We ran Yassmin Abdel Magied out of the country but invited these speakers in and News Corp gave them support, promotion and a platform to speak. (ODT)
Australia has become a destination for a legion of far-right speakers from North America and the UK in recent months.
Milo Yiannopoulos’ controversial visit last December resulted in violent clashes between protesters and a $50,000 bill for Yiannopoulos for extra policing. (He never paid it.) Nonetheless, Yiannopoulos is planning a return in late November.
In March, the Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson packed out auditoriums in three cities for speeches railing against feminism, political correctness and hate speech laws.
This was followed by the visits of Canadians Lauren Southern and Stefan Molyneaux, which sparked more anti-fascist protests and resulted in another large police bill that remains unpaid. Southern’s “It’s Okay to be White” T-shirt served as the inspiration for Senator Pauline Hanson’s recent motion declaring the same message.
And Brexit-er Nigel Farage toured Australia seven weeks later with his anti-immigration message.
None of these speakers has yet to attract an organised movement of followers in Australia. But these tours are certainly having an impact on society, as Senator Hanson’s motion illustrates.
An ABC investigation revealed that the NSW Young Nationals were infiltrated by members with links to the neo-Nazi fight club that provided security for the Southern/Molyneaux and Farage tours. And Yiannopoulos was even given a platform to speak at Parliament House, the invited guest of Senator David Leyonhjelm.
Month: November 2018
The Nazi group attracting the most media attention, Antipodean Resistance (“The Hitlers you’ve been waiting for”), have been operating for over a year but so far have confined their activities to putting up stickers and posters on Australia’s eastern seaboard or taking hikes in the bush.
Noted ethno-nationalist Dr Jim Saleam attracted only 709 votes — or less than 1 per cent of the vote — as an Australia First Party candidate in the recent Longman by-election.
So does Australia have a neo-Nazi problem?In short, yes. Look not on the streets but online. Nazism is thriving in the meme-rich world of the internet.
The 21st century’s “Nazi 2.0” looks very different from its predecessor.
What is the ‘final solution’?Senator Fraser Anning said the “final solution” to what he called the problem of migration by Muslims was a national vote.
The goal these days is to shift mainstream political debate to the far-right around certain key ideas: white genocide, the importance of rejecting globalism, and establishing a white ethno-state. This process is called shifting the “Overton window” and is based on the idea that politics and policy can be deeply influenced by expanding what’s acceptable to talk about publicly.
Here’s an example of how it works. The plight of white farmers in South Africa was the basis for a series of rallies in Australia in early 2018. Conservative politicians and political contenders such as Avi Yemini (Australian Liberty Alliance candidate), Andrew Laming (Liberal), Fraser Anning (independent) jumped on the issue and called for special visas for the white farmers. In response, Minister Peter Dutton then asked Home Affairs to look into providing assistance, describing them as “the sort of migrants we want to bring into our country”.
Suddenly the notions of “white minority under threat” and “white genocide” became part of everyday political discussion.
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