This idea of white persecution is not worth debating on its merits. It should be seen for what it is – a holler to white nationalists, an invocation of hatred and fear of non-white people everywhere, and a threat to the civility and safety of our public debate.

Politicians and the media have been trained carefully in how to talk about and report on sensitive issues which involve safety – specifically suicide, and domestic violence.

Suicide is an informative example: in the media we are extremely cautious in the way we report on it, because, to put it bluntly, the way the subject is treated in public discourse has a direct effect on how many more lives it claims.

It is about time we imposed the same sort of standards on the stoking of racial and Islamophobic hatred in political debate.

Treat it for what it is – a public security issue.

via Christchurch shootings: How our politicians used the Overton Window, and allowed white nationalist ideas to make their way into our political debate