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Pauline says she is defending Australian values yet she offends pretty much every value I hold

It would be ridiculous to draw any sort of equivalence between Pauline Hanson and ISIS but there are some similarities.

ISIS followers brandish a particular black and white flag. Pauline’s followers drape themselves in the Australian flag.

ISIS wants to ban other religions. Pauline wants to ban Islam.

ISIS wants to dictate what women can wear. Pauline wants to dictate what they can’t wear.

ISIS uses social media to get their message out and to attract followers. So does Pauline.

ISIS refer derisively to “moderns.” Pauline mocks the “inner city intellectual elites”.

ISIS want their own state with strongly defended borders. Pauline wants the same thing, stopping immigration entirely.

ISIS have a caliph. Pauline has made it very clear she is the supreme leader of her party and has aspirations for greater power.

ISIS decry the western media. So does Pauline.

ISIS appeals to violent extremists who think their way of life is best and want to impose it on others. So does Pauline’s One Nation.

ISIS cannot accept the changes in the modern world and retreat to fundamentalism. Likewise Pauline.

Pauline definitely doesn’t encourage her followers to go around killing people but her special brand of ignorant intolerance mixed with the certainty of a fool comes with its own dangers.

She emboldens the racists, the bigots, those who are fearful of difference and those who cannot adjust to a changing world. She fuels their fears and gives them targets for their anger.

She passes on completely wrong information, as in her advice about vaccination, and then brushes it off saying “someone told me”. She is not interested, nor capable it seems, of being informed about anything by independent experts yet is putty in the hands of unscrupulous lobbyists and the weirdos she surrounds herself with. She is possibly the only person who could trust Malcolm Roberts about climate change, Brian Burston about the ABC, and James Ashby about strategy.

Pauline’s hysterical Islamophobia threatens our national security by attacking and alienating the very people who are keeping us safe – the Australian Muslim community. It is their children who are being seduced, radicalised and killed. It is their homelands that are being torn apart, their relatives oppressed, displaced or killed. It is their religion which is being blasphemed, their reputations questioned. They are working with our security and law enforcement agencies to keep us safe and to purge their ranks of this poison which has changed their lives far more than it has ours.

Pauline says she is defending Australian values yet she offends pretty much every value I hold.

37 comments

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  1. paul walter

    Wouldn’t know an “Australian value” from a bar of soap.

  2. kristapet

    Thank you Kaye Lee
    I am offended by Pauline Hanson as well, your list of how she offends would match mine.
    I am offended how she incites bigotry, predjudice, hatred against Muslims and their faith
    I am offended that she has a seat in Parliament, using her quota of votes, making changes which effect the average Australian, pensioners, aged, youth, welfare systems, education and health, workplace conditions, migration, asylum seekers, immigration, and the environment
    I dislike her attack on the ABC.
    More than anything, I dislike that Pauline Hanson is often party to, is, this, prevalent new form of running a country, through deal making, equivalent to a ‘promissory deal note’
    This procedure of deal making which, now, passes as governance, and has become a regular habit, and now we have backroom deals galore.
    No costing, no checking the consequences, no consultation, no evidence, no research, no taking heed of experts in the field, but important decisions with far reaching effects based, mostly, on a bunch of whims, and IPA tick boxes
    I dislike these backroom deals with minority parties and Independents with the LNP, to lever the passing of reprehensible Bills.
    I dislike that, Pauline appears to be a Liberal wolf in sheep’s clothing, and has the power to help pass calamitous changes such as the withdrawal of Penalty rates for week-end workers.
    Backroom deals should be disallowed, each issue or motion should be argued as a single entity and not blended or pitted against another Bill, motion, law.
    I also think all members should be sitting, when Bills, Motions, Laws are being heard and debated.
    Enough of speeches, rebuttal arguments in front of empty Parliament seats
    I agree, and feel affected, in the same way, by Pauline Hanson, when you say, “Pauline says she is defending Australian values yet she offends pretty much every value I hold.”
    I nod in agreement, with this, and the similarities she has with ISIS

  3. Harquebus

    Zero immigration and the reduction of religious influence are two things that I am in favor of.
    Pauline is not doing my cause any good.

