Butchers, Bakers, and Candlestick Makers.

August 18, 2011 8:51 PM

The Exile's Ramon Glazov reports on the blitz debut of Australia's own Tea-Party-esque political demonstrations.

In other Exile news, The War Nerd is back, biggerer and bitterer than ever.

posted by clarknova (71 comments total)

I've got a friend who's trying to start an Australian Tea Party. He's generally a nice guy, but I avoid discussing politics with him. There seems to be much less political insanity in Australia, so I can't see this taking off.

I've wanted to start some sort of independent party that supports free speech, but I'm not sure how to do that.
posted by Lovecraft In Brooklyn at 9:02 PM on August 18, 2011

AND NOBODY IS ALLOWED TO TELL YOU!
posted by tumid dahlia at 9:07 PM on August 18, 2011 [14 favorites]

In Britain the Socialist Workers Party, which never had more than about 7 members, was brilliant at organising demonstrations against practically everything and getting their placards on TV. You had to admire their organisational skills if nothing else, particularly when the same few bearded trots were interviewed up and down the country by regional TV stations as random representatives of the ordinary working man.

Right wing groups have learned these lessons and are now employing similar tactics but of course when small left wing groups demonstrate in a way to greatly overstate their real backing that's a heart warming flowering of democracy and when small right wing groups do it's some kind of evil anti-democratic proto-fascist plot.

The "Butchers, Bakers, and Candlestick Makers" title is the more significant part of this post as opposition leader Tony Abbot is blatantly targeting the 'tradies' in Australia in his political campaign, having seen this as a disaffected social group Julia Gillard seems determined to annoy. A glance at the polls would suggest that he's succeeding.
posted by joannemullen at 9:10 PM on August 18, 2011

Here's a good primer on Australian politics for non-Aussies.
posted by Rhaomi at 9:12 PM on August 18, 2011 [2 favorites]

and another one

From my POV, even the worst right-wingers are way to the left of Americans, except on immigration and freedom. conversely, the left dosen't seem to hold free speech as a main value.

I understand the carbon tax protestors. I'm thinking of starting a Climate Change Nihilism page, but I suspect it'll attract the wrong sorts and I'll end up regretting it.
posted by Lovecraft In Brooklyn at 9:17 PM on August 18, 2011

From my POV, even the worst right-wingers are way to the left of Americans

You really need to get out more.
posted by GeckoDundee at 9:21 PM on August 18, 2011 [8 favorites]

AND NOBODY IS ALLOWED TO TELL YOU!

HYPOCRITE!
posted by vidur at 9:26 PM on August 18, 2011

Right wing groups have learned these lessons and are now employing similar tactics but of course when small left wing groups demonstrate in a way to greatly overstate their real backing that's a heart warming flowering of democracy and when small right wing groups do it's some kind of evil anti-democratic proto-fascist plot.

That is such an incredible straw man you've created that it immediately went to see the Wizard in search of a brain.
posted by JHarris at 9:26 PM on August 18, 2011 [42 favorites]

Here's a good primer on Australian politics for non-Aussies

!!! WARNING Goes to TVTropes WARNING!!!
Do not follow link if you have things to do!
posted by JHarris at 9:28 PM on August 18, 2011 [2 favorites]

Right wing groups have learned these lessons and are now employing similar tactics. When small left wing groups demonstrate in a way to greatly overstate their real backing, that's a heart warming flowering of democracy and when small right wing groups do, it's some kind of evil anti-democratic proto-fascist plot.

I'm trying to help, though, my skills are limited.
posted by clavdivs at 9:31 PM on August 18, 2011 [1 favorite]

That is such an incredible straw man you've created

Made of straw and breathtakingly Jon Stewart-esque in equating the right and left.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 9:34 PM on August 18, 2011 [1 favorite]

From my POV, even the worst right-wingers are way to the left of Americans

You really need to get out more.

Great devil Satan John Howard banned guns.

