How to Sell a Massacre

March 28, 2019 1:17 AM

An Al Jazeera journalist posed as a gun rights activist travelled to Washington with the Chief of Staff of Australia's ultra-right one nation party. From the Al Jazeera article: Muller, Al Jazeera's undercover reporter who posed as a gun-rights campaigner, introduced One Nation's Chief of Staff, James Ashby, and the leader of its Queensland branch, Steve Dickson, to the NRA, and travelled with the pair to Washington, DC last year.

Ashby and Dickson were hoping to secure up to $20m in political donations from supporters of the US gun lobby.

In meetings at the NRA's Virginia headquarters, officials provided Ashby and Dickson tips to galvanise public support to change Australia's gun laws and coached the pair on how to respond to a mass shooting.

From Annabel Crabb's commentary:
Pauline Hanson's chief of staff James Ashby and Queensland party leader Steve Dickson — a pair who would no sooner give a frank interview to Al Jazeera (or the ABC, for that matter) than they would knowingly get stuck into a halal snack pack — shuffled out Tuesday for an extremely rare joint press conference to explain how it was that they managed, against all odds, to provide these broadcasters with hours and hours of their actual, unfiltered thoughts.

Mr Dickson, in his own defence, offered that Muller seemed like "a reasonable guy" because he "wore the Akubra hat".

Says Mr Ashby, with all the dignity he could muster Tuesday: "I will be the first to admit, we'd arrived in America, we got on the sauce, we'd had a few drinks and that's where those discussions took place, not with any potential donors, no-one but Rodger Muller, Steve Dickson and myself".

Having exhausted the full range of available exculpatory material (Your Honour: He was wearing a hat I recognised. Also, I'd had many Scotches), the One Nation duo reminded viewers that no money was actually forthcoming from the NRA, in the end.

Rebecca Huntley on political donations.

Description of the sting by Peter Charley, of Al Jazeera's Investigative Unit based in Washington, DC.

Response from Pauline Hanson.

The Prime Minister has announced that the Liberals will preference One Nation below the [Opposition] Labor Party at the upcoming federal election.

Peter Greste on the ethics of the investigation.

posted by aussie_powerlifter (58 comments total)

Ah, beaten to the punch!

This is way better than my post anyway.
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 1:36 AM on March 28, 2019 [2 favorites]

It is a marker of the insanity of Australian politics that these ridiculous motherfuckers can be shown to have been caught, on camera, trying to literally sell Australia’s gun laws to enable people to buy guns to kill Muslims, barely a week after the horrors of the hate fueled anti-Muslim massacre next door, and not be run out of town on a fucking rail.
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 1:40 AM on March 28, 2019 [52 favorites]

There just aren't enough eggs in the world to express my disgust for these wankers.
posted by Coaticass at 1:41 AM on March 28, 2019 [21 favorites]

But anyway... thank you Al Jazeera.
posted by Coaticass at 1:42 AM on March 28, 2019 [20 favorites]

Additional context for those not familiar with Pauline Hanson or One Nation: Pauline Hanson's maiden speeches to the Parliament in 1996 and 2016.

(Thanks, His thoughts were red thoughts!)

Edited to add warning that the speeches are truly vile.
posted by aussie_powerlifter at 1:43 AM on March 28, 2019 [7 favorites]

Erosion of Australian gun laws state by state- on Australian TV show The Project (Facebook video) with discussion of the Al Jazeera information.
posted by Coaticass at 1:52 AM on March 28, 2019 [2 favorites]

I am amused that one of their most vocal protestations is that they were set up. Well, yes. That's kind of the point. Are we meant to look away because you wouldn't say those things in public? What are you getting at here?
posted by deadwax at 2:04 AM on March 28, 2019 [25 favorites]