  4. Matters Not

    Yep there’s Pauline, ISIS, and Harquebus. And believe it or not – they all share a common epistemological position.

    They all claim to KNOW – in some absolute way re the problems the world faces, (and this is most important bit), how their (personally) created (doom and gloom) construction of reality can be remedied.

    What upsets (and amuses) me is the absolute arrogance of them all.

  5. paul walter

    Bit hard on the Harque, MN. Better he/she comes here and tests their own and others views.

    I wouldn’t agree as to zero immigration, but would this writer’s reputation improve if unemployment rose higher and the Tories used the labor market to bust unions, something they’ve tried in the past?

    Nor is getting irrational social conservative religious influence out of politics necessarily a bad idea.

  6. Matters Not

    comes here and tests their own and others views.

    Testing the views of others suggests and entertains the possibility of personal doubt? I’ve not seen any evidence of that.

    My view is along the lines that while doubt is not a pleasant state of mind – certainty is a ridiculous one .

    Hence … So many ridiculous assertions.

  7. stephengb2014

    Time we had a reallistic and scientifically reasoned look look at the true population that Australia could support

    S G B

  8. paul walter

    “Personal doubt”

    . Well, heaven forbid anything that a poster says to another poster coming from an unanticipated trajectory would do that.

    It would be inconvenient to then have to google the Wiki or some other source, but there you go, that is the way of honest debate.

    Worse still, a person is found to be wrong on something? Well, I know from personal experience that is disconcerting, but better in the long run than holding on to a cherished but false illusion that gets me made a laughing stock later.

    I am surprised at you for that comment, MN.

  9. Glenn Barry

    Pauline is a classis case of the Dunning Kruger effect, emotionally retarded and of well below average IQ – she is a case study of pathological mental and emotional issues.

    Her campaign against Muslim religion belies their common Abrahamic ancestry, she is that poorly informed

  10. paul walter

    Yes, Glenn. She is a wanker.

  11. Miriam English

    It amazes and appalls me that someone so stupid and so uninformed can end up being one of society’s decision-makers.

    Labor had better pull their collective fingers out or distrust of them could give us USA’s problem. Pauline Hanson could end up with sufficient power that she gets backed by cynical conservatives and so ends up running the country. All we need is:
    – massive discontent and distrust of the LNP (already a given)
    – distrust of Labor (while not as crooked as the LNP, distrust could be inflated by mass media and Russian meddling)
    – conservatives thinking they could manipulate Pauline Hanson while using her to hold onto power.

    Watch for her cashing in on disaffection for politicians. Like Trump, she’ll promise to drain the swamp. Of course, like Trump, she’ll end up doing it, by draining it into the government.

  12. paul walter

    Yes, this is a sound warning from Miriam English.

    You’d hope even a people as apathetic as Australians would watch politics like hawks from this time on. People are well fed up with neo lib junk passed off as policy.

  13. Terry2

    The truly disturbing thing about Hanson and her cronies is that the government are pandering to her and begging for her Senate support with Michaelia Cash doing a permanent job grooming Pauline and feeding her ego.

    We are now seeing the potential of the ABC and SBS being damaged by our government merely to secure the One Nation vote in the area of media regulation reform which it seems is just an exercise in pandering to the Murdoch media empire.

  14. Johno

    Fear plus power… a heady mix for Pauline to deal with. Oh yeah, well done All Blacks.

  15. Jagger

    Not a good way to put out a fire, keep giving it more oxygen.

  16. Kaye Lee

    Jagger,

    That is always a hard call when it comes to Hanson but Lenore Taylor summed up the debate well I thought…

    ” the US has learned the hard way what happens when a populist conspiracy theorist with no regard for truth or respect for institutions is first regarded as an entertaining sideshow and then as a force to be appeased. There may be no politically convenient or cost-free way to call out racism or intolerance, but if you don’t do it sooner you may have to do it later when the consequences are far greater.”

    https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/aug/19/dealing-with-pauline-hanson-requires-facts-thats-why-george-brandis-got-it-right

  17. Anomander

    Pauline doesn’t care. For her it’s all about getting her head on the TV and her photo splashed on the front page of every newspaper. People may be calling her an idiot, they may say what she did was a stunt, but people ARE talking about her, through the media and on social media, relentlessly.

