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The more you tell me to shut up, the louder I am going to get

So this is what we have sunk to – a Prime Minister who wants us all to be quiet and, if we don’t, he’ll make us.

He doesn’t want us to talk about his government’s woeful record on greenhouse gas emissions.  He doesn’t want us to talk about reefs dying and rivers drying up and mass extinctions.  He doesn’t want us to choose ethical investments in sustainable industries.

He wants to bully insurance companies into insuring unviable projects and he wants banks to lend money to uncommercial ventures.  He wants to make our superannuation funds invest in what will inevitably become stranded assets.

The idea that one would get their investment advice from the likes of mummy’s boy Matt Canavan is hilarious.

But when our PM directly threatens us with retaliation if we speak out, it stops being funny.

Morrison vowed to outlaw the “indulgent and selfish” practices of environmental groups who campaign against Australian businesses that work with companies and industries they are opposed to, such as coal.

Oh yeah?  How?  You can’t tell us what to invest in or buy.  You can’t stop us from sharing information about the business practices of different companies.  You can’t stop companies from legitimately pursuing ethical and sustainable practice as a commercial advantage.

It is not “radical activism” to be concerned about our deteriorating environment.  We are fighting for our survival.

You are not the Messiah, Scott.  You are just a very inadequate ad man who elbowed his way to the front over the fallen bodies of your colleagues in the roller derby of Australian politics.

And if you think you can shut us up, you are sadly mistaken.

“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”

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37 comments

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  1. isw

    Well said KL

  2. Keitha Granville

    Yep, what she said.

    get out there, get loud

  3. Suziekue

    Yes, well said, but I think it’s all a Morrison distraction from the Aged Care debacle.

  4. Ross W Cornwill

    Suziekue right on the money. Look over here.

  5. Wobbley

    Every thing is a distraction with this fascist regime. Everything that is except the people’s right to express their concerns about where we’re headed as a country, your right to truthful information about the state of the country, and your right to go about your life and peacefully protest without the threat of judicial action and incarceration and that your livelihood is threatened. Yes, it is time to be A BLOODY LOUD AUSTRALIAN, and that means to me to do and say and protest everything that is anathema to this vile corrupted shit of a government we unfortunately have at the moment. The more people protest the more they must take notice, what are they gunna do jail a million protesters using Sluttons SS or is that what Christmas Island is for, locking up Australians in this facility?

  6. John Lord

    “In terms of social activism. The word wait should never mean
    never”

  7. David Bruce

    They can and they will censor the media in all forms. Expect to see a ministry of propaganda and snitches reporting all offenses, for a fee!

    The question is how do we deal with this? ScuMo and his Scumbags are getting their orders from outside Australia. (IMF, BIS, etc). We may not have much more time… China is not helping!

  8. Kaye Lee

    What Scott “unfunded empathy” Morrison fails to realise is that often people are quiet because they are traumatised.

    Victims of sexual abuse don’t tell anyone. Victims of domestic violence don’t tell anyone. Victims of bullying don’t tell anyone. People suffering mental health issues or who are struggling with an addiction don’t tell anyone. People who cannot feed their children don’t tell anyone.

    My 97 year old mother just died in the nursing home she had lived in for the past ten years. I have been unable to watch hearings in the aged care RC and unable to read any articles about it. I cannot yet speak about what she endured. I cannot yet speak about how hard I fought to try to improve the system. I too am traumatised. I have to heal a bit first to get strong enough to speak about this but I feel I must regardless of the cost of reliving the nightmare.

    This government does not have a clue about priorities. When a surplus is a goal in itself, their superficial self-absorption is writ large. It’s all about the optics for the Morrison advertising agency.

  9. New England Cocky

    “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”

    So, be loud and proud and keeping telling your truth about how poorly this Scummo Liarbral Nat$ misgovernment is failing to represent the best interests of Australian voters to the benefit of foreign owned multinational mining & other corporations.

  10. Baby Jewels

    Me too Kaye. What have we got to lose? There’s not a lot left to lose.

  11. John O"Callaghan

    All over the world the people are rising up against their Govt demanding decent wages,proper health care and enviromental solutions, an end to corruption which is rife and decent and well funded schools and infrastructure.
    There is a time for everything and now it is the time to FIGHT…………. A squeaky wheel gets the most attention every time……………..

  12. Miriam English

    Yes! Well said, Kaye.

    I think Morrison is going to get a surprise at the pushback he will cop from this. One thing Australians don’t like is to be told to shut up.

  13. pierre wilkinson

    it is almost as if he wishes to incite a groundswell rebellion against his authoritarian regime before herr dutton takes over completely

  14. leefe

    David Bruce:

    The only media they want to censor is non-MSM. Because Newscorpse (who pay no tax) and their allies are simply the Coalition’s propaganda arm.

  15. Kaye Lee

    I think we should all send our photos to Peter Dutton in the mail so we save money on his facial recognition surveillance. Here I am Spud, come have a chat.

  16. Zathras

    Wasn’t it Morrison who advised consumers to vote against troublesome banks and energy companies with their custom and switch?
    That sure seems like a form of commercial protest and activism against corporations to me.

