Who is out of control here not the man with the facts that’s for sure (ODT)
Listen to Tucker Carlson Flip Out After Being Exposed by Dutch Historian
Category: Media
Commentators like Andrew Bolt will put themselves on all sides of the fence in order to appear opinionated as well as safe to be able to say “I didn’t say that or I told you so in the same breathe”. After all Smollet is a Fox Star.(ODT)
But instant commentary is almost a necessity in 2019 if you are a celebrity or a politician — or anyone with a Twitter account.
The confusion over this story is a by-product of a culture that is quick to judge and to call-out, and one that so often rewards people for taking a side — instantly and via strong language — on an issue of public concern.
Candidates seeking office, like celebrities seeking status — like all us who are extremely online — have become incentivised to weigh in.
But as the Smollett case has shown, when a useful narrative emerges, certainty becomes secondary.
Just as in 2016, the actual economic conditions of the American people will be the defining issue for 2020. Ignoring it, or giving Trump a pass on the economy, will permit him to make the campaign about everything and anything else.
The corporate news media is doing it all over again — still equating aggregate national unemployment data and a robust stock market with a strong economy. And they have developed the face saving construct that Trump won only because the Russians stole the election, not because the media missed the slow motion collapse of capitalism that Trump exploited by convincing just enough people he had a magical time machine that could transport us all back to those halcyon days when the middle class was expanding.
For these get-Trump newshounds it’s always Mueller-time.
Their master script is that POTUS is the Don of a Russian/American organized crime family that stole the American election.
That could all be true, yet if Mueller comes up short of actually taking Trump out, the media’s fixation on the intrigue will only inoculate Trump.
Can’t you hear it now . . . ‘I told you-NO COLLUSION.’
Just as in 2016, the actual economic conditions of the American people will be the defining issue for 2020. Ignoring it, or giving Trump a pass on the economy, will permit him to make the campaign about everything and anything else.
“A former people smuggler now living in Pakistan has been asked by his former bosses to return to Indonesia and test a future Shorten government by finding passengers willing to travel on boats to Australia.” Ch9
Media Matters: Channel bought Fairfax and has instatnly cahnged tack and taken on the Murdoch Model of business. This is a story you would have expected to see run in conservative fearmongering Herald Sun and Daily Telegraphs to gain attention. The carrot to raise numbers and make advertisersl follow. The ” people smugglers” in this article are unnamed, their “bosses” unnamed as is their location. Historic footage of a people smuggler is used. A fantasy yarn might make a great story and the conservatives happy to use it. Our MSM is a disgrace.
But Dutton was always ready to become Australia’s Paul Revere to let us know ” The boats are coming the boats are coming.” They have always been coming but an “on the waters government secret” but then the ELECTIONS are coming. (ODT)
“They want to push it. They want to send one, two, three, four, five, six, seven boats every week, twice a week … then I think it will be hard for the [Australian] government to handle it. All of a sudden 1000 people, or 2000 in a month or two,” he said.Ch9
via People smugglers plot to find chinks in a Shorten government’s armour
The Liberals think anything to do with “boats” is lethal for Labor; the ALP believe community attitudes have changed but is very apprehensive about how the debate would go if boats showed up.
No question, this is rocky for Bill Shorten. The government attack is ferocious, full of exaggeration and scaremongering.
Indeed. So which un-nuanced Morrison message will the smugglers hear? That the policy has been trashed – or that the borders are being fortified?
There is also the danger, which some critics have highlighted, that in its rhetoric about numerous alleged criminals on Nauru and Manus, the government could make the US more reluctant to take people (it has only accepted 456 so far – the deal was up to 1,250).
Grattan on Friday: What does “reopening” Christmas Island actually mean and why do it?
