For years Andrew Bolt carried on calling right-wing extremists “patriots” and anti-fascists who opposed them ANTIFA that dark underground disorganized group, terrorists. He even declared his admiration for the strength of conviction held by the Barcelona bombers, and ashamed young white Christian Australians for not fighting back as they did.
However, when the Christchurch killer came to life declaring he was fighting back, Bolt went to ground. That Australian mass murderer of 51 people declared that those that had inspired him were Bolt’s very own patriots who were given the space and platform to preach their hate and call to action on his show.
As the saying goes “The apple never falls far from the tree” and Bolt’s own family origins were from the Dutch town of Aalsmeer.. What a coincidence Aalsmeer is noted today as the Netherlands’ most infamous pro-Nazi, Jew-hating town during WW2. A very small town whose democratically elected mayor was hung for war crimes. That town Bolt loved so much was indelibly stamped with the stench of its Nazi past. Bolt has never raised the history of that town he annually visited and still admires so much. The town to which he still has close family ties. Yet his idea of patriotism sounds very similar and echoes strong sentiments about who he clearly declares are “them” and his particular notion of “us”. His is not a celebration of the pluralistic Australia we live in, in any sense.
If not for the anti-fascists who gathered at Parliament House in Melbourne last week, a group of neo-Nazis would have succeeded with their anti-immigration racist rant, writes Tom Tanuki.