    Didn’t he also interfere in the private health insurance industry by forcing them to reclassify and standardise their available types of coverage?

    As for the undeserving masses on the street I suppose he’s remembering those former protests that helped end a war, stopped a dam being built, won civil rights for black people overseas and gave women the right to vote – all bad ideas to an ultra-conservative.

    Behind the contrived populist media facade he’s finally displaying his true colours and the motivation behind his party.

  17. New England Cocky

    @Kaye Lee; Nah, ASIO already have my pic from the Vietnam War days and recently for allegedly telling the truth about a local nat$ politician put into Parliament by a vote of 13 financial members of the NSW nat$ ….. and Barnyard Joke.

  18. Cool Pete

    I remember watching Ian Chappell on Enough Rope one night, and he talked of how he yelled at the television during the Tampa Incident and his wife said, “Bad things happen when good people do nothing.” During the last election, I tried to explain to some of the idiots who came onto Ali France’s page, supporting the evil Potty Rotten, the acts that he’d been involved in. One person, who had the intellect of an ant’s fart, who was also a friend of Kiss the Potty, could only come back with, Get Up! I presume. Well, whether or not I’m a supporter of Get Up! is beside the point, you only need to have watched the news to see that Potty Rotten attempted to joke about rising sea levels (Botty found that amusing), referred to a female journalist as an effing mad witch, told a pack of lies about asylum seekers, and numerous other evil acts. That person found their way to my block list but not before Kiss The Potty did.

  19. Miriam English

    “Kiss the Potty”? “Potty Rotten”? I really, really wish people would resist distorting people’s names into insults. It turns what could be a sensible comment into gibberish. Whoever is being discussed here is not hurt by having their name turned into scatological humor. Why bother doing it?

    I know there is some fault in us all that delivers some kind of grim satisfaction in insulting someone we dislike, but if it conveys nothing to those those listening, it wastes your breath.

    The reader had to perform a kind of guessing game: almost all the right-wing politicians have told lies about refugees. Which one also called a female reporter a witch? My first thought was Abbott (he also has double “t” in his name so it might be code for him) but I think he called Julia Gillard a witch. Was it Dutton? (He has double “t” too.) He stupidly joked about sea level rise… but Abbott did that too, and no doubt, other foolish right-wing politicians too. I don’t think it was Scott Morrison, who also has double “t” and is the main subject of the article. But then there might be two different politicians being referred to… and maybe the double “t” has no significance….

  20. Barry Thompson.

    Miriam, seconded.

  21. Kaye Lee

    Miriam,

    I am guilty of what you complain about and I agree that it is not really appropriate. But our PM calls HIMSELF ScoMo and that just invites derision. As for J Edgar Tuber, he deserves everything he gets. He has vilified countless individuals and groups. With him, it’s gloves off.

  22. johno

    Miriam, I would have to third that re derision of names. As I have done it myself, it does not feel right.

  23. Terence Mills

    Oh Dear !

    The extreme security and surveillance laws that we have been subjected to under the rule of the Dutton SS have ironically trapped one of their own and the right-wing pundits are not happy.

    In the weekends Australian it is reported that Tony Abbott, and I quote :

    Tony Abbott has been asked to register as an agent of foreign influence under controversial national security laws, for addressing the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in August.

    Tony has said that he is not a foreign agent and has submitted as proof of his innocence a worn pair of budgie-smugglers but will this save him ? It having been noted that the aforesaid budgie-smugglers are red in colour and we all know what that means – wink wink, nudge nudge.

    Newscorp and all their automatons ranging from Janet Albrechtsen to Gerard Henderson together with the bovver boys at Sky-After-Dark : Bolt, Kenny, Murray etc [why do this crew always remind me of the Munchkins ? – see here A Munchkin Welcome – The Wizard Of Oz – YouTube] all consider this an egregious overreach by the Dutton SS.

    Oberführer Dutton has been contacted for comment by the ABC but spokesmen for his department say that he is not available to the media as he is practicing his goose-step and tending a rather odd looking Movember moustache infecting his upper lip.

    The burning question is whether Tony will be banished to Christmas Island or Nauru.

    Watch this space !

  24. Terence Mills

    Sorry, this should be the link :

    The Lollipop boys.

  25. Ben walker

    Kaye Lee; Insightful polemical analysis. Hats off to AIM for Fomenting free speech online.

  26. Nedi

    Scott Morrison labelled protests as “radical activism” as if they were using tactics straight out of the American Lefts playbook Saul D. Alinsky “Rules for Radicals”. But in his apeal to play the alt right card here in Australia
    he need only remember that being a silent Australian isnt Wokeness and wokeness isnt activism.

  27. Paul Davis

    Yep, once again on the money Kaye Lee.

    Yes Miriam, accept your critique. Guilty as charged. Wont do it again.

  28. Yani

    So the powerless progressive movement is going to tell you what to do and where to live and they are going to pull this off on coal mining executives in all. I guess that goes with a belief in GAWD.