FAIR & BLANCED (ODT)
On February 5, President Donald Trump gave his 2019 State of the Union address. It was filled with misinformation and anti-immigrant bigotry, often sounding similar to Sean Hannity’s Fox News show. While mainstream news outlets fact-checked the many lies and misleading claims in the speech, Fox News figures heaped enthusiastic praise on Trump’s address, calling it “one of the best speeches I’ve ever heard in terms of reaching across the aisle,” gushing that “the president delivered, I think, a message of unity,” claiming “Trump is going to be recognized as one of the greatest presidents of our generation, if not the greatest,” and more:
via Fox News figures salivate over Trump’s 2019 State of the Union address
Journalists are under no obligation to uncritically repeat and adopt false information from the Liberal government. Footy is a game, but politics is not. The public need journalists to blow the whistle in the interests of democracy. If they continue to fail to do this, they are forgetting the very reason they exist.
via Playing the ref with a fake tax – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Whose Paying? This is the media’s chance to make “real money” and apply the Murdoch business model full tilt boogey. The model Murdoch applies continuously. (ODT)
Yep, a big scary front page splash which may as well have screamed “OMG! IT WILL BE THE GREAT DEPRESSION 2.0 IF YOU VOTE FOR LABOR”.
You must wonder about the Editor and/or new owners’ motives in deciding this has to be the big sensational scary front page splash. Let’s hope this is not the vibe for the rest of the election from this media stable. Sadly, I’m not too hopeful.
Yeah, a political drop. With information from the political party themselves, their own so-called research is considered an “exclusive” and worthy of a major report in the nightly news.
Again, I don’t know if it is because they have new owners or a new Political Editor, but that as a “news” item is not what I would expect from 10. Moreso from Sky News as a “major news item”, where Peter van Onselen, the new Political Editor, used to work.
via Partisan election news is coming, but not from the usual suspects
If this story wasn’t already suspicious enough, it turns out that the pair were wearing uniforms that were retired by the Venezuelan military after consolidating its branches in 2008. This fact was easily confirmed by paying attention to their badges which still read ‘FAN’ ( Fuerza Armada Nacionales), where-as all Venezuelan service members today have badges which read ‘FANB’ (Fuerza Armada Nacional Bolivariana).
When language is all you don’t have to do anything. It’s the way Trump did business and lost $8 billion . He did nothing but belch. (ODT)
He said as the students surrounded him he soon realised he needed to escape the situation.
“I needed an out. I needed to escape. I needed to get away. I needed to retreat somehow, but the only way I could retreat at that moment, is what I see, is just to go forward, and when I started going forward and that mass of groups of people started separating and moving aside to allow me to move out of the way or to proceed, this young fellow put himself in front of me and wouldn’t move,” he said.
“If I took another step, I would be putting my person into his presence, into his space and I would’ve touched him and that would’ve been the thing that the group of people would’ve needed to spring on me.”
Are these the words of a 16 year old kid or his PR advisor? Guess whose been invited to the White House not the veteran. (ODT)
Mr Sandmann said his facial expression during the encounter was “a smile saying that this is the best you’re going to get out of me — you won’t get any further reaction of aggression”.
It is the duty of a journalist to tell the truth and to listen and read more than (s)he speaks or writes until (s)he is aware that what is being divulged is the real story and not some fabrication to smear a person or a country to garner support for a policy.
Democracy lives or dies by a fair and unbiased media. With Murdoch and his Channel 7 and Channel 9 allies, our democracy is under threat. Fortunately, social media and the growing independent media (including this publication) are helping to right the imbalance. Please support your independent media. It is the last bastion of democracy. Read it, subscribe, pay for it.
via Wren’s week: NBN failures, internal poll leaks and dead fish
Where the political DIRT BRIGADE is financed by Murdoch media Fox News (ODT)
Daily Caller which published AOC’s fake photo is financed by far-right Tucker Carlson. Carlson is a far-right commentator for the pro-Donald Trump Fox news.
“Many have recognized that @FoxNews has crossed a line beyond conservatism and into outright bigotry with their financing of Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham. Tucker finances the @DailyCaller, which posted fake nudes of me,” Ocasio-Cortez said in a tweet responding to the news.
via Tucker Carlson’s ‘Daily Caller’ Photoshop-shames AOC to Preserve Male Chauvinist Plutocracy
Let’s face it Murdoch’s business model is integrated with where the money and power is and it’s not in the grips of 99% of individual Australians who in the main only say hi to their fellow Australians in passing. News Corp is an instrument ensuring division in diversity not the unity of Multiculturalism we are all so proud of. (ODT)
This year will be an important year for three of the world’s oldest, continuing democracies – the United States, the UK and Australia.
