There’s A Lot To Learn From David Leyonhjelm…
During the week, a man named Andy Nolch was charged with vandalising the memorial to Eurydice Dixon, the young woman who was raped and murdered while walking home.
We were then treated to an explanation of his “reasons” for such an attack. It wasn’t “personal”, but an attempt to bring public attention to his views on vaccination, as well as being an attack on feminism. If you’re having trouble with working out why the man thought it was appropriate to deface a memorial to do this, you need to be aware that Ms Dixon’s alleged attacker is autistic. The conclusion Mr Nolch seems to have drawn is that the media were ignoring the obvious link to vaccination because as anyone with the good sense to know that the world is flat and the moon landing was a hoax, knows that vaccinations cause autism. The attack on feminism, however, is a little harder to understand.
In the interests of sensitivity, I’m not going to discuss the details of this in any more depth. Suffice to say, that while we may be tempted to organise a lynch mob for such a cruel, senseless act, we should else consider the likelihood that the man has some sort of mental illness. He pointed out in an interview that he had no diagnosed mental illness, but, hey, Don Burke has undiagnosed Asperger’s… Or rather, unprofessionally diagnosed Asperger’s, given that he himself has diagnosed it… So maybe we should give this man’s self-diagnosis the same credibility we gave to Burke’s… Maybe we should consider that the possibility that he could be mentally ill and that he may actually need some sort of professional help. Then again, he may just be a privileged arsehole. Whatever, it’s hard to tell from just reading about him and I think we should just leave it to the people dealing with what he’s done to come up with the best course of action without a running media commentary. And yes, I am aware that I’m about to question the amount of attention Nolch received, and while I’m also focusing on him, it’s hard to question the media’s choices without actually mentioning them.
What I find strange is that the media thought it worthwhile to publish his motivation. Let’s strip this to its basic facts and look at the media’s role:
- Man with strange ideas wants to get public attention to spread his message.
- Man commits act which shocks people.
- Man is then given the publicity he craves and a soapbox to broadcast his views. (The media also telling us that he has a podcast, as well as reporting what he had to say!)
Anyone see a pattern here? And I don’t just mean when they report the motivations behind terrorist attacks.
Now, I don’t know about you, but it strikes me that if I want to get a message out there… Let’s say, I want to draw attention to shocking prejudice that PHON supporters face when they talk to intelligent people, or I want to alert you to the dangers of drinking water… Or let’s say, I read “The Herald-Sun” today and I discovered that a full week after the opening of the safe injecting room in Richmond, there were still people injecting in alleyways, and I want to show people that it’s been a failure because we all thought that it’d only take a week for every druggie to find out about the centre and start using it.
Whatever my message, if I want to get it out there, it seems that the media is more interested in me if I do something offensive.
I don’t mean to suggest I’m perfect. I’m sure that I do have some faults even if none readily spring to mind because I’m male. However, I do tend to try and be polite, reasonable and thoughtful in my dealings with other people, even if they tell me that they think Donald Trump is a good bloke. Yet if I ring the media and tell them that I have a great idea and I’m very intelligent and it’s a cracker and I’d like some space in tomorrow’s paper because my idea would not only help to cure most known diseases but everyone would like it and I’d probably end up with the Nobel Peace Prize, they’d tell me to go away. On the other hand, if I said that I was planning to make a porno movie on the steps of the Shrine of Remembrance, they’d probably have a news crew there in a flash… if you’ll pardon the expression.
Which, of course, leads us to Senator David Leyonhjelm. After making a statement to Sarah Hanson-Young which has even been condemned by Tony Abbott, instead of shunning him, he gets to do a round of interviews. Not just on “The Outsiders” where his comments were deemed so inappropriate that the young female producer who copied them into the feed was suspended (honestly, where do this women get the idea that they can just write down what men say free of the consequences?), but on the ABC and various other places as well. At such a time, the media seems to gravitate towards the offensive, rather than saying, “Mm, let’s raise the tone a bit and interview an intelligent, well-respected politician who’s got some agenda worth discussing”… Well, there must be one or two, they can’t all be like the ones that pop on the daily news.