  29. Josephus

    Calling people names is futile as it merely deflects rage. Instead go out in the streets with placards and well argued slogans and speeches. Occupy the houses of the corrupt and the fat cats. This is happening all over the world. Vote intelligently, donate to progressive organisations crippled now by cuts , sign petitions, door knock, write to the media – anything but powerless virtue signalling that risks nothing.

  30. Kaye Lee

    I am considering staging a one woman non-interference protest outside my local member’s office. If we co-ordinated and put one grandparent with (or without) their grandchildren outside every federal member’s office on a seat holding a sign, what are they going to do?

    I joined the Free Nelson Mandela protest in London in 1988. It was an ongoing non-stop peaceful protest that ran for years with people just filling in for the time they could spare. It is well worth reading about. Perseverance in a just cause CAN win.

    Objecting to apartheid: building a non-stop protest in 1980s’ London

  31. leefe

    Miriam:

    You understood to whom those names referred? If so, what’s the problem with venting a little spleen via the use of appropriately mangled names?

  32. corvusboreus

    leefe,
    Apart from the problem that ‘spleen-venting through appropriately mangled names’ can increase difficulty of comprehension for people who struggle with cryptic crosswords, there are other problems associated with gratuitous sledge-tagging.
    It nourishes a discourse within the discussion that focusses more on feelings and emotions than information and evidence, and expressing one’s intensity of hatred by disrespectfully mangling a moniker gives little cause for conviction to the undecided.
    It is also, as has been pointed out, pretty pointless in that there is never going to be any palpable effect on the intended target.
    Morrison has already demeaned his own name by trivialising it down into scomo, and I challenge anyone to look into the eyes of the creature named Dutton and tell me that it has feelings to hurt (‘you are all dead to me’).

    Anyways, each to their own.

  33. Miriam English

    leefe, no, I didn’t understand who you were talking about. That was the main point of my comment. I generally don’t bother even trying to decode obfuscated names, and just skip to the next comment.

  34. Ross Barrell

    Thanks Kaye. Good essay.

    “Oh yeah? How? You can’t tell us what to invest in or buy. You can’t stop us from sharing information about the business practices of different companies. You can’t stop companies from legitimately pursuing ethical and sustainable practice as a commercial advantage.”

    These threats beggar belief. There is no way Scummo can force me to do, or not do business with any organisation I choose to. My understanding is that any attempt to legislate in this regard is likely to be unconstitutional. At least that thought has been floated.

    As I see it, the organisations SloMo has cited, Market Forces, AYCC, GetUp, Extinction Rebellion (for instance) are simply doubling down on their activities. If Morrison continues he’s inviting open warfare. Things could get ugly. There is a lot of anger out there and people who have been quiet about the growing threat of Global heating are becoming less so.

  35. Kaye Lee

    Ross,

    The Coalition are great on ‘announcables’. They come thick and fast when required. Actually putting things in practice? Not so much.

    On climate change, as my home is shrouded in smoke for another day, the millennium drought was like the first world war – the drought to end all droughts. It rained and people forgot. It’s like mothers going back into the birthing ward – shit, now I remember.

    Adaptation is essential because of the damage we have already done but not an option for long term survival.

    And they wonder why, around the world, for different reasons, people are saying I am mad as hell and I am not going to take it anymore.

    Then we are told by both major parties here that their main goal is wealth creation. Could we start with survival before we work on our investment portfolio?

  36. Philip Gorman

    In a couple of weeks 16 of us will appear in the Hobart Magistrates Court on charges of trespass or failing to obey the instructions of a police officer. On different days we partially blocked access to the state MPs main entrance or car park. Some of us are in a quandary. Should we plead guilty, or offer a defense such as acting out of necessity in a situation of clear and present danger to the lives and safety of others?

    I am a 74 year old sailor and educator with three grandchildren under 12. My partner’s life in science was devoted to nature conservation, research and communication. She thinks catastrophic Global Warming and the Sixth Extinction are now irreversible.

    For decades we have criticized reckless ecocidal activity in pursuit of profit. We despair at the wilful blindness of governments influenced by powerful corporate interests. All our writings, submissions and rallying have been in vain. Active civil disobedience is the only tool left to us.

    I believe that all our grandchildren can still have a livable, even a better, future; but due to government obduracy time is running out. Urgent action is imperative. Every citizen has a right and a duty to demand immediate action for the security and wellbeing of our children. I joined Extinction Rebellion as the last best hope of persuading governments to declare a state of climate emergency and act accordingly.

    I urge everyone to do the same. Retired people are uniquely well placed to take up the cause. We have more opportunity and less to lose than people in work, studying or parenting.

  37. corvus boreus

    Philip Gorman,
    Appreciate your honest and considered contributions.
    Regarding how to deal with legal repurcussions when navigating legal tightropes in order to bring attention to neglected/mismanged issues of crucial importance (especially for people with lingering finger-ink and previous mugshots);
    Even within a guilty plea there is usually an opportunity to plead circumstances of mitigation, and this another brief opportunity to succinctly articulate reasons behind your motivating cause.
    Fair winds and godspeed, captain.

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