The US will decide, post-Mueller, whether Trump’s presidency is terminal. The UK will decide whether to tear up a half a century of European integration. And Australia faces a general election.
The core objective of course is to avoid a Royal Commission that would lay bare the the way US Citizen Murdoch does business.
As for the effort to make NewsGuard compulsory, it was branded as “Orwellian” by MacDonald. “Brainwashing kids with pro-government or pro-elite or pro-status quo messaging sounds very sinister,” he said.
So, with some genuinely fake news floating around out there and apps like NewsGuard which are problematic in their own way, how can people consume news consciously?
“The best thing anyone can do is read as wide a variety of sources as possible and form their own conclusions,” MacDonald advised. “One thing the internet era has shown is that people are not stupid. And when they have a variety of information available, they will draw their own conclusions.”
and Alternative News5 hours ago
New App ‘NewsGuard’ Promises To Stop Fake News. Have A Look At Who Owns & Funds It
A new browser extension app called NewsGuard promises to give readers better insight into the credibility of news sites by providing…
fake-news-have-a-look-at-who-owns-funds-it/
“The big scam of the whole address is that there is a crisis,” Wallace said. “There is no crisis.”
Not on our Southern border, maybe. But if our news organizations keep caving to a President skilled at manipulation and fond of an authoritarian style of governance, there will be.
“Trump’s primetime stunt is a campaign dog-whistle to his base, not a legitimate policy speech about a genuine crisis. Shame on every TV station that airs it.”
via Networks Accused of ‘Capitulating’ to Deceitful President as #BoycottTrumpsAddress Surges
As a result, we’re seeing lines blurring what were once more-distinct. Terrorist and non-terrorist incidents are becoming indistinguishable by their appearance and even their effect. And any given act of violence can be heightened to terrorism by the utterance of a few words as a perpetrator is arrested. If authorities simply declined to pass on those words there would be no obvious political message communicated at all. It’s a far cry from the carefully conceived plot with an easily-discerned symbolic target and some accompanying manifesto shouting at the world. Once there was no mistaking the political seriousness of the terrorist group. Now you need a team of psychologists to figure out if it’s more a rhetorical costume.
Disordered, unplanned: everyday terrorism is spreading like a virus
A 50-year-old driver injured Syrian and Afganistan migrants and shouted racist comments as he was being arrested.
A 50-year-old man has been arrested after driving his car into a crowd of people in Germany in what police say appears to be a racist attack.
A group of migrants from Syria and Afghanistan was attacked in the town of Bottrop, an area of western Germany. According to official reports, the driver shouted xenophobic and racist comments while he was being arrested.
In the early hours of January 1, the driver had first tried unsuccessfully to hit a pedestrian. He then headed downtown, driving into a crowd of Syrian and Afganistan migrants, injuring four.
via Germany: MSM won’t Tell you White Nationalist Drove into Muslim Refugees
Is this the quality of our Mainstream Media? A Byline press article devoted to a staged Social media picture. An article about 6, 14-17 year olds and a conclusion “it’s not clear” when if the reporter went to the footage of the fight on Chelsea beach it was clear there were no Africans present. This isn’t reporting this is something you see Andrew Bolt do and hre it’s presented as “news”. It’s never blown up when 6 white boys form a gang and they have been doing it for 2 centuries in a far greater numbers. Ask any Aboriginal Australian. (ODT)
Police would not confirm if any of the six teens were linked to BDK.
It is not clear if any BDK members are linked to the assaults at Chelsea beach.
via ‘Blood Drill Killers’: Former Apex ringleaders believed to be behind new BDK gang
They failed badly in Victoria (ODT)
How does a small handful of commentators such as Alan Jones and Ray Hadley wield political power?
Our side of politics spends their whole time in their offices with Sky News playing in the background.
Craig Laundy
Will heads roll under Lachlan Murdoch? Dad won’t be too happy! (ODT)
Fox News spent 2018 giving advice directly to Donald Trump
According to ratings data released Wednesday by Nielsen, MSNBC’s prime-time programs averaged 2.578 million total viewers, easing ahead of Fox News Channel (2.240 million) and CNN (1.398 million). In the key demographic of viewers 25-54, the demo coveted by major national advertisers, MSNBC was #1, with 471,000 to CNN’s 415,000 and FNC’s 355,000–a rare third-place finish for Fox, which has held onto first place for years.