Whatever, it does suggest to me that if I want to actually increase the circulation of my ideas beyond the few thousand who are reading this, then I should take a leaf out of David Leyonhjelm’s book and find ways to offend people.
The trouble is that I can’t think of anything in that sweet spot between being bad enough to get you publicity but not so bad that you end up in jail. Once it was easy, but thanks to people like Andrew Bolt and Germaine Greer, you really have to think hard to make yourself stand out. And when you have aspiring politicians like Georgina Downer telling us that the IPA isn’t political, then not even being ridiculous is likely to work.
Nay, it’s just too hard these days. There’s too much competition for being outrageous – whether by crossing a socially acceptable line or by making a statement that’s so demonstrably false that people can talk of nothing else for the next few days.
Lucky I don’t actually have any ideas that would solve all the world’s ills. If I did, I might have forgotten it by the time I came up with something that’d grab the media’s attention.
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Return to home pageLeyjonhelm is a soft target, he’s so stupid, but when it comes to media, particularly Murdoch media, the silence is exponential.
Yet it is the role of media like Sky that needs examining as an example of how the phenomena and process of propaganda is masked as news.
Kill Bill is another example, esp when exposed via the other spectacular own goal for the LNP, the Cash antics, which shows how news is subverted and deleted through Reichstag Fire type collusion, straw- personing, smear and innuendo.
Btw, people have noted Guthrie axing the Checkout at ABC?
Think about the reality and think how hollow Guthrie’s protestations concerning recent Murdoch/ IPA attacks on the ABC has been in light of the treacherous decisons just executed.
“At such a time, the media seems to gravitate towards the offensive, rather than saying, “Mm, let’s raise the tone a bit and interview an intelligent, well-respected politician who’s got some agenda worth discussing”.
The media gravitates towards the offensive because it is sensational and the media is not about providing considered, factual information but in creating enough sensation to tittilate the synapses of their readers to the point where they will want more, more, more.
And that more results in more papers sold, more magazines sold, more rubbish programs watched.
The simple fact is that, although we do not want to admit it, the majority of human beings have the intellectual capacity of a single cell amoeba and they perceive their lives to be so dull and unfulfilling that they feel the need to live their lives through what they see as others who have more exciting lives.
The media caters to this fairly base and unrealistic want with more and more lurid stories, facts be damned.
The fact is that life is not exciting 24/7 and living your life through others is no more fulfilling than living your own life, dull as one may perceive it to be.
As Socrates is said to have stated at his trial for impiety and corrupting youth.
“The unexamined life is not worth living”.
The media is very good at appealing to the lowest denominator and keeping the masses from examining their own lives by dangling the lives of others, that appear to be exciting, in front of them so they think that there is more to life than there actually is.
I have spent a bruising couple of days on David Leyonjhelm’s facebook page. Call it research. I learned so much.
“Feminists are useless hags whose only achievement has been to ruin the lives of many good men”.
When I suggested that relationships are built on mutual respect I found out I was wrong.
” Kaye Lee, you’re clueless on how a man truly sees things. And you’re 100% WRONG. Great relationships are built on blow jobs and doing dishes.”
And these comments, accompanied by much personal abuse, came from women.
It’s nice to know the type of people Leyonhjelm appeals to. Thank god this man does not hold the balance of power or else the government would be happy to do sweet deals for these people.
The problem with that is that he DOES have close to a hold on BOP.
What I still am not quite sure of is, was it just an undisciplined gaff from him and to what extent and when some form of orchestration kicks in, eg before and or after Fox, Cameron, Rowan Deal, then the rest. How easy to destroy people and how deep the pleasure some seem to gain for it..