I think One Nation are vile, but calling them “ultra-right” sounds like adjective inflation to me. “Ultra” suggests the most extreme position possible, well outside of anything anyone who's not already a fanatic considers respectable. Australia has these parties, actual neo-Nazi groups like Australia First with uniforms and annihilationist ideologies. One Nation, whilst far right and undeniably racist, are populists, with considerable appeal to those euphemistically referred to as the “white working class” in the US/UK (or, in Australia, something like the “silent majority of fair dinkum true-blue battlers doin' it hard”; insert or remove Australianisms to taste). And they don't officially have legions of blackshirts and haven't openly proposed genocide or Nazi-style total war.
posted by acb at 2:05 AM on March 28, 2019 [1 favorite]

acb, have you watched the AJ pieces? Those two chucklefucks say straight out that they need guns to kill all the Muslims coming in.

They are violent white supremacists. Stupid ones, perhaps. But violent and racist. Their talking points may as well have come from Stormfront. There is no daylight between them and Nazis.
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 2:09 AM on March 28, 2019 [54 favorites]

Steve Dickson is filmed in this saying to gun enthusiasts in America something to the effect of: all these Muslims are breaking into people's houses and killing them with baseball bats.

Baseball bats.

It doesn't even cross his mind to claim that there's violent gun crime due to the Malignant Other because we just don't have that much gun crime here.

Even when he's trying to hyperbolise this non- existent crime wave, there's no guns in the story.

Because of the Australian gun control regime he's trying to destroy.

What a fuckwit of the highest order.
posted by chiquitita at 2:15 AM on March 28, 2019 [37 favorites]

Fuckwit backgrounders:
James Ashby
Steve Dickson
Pauline Hanson
posted by flabdablet at 2:26 AM on March 28, 2019 [2 favorites]

Those two chucklefucks say straight out that they need guns to kill all the Muslims coming in.


But is this official One Nation platform, or just two party members in a private conversation? And if the latter, what are the odds that one could find gentlemen with similar unguarded opinions in, say, the Liberal Party?
posted by acb at 2:27 AM on March 28, 2019

But is this official One Nation platform...?

It’s the leader of the QLD branch and the Chief of Staff to the leader of the party, on official party business, in conversation with a third party organisation from whom they are seeking funding and support. So yes?

And if the latter, what are the odds that one could find gentlemen with similar unguarded opinions in, say, the Liberal Party?

The fact that the Liberal party also contains racists isn’t really relevant to whether One Nation are white supremacists.
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 2:35 AM on March 28, 2019 [40 favorites]

I remember her drom so long ago, in the ?90s? and she was portrayed as kind of a pathetic joke figure. And here we are, what a shit state the Anglosphere is in these days.

The US leads the way but Australia and Canada are pretty good at ugly right wing nuttiness too.
posted by Meatbomb at 2:53 AM on March 28, 2019 [5 favorites]

The US leads the way but Australia and Canada are pretty good at ugly right wing nuttiness too.

The US, UK and Australia are the Axis of Murdocracy.
posted by acb at 3:05 AM on March 28, 2019 [29 favorites]

The US leads the way but Australia and Canada are pretty good at ugly right wing nuttiness too.

Indeed, but this is about Aus's loons heading to the mothership for support.
posted by pompomtom at 3:06 AM on March 28, 2019 [1 favorite]

The 90's iteration did get us this though.
posted by deadwax at 3:07 AM on March 28, 2019 [4 favorites]

And this is the party that Scott Morrison said is not as dangerous as the Greens. #Ican'teven

acb I disagree with your characterisation of One Nation, but I do think you are correct to surmise that the gap between them and a number of Liberals is very small. I feel One Nation typify the worst of Australia - proudly ignorant, racist, gullible - that too many like to pretend is a fringe. Actually it's a huge part of the (White) Australian identity, as depressing/disgusting that is.

Morrison, Abbott and Turnbull ("african gangs") are very happy to stoke these fires, co-opt the stupidity, racism and gullibility when it suits, them and then feign outrage at the inevitable results. I want some old testament punishment for this kind of shit. Banish these motherfuckers, stigmatise anyone who identifies with them (why not? They already think they are the biggest fucking victims going). I want identification with these lobotomised goats to be a source of embarrassment and shame.