With four weekly wins in a row, MSNBC is on track to beat Fox News in prime (among total viewers and in the demo) for the month of December, with just days left to go.
MSNBC Beats Fox News In Key Demo For First Time In 17 Years | Crooks and Liars
It appears Trump isn’t as good for business as they’d hoped but they can’t admit it (ODT)
Sinclair Broadcast Group began 2018 hoping to finalize a massive deal that would cement its place as the country’s largest owner and operator of local TV stations, after having more or less weathered a few bad news cycles about its obvious conservative bent. But the local TV news giant is ending the year with arguably higher negative name recognition than ever before and with its proposed acquisition of 42 more stations rejected. In fact, one of its most formidable competitors is now aiming to knock Sinclair out of that top spot. And Sinclair has only itself to blame.
One thing about Sinclair’s immediate future seems particularly certain, though: It’s going to keep up its harmful tactics. There will be more offensive “must-run” segments, and probably more brain-washy promotions in the spring, and definitely more blatant agenda-pushing with the Trump administration. The company has shown little desire to change behavior or admit when it’s done something morally objectionable so far. Why would it start now?
via Sinclair had a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad year and it has only itself to blame
The investigative reporter Seymour Hersh, in his memoir “Reporter,” describes a moment when as a young reporter he overheard a Chicago cop admit to murdering an African-American man. The murdered man had been falsely described by police as a robbery suspect who had been shot while trying to avoid arrest. Hersh frantically called his editor to ask what to do.
“The editor urged me to do nothing,” he writes. “It would be my word versus that of all the cops involved, and all would accuse me of lying. The message was clear: I did not have a story. But of course I did.” He describes himself as “full of despair at my weakness and the weakness of a profession that dealt so easily with compromise and self-censorship.”
via Banishing Truth
Throughout 2018, right-wing personalities on Fox News and Fox Business regularly gave advice directly to President Donald Trump. Fox hosts and guests looked into the camera and advised the president when not to speak out on certain stories, when to take credit, which investigations not to worry about, what to believe about immigration, and especially why he should not speak with special counsel Robert Mueller.
As The Washington Post’s Philip Bump noted earlier this year, Trump doesn’t necessarily take all the advice of his Fox sycophants. But Fox figures are clearly confident that they have the ear of the president.
via Fox News spent 2018 giving advice directly to Donald Trump
Murdoch applies the same model with Sky News in Australia. Unchecked nationalism goes on unabated nightly after dark. In America they have an audience . In Australia one day they hope to.(ODT)
Tucker Carlson is attempting to stay the course amid an advertiser exodus from his Fox News program because of his racist commentary. Carlson had been a mouthpiece for white supremacy, and since being promoted to a prime-time slot on Fox, he has elevated fringe “alt-right” grievances into mainstream media.
But what are the consequences of airing unfettered, explicit white supremacy five nights a week on the top rated cable news channel in the U.S.? They’re that Fox News viewers, including the president, are exposed to extremist ideology that, thanks to the veneer of respectability a top-rated show carries, has become part of the acceptable spectrum of political discourse — but that actually puts marginalized communities under direct threat of material harm.
Unchecked white nationalism on Fox News facilitates radicalization
Carlson’s show shifts the Overton window toward fascism
White nationalist rhetoric poses a threat to the well-being of vulnerable populations
via What happens when the No. 1 cable news channel is steeped in white nationalist rhetoric?
Good journalism is asking hard questions and not taking evasion for an answer. Good commentary is deliberating not just on the politics of an issue but to focus on the ideas, policies and possible solutions.
Good journalism (and commentary) is doing the research, asking questions, declaring bias if one exists, not to pretend it doesn’t — lo-and-behold, even admitting when one is wrong!
Watch Fossil Fuel’s lobbyist News Corp’s Andrew Bolt and all you will see is the the voice of the reactionary right wing elders not just aloof but defiant and with tin ears broadcasting and mocking the young 17 year olds who are soon to be voters (ODT)
But the voice and face of the revolt on Monday night painted a different picture. Bellemo was no dill headed for a dole queue.