Liberal identity Malcolm Turnbull has more environmental cred than Gillard. Abbot is a bit nutty, but he's never suggested bringing back the death penalty, smashing benefits, or anything like that. And currently the Coalition and the Greens are working against Labor's strict immigration policy (though I do admit that started with the Liberals).
posted by Lovecraft In Brooklyn at 9:35 PM on August 18, 2011

Libertarian islands aren't far off in the future. There is hope for the rest of us.
posted by vidur at 9:36 PM on August 18, 2011

Given that Australia's PM is currently desperately defending one of her politicians from allegations that he illegally spent union money on hookers this is really a side issue in Australia. Given that her party has spent at least around 100K defending him and possibly more it is just going to make things look even worse.

In normal times Mr Thomson would be out.

(For non-Australians, if the government loses 1 seat they lose government)

Really, a government where the leader makes promises not to do introduce a tax days before the election and promptly does it are going to be very unpopular. It's unsurprising that the left is upset that folks on the left that people on the right are protesting.
posted by sien at 9:41 PM on August 18, 2011

"Liberal identity Malcolm Turnbull has more environmental cred than Gillard."

With who?

As I've said before, I'll never understand why anyone believes a word that comes out of Turnbull's mouth. He's shown time and time again, throughout all his business and political dealings, that he's one of the most self-interested and self-serving animals ever to walk the stage of public life in Australia.

His greatest ability, however, lies in being very very good at convincing people that he's not.
posted by Pinback at 9:44 PM on August 18, 2011

*marks the "Lovecraft In Brooklyn ranting about free speech" square on his MetaFilter bingo card*
posted by hermitosis at 9:49 PM on August 18, 2011 [7 favorites]

Right wing groups have learned these lessons and are now employing similar tactics but of course when small left wing groups demonstrate in a way to greatly overstate their real backing that's a heart warming flowering of democracy and when small right wing groups do it's some kind of evil anti-democratic proto-fascist plot.

No, all the right wing groups' evil anti-democratic proto-facist plots are what are some kinds of evil anti-democratic proto-fascist plots.
posted by FatherDagon at 9:50 PM on August 18, 2011 [1 favorite]

Also, a different take on the same demonstrations.
posted by Pinback at 9:52 PM on August 18, 2011 [2 favorites]

The Coalition are only working against "Labor's strict immigration policy" (by which I think you mean asylum seeker policy) in the sense that they want to replace it with a "stricter" one (i.e. re-introduce temporary protection visas and off-shore processing in Naru instead of Malaysia).

You're really just reinforcing my admittedly rather flippant point though. Howard and Turnbull are hardly the far right or the worst right wingers. Pauline Hanson, way to the left of Americans? Fred Nile? The League of Rights? Citizens Electoral Councils? One Nation and all its spin-offs (now separate from Hanson)? There were a few others on the Senate ballot here last election too that I can't be arsed to go looking for. They are the far right, not Malcolm Turnbull.

On preview, you've missed at least one other square there, hermitosis.
posted by GeckoDundee at 9:54 PM on August 18, 2011

You're really just reinforcing my admittedly rather flippant point though. Howard and Turnbull are hardly the far right or the worst right wingers. Pauline Hanson, way to the left of Americans? Fred Nile? The League of Rights? Citizens Electoral Councils? One Nation and all its spin-offs (now separate from Hanson)? There were a few others on the Senate ballot here last election too that I can't be arsed to go looking for. They are the far right, not Malcolm Turnbull.