The subceptionals fired in as to SHY (orchestrated re Fox or just accidental) to me seem dark and powerful; SHY herself a human target and someone just trying to hold out against the storm until she can hold comfortably again.
She’s done that, but things are still complex, if now moderating, as to some of this stuff.
What a foul apparatus modern media has become.
Anyway, this stuff nauseates me and I am off to the soccer for diversion.
My comment to Leyonjhelm was “I am wondering if you have read through the comments on this page to understand the harm you have done. You have unleashed a barrage of very personal abuse from some very nasty people. You need to understand that what you say has consequences you can’t control. Or do you even care?”
What can she do?
I don’t think anyone with even a half reasonable intelligence would eventually buy it, but it has been planted in the back of the minds of people who may not be able to deal with it. Words can eventually kill, as Goebbels demonstrated some time ago, but the ones I am trying to come to terms with as to mindset are some of the cold-blooded string-pullers lurking in the shadows.
Did you see they chopped one of the few remaining worthwhile and informative shows from the ABC, The Checkout, today?
The people trying to control, I think are very sick people. And YesLeyjonhelm offers a beautiful glimpse into the underlying pathology in all its tragic deterioration, all that remains being a panicky lunge to drag down the healthy with the dying.
The cancelling of the Checkout may seem fairly trivial in the scheme of things but just ask yourself if any commercial broadcaster would ever take on a show that essentially exposes lies and hypocrisy in the sale of goods and services and does so with an ear to satire and irony.
Of course, no commercial TV station would risk the wrath of their advertisers and would never undertake such a show and that is where the value of the ABC lies.
Will their next target be Media Watch ?
I never watched checkout, as I watch virtually no tv now. Will have a look at some old episodes. Will tv go the way of newspapers, a slow death.
Damned good read Rossleigh, and its all so sadly true!
So the Checkout is to be scrapped. A glance at history will reveal that ending popular programs in the face of budget cuts is an ABC tried and true tactic. In days of yore, the ABC broadcast a current affairs program for schoolchildren called Behind The News (BTN) which was (temporarily) terminated due to financial constraints. Following outcries, particularly by children, the decision was reversed.
If the government is to cut the ABC budget, then it must expect some political pain. Axing a popular show is perhaps the best way.
As for the program itself – when it first hit the screens it was a hard-hitting factual expose of scams. Commendable! Increasingly, it became corrupted by endlessly following the comedy trail. As though ABC viewers had no attention spans and had to be ‘entertained’ rather than ‘informed’. So I for one will not shed tears over its demise, particularly in its current debased format.
7:30 report is also turning into infotainment with a puff piece put in each show about the latest celebrity, or their dog. Apparently we can’t have a whole half hour on just boring old current affairs. How many times have I screamed at the television when the presenter has said “Sorry Treasurer we are out of time” to move onto some story about a puppy stuck in a drain or some other equally earth-shattering development.
The dumbing down of yours truly,…us.
Further – The Drum. While the issues discussed this week were important, Julia, as host, did not have her best week. Too many irrelevant side tracks. For instance, last night was particularly boring with two guests discussing their time at Uni pursuing law degrees. Please. Earlier in the week it was about ‘values clarification’ – although no contributor used the term. Adam Creighton came the closest with some reference to philosophers he studied.
Shakes head. Perhaps we need a singing, dancing version of The Drum led by Rebecca Weisser and husband, Nick Cater. Make it a real live Punch and Judy show. Could be sponsored by the Ramsay … Rebecca can organise that.
I’ll try to be positive and name a couple shows I still watch and like on ABC; Gruen and Endeavour….
For the ritualistic evening News I go to SBS…
Blessed are the cake-makers, but should they do Insiders…?
I’m still wondering when the hammer will fall on Shaun Micallef’s Mad as Hell. It’s the only program from the ABC that I now watch after Insiders seems to have gone down the gurgler of appeasement.