Related Article
Striking students defy PM to protest at inaction on climate change
Education
Striking students defy PM to protest at inaction on climate changeStudent activism has many precedents over decades, but in 2018 it resonated especially strongly. It’s been the year of the teenage revolt in the US after the Parkland school shooting in February, a tragedy that sent survivors out on a potent public campaign for gun control.
Their message: we may not yet be able to vote, but we do have a voice.
via ‘I don’t believe that’: how a 17-year-old student stole the show on Q&A
How stupid is Rupert Murdoch?
Now, that’s a question which may get more than a little debate, but as I like to say, “Compared to what?”
Which brings me to the reasons that I’m starting to think that Murdoch is about to suddenly start supporting a Labor victory come May… or sooner, if Rupert thinks that May is too late. (That’s May the month, not May the PM who may no longer be Britain’s PM by the time you read this)!
via The Murdoch Media Is Giving Bill Shorten Their Support… – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Why did they rush to take it down and disguise the fact? (ODT)
“You can say Sky News at night is a Liberal echo chamber,” Murray said. “I will wear that badge if you will also attribute that badge to others.”
It’s a candid admission, but Murray didn’t realise his comments would inadvertently be made public. During a commercial break on Paul Murray Live, he was shooting the breeze – and dropping copious F-bombs – with his guests, the Western Australian Labor MP Matt Keogh and the former New South Wales Liberal leader Kerry Chikarovski.
It was nothing unusual, except that someone left the microphone on and their five-minute chat was uploaded as part of the Paul Murray Live podcast. Until someone realised and took the entire episode down.
As Common Dreams reported, in addition to the White House’s attacks on CNN, Trump’s Justice Department also inadvertently revealed in a court filing that it has secretly charged WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who has been living in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London since 2012 to avoid extradition to the U.S. for publishing classified and embarrassing information that the American government was keeping secret from the public.
Journalists and civil liberties advocates immediately decried the unspecified charges as a dire threat to the free press.
“Any prosecution of Mr. Assange for WikiLeaks’ publishing operations would be unprecedented and unconstitutional, and would open the door to criminal investigations of other news organizations,” Ben Wizner—director of the ACLU’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project—warned in a statement last Friday.
Last year, Facebook recorded $327 million in digital advertising revenue in Australia, and Google reported $882 million. Many industry experts believe most of this revenue came from aggregating local news content and swaying advertisers away from media organisations through cheaper rates. Google and Facebook have not clarified the source of their revenue because Australian corporate reporting standards do not require them to. This is a problem — a black hole in the local digital laws. The fact that Google and Facebook can surreptitiously make millions from local news content and avoid paying any royalty to the source is appalling. Local news media is already struggling. Like a parasite living off its host, these two corporate behemoths continue to breathe down their necks and make money off them. As a member of the local media and journalism community, I demand that our Federal Government do more. Their counterparts in India have imposed a 6 per cent equalisation levy on Google and Facebook’s advertising revenue. In the EU, plans are underway to impose a 3 per cent levy which will bring in €5 billion a year.
Source: A fair go for local news media
Following confirmation that the U.S. Department of Justice does have a sealed complaint against Wikileaks publisher Julian Assange—seemingly based on his work exposing the classified secrets of high-level U.S. government institutions and officials—NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden on Friday afternoon spoke out against any arrest or prosecution of the journalist, saying that one “cannot support the prosecution of a publisher for publishing without narrowing the basic rights every newspaper relies on.” Snowden’s comments echoed those of other defenders of press freedoms, but carries special weight as someone, like Assange, who has sacrificed his freedom in the name of exposing the secrets of the world’s powerful.
Source: Snowden Speaks Out for Assange: ‘If You Would Deny a Thing to Your Enemy, It Is Not a Right’
60 women Andrew Bolt ignored he’s a victim of women’s verbal violence (ODT)
We as a society go into collective outrage when strawberries have needles put in them. Or when sharks kill or attack a swimmer. Or when Hassan Khalif Shire Ali, a possibly mentally unwell man, kills Sisto Malaspina, a loved Melbournian.
Without conclusive evidence, the mainstream media saw fit to label it a terrorist act.
Yet when a man kills his partner or former partner, our politicians remain quiet.
“This new body count signals that, far from diminishing, the war is only intensifying.”