Too often it's a source of pride. "I'm entitled to my opinion"; the mating call of the White Bogan Fuckwit.
posted by smoke at 3:08 AM on March 28, 2019 [19 favorites]

Morrison, Abbott and Turnbull ("african gangs") are very happy to stoke these fires, co-opt the stupidity, racism and gullibility when it suits, them and then feign outrage at the inevitable results.

Steve Dixon is shown in the AJ pieces referring to fictional African gangs several times. It’s clear that ScoMo, Dutton et al took that talking point directly from One Nation.
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 3:12 AM on March 28, 2019 [5 favorites]

And this is the party that Scott Morrison said is not as dangerous as the Greens. #Ican'teven

I love* how recently, under much duress, he's come about to "I would preference Labor over PHON". FFS, isn't he meant to be Mr Marketing? He knows that PHON are an adjunct to the LNP, with regard to house votes, and fuck the optics. ALP are only about 90% reliable.

Should be a huge fillip to the Greens' vote, except that "WE ARE AWFUL RACISTS" turns out to be a vote-winner in large parts of Australia.
posted by pompomtom at 3:26 AM on March 28, 2019 [4 favorites]

Surprising nobody, in the second episode Ashby admits to being a sociopath.
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 3:29 AM on March 28, 2019 [1 favorite]

How many people are banned from Parliament?

(legit question)
posted by pompomtom at 3:30 AM on March 28, 2019

You mean as an mp? You have to be convicted of a crime. Slipper is literally the only one I know of in decades, and I majored in pol Sci and am an Aus politics tragic.

But we don't need a federal icac, oh no.
posted by smoke at 3:48 AM on March 28, 2019 [4 favorites]

Nah, I gather Ashby's barred by APH security. I wonder if anyone else has ever held that honour.
posted by pompomtom at 3:56 AM on March 28, 2019

Oh yeah protestors have been banned many times, it's not an especially exclusive club (though for staff I'm sure it is).
posted by smoke at 3:58 AM on March 28, 2019 [2 favorites]

I got in shit once for doing roley-poleys down the top of old parliament. This is not Ashby-solidarity.
posted by pompomtom at 4:00 AM on March 28, 2019 [5 favorites]

I miss those days of frolicking on the hill. The fence is an appalling symbol of parliament's indifference and isolation.

The whole point of the hill was that the people could walk on and over it. .
posted by smoke at 4:19 AM on March 28, 2019 [11 favorites]

Pauline Hanson's just had a press conference where she's declared her party's never sought donations or guidance from the NRMA. I, for one, believe her on this point.

The NRMA is a motoring association and insurance company in NSW.

(Edit to quickly third that they gotta re-open the Hill over Parliament House. It's an important symbol of Australian democracy. Rolling down it is not particularly symbolic but it's still an Australian tradition.)
posted by Merus at 4:31 AM on March 28, 2019 [7 favorites]

I gather Ashby's barred by APH security

For those who came in late: here's why. He beat up a Senator. But there's a twist.
posted by flabdablet at 4:34 AM on March 28, 2019 [2 favorites]

Piece written by Muller, the journalist, about the experience: “I went undercover to expose the US, Australia gun lobby”

At one gathering, an albino python was released onto a lawn and a tiger paced in a cage for the amusement of cocktail-sipping guests.

There, I spoke to Donald Trump Jr, the son of the US president and an outspoken gun rights advocate. Wayne LaPierre, the NRA chief, applauded as my presence was announced by an MC. At another event, I fired shotguns at clay pigeons beside US congressmen, and posed for a photograph with Chris Cox, a chief lobbyist for the NRA.

posted by XMLicious at 6:11 AM on March 28, 2019 [5 favorites]

But is this official One Nation platform, or just two party members in a private conversation?

