JANUARY 26, 2019

GIVE THE GIFT OF CRIKEY | TIP OFF | VIEW IN BROWSER

What makes climate denialism possible? Or the anti-vaccination movement? How do theories that in previous decades would have been ignored by the mainstream gain steam? Our new short series, In Denial, takes apart the Australian wings of these outliers and the political and media machinations that make their message possible. Stay tuned next week for the final part, on how one think tank changed everything about the climate change wars in this country.

As ever, we’re keen to hear what you think of our stories. Write to boss@crikey.com.au to let us know.

Have a great weekend,

Bhakthi Puvanenthiran
Managing Editor

Scott Morrison, a leader utterly out of touch with history

GUY RUNDLE 4 minute read

Is our PM a slavering servant of the empire or a suburban goofball? The Libs are trying everything.

In denial

A guide to Australian denialism

KISHOR NAPIER-RAMAN and EMILY WATKINS 5 minute read

From climate change denialists to anti-vaxxers, Australia has its fair share of those who reject scientific consensus (and common wisdom).

Are Alan Jones and Co responsible for science denialism?

EMILY WATKINS 4 minute read

Or are Jones and his ilk more likely to influence politicians, rather than change minds within the general population?

What we lose with the decline of mainstream science journalists

EMILY WATKINS 3 minute read

"There are huge demands on journalists now, and if they don't have access or the knowledge of the right sources, they can get things wrong."

The politics of erasing Palestinians

“	The erasure of the Palestinian people is a project that has been occurring ever since and it embroiled Australia in the most unlikely and tragic circumstances with the murder and alleged rape of Palestinian exchange student Aya Maasarwe early last week. — Ruby Hamad

Being Palestinian is not why student Aya Maarsawe was murdered but it has everything to do with how she lived, how she is mourned and how she will be remembered.

If you can’t kill the ‘toxic’ discourse, kill some weeds

HELEN RAZER 4 minute read

This is your therapeutic guide to herbicidal conflict.

Tone-deaf Frydenberg fights the last war

BERNARD KEANE 3 minute read

Josh Frydenberg thinks lauding the cause of neoliberalism will resonate with voters — despite his own government turning its back on free markets.

Greens candidate gets ahead of the story in the Oz

CHARLIE LEWIS 3 minute read

Breaking down the winners and losers of a Me Too exclusive of a new kind.

Mundine faces the perilous path of the Indigenous conservative

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Right-wing commentators often — and correctly — call out the bigotry of the left toward Indigenous leaders and activists who dare to step outside progressive orthodoxy, and the ready resort to epithets such as “Uncle Tom” by both Indigenous and white progressives. Mundine himself has been — and still is, even now on Twitter — the target of such racist name-calling. — Bernard Keane

Indigenous conservatives rarely fit the easy ideological templates of white Australians, and they cop abuse from both sides because of it.

How did Labor stray so far from its progressive roots?

TOM HASKELL 4 minute read

As policies presented at the recent ALP National Conference show, Labor is not "the light on the hill" that Chifley spoke of all those years ago.

Melbourne and Sydney immigration detention centres join hunger strike

REBEKAH HOLT 3 minute read

Detainees in Sydney claim 300-400 people are protesting. Border Force continue to deny there is any mass hunger strike.

Magic mushrooms to soothe the dying

JESSE NOAKES 7 minute read

A landmark study in Australia will use psilocybin to induce what's come to be known as a "classical mystical experience". Is this the start of a "mushrooming mental health zeitgeist"?

Inside one of Australia’s most historic beach shack communities

ANDREW JACKSON 4 minute read

The residents at Era don't have phone reception, roads or 21st century amenities, but they have plenty of stories to tell.

Daft Brexit threatens a brittle peace in Northern Ireland

GUY RUNDLE 4 minute read

A car bomb in the centre of Derry is not without a nostalgic touch; as '70s as flares and Thin Lizzy. But it signals an end to the Good Friday agreement.

Could Susan Moylan-Coombs be the one to dethrone Abbott?

CHARLIE LEWIS and KISHOR NAPIER-RAMAN 4 minute read

Broadcaster Susan Moylan-Coombs is the first high-profile independent to announce a tilt at Tony Abbott in the upcoming federal election.

Is this a glorious new dawn for LGBTIQ history?

BRENDAN FOSTER 4 minute read

"The gays are out of the closet now and we aren’t going back.”

All aboard for the great Davos rort, taxpayers

BERNARD KEANE 3 minute read

Once again the great and the good have gathered in Switzerland for the neoliberal frolic of Davos. But the real message of the World Economic Forum is that we have to accept the dominance of multinational corporations.