A few days ago I thought of tweeting: “Today on ANZAC Day we celebrate the turning back of boats from people trying to enter a country illegally”, but then I thought of Yassmin, and I decided that it might trigger a meltdown from all those who accuse left-wingers of being snowflakes every time they object to something someone says… Like Yassmin, my point was not about disrespecting the ANZACs who apparently went over to Turkey to defend our way of life and ensure freedom of speech, so that people are free to say whatever’s on their mind unless it’s the sort of thing that would offend John Howard, in which case they need to leave the country.
After the reaction to Victoria’s Deputy Health Officer’s tweet about Captain Cook, it seems that I was right to keep the tweet to myself. Apparently, it’s not all right to suggest that the arrival of white people had a similar effect as the introduction of COVID-19 because, well, it’s just… um, political? And as a public servant, you’re not allowed be political, even in your private time. According to Tim Smith, the Victorian Opposition MP whose role is to make his colleagues look relatively intelligent, this tweet was the “biggest issue of the day”. Mm, I would have thought that something else might have actually been more significant for most people, but hey, I’m not across what makes something an issue apart from the fact that people like him insist that it’s a much bigger issue than, for example, people getting off a cruise ship and spreading disease this century.
Which makes me wonder what’s happening with the religious freedom bill. Will it be all right for public servants to tweet their religious views? And when do religious views become political views? Would it have been all right for the DHO to have said that Jimmy Cook was burning in Hell because of his attempts to observe the transit of Venus?
Whatever, it does seem strange that the free speech brigade are some of the first to demand the punishment of those who say something that offends them. Of course the calls for the head of the naughty person who’s said something that’s offensive only has the effect of spreading the reach of the comment. This applies whether the said person is left-wing, right-wing or just too stupid to understand that what they’re saying is not defensible by anyone. If Uncle Fred makes a fool of himself at Christmas lunch, Alan Jones doesn’t demand that he be banned from all future festivities and nobody outside the family ever has to get annoyed with Uncle Fred’s lack of empathy, education and understanding.
Who’d have heard of Annaliese van Diemen if it weren’t for the outrage?
Well, obviously a few people because she does have a fairly important job at the moment… Which sort of makes me wonder why you’d be distracting her by calling for her resignation unless you thought that she was doing something that put the health of people at risk.
sigh<
In other breaking news, I understand that it’s been discovered that Eden-Monaro has a severe shortage of female change rooms and that Bridget McKenzie will be given the sort of special envoy status that enabled Barnaby to write such a detailed report on the drought. Apparently, Barnaby sent Morrison several texts which alerted the PM to the fact that the drought was worst in the areas that had the least rain, but that the drought wasn’t severe enough for there to be an actual pub with no beer.
Senator Jim Molan is thinking of standing as a candidate. A lot of people are asking why he’d resign from the Senate to risk an unlikely electoral victory, but he thinks that he should be able to win because Labor are likely to endorse a woman. In fact, that’s one of the reasons that Molan wants to join the House of Representatives. He has his eyes set on the Prime Minister’s job, because it’s well-known that all you need to become leader of the Liberals is a ruthlessness and a totally unrealistic opinion of your own abilities which Molan has in spades.
Finally, I’d like to thank all those in the media who work so tirelessly rewriting the federal government’s press releases as news stories because without them, we’d never know what the government wants us to think.
Cheers. It’s Friday.
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