What are you trying to litigate, exactly? One of the features of this most recent tide of rising Nazis is the gaslighting: publicly be just within the Overton window, privately try to move it as close towards outright genocidal white supremacy. It's how they recruit. It's how they've come this far.

This is what they really believe. This is what they really want. The official One Nation platform is how they gain credibility and power. If you had any doubts about what these people were about -- and honestly, if you did, you have some thinking to do -- you can't anymore. They're nazis. If you support them or accept them, that's what you're supporting or accepting. Nazis.

I'm not super thrilled that your nazis are coming to my country to learn how to more effectively nazi, but I cannot say I am surprised.
posted by schadenfrau at 7:25 AM on March 28, 2019 [43 favorites]

Then, explaining how the NRA manipulated media coverage, Dalseide told One Nation to enlist the services of friendly reporters.

"You have somebody who leans to your side that worked at a newspaper, maybe he was covering city hall or was a crime reporter," Dalseide said.

"We want to print up stories about people who were robbed, had their home invaded, were beaten or whatever it might be and that could have been helped had they had a gun. And that's going to be the angle on your stories. That's what he's got to write. He's got to put out two to five of those a week."

Like, honestly, the article is partly about how these people manipulate public perception. Which they (still) have to do. Because they are nazis.

Also I want to say that this is not just about an Australian party or Australian politics. The Australian connection was used as an attack vector to expose the NRA, which has primarily operated in and thoroughly fucked the politics of the US.

This is incredibly valuable reporting for the US, even if it probably won't get a lot of play because it comes from Al Jazeera.
posted by schadenfrau at 7:35 AM on March 28, 2019 [28 favorites]

Steve Dickson is filmed in this saying to gun enthusiasts in America something to the effect of: all these Muslims are breaking into people's houses and killing them with baseball bats.

The day after the massacre in NZ I heard on the radio that Muslims are understandably afraid to go to their Friday prayers, which sounded shitty to me, so I went to my local mosque and stood outside the front door with this sign.

They could have dragged me inside and beat me to death, but instead I made a bunch of friends, one of whom insisted on buying me lunch.

I'm a white male in America, for the record.

I grew up hunting and enjoy gun sports. I'm fucking done with the NRA and the radical right racists, though. Seriously, fuck those guys. If I have to jump through more hoops to get a gun to go get an elk for food for my family, I'm all for it.

If it makes people feel safe to practice their religion without fear of being murdered? Bring on the gun control. Let it rain down.
posted by allkindsoftime at 9:44 AM on March 28, 2019 [19 favorites]

There’s no doubt these stories will hurt the current Australian Liberal government in the May election - they apparently just can’t quit One Nation and they want their votes - although the odds were already against them.

One Nation’s base may not care. The racism on show will probably only strengthen their passion for Pauline. But guns aren’t actually popular in Australia. It’s unclear whether the One Nation base will be angered by the gun fervour.

The gun fondlers have a specific party - the Shooters and Fishers - they probably hold the loyalty of all the gun tragics and they haven’t been caught begging for foreign actors to fund them under the table.

Further, somewhere in the range of 85% of people support the current or stronger gun laws. Maybe the One Nation voters are the remaining 15%, but the platform has been focused on anti-immigration, ‘patriotism’ and ‘battlers doing it tough’ rather than guns. Even if they are anti-gun, they have forgiven Pauline every misstep (and there have been so many) for 20 years. I can’t see this turning them off, unless they are disgusted by the attempt to sell
Australia’s laws to foreign bidders. Time will tell.
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 2:06 PM on March 28, 2019 [4 favorites]

Can anyone explain why exactly the Akubra hat was taken as a sign of trust? I’ve googled them and they just look like...hats.
posted by corb at 2:42 PM on March 28, 2019

Oh, you’re missing some important cultural context there. You see, Dickson is colossally, unbelievably stupid.