But they barely have any power. Hanson isn't even in the country anymore! The mainstream is so far to the left of America is ridiculous (except in terms of free speech).
posted by Lovecraft In Brooklyn at 9:56 PM on August 18, 2011

And another take.
posted by smoke at 9:56 PM on August 18, 2011 [2 favorites]

Australia's PM is currently desperately defending one of her politicians from allegations that he illegally spent union money on hookers

Clearly just a ploy to win back the tradie vote.
posted by UbuRoivas at 9:57 PM on August 18, 2011 [2 favorites]

I'm torn... I disagree with the carbon tax for philosophical reasons, but I'm not sure I want to get into bed with these nutters.
posted by Lovecraft In Brooklyn at 9:58 PM on August 18, 2011

Thanks Pinback and Smoke, non-ranty takes very much appreciated.
posted by Ahab at 9:58 PM on August 18, 2011

And keep in mind its not just the right wing that's nuts. The left demanded and got an end to live animal exports, which cost farmers millions of dollars. They also refuse to consider nuclear power. Seems like the extreme environmental left has more power than the loony right.
posted by Lovecraft In Brooklyn at 10:00 PM on August 18, 2011

Didn't Hanson recently return to Australia? Or was it just a bad dream?
posted by vidur at 10:00 PM on August 18, 2011

Yeah, fancy demanding an end to state-subsidised animal torture and malpractice that would be illegal here in Australia? Fucking crazy! And to think it cost the farmers that knowingly chose to send their product away to be tortured for years and years money for not doing a shred of due diligence or killing their cattle domestically. It's like East Germany up in here, yo!

More broadly, I disagree with your use of the terms "extreme", "environmental", and "left. Obviously, years of living in America has destroyed your brain's capacity to understand the true meaning of these words, or hold an opinion relating to them that isn't a weird frankenstein of SpikedOnline and corporate miner's, logger's, and banks' talking points.
posted by smoke at 10:06 PM on August 18, 2011 [9 favorites]

Did Pauline Hanson leave Australia? I thought that'd be impossible, like hardcore Brahmins who can't leave the proximity of the Ganges, as they'll be polluted if they drink or bathe in anything but the water of the holy river.

Or did she somehow organise to have some SCUBA tanks filled with pressurised Vegemite to keep her alive?
posted by UbuRoivas at 10:07 PM on August 18, 2011

I've wanted to start some sort of independent party that supports free speech, but I'm not sure how to do that.

Bob Katter (and a Scottish longhorn) explain how.

Also, this.
posted by Ahab at 10:11 PM on August 18, 2011

I'd just like to point out that in federal elections I get to vote on the member for Batman. (Yes, Batman has his own direct representative in the Australian parliament)
posted by Hello, I'm David McGahan at 10:42 PM on August 18, 2011 [5 favorites]

I'd just like to point out that in federal elections I get to vote on the member for Batman. (Yes, Batman has his own direct representative in the Australian parliament)

I got to vote for the lead singer of Midnight Oil (I realize the hypocrisy).
posted by Lovecraft In Brooklyn at 10:44 PM on August 18, 2011

Abbot is a bit nutty, but he's never suggested bringing back the death penalty, smashing benefits, or anything like that.

Gillard (as PM) has never advocated socialising the means of production, abolishing draconian anti-union legislation, reintroducing punitive tariffs, or recognising a meaningful form of Indigenous sovereignty.

Almost all Australian federal politicians are varying shades of neo-liberal, with the exception of the Nationals, who are unashamedly populist protectionists. Even the Greens just want a kinder, more friendly neo-liberalism, more or less for legislation that forces business to recognise the environmental externalities.
posted by kithrater at 10:48 PM on August 18, 2011 [5 favorites]

I'd just like to point out that in federal elections I get to vote on the member for Batman.

He's the only one who turns up to every question time...OR DOES HE?
posted by tumid dahlia at 10:51 PM on August 18, 2011 [3 favorites]

Almost all Australian federal politicians are varying shades of neo-liberal

Here's another way of breaking it down:

Liberals = Crown Lager drinkers
Labor = VB
Nationals = XXXX
Greens = Coopers (Green in public, Red in private)
posted by UbuRoivas at 11:30 PM on August 18, 2011 [7 favorites]

stopped reading at "child-murdering hippopotamus cow"
posted by flyinghamster at 11:36 PM on August 18, 2011

It sounds awkward, but a cow is in fact the correct term for a female hippo.
posted by UbuRoivas at 11:45 PM on August 18, 2011

"Yeah, fancy demanding an end to state-subsidised animal torture and malpractice that would be illegal here in Australia? Fucking crazy!"