Leyonhjelm is not about to stop playing to the rednecks in (and outside) his Senate seat. I think he’s just going to keep (using that awful phrase) doubling down on his abhorrent behaviour. Murdoch, through his toilet papers and cable networks, will keep giving this leech free publicity until the public finally get bored and just wish he would fade into the woodwork.
Leyonhjelm is a man on a mission. Name recognition – any publicity is good publicity – so as to harvest as many preferences as possible. Reminds me of Russ Hinze – vulgar as they come. Was known to scoff a whole 30 cm bowl of wine trifle without looking up and, behaving as though he was in a Munich beer hall, would relieve himself in the stainless steel ashtray while still breasting the bar.
Never faced a serious challenge at the ballot box.
Then there was Tom Aitken, Rex Pilbeam, Pauline … There’s many who have gone before. Expect more as the election draws closer. Perhaps a Q & A appearance – as the host? Just for balance?
Judith Sloan and Rowan Dean team could give Rebecca et Nick a break when needed…
I too hope that Shaun will return and be mad as hell….
MN, re Baird, it could be said in her defence that she has had a bad trot, fighting off cancer and her mum ill or dying.
Don’t wish her gone too quick, given the lunacy of the IPA, Fifield, the Board and senior management there.
As you have all pointed out, however, as feeble as the current set up is, it pales in comparison to some of the alternatives conjured up.
Sad times, these.
MN, I could have strangled that idiot git sitting next to Creighton- it takes a bad case indeed to improve Creighton by way of comparison, but on Friday that happened.
Kaye Lee: “And these comments, accompanied by much personal abuse, came from women.”
Are you sure? My first reaction was that these were men pretending to be women. Just the sort you would find on that kind of FB page, although I am no expert on such matters because I don’t “do” FB.
totaram,
Who can ever tell but one of the main perpetrators chose to give me her “professional advice” about my apparent frigidity by telling me she was the “best-selling author” Nannette LaRee Hernandez who is apparently the “World’s Only Military PTSD-Related Intimacy-Issues Expert”. God help the military is all I can say.
And yes, sadly, there are many women on Leyonjhelm’s page. The common vein is how much they hate feminists and how much they love men. But they don’t seem able to express their views without really vile abuse. It’s scary.
And yes, sadly, there are many women on Leyonjhelm’s page. The common vein is how much they hate feminists and how much they love men. But they don’t seem able to express their views without really vile abuse. It’s scary.
Stockholm syndrome? Or simply some women prefer to support so-called alpha males?
Many people from all points of the political compass prefer to side with whomever they perceive as winners. It’s typical human behaviour. Just ask anyone who has been bullied at school – there were those who cheered the bully on and those, who remained silent. The exception being the person who called out the bully.
BTW, Leyonhjelm has form on his lack of respect for women:
https://www.sbs.com.au/news/go-back-to-the-cave-shorten-tells-senator-leyonhjelm
Yes, Leyonhjelm is an easy target, so are many high profile misogynists. Doesn’t change the fact that people such as Sam Newman or the slimy Donald Trump still get to spout their hate across the media.
Which poses the question:
If these men, at the tip of the cultural iceberg, fear no reprisal for their behaviour, how many others more quietly believe women to be deserving of contempt?
“Woman abused for expressing opinion” is up there with other apparent transgressions such as “walking along a street while black”.
I had a look there and commented at the stupidity of the original remark.
I’ve had a couple of “likes “for that, these from women and some criticism in the reply box, from memory also a woman (?)
But I get what you mean re his hardcore fans.- thick as bricks, both male and female.
Subspecies of Hansonist, lost souls.
Diannaart, sometimes even women deserve criticism if they are like Cash or Hanson.
No exemptions for stupidity and mean-spiritedness.
How is David Lout any different to RAbbott??? … Both lack any real political power and so are seeking political relevance with the undiscerning assistance of the MSM staffed by juveniles without the life experience or political nous to understand that political comment requires objective analysis policies … that neither the LIarbrals or Notional$ have … except self-aggrandisement.