The United States’ so-called War on Terror has killed about half a million people in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, according to a new estimate from the Costs of War Project at Brown University’s Watson Institute.
The Trumpsters are no accident and it will always be supported by Fox News because that’s where the cash flow is (ODT)
Sarah Sanders accused of sharing ‘doctored’ video to justify CNN reporter’s suspension
The White House press secretary — who is upfront in accusing media of sharing “fake news” — tweets a video which analysts claim contains extra frames to make it appear Jim Acosta struck a female intern.
via World News – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
Murdoch Media is a PR firm masquerading as News (ODT)
In response to controversy over Fox News hosts Sean Hannity and Jeanine Pirro campaigning with President Donald Trump, the network claimed that it “does not condone any talent participating in campaign events. … This was an unfortunate distraction and has been addressed.”
Fox’s statement is a lie.
Sean Hannity has previously participated in campaign events this year
via Fox claims it “does not condone any talent participating in campaign events.” That’s a brazen lie.
None of this bad—deplorable—behavior on Trump’s part is ideological. He is not merely playing a vigorous role to advance his stances in fierce partisan policy debates. He is continuing—and intensifying—his war on truth and propriety. He is abusing his office, deploying troops to counter a nonexistent enemy, to create fear in order to gain a political advantage. He seeks to divide, not repair. He exploits tragedy. He engages in racism. He encourages extremism that leads to political violence and murder. Trump has been guiding the GOP and large parts of this nation into a dark place.
It’s true that many of the House and Senate races are about local concerns and matters that directly affect voters: health care, education, wages, and so on. But all these contests are occurring within a Trump-dominated context. As the egotist he is, Trump has proclaimed that this election is about him. In this instance, he is correct. That means the midterms collectively are a referendum on the damage Trump is doing to the office of the president and the political culture of the United States. Though Trump may not be on the ballot, decency is—and its future is on the line.
via Trump and the Midterms: A Battle for Decency – Mother Jones
When EVEN Fox News pulls a Trump campaign ad as racist…
Fox News of all people followed NBC in changing their mind about the ad.
“Upon further review, FOX News pulled the ad yesterday and it will not appear on either FOX News Channel or FOX Business Network,” ad sales president Marianne Gambelli says.
via Fox, NBC, Facebook Pull Racist Trump Ad, After Running It | Crooks and Liars
When Crime in Victoria has dropped 9% and we are the second lowest in the country one might ask why Matthew Guy and the conservatives are flying False Flags with the help of Murdoch Media?
Trump with the aid of Rupert’s Fox News are running their anti-Immigration campaign in the US off the back of one Mexican killer and the use 15,000 American military troops at their Southern border as props to stop an “invasion” of “illegal” of some 4,000 asylum seekers who walked 1000kms, more than 50% of them are women and children. One might well ask if this is Trump’s false flag? Will his detention centers, family seperations and turnbacks “save them” too? (ODT)
It came as Opposition Leader Matthew Guy renewed his push to talk tough on crime ahead of the November 24 election, saying Premier Daniel Andrews “makes excuses for those who break the law”.
The Melbourne local government areas with the highest rate of residential aggravated burglaries in 2017 were Port Phillip (112 offences per 100,000 people) 0.11%, Yarra (100) 0.10%, Melbourne (86) 0.86%, Maribyrnong (80) 0.08% and Greater Dandenong (77) 0.07%.
via Brunswick West home invaded by six armed men as crime spree hits inner suburbs
How pathetic is this MSM Fairfax article distancing itself from this abject neo-Nazi attack in the heart of Western Sydney. It’s this that enables troll courage. (ODT)
Cowan MP Anne Aly’s electorate office was targeted overnight with “It’s okay to be white” posters, a slogan she described as a “white supremacist neo-Nazi mantra”.
The phrase was at the centre of an embarrassing gaffe by government senators in October when they accidentally voted for a motion proposed by One Nation leader Pauline Hanson to acknowledge “the deplorable rise of anti-white racism and attacks on Western civilisation” and that “it is okay to be white”.
‘Words matter’: Anne Aly targeted in ‘It’s okay to be white’ campaign
And thank god for Aunty
‘White supremacist’ signs appear outside MPs’ offices
but never really Independant. Turnbull’s son claims he’s been used
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.
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.
olddogthoughts 
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