To be fair I think that, in most other contexts, people agree with the idea that once you've sold something you give up the right to control what the purchaser does with it (c.f. just about every Apple thread here).

The whole media thing was just playing to the racist "how dare those evil Indonesian Muslims treat our good honest hardworking Aussie cattle that way!" demographic.

Don't want them treated like … ahem, 'cattle'? Don't sell 'em. Simple as that.

(As strange as it may seem, I agree with LiB on this and the nuclear power issue - though probably for different reasons…)
posted by Pinback at 12:21 AM on August 19, 2011

It does look like Thomson might have to go. Certainly, the press smell smoke, and a dramatic by-election turning out a government would sell plenty of papers.
posted by bystander at 12:54 AM on August 19, 2011

The whole media thing was just playing to the racist "how dare those evil Indonesian Muslims treat our good honest hardworking Aussie cattle that way!" demographic.

I don't think a lot of that demographic watches 4 Corners. I don't think it's improbably to believe that the majority of Australians - regardless of political bent - feel uncomfortable with facilitating animal cruelty on that scale.

Don't want them treated like … ahem, 'cattle'? Don't sell 'em. Simple as that.

And seemingly that's exactly what a lot of people were advocating for.
posted by smoke at 1:00 AM on August 19, 2011

These fuckers will make it very hard for me to get to work on Monday. Love to see who has funded this.

Shame that living in the ACT means that I have no way of showing my displeasure at the ballot box.
posted by dangerousdan at 1:17 AM on August 19, 2011

Here's another way of breaking it down:

Liberals = Crown Lager drinkers
Labor = VB
Nationals = XXXX
Greens = Coopers (Green in public, Red in private)

I like this so much that I want to do a BeerGauge (tm) for all of the multi-party democracies worldwide.

(Single-party democracy = China, Dual Party democracy = US, Multi-party democracy = Any of the Westminister/ European-style democracies)
posted by the cydonian at 2:12 AM on August 19, 2011

You forgot:

Family First = large bottles of Steve Fielding
posted by A Thousand Baited Hooks at 2:45 AM on August 19, 2011 [1 favorite]

To be fair I think that, in most other contexts, people agree with the idea that once you've sold something you give up the right to control what the purchaser does with it (c.f. just about every Apple thread here).

Small difference: Apple products are not yet self-aware.

Anyway, the disturbing thing about these "Australian tea party" protests is not that these people exist here, because they've been around for a long time. It's that the Coalition has become such a wasteland of principle that it is willing to grant these idiots the credibility of having both Abbott and Joyce turn up and speak at their gatherings. As vile as Howard was it's hard to imagine him giving a speech in front of a giant "ditch the witch" sign and there was a time when Abbott used to sound almost convincingly ethical while he was spearheading the attack against One Nation. Now they are conjuring with a demon that they may or may not be able to send back down once it has served its purpose, and we could all be the worse for their stupidity.
posted by A Thousand Baited Hooks at 3:55 AM on August 19, 2011

when small right wing groups do it's some kind of evil anti-democratic proto-fascist plot

Did you miss this part of the article, where the Ozzy Tea Partier talks for a bit about his personal hero and role model?

...Pinochet, against all of the combined pressure of the Western press as well as all of the pressure that Moscow and its satellites could exert, stood resolutely alone against the intellectually discredited and bankrupt ideology of socialism and its agents.

Pinochet. You know. The right-wing military leader who overthrew the democratically elected government of hos own country, and then spent a few years torturing and slaughtering his political opponents wholesale?

If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, quacks like a duck - it's an evil anti-democratic proto-fascist.
posted by Slap*Happy at 4:25 AM on August 19, 2011 [11 favorites]

Right wing groups have learned these lessons and are now employing similar tactics but of course when small left wing groups demonstrate in a way to greatly overstate their real backing that's a heart warming flowering of democracy and when small right wing groups do it's some kind of evil anti-democratic proto-fascist plot.