Stick with the ABC folk.
Sure, it has been forced to cringe and speak in mild and quavering tones but that is how one survives when in a violent relationship – and the relationship between the LNP and the ABC is most assuredly a violent one.
The LNP will be gone soon – have patience. Those amongst us who are conspicuously attacking the ABC risk playing straight into the IPA and Rupert’s filthy, greedy hands. Once this traitorous government is discarded to the dustbin of history, we can reform our ABC, but only if we still have an ABC.
Re:
And how pray tell do we achieve that? What proposals are on the table? Where is the discussion paper – with the various options for consideration?
Or do we just have to trust that an incoming government will suddenly decided to right some wrongs just like Rudd didn’t – preferring to be fair and balanced? Promises, promises – a story often told to the gullible.
I note that Georgina Downer, an adjunct fellow [whatever that means] with the Institute for Public Affairs is not doing too well in her dynastic quest for the federal seat of Mayo in South Australia : possibly the fact that she has lived in Melbourne for the past twenty years doesn’t go down too well with the voter in Mayo.
Georgina however has a fall back career as a stand-up comic : she recently noted that the IPA is not a political organisation – not bad for starters but she needs to work on her material.
An adjunct fellow for the IPA! Terry, that alone makes for a good laugh.
Political scientist Marian Simms says that the IPA’s role was to act as “an interim finance collector for non-Labor political interests”, initiate “the unification of the non-Labor organizations in Victoria … and then [mediate] among them” and provide “much of the content of the federal platform of the LPA and propaganda for political campaigns”.
I also missed this one….
“In July 2018, a subpoena issued on the IPA by Bianca Hope Hayward, as part of a lawsuit against her mother Gina Rinehart, in the Supreme Court of NSW, revealed an undeclared donation of A$4.5 million to the institute. The donation from Gina Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting, was not declared in the IPA’s Annual Report. It was also revealed that shortly afterwards the IPA bestowed life membership upon Gina Rinehart.”
and….
“Bianca Rinehart, daughter of Gina, has served a subpoena on Barnaby Joyce as part of her legal battle against her mother.”
The Saturday Paper does evidence based, non abusive journalism. There are such publications overseas, too, eg the Washington Post or New york Times.
I thought Mr Hasting’s ABC interview with the oily, smug Senator- with -so- few -votes was both persistent and polite.
I have never met a woman as debased as the ones cited above. That said, I shiver every time I see a dolled up female baby or child in a pink tutu or spangly dress and a flower band around her head. It is not long ago when female teachers, bureaucrats and nurses could not work after marriage. Treat your girl children as thinking creatures please, not as dolls. And your boys do not need guns and violent games.
Leyonjhelm is now asking for donations…..
We’re putting together a war chest to fight the Greens. And we’re asking for your help.
Please give what you can so we can fight the Greens and their toxic unhinged ideology.
1st use – Fight the Defamation Case
Lawyers are expensive. Any funds donated will be used in the first instance to help fight the possible defamation case that Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young has threatened against Liberal Democrat Senator David Leyonhjelm.
2nd use – Fight them in Elections
If excess funds are donated they will be put towards fighting the Greens in elections. Australia needs new voices in parliament.
https://www.gofundme.com/fight-the-greens?member=401002
My comment: So now you are asking for the public to pay for your lawyers because you are too stubborn to admit you crossed the line when you sunk to spreading rumours about a colleague’s sex-life? You are a wealthy man who is being paid hundreds of thousands of dollars a year by the public already. I thought you were the champion of personal responsibility. What a joke.
Something for Leyonjhelm, or for that matter, any of us to read and to ponder about:
Strange that Leyonjhelm wants help from the other(s) to deal with a situation entirely of his own making. Seems like he’s a Libertarian of convenience. As was Ayn Rand when the chips were down.