(It’s the stereotypical hat of Australians working outdoors. The cowboy hat that Australians recognize as “theirs.”)
posted by No-sword at 2:51 PM on March 28, 2019 [19 favorites]

Oh, you’re missing some important cultural context there. You see, Dickson is colossally, unbelievably stupid.

Yep, that's pretty much it.
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 2:55 PM on March 28, 2019 [3 favorites]

All this kerfuffle about "preferences" is beyond me.

"One Nation preferences" are the preferences of individual voters.

If they're mad at the LNP specifically because they're putting ON last, what are they going to do - put Labor ahead of the LNP?

The party that more consistently opposed One Nation's role in parliament?

None of this makes any sense to me, but what do I know I'm not in the "Canberra bubble".
posted by chiquitita at 3:44 PM on March 28, 2019

The preferences do act as a signal of whom the party itself sees themselves as being closer to. Being forced to preference Labor ahead of One Nation forces One Nation further out the Overton Window, yes, but it also says the Coalition are too timid to abandon the centre in a time when voters are kind of sick of the major parties.

The Coalition has always been happy to play footsies with One Nation, which is why they moved much further right in the 90s when Hanson first showed up.
posted by Merus at 3:55 PM on March 28, 2019 [1 favorite]

A very large number of voters either do not understand that they are allowed to choose the order of preferences themselves or are not willing to. So the how to vote cards handed out at polling booths with preference order indicated have a bearing on the outcome of some seats - they do in fact make a large difference.
posted by deadwax at 4:29 PM on March 28, 2019 [6 favorites]

> "So the how to vote cards handed out at polling booths with preference order indicated … do in fact make a large difference."

That's been the conventional wisdom for as long as I can remember, sure. I'm not entirely convinced it's true though; or, at least, not really true in the way people think/assume.

As far as I know, one thing the AEC & state ECs analyses repeatedly show is that only a small-ish % of ballots cast are in HTV order. The effect does seem to increase, though, as the number of candidates standing increases (i.e. an electorate with 6 candidates standing will likely have more ballots cast in HTV-card order than one with only 3 candidates).

However, they do seem to have a fair effect on last preferences. Antony Green has suggested that effect can be as high as 20 %-points - that is, if 100 Liberal voters walk in, with 7 intending to put ON last, being handed a Liberal HTV card with ON last can jump that number up to 27.

In short: they don't seem to make much difference to the first few preferences - most people do seem to think & make up their own mind about the general thrust of their votes - but they can make a difference to the last few preferences.
posted by Pinback at 5:09 PM on March 28, 2019 [1 favorite]

Yeah I get that, but when it comes down to the horse race of Lab vs Lib, PHON has to put one before the other. Are they really going to 'punish' the Liberals by putting Labor before them? That makes no fucking sense.
posted by chiquitita at 5:12 PM on March 28, 2019

ON is an odd duck - as many have commented previously, their actual bulk demographic (i.e. not the stereotype) looks a lot like your typical older Labor voter, and yet they seem to consistently pull their votes from the LNP side of politics.

And their preference flows, at least in Queensland (yeah, say what you like, but that's where they've contested the most seats across the longest time) have always been closer to 50:50 Labor:Liberal/LNP than anyone else short of the now-defunct Democrats.

While it might appear on the face of things that preferencing Labor over the LNP would be electoral suicide for ON, the numbers don't really seem to support the conclusion that much.
posted by Pinback at 5:43 PM on March 28, 2019 [2 favorites]

I'm aware of that research and I don't think it's going to affect their primary vote, but in terms of the rhetoric making any sense of the universe preferencing party A below party B for preferencing you almost last on ballots when party B has said they would definitely preference you last is stupid. Of course, of course, I know who we're talking about. All this back and force about preferences really seems more about internecine abstract political warfare and not something that is actually going to make a jot of difference.

The issue is low LNP primary vote because if they lose primary votes to PHON the thought is that lots of those preferences then drift to Labor.