I guess the Koch brothers aren't that large in absolute numbers, but I don't think "billionaire industrialists" aren't really who we are thinking of when we think of small activist groups.
posted by DU at 5:08 AM on August 19, 2011 [1 favorite]

Small difference: Apple products are not yet self-aware.

Cows are self-aware? Serious question. Seems like there was more outrage at the mistreatment of cattle than at the systematic abuse perpetuated on asylum seekers.
posted by Lovecraft In Brooklyn at 5:13 AM on August 19, 2011

Cows are self-aware? Serious question.

I think for a serious answer you'll need to ask a cow.
posted by A Thousand Baited Hooks at 5:18 AM on August 19, 2011 [4 favorites]

The whole media thing was just playing to the racist "how dare those evil Indonesian Muslims treat our good honest hardworking Aussie cattle that way!" demographic.

Most bizarre thing was listening to parliament the day after the 4 Corners expose, to hear Bob Katter ranting about religious freedom, and how the Muslims in Indonesia shouldn't be subject to oppressive attempts to make them conform to Australian values, and how important it was to make sure all those poor, malnourished Indonesians got to eat their beef! Not saying I've got much of an opinion either way, I'd turn vegetarian tomorrow if I could hire a pack of Hare Krishnas to cook for me, but until then I just love meat too damn much. It was just hilarious to hear Bob Katter demanding religious freedom for Muslims, and asking that we feed the third world...

I have to continue to question your intelligence, however, Brooklyn, if you're willing to stand up for this because an ideological distaste for nature leads you to believe climate change isn't an issue. As for the "Carbon Tax", I'm sure you're going to take up a protest against the local council for collecting your garbage and charging you for it, or for taking away your sewage. Much better to leave it out in the street.
posted by Jimbob at 6:06 AM on August 19, 2011

Also, all those people with "Carbon Dioxide is not a pollutant!" signs would do us all a favour by holding their breath for 10 minutes...
posted by Jimbob at 6:13 AM on August 19, 2011 [1 favorite]

I've got a friend who's trying to start an Australian Tea Party. He's generally a nice guy, but I avoid discussing politics with him.

Oh he's not alone, the place is full of them. There was a guy who started an "Australian Tea Party" group on Facebook a few months back. Had a little manifesto that was a random assortment of historically bogus claims about "Australian Values", along with various unconnected other political demands.

He had a Eureka flag as the image for the group, since he apparently felt the Eureka Stockade was the Australian version of the "Boston Tea Party" (ignoring that it was really just as much about chasing Chinese miners away from the goldfields). When someone pointed out that, you know, the union movement had sort of already claimed that flag, he took it down in a huff.
posted by Jimbob at 6:25 AM on August 19, 2011 [1 favorite]

I have to continue to question your intelligence, however, Brooklyn, if you're willing to stand up for this

That's a truly awesome protest banner (second only to the "LABOUR LOVES FINGERS" one that I'm having trouble finding an online photo of) but as images of Australian political despair go it's not quite as good as this (may fall into certain categories of nsfw).
posted by A Thousand Baited Hooks at 7:05 AM on August 19, 2011

I keep trying to figure out who I ... incapacitate... when I invent my time machine and go back: Reagan? Rand? Hayek? von Mises? The dudes who founded the LPUSA? Damnit, there's just too many?
posted by symbioid at 11:09 AM on August 19, 2011

Symbiod - no need to incapacitate anyone. You need to find Mother Jones, Samuel Gompers, and Ceasar Chavez, and let them know they're needed in the future. Also, unfreeze FDR's head, attach to a Dean Kamen cyborg body, and tell him the Fascists are back and the Business Plot is about to succeed.
posted by Slap*Happy at 11:44 AM on August 19, 2011

I've noticed that joannemullen never writes more than one comment per thread, for obvious reasons
posted by moorooka at 4:53 PM on August 19, 2011 [3 favorites]

Labour (sic) Love Fingers
posted by GeckoDundee at 5:38 PM on August 19, 2011

Can't stop a purchaser from doing what he wants with a product, true—but one needn't sell to him again. This is what sanctions are all about.
posted by five fresh fish at 5:41 PM on August 19, 2011

Great devil Satan John Howard banned guns.