There’s verbalised ideology and then there’s lived ideology. With Leyonjhelm, it’s the case that: “never the twain shall meet”.
Not very bright is he!
Serious misstep there by David. His libertarian base are turning.
“I agree with what you said. I support your position in this argument. But I’m not giving you money and I don’t support anyone else doing so. Why should they?
Just counter sue her for court costs. You think you are justified in your actions, back it with your own wallet.”
“Yeah while I like general libertarian ideals having a go at a woman or anyone for what they do in their personal life is so far removed from the libertarian ideals I believe in.”
” Mate, what you said to Senator Hanson-Young is simply unprofessional. It would not be allowed in any workplace in the country, & nor should it be acceptable in the Senate. Swallow your pride, apologise, & get on with doing the job we pay our taxes for you to do.”
“Oh, that’s cute. Everyone becomes a socialist when they f#ck up enough.”
“you picked this fight so IMO you should fight it yourself. but i would donate to help a case to have her prosecuted under 18c”
“If the senator is so certain of his position on his comments and the law…..why has he put out the begging bowl?”
“You want to restrict welfare. You say everybody should pay their own way. You say that people on the pension shouldn’t be proud because it shows they are poor. And then you stick your hand out for money even though you earn 200k per year.
You are a freaking joke.”
“why should we donate to help? Taxpayers will end up paying anyway. Just counter sue for slander of men. Hell im all for a class action for that.”
$4,344 of $100,000 goal
Raised by 129 people in 1 day
Should be used to finance shelters for the homeless.
helvityni,
Thank you so much for that link. It was like a drink of water to a person dying of thirst.
Re:
200k per year, or more accurately, $199,040 per annum can be misleading (on the conservative side). Senators are also entitled to: Business expenses:
Leyonjhelm’s Committee work is extensive:
Note in particular the position of Chair. Political tragics will know that Bishop the Elder used her position of Chair to justify her flitting here, there and everywhere – all at public expense – including travel, accommodation and allowances. Perhaps David follows her lead?
Then there’s the electoral allowance of $32,000 per annum or $2,666.67 per month. Not sure if he drives a car or not but if not then there’s an additional electorate allowance of $19,500 per annum payable where a senator elects not to receive a private-plated vehicle.
As well there’s an annual printing and communications entitlement to the value of $40,000 per annum.
Leyonjhelm does quite well sucking on the public teat! Only fools would donate. Or vote in his direction.
MN,
Funny you should say that…..
David Leyonhjelm, the Liberal Democrat senator from New South Wales, charged taxpayers $9,392.59 to fly to Perth in December, booking the trip as “electorate business”.
One month before Leyonhjelm’s trip to Perth, he had applied to register his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) to run in Western Australia’s 2017 election.
On 20 December, a day after flying to Perth, he visited 6PR radio and spoke at length about his party’s goals for the election, saying this was the first time the Liberal Democrats would be running for office in WA.
Leyonhjelm told the Australian he had gone to Perth to prepare for a red tape inquiry, which he chairs.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/oct/07/david-leyonhjelm-charged-taxpayers-9000-trip-perth
Good link Helvytini a gold star for you.
@ Paul Walter
Should we finance homes for the homeless – absolutely. We can also fight bigotry by supporting the Greens campaign to assist SHY.
In fact, we can support action on renewable technology, free education, public medical care, public transport – there’s a lot we can do – together.
I am sure that is what you meant.
Paul Walter
I missed a comment from you to me – so unexpected, now I feel really special.
Although perplexed.
Why would I support the likes of Hanson or Cash? I never have, never will. I despise the type of women who always “stand by their man” irrespective of how a big a jerk the man is and no matter what political stripe they wear.