    Brandis may have chastised her, but in the eyes of herself and her supporters, that only reaffirms their self-belief and emboldens them to speak-out even more, falsely believing they are a ‘silent majority’.

    Publicising and talking about Pauline is like throwing more fuel on the fire. And just like any fire, the only way to snuff her out is to deprive her of the oxygen she so desperately craves – attention.

  18. Jagger

    Kaye, how can you compare Hanson to Trump? Trump won because the Democrats refused to listen to their supporters who preferred Sanders. By giving Hanson oxygen to spread hate and division, you are playing into her hands.

  19. Michael Taylor

    I’d hardly say that Kaye is plating into Hanson’s hands. That’s a bit of a stretch.

  20. helvityni

    The Post of the Week:

    billshaw2013
    August 20, 2017 at 10:53 am
    Pauline who?

    🙂 🙂

  21. Jagger

    Well Michael, sorry to hear not many people are reading the AIM network, I quite enjoy it.

  22. Kaye Lee

    I do understand that point of view Jagger but it isn’t just Hanson. Racism and bigotry should have no place in this country and they should not be accepted wherever they appear. As someone said, Pauline is entitled to a view as a citizen. As a Senator she has a higher obligation for circumspect behaviour.

    If Pauline was alone in the Senate, she could easily be ignored. Having four Senators under her control, it makes it tempting for the government to horse trade with her. They should refuse to do that. By all means, pitch your case to her, but giving her the impression that you might accede to unrelated issues in some sort of deal in return for support confers a legitimacy that she does not deserve. They should deal her out of the game and negotiate with the other crossbenchers or Labor. The crazier Pauline gets, the more the government might realise that dealing with the devil has broader consequences.

    I compare Hanson and Trump because of their followers. They appeal to the same sort of people.

  23. Jagger

    Kaye, my point is we all know what Pauline stands for by now, we’ve seen her for years, Aboriginals, Asians now Muslims, hate and division is her only agenda while feathering her own nest. The people she attracts aren’t the deepest thinkers, they believe she is being criticised unfairly, belittled( even though she does it to herself) but that she is standing up for them.
    I agree with all you’ve said but I don’t think giving her oxygen is the best way to handle her, but that is just my opinion.

  24. paul walter

    Terry 2 often “gets” it. The unhealthy relationship between borderline Cash and the unconscious and feeble witted prey to emotion that is Hanson, that’s a shrewd observation.

    Interesting, others have observed the symbiosis involving Trump and Hanson. I thought that one out last night also. I wonder how much serious news is being buried beneath this pantomime in the meantime?

  25. Kaye Lee

    Opinions are welcome and yours is certainly valid Jagger. Knowing Tony Abbott from uni days I felt the same way about him – ignore him and he will just go away. Imagine my dismay…..

    One difference in the conversation regarding Hanson’s stunt is that more people are stressing the important role played by the Australian Muslim community in keeping us safe. It makes a pleasant change from the continued attacks they have endured from the Murdoch press and those tv crews who apparently now accompany the AFP on top secret dawn raids.

  26. diannaart

    The trouble with fundamentalists is telling them apart from one another…

  27. Miriam English

    Jagger, people in USA thought Trump could be ignored and he would go away, but he has a talent for pulling stunts that refocus attention on him. He needed to be disowned by everybody and called out when he lied and made racist and sexist comments. We ignore Pauline Hanson at our peril. She pulls the same kind of stupid publicity stunts that Trump does. She needs to be called out for every hateful, stupid thing she says. Every lie should be countered so she has no room to move. Kaye is doing exactly the right thing.

    We need more famous people to do to Hanson exactly what Arnold Schwartzenegger did to Trump.

    Arnold Schwarzenegger message for President Trump and Neo- Nazis on Charlottesville violence
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FN_YIBr0ELM
    This is superbly worded. Arnold says it brilliantly. I especially like the part where he says, “You are so lucky to live in a country that gives you every right to say horrible things, but think about how you could actually use that power for something good.”

    He also calls out those who are silent, because the “only way we can eliminate hatred is to face it head on… stereotypes about racism, religion, gender, or anything else, they’re like cancer. If you had a tumor, you wouldn’t quietly hope that it slowly disappears.”