But if someone's primary vote was at risk of drifting LNP -> PHON and this was the issue that nailed it, why are they then going to be preferencing 1. PHON 2. LAB 3. LNP given that Labor has come out even more strongly against One Nation?
posted by chiquitita at 5:50 PM on March 28, 2019

> "But if someone's primary vote was at risk of drifting LNP -> PHON and this was the issue that nailed it, why are they then going to be preferencing 1. PHON 2. LAB 3. LNP given that Labor has come out even more strongly against One Nation?"

They're probably not. But previous results seem to suggest that any ON losses will likely split both ways regardless - because "preference deals" (really, HTV cards) have little effect on voters intentions in their top 3 or 4 preferences, and ON preferences tend to split very evenly anyway.

It's rhetoric, you're right. If ON are smart they'll realise that, historically, they've never been the Kingmakers they thought they were, and will stop playing to that and start playing to their actual base - disaffected voters from both sides. But that's a big "if"…

(The one counter-example to what I've said above and earlier was the 2017 Qld election. Like I said, ON preferences have typically split nearly 50:50 - I think the worst has been 44:56 Labor:LNP. In 2017, the split was 32:68 to the LNP. But the kicker there was their statewide policy was to preference *against* the incumbent, regardless of party. And even then, when the incumbent was the LNP and ON directed preferences to Labor, 58% of their voters ignored them - and Labor won anyway…)
posted by Pinback at 6:33 PM on March 28, 2019 [1 favorite]

As the newbie living in Australia, how is the win of the Liberals in NSW state elections affect anything?
posted by jadepearl at 9:18 PM on March 28, 2019

People radically overstate the implications of state elections on federal politics - if anything people tend to favour having the opposite number in power federally (though there appears to be a lag with it).

Broadly speaking no effect from the state election (though I'm sure the droogs in the coalition are desperately telling themselves otherwise); it may even hurt Morrison slightly.

This is especially the case for this particular upcoming election, where the majority of marginal seats in play are located in Qld and WA.

Morrison is in a bit of a pickle with One Nation, as condemning them and denying preferences may hurt him in central and northern qld (they desperately need to retain these seats, Hinkler, Capricornia, etc), but cosying up to One Nation really hurts them in metropolitan seats around Brisbane where a number of MPs are already living dangerously (eg Dutton who is in great strife).

This is all caveated by pinback's astute observation that One Nation voters historically tend to ignore HTVs, especially compared to labor and coalition voters - so from a vote perspective it's a storm in a teacup, really.
posted by smoke at 9:29 PM on March 28, 2019 [4 favorites]

Can anyone explain why exactly the Akubra hat was taken as a sign of trust?

"Do you mind if we call you Bruce, just to keep it clear?" - Monty Python, Australian Philosopher's Sketch

Stewart Lee said it about the UK Tories, but it is true with the right wing all across the Anglosphere - they have become self-satirizing organisations. Dream up whatever bizarre shit you can, in jest, wait 6 months, and it will be an actual policy position.
posted by Meatbomb at 10:03 PM on March 28, 2019 [1 favorite]

If ON are smart they'll realise...

Posits facts not in evidence.
posted by flabdablet at 10:42 PM on March 28, 2019 [3 favorites]

As the newbie living in Australia, how is the win of the Liberals in NSW state elections affect anything?

It doesn’t. Not at the federal level.
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 12:41 AM on March 29, 2019

It does take a bit of the wind out of the sails of the NSW Labor Right, and along with the Coalition's recent drubbing in the Victorian State elections it tilts the influence structures inside the Labor Party a little in favour of the generally more progressive Victorians.
posted by flabdablet at 1:55 AM on March 29, 2019 [1 favorite]

(eg Dutton who is in great strife).