🙂
Personally I do like Leyonhjelm, I also agree with him on some things like reviewing helmet laws, legalizing vaping, allowing for harm reduction, legalizing cannabis, defunding or at least reviewing some public health programs and understanding properly their links to pharma and his open letter to Shorten quite some time ago asking that Shorten become an opposition leader rather than a continual apologist for the LNP , Libertarians and others
I also happen to agree with DLs stance on calling things (even if others dont like it ) as he sees fit – simply because it cuts through all the pc waffle that has us all self policing our thoughts and language with the assumption that it is always possible to empathize or worse understand the others view or experience (I find the idea a bit condescending)
I would rather know up front if a person is a pig than find out later after long speeches that noone including myself can be f*cked listening to
That being said, although I do agree with some things – I am a humanitarian and welfare net supporter first and their bigger picture is worrysome especially with the corporate libertarians (IPA and IEA involved)
Does agreeing with some of DLs policies make me a nutter too?
I do find it interesting that this article which seems to whine about shock tactics has used them too firstly by unethically without qualification diagnosing a person with mental illness simply because you have disagreed with them and what they have done
and secondly by rebranding common knowledge and making into a victim looking up at a master thing
Most of the media is owned by Murdoch and Murdoch family were among founders of the IPA – The Murdoch group is first and foremost a business and they will do what they have to to sell media (also pretty common knowledge)
So really with respect – I am failing to see what the point of this article is
It reads more like factless whinging that attempts to emulate the shock/ offense formula while complaining about it at the same time over any thing that could actually be considered news
Perhaps there is your issue in terms of readership numbers?
Pity tho – outside of this – There have been many other articles i have very enjoyed reading at AIM – sadly this is not one of them
Lilith
Anyone can be rude, disrespectful and pigheaded.
Leyonhjelm may well support some progressive views. However, I would rather support people who can both present their views and remain civil simultaneously – it is not difficult, but this simple task evades Leyonhjelm with a frequency that renders anything good he may be proposing null and void.
Watching the Liberals let loose at the QT, you wonder if they know the meaning of ‘civility’…
Not that I ever watch them, but I see snippets of their behaviour in the evening news.
At least most of the Labor siders have been gifted with a sense of humour; it always makes even abuse more palatable…
Mungo MacCallum has an interesting and amusing take on this SHY/ DL topic…
helvityni
An interesting read from Mungo (nothing unusual there).
The Left
maydoes have a better sense of humour, but …I have observed some of the most pernicious abuse occur under the guise of humour, you know, “we woz only joking” type of humour which may be funny to others – not so much for the butt of the joke.
As for Leyonhjelm, whether he believes he is keeping the ‘privilege of the libertarian’ going is debatable, what I do see is an abusive bully completely devoid of humour.
I have no more time for him than Turnbull, and have been suspicious of Shorten – not for his “zingers” to Turnbull (which contain some truth), but for his part in the Rudd/Gillard/Rudd series of PM’s.
Each to their own I guess. I remain a big fan of the sadly missed “Little Britain” – my mother (may she R.I.P.) would stare at me in askance.
🙂
I love the only gay in the village, and I often call myself the only leftie in my very Liberal village; sometimes this makes things socially difficult…I have to bite my tongue and listen to yet another rant about Muslims horrors…
And as John Hewson was first one to laugh at Keating’s promise to do him slowly, I have found that he is the only one amongst Liberals, blessed with a sense of humour. Neither Shorten or Turnbull have it…and Dutton might be ‘ laughing’ when little island countries with brown populations are worried about sea-levels rising and possibly drowning them….
Lilith,
Whilst you may broadly agree with a few of Leyonkjelm’s libertarian views, don’t you find it strange that his most significant parliamentarian contribution has been, rather than championing individual rights and liberties, instead vocally lobbying for, then getting paid from the public purse to chair, a ‘special’ commission seeking to ban people from erecting wind-turbines on their own properties?
Ps, I’ll admit that I cannot share or understand your personal fondness for Leyonhjelm, someone who, amongst other notably indecent public acts, immediately responded to a horrific act of mass-murder (including the death of an infant) by gloating that the murders were not committed by firearms (https://twitter.com/davidleyonhjelm/status/822275984711745536?lang=en and ha).