Liberal identity Malcolm Turnbull has more environmental cred than Gillard. Abbot is a bit nutty, but he's never suggested bringing back the death penalty, smashing benefits, or anything like that. And currently the Coalition and the Greens are working against Labor's strict immigration policy (though I do admit that started with the Liberals).

You need to start with an understanding of Australian politics.

Great devil Satan John Howard banned guns. Guns are not a totemic issue in Australia as they are in the US. Howard could ban guns because 90% of the population said either 'good' or 'meh', 7% of the population said 'WAH? - oh that's OK, it's only semi automatic military style weapons, and I don't need that to shoot rabbits and foxes' 3% of the population went batshit insane - briefly.

The term Liberal when it's applied to politicians like Turnbull means just that - they are Liberal in in the true political sense, not so a politician like say Andrews, Minchin, Bishop, Mirabella, or for that matter Abbot, these people have been mistakenly deployed to the wrong political party. They belong with a yet-to-exist conservative party. Turnbull believes in climate change and abatement because he does.

Gillard is yet to actually stand for anything apart from extreme opportunism, and that to be expected. She doesn't have the the luxury of a large majority that will give her two terms to make a difference - and that's the problem we have in Australian politics, short-termism. Three years is a pathetic amount of time. Gillard is forced into kneejerk decisions like Malaysia, Manus Island etc because she doesn't have the time to communicate a real policy. She need to expedite.

Given that the government needs the support of the independents, Gillard was forced to take on the carbon tax, and Abbot sensing a weakness has closed in smelling blood and is sloganeering the government (and us) to death.

Abbot is not a bit nutty, he is a Rhodes Scholar and a very intelligent individual, and it would seem quite an effective opposition leader - He's prone to shooting from the lips, however I suspect he will be a terrible PM - but probably no worse than Gillard, and certainly better that Rudd, who owes the Australian people a refund.

... though I do admit that started with the Liberals Actually it didn't, detention started under Labor.
posted by the noob at 7:55 PM on August 19, 2011

Abbot is not a bit nutty, he is a Rhodes Scholar and a very intelligent individual, and it would seem quite an effective opposition leader

If by "effective" you mean cynical, hypocritical, opportunistic, dishonest, manipulative, as well as bitter and deluded about the election result, which he still hasn't gotten over...

There was a moment, the week before last, when there suddenly seemed to be something different about the news. Something refreshing. Politicians were actually discussing policy, all sides were making progress, there were even some things they were working together on and agreeing on... what the hell was going on? Then it clicked. Abbott was out of the country, on a family holiday...
posted by Jimbob at 8:13 PM on August 19, 2011 [3 favorites]

Just to justify those statments...what is Abbott's vision for the country? What exactly is it? It has never been articulated. Even before the last election it wasn't articulated. It was basically "cut red tape, dribble dribble, radical Green agenda, blah blah blah, small business and working families, yadda yadda yadda". What, is it, he intends to do? What reforms does he want to enact? Why does he think his party deserves to be elected? Is he going to make massive cuts to tax rates? Nope. Is he going to kill the Carbon Tax? Yes, and replace it with something that costs twice as much and doesn't reimburse households, and which has the exact same carbon pollution reduction targets as Labor. Is he going to stop the boats? How, exactly?

Abbott has been the most completely negative, reactionary, cynical opposition leader I have seen in a long, long time - his inability to articulate any kind of policy or plan or reason to be elected is pathetic. At least Turnbull appeared to have some kind of vision and idea that Australia could be made a better place.
posted by Jimbob at 8:19 PM on August 19, 2011 [1 favorite]

If by "effective" you mean cynical, hypocritical, opportunistic, dishonest, manipulative, as well as bitter and deluded about the election result, which he still hasn't gotten over...

