most ears are evidence of an unsound mind – knowing that your army of bloodthirsty idiots will cheer whatever their God-Emperor says. What we’re seeing here is Murdochism. Take something with some basis in reality, exaggerate and distort it, and accuse anyone who quibbles with the distortion of being part of a PC coverup to further some nefarious cause. Before you know it the public is rabid on African gangs, not your Sicilian legitimate businessmen, capiche?
Trumpism doesn’t quite work in Australia, because the proportion of voters desperate to be publicly debased by a giant baby is too small, though steadily increasing. It took 20 years of Murdochism for the US to reach the point where Trumpism works. Australia might take a little longer, due to compulsory voting, better education and fewer “evangelicals” . We’ll get there eventually.
The comment by James Burke is suitably terrifying. At least we have the fact that everyone has to actually make a decision on Election Day. The fairly low rate of informal votes or donkey votes indicates that most voters do actually make a choice, unlike the lazy Americans, who can’t be bothered to participate in basic democracy. Compulsory voting means that you have to think, to decide if the cost of laziness is worth it, and to choose a candidate. People have died for this privilege. Use it wisely.
Some Americans may be lazy but don’t forget the millions who are actively deprived of the vote by state administrations that deregister former felons and anyone likely to vote against them who has a similar name and date of birth to someone registered in another state. Add to that rampant gerrymandering and the perception that the US has, according to Gore Vidal, “one party, the Property Party which has two right wings: Republican and Democrat.” At least in Australia you can squeeze a strip of paper in between the Liberal and National parties on the one hand and the right wing of the Labor Party on the other with the Greens as an additional, electable choice.
I abhor low voter turnout in principle but, if ever there were a choice between the evil of two lesser, it was between the Drumpfster & la Klingon.
Just being obliged to trudge to the local school and get your cholesterol sanny doesn’t mean that we often have much of a choice between slightly less appalling than tuther lot.