Personally, I think he is a scientific ignoramus, a rabid extremist and a corrupt opportunist, as well as a thoroughly odious creep.
Perhaps you admire his trolling as ‘epic’?
Here is a good laugh on the pitfalls of free speech, starring yes, Mr Leyonhjelm, well, sort of..
Helvytini
” … the only gay in the village … ” was not just about being gay – the underlying theme of so much of Walliams and Lucas’ work is their 20/20 gaze at a broad part of our culture. While I understand how you must feel in Little Liberalsville, sometimes I use the phrase “only gay …” to remind someone if they are getting a little too self-involved that they are not alone – sort of 21st C “you are not Robinson Crusoe”.
I have bought a few of the David Walliams children’s’ books for a young nephew – they are his favourite books, no trouble getting him to read. So I say, thank you David Walliams.
Yes, true humour is often indicative of a more open nature. I don’t mind Hewson – I would choose to talk to him than, say, Howard, Dutton (imagine trying to have a laugh with Dutton?), Downer (father&daughter), Mirabella, Cash, Abbott – he’s more of the laughing at rather than laughing with type, Morrison, Hanson, Christensen, many uber-religious such as Pell – such a lamentable lot.
Ironic; we are better informed than any other time in history, yet some people (too many) remain as thick as a couple of medieval planks.
Strangely enough, the ‘libertarian’ NSW senator (and MRA activist) who, contrary to all available statistical evidence (and in defiance of instinctual sense) claims that our society would be much safer with greater general access to guns, whilst having been extremely vocal about vehicular murders in Victoria, has been conspicuously silent upon the most recent NSW case of child-murders (committed with by a male with guns).
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/john-edwards-should-never-have-been-allowed-to-buy-a-gun-say-critics-20180707-p4zq4o.html
I would like to think that this self-censorship was being undertaken out of respect for the victims, but all available evidence would strongly suggest otherwise.
Johno
I miss Chaser …. 🙁
Thank you for video, so cathartic, so necessary, so hilarious.
No Lillith.
He is not just another business person trying to get back home in heavy traffic for the 6 o’clock news out here on Struggle Street.
He is not interested so much in money as power and control and the most anti-libertarian control freak I can think of or at least in the top league of autocrats, except when it comes to himself.
You may at least not have to worry about your civil liberties under Murdoch, because in the end, you won’t have any.
Lilith,
I also agree with some of Leyonjhelm’s policies – notably his support for dying with dignity. I also think more consideration should be given to his proposal to make electricity GST free. Businesses can claim back the GST they pay, pensioners can’t. Is it an essential service or not?
That does not give him licence to behave badly. We all say thing we shouldn’t at times. The measure of a person is how they deal with it. You can say “but she did this” or you can take personal responsibility and say “sorry, I made a mistake.” I don’t think Leyonjhelm is capable of ever saying sorry. As other’s have pointed out, he milks controversy for the sake of name recognition.
His good ideas will be forever lost in the murky pit of his rudeness which he seems to wear like a badge of honour,
The senator is just an audible manifestation within the dream state of the Australian public channelling the dementia raddled thought bubbles of Chairman Rupert
I watched some of Nolch’s ‘comedy’ on YouTube. It made me squirm with embarrassment for him. Even worse was the splicing-in of shots of an audience, obviously downloaded from the net, laughing at his ‘jokes’. Seriously, if he was my son I would take him to one side and do the decent thing – tell him he is deeply unfunny, spectacularly devoid of talent and is making a major pillock of himself.
On the matter of Caveman and Thug Leyonhjelm’s gofundme (I can think of a better word that also has an “f” in it, but I’m being polite) campaign: He’s now up to $19,614.
Sarah Hanson-Young is currently sitting on $54,875.
Gee, I wonder who is more popular?