He's all of these things. He has not real vision beyond his own stunted world view, but he is an effective attacking opposition leader. Indeed he's probably only effective when attacking.

And yeah, it was nice when he was out of the country, we even had some beautiful spring weather in Melbourne.
posted by the noob at 8:23 PM on August 19, 2011

What, is it, he intends to do? What reforms does he want to enact? Why does he think his party deserves to be elected?

He's having a dream run. He doesn't have to articulate any of these things because Labor keeps stumbling badly. He's having such a dream run in the Murdoch press too. And what he stands for seems to be what Labor doesn't
posted by the noob at 8:29 PM on August 19, 2011

I'll never understand why anyone believes a word that comes out of Turnbull's mouth. He's shown time and time again, throughout all his business and political dealings, that he's one of the most self-interested and self-serving animals ever to walk the stage of public life in Australia.

Turnbull was an effective head of the Australian Republican Movement. But I suppose he had the long term view that he would be our first president.
posted by the noob at 8:35 PM on August 19, 2011

And what he stands for seems to be what Labor doesn't

Which basically sums up the entire history of the Liberal Party of Australia.
posted by Jimbob at 8:41 PM on August 19, 2011

Part of me really wants this parliament to be done with, I feel its as if we're in a holding pattern. Like c'mon Abbot, get your self over with, we know it's going to happen, you're going to be a disaster, c'mon Labor, get your shit together, come back with maybe Combet as leader with a thumping majority and lets get some stuff done. I am so fucking over Swan and his rabbit in the headlights style of communicating. It's such a pity I had high hopes for Julia. Fuck I miss Keating though. Keating would use Abbot as a toothpick.
posted by the noob at 8:55 PM on August 19, 2011

I would start watching Question Time if it was Keating vs Abbott.

Abbott doesn't really have any policies, just a big mouth. He did a much better job as Howard's attack dog than he's doing as leader. And apart from Turnbull, there's not really anyone left in the party to take over.

That New Matilda article linked above is pretty good. I've been feeling lately that a lot of the right-wing commentary is devolving into conspiracy theory territory. Didn't there used to be some right-wing intellectuals in this country? Where are they now?
posted by harriet vane at 3:51 AM on August 20, 2011

harriet vane, good places to check might be: Shangri-La, Brigadoon, Narnia. (I've been reading Facebook politician pages for the past half an hour. Judging by that, one place I'd suggest NOT looking is: Facebook.)
posted by JHarris at 4:27 AM on August 20, 2011 [1 favorite]

Didn't there used to be some right-wing intellectuals in this country? Where are they now?
Keith Windschuttle?
The barrel, it's level is low.
posted by bystander at 4:35 AM on August 20, 2011

Didn't there used to be some right-wing intellectuals in this country? Where are they now?

The Institute of Public Affairs.

ha ha, I couldn't even type that with a straight face
posted by A Thousand Baited Hooks at 5:00 AM on August 20, 2011

Well, that's what's so sad about it all. The right-wing has devolved into reactionary conspiracy-theory territory. Which means they've lost the game. It also means they've won the election. My heart is ideological, and yearns for an internationalist anarcho-collectivist revolution. My head, however, is pluralist, and even though I can't see myself ever voting Liberal, I don't begrudge them a victory here and there, where Labor have become completely corrupt and ineffectual. But when the sum-total of your policy seems to be "The Labor-Greens are nation-destroying watermelons who want to introduce Sharia law while forcing our kids to gay-marry boat people", I find it difficult to remain to conciliatory.
posted by Jimbob at 7:46 AM on August 20, 2011 [1 favorite]

Uh... this I found via Rhaomi's TV Tropes link... and it's worth a look (Chinese language skills not necessary).
posted by evil_esto at 10:19 PM on August 20, 2011

it's worth a look
Definitely. Not what I was expecting, but it has some imagery that won't be leaving me anytime soon.
posted by bystander at 10:44 PM on August 21, 2011