  28. diannaart

    Miriam

    I do believe there exist Americans who are great fans of both Trump and Arnie – right now they must be very confused – I mean, they might actually think about Arnie’s well chosen words, but probably not.

    Picturing said Americans, sort of wandering aimlessly, bumping into one another, with bits of grey matter leaking out of their ears… all a bit sad.

  29. Miriam English

    🙂 diannaart, yes, I imagine there are a few who have just had their world torn apart. heheheh

    I’ve just been finding out more about Arnie, and he hasn’t been sitting back, resting on his laurels since becoming ex-governor of California. He’s been visiting France telling people not to give up on USA; that the people of USA are still onboard with the Paris agreement, even though Trump has pulled out.

    In USA he’s been working hard to get rid of district gerrymandering — he’d got rid of it in California already when he was governor. His logic is beautiful. He points out that gerrymandering prevents politicians from working for the people. Instead they work for the party. The politicians, through gerrymandering have rigged the system so the politicians pick the voters instead of the voters picking the politicians. The only way to get the politicians to pay attention to what the people want is to reintroduce competition.

    Another thing he points out is that we should be looking after the environment, regardless of whether you’re right-wing or left-wing. We need politicians working together on important things instead of voting against them just because of ideology. Pollution kills people. That can’t be argued with the way some might argue against climate change, so we should be taking steps to fix climate change no matter what anyone believes.

    A lot of what Arnie talks about makes good sense. He is a much smarter person than I’d given him credit for.

  30. diannaart

    Miriam

    Way back when I heard Arnie was a Republican, I thought “typical”. Now I wonder why he wasn’t a Democrat, although looking at Hilary it is difficult to see the difference between Democrats and Republicans… not very forgiving upon the method of ousting Bernie Sanders…

    Anyhoo…

    All we need do is convince people that caring for the environment is not a leftie/greenie thing but just common sense.

  31. Bec Brown

    stephengb2014 That discussion depends largely on how we actually live, which is critical to measuring our environmental impact. If we have 24million living excessively wasteful lifestyles, involving lots of fossil fuels and throwaway consumables, then it is obviously devastating. Increasing that number would simply exacerbate the problems. If there are 100million living a low impact, locally sustainable lifestyle with renewable energy, then that is a completely different discussion, with a whole new trajectory for environmental impact. Saying that impact is a numbers game alone is not addressing the issue honestly, especially when Australians have the highest per capita carbon emissions on the planet.

    If we want the global population to reduce, then we also need to start sharing the wealth we have hoarded in the West, which will create a higher standard of living, better education and healthcare etc, which will push population growth downwards.

  32. havanaliedown

    If Arnie was merely a little bit smarter, Miriam – he wouldn’t have impregnated the maid.

  33. Miriam English

    Bec Brown, very, very well put.

    We Australians are the most wasteful people on Earth — the most wasteful people to have ever lived. We need to do much, much better.

    It’s time we put our tremendous good fortune to fixing the world instead of making it worse.

    The pack of slavering morons currently in government need to be swapped for some that can actually use their brains, and we Australians need to stop being so greedy, petty, and hateful. We need to treat better our poor, our first nations people, our gays, and the refugees who come to us for help. And we need to realise that crying poor is not a good look for some of the richest people in the world. We need to ramp up our foreign aid and genuinely help those worse off than we are.

  34. Kaye Lee

    Ir is a sad fact that there are people who are completely out of their depth in our parliament making decisions about our lives. The stewardship of the planet is in the hands of people who think money is the most important factor. They know the cost of everything and the value of nothing and long term planning means getting through next week.

    I nearly feel sorry for Pauline. She is trying to do a very important job and she doesn’t have a clue what she is doing beyond trying to rake in as much money as she can. No wonder she is always so defensive, so fearful, pretending to be so certain all the time. She thinks admitting she is unsure about something will make people ridicule her when the truth is actually the other way around. If she would shut up for a second and listen she might learn something. But Pauline is too insecure for that.

  35. diannaart

    Kaye Lee

    Agree. Hanson and many others – in over their heads, yet not self-reflective enough to realise.

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