The GetUp campaign to oust Dutton seems to have backfired, with conservative donors digging deep to cancel out its fundraising. So chances are he'll get back in.
posted by acb at 2:52 AM on March 29, 2019

But Dutton is like a budget Lex Luthor without the suave or success! Everything I read about him makes him awful and this is from the same Australian press that avoided reporting on Barnaby Joyce's love child and adultery after his own daughter was driving around with a bullhorn trying to shame him. I assume with the chumminess of the press that what is reported on Dutton and the true extent of the crazy is low.
posted by jadepearl at 2:59 AM on March 29, 2019

For anyone else who had trouble tracking down both parts of the documentary: Part 1, Part 2 (Maybe my ad blocker interferes with just the second one for some reason, or I was looking for it before it'd been released? I had to go digging through the AJ Youtube playlists.)
posted by XMLicious at 3:29 AM on March 29, 2019

Australian here, live rural. Have relatives who are into guns, in fact I'm a licensed gun owner myself, due to the hobbies of my spouse. We are big into gun safety- it's for hunting, the guns are in a safe, they are not for pointing at people. I mention this because while my politics are decidedly social-justice, environmental and leftward, the politics of my family and social group is not that.

Shooters & Fishers (& Farmers) party worries me a lot, in that they are ostensibly about innocuous hobbies, and yet have been preferencing One Nation. I get the feeling that my most gun loving farming relative is getting sucked further and further right because of the internet. (an example: Target is on the banned list because of their support for the Alana and Madeline foundation, so named for two of the victims of the Port Arthur massacre. He thinks it's a big con.) When Pauline said she had questions about Port Arthur, I thought to myself that I have been hearing this for years.

Other relatives (one a former shop steward) have started posting One Nation stuff. Andrew Bolt, too. (eww!) Lots are disappointed by the Liberals, but they won't vote Labour, is my take.

Haven't seen as much Rise Up Australia stuff, which is interesting. (Rise Up Australia is a far-right Christian party, anti-islam.)

A tangent, but relating to the facebook feed- I've started seeing Breitbart in my feed- posts about the Nigerian Christians. I feel like Breitbart is tapping into a cultural Christianity thing here, and it's deeply disturbing to see a name so familiar to me from metafilter politics threads popping up in my feed.
posted by freethefeet at 4:29 AM on March 29, 2019 [4 favorites]

> "Haven't seen as much Rise Up Australia stuff, which is interesting."

They have been on the outer recently, haven't they? They suffered a hit when the ex-Howard Government MPs who were supporting them - like Costello - left politics, then suffered some more when Catch The Fire / Reformation Harvest Fire Ministries had their charitable status as a church pulled, then lost even more when Morrison came along and brought his own favourite evangelical cult with him.

Of course, Pastor Danny standing up & speaking alongside Reclaim Australia & United Patriots Front leaders at their neo-Nazi rallies kinda made it hard for them to continue the charade too…

> "A tangent, but relating to the facebook feed- I've started seeing Breitbart in my feed- posts about the Nigerian Christians."

The local uptighty-Righties have been leaning hard on that whole situation as a "yeah, but what about the …" distraction since Christchurch. I didn't think it had been getting traction, but … I guess automated social media's 'impartial' algorithms know better…

(Without getting into gory details, 'Durban' is another one the sadfucks have started trying out in the last couple of days. As far as I can see at the moment, that story as it's being spread now is an almost entirely fictitious mish-mash cobbled together from multiple true but unrelated stories, pics, and videos from the last 5 years, presented as happening "yesterday". Keep an eye out for it in the next week or two.)
posted by Pinback at 6:14 AM on March 29, 2019 [1 favorite]

It says a lot about our country that the dominating discourse around our upcoming federal election is who to put last on the ballot.
posted by honey-barbara at 7:34 PM on March 29, 2019 [5 favorites]

We literally make tired old jokes about being able to tell the Young Libs, even in as urban a place as Sydney, by their Akubra and RM Williams boots, and being able to go undercover with those and a polo.

They make tired old jokes about our Doc Martens, which seems odd because most of us couldn't afford them and either wear steel-caps or regular work boots if we wear boots.
posted by AnhydrousLove at 11:24 PM on March 30, 2019