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White Supremacist says Ms. Hanson is misunderstood

The Reclaim Australia Movement is conducting a rally in my home town of Rockhampton and Pauline Hanson will be the guest speaker at the event.

In our local newspaper (The Rockhampton Morning Bulletin) and local groups on Facebook, there has been commentary regarding this event. Reclaim Australia purport that it is not a racist event, but inclusive of everyone.

Bro Michael Ireland of the Church of Creativity (founded by white supremacist leader Ben Klassen) has now established a local chapter in the Rockhampton community. The Church of Creativity is a white supremacist movement, which has a doctrine built on the notion of “nature.” That is God created white people and white people essentially need to take charge of the earth or else it will spiral towards a path of destruction. (No links in my blog to this rubbish – sorry).

To put into perspective where this white supremacist church has established itself; I will detail the population demographics of Rockhampton.

Rockhampton is a town in Central Queensland, and sits on the Tropic of Capricorn. The traditional owners of the land in Rockhampton are the Darumbal People. The Aboriginal Township of Woorabinda is 170 km west of Rockhampton. There are 6.5% of people who identify as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander in Rockhampton, which is higher than the state average of 5%. In addition, 12.5% of Australia’s South Sea Islander people live in Rockhampton and although the dominant population ancestry groups are Australian, English and Irish; Rockhampton has a growing trend of Indian, Filipino, South African and Vietnamese people (Profile.Id, 2013 & Dept of Communities, 2014).

Bro. Michael Ireland had this letter published today (15/07/2015) in the Rockhampton Morning Bulletin in defence of Pauline Hanson. I have published my response below, which has been submitted for consideration as a Letter to the Editor.

bro michael ireland

 

My Response

Perhaps Bro Michael Ireland should rename himself “the wolf in sheep’s clothing.” It is very misleading to the public when an individual uses the title of “Bro”, indicating he is using the title to speak on behalf of a religious faith.

Bro Michael Ireland does indeed belong to a Church. The Church of Creativity, Rockhampton. Some of his opinion pieces have appeared on the Church of Creativity Website. He starts opinion pieces with, “Racial greetings to my fellow White brothers and sisters.” He urges people to obtain a copy of the true bible for the white race – The White Man’s Bible. In other opinion pieces, he refers to Christian People as “Christ-Insanes.” This certainly speaks to the hypocrisy of the use of the title ‘Bro’, which is normally understood within society as relating to a Christian faith.

Perhaps when Bro Michael says that Pauline Hanson is misunderstood; he does not recognise that Ms. Hanson’s version of equality is in fact inequality. When he calls into question homeless shelters for Indigenous homeless youth, and blames the Government’s investment in Indigenous programs as ‘guilt over colonization’; he does not stop to consider that there are considerably more barriers to achieving equality for Indigenous people than there are for those of non-Indigenous backgrounds. He does not recognise that when it comes to working towards equality, not everyone starts from the same starting point.

I am not an Indigenous woman, but I am a local woman and I feel great pride when Darumbal Elders such as Wade Mann give the Welcome to Country at events. It fills me with an overwhelming feeling of pride for the area I live in; a feeling of awe at the beauty of the land and animals described and an intrigue and excitement of stories I was never taught at school and I look to Uncle Wade with respect as an Elder and a leader in our community.

When Bro. Ireland’s doctrine states, “We believe that without the white race any worthwhile culture and civilization are impossible” He does not recognise how other cultures can enrich us and teach us and how we can learn respect for customs and traditions. Multiculturalism helps us to stop being insular and selfish and gives us the gift of inclusiveness.

When people promote Ms. Hanson today, they do so on the platform of creating a ‘non-Muslim’ Australia. They seem to forget that Ms. Hanson has ridden on the back of negativity and fear mongering of Asians and Aboriginal people. Ms. Hanson’s 1996 Maiden speech to Parliament warned Australians of the damage that Aboriginal people and Asians do to our society. Now that the fear and hatred has turned to Muslims, she is milking that cow until it is dry. It would be a safe bet that if people started to be scared of the Irish, Ms. Hanson would jump on that bandwagon to serve her own pockets. Ms. Hanson is the Jimmy Swaggart of the Nationalist set.

The growth of the Patriots and White Supremacist movements can be summed up in the words of Aboriginal Elder and former Chairman of the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation, Patrick Dodson:

“In a climate of uncertainty and fear, without strong and visionary leadership, people panic.”

 

Originally published on Polyfeministix

 

38 comments

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  1. miriamenglish

    The thing that really annoys me about white supremacists is that they are actually endangering the health of the entire human species.

    Genetic diversity

    Race is an illusion. We humans are almost genetically identical. There is less genetic variation among all the billions of humans on Earth than among the members of any random chimpanzee tribe of just several individuals. Our species is dangerously devoid of genetic diversity. Any biologist can tell you what happens to a species when diversity drops below some crucial level — it risks extinction. Genetic variability is a great survival tactic. Normal animal and plant populations have healthy amounts of genetic variation so that no disease or environmental change can kill more than a small fraction of the population. If a disease or parasite or predator or environmental change hits then there will always be members of the species who are able to withstand it. But if there is insufficient variability, then a fairly insignificant change can deliver 100% mortality. As an example consider the Cavendish banana. This is the banana most people are familiar with. It is currently being wiped off the face of the Earth by a simple fungus. All Cavendish bananas have zero genetic variability because they are clones. Other banana varieties are resistant to the fungus, but not Cavendish. Scientist are frantically trying to produce a kind of Cavendish banana, or something very similar, with the genes to battle it.

    Scientists have, for some time, speculated that some kind of calamity about 100 or 150 thousand years ago nearly exterminated humanity, reducing our forebears to just several dozen breeding pairs. However no corresponding great event has been found. There is an alternative explanation. It is easy to show using simple computer simulations that if xenophobia has a large part to play in how humans choose their breeding partners then we will inevitably end up with massive depletion of our genetic diversity. I think this is the more likely explanation for our dangerously low genetic stocks.

    Genetic disease

    Another glaring problem with the silly goal of racial “purity” is that it breeds genetic flaws into the offspring, such as those you find in “purebreed” dogs. Some time back I read about the discovery of a town in South America where the Nazis had tried to breed their master race after fleeing Germany. The town was full of blonde blue-eyed people, but tragically with a very high incidence of mental retardation because of the inbreeding.

    The xenophobia that drives racism seems to grow out of an impoverished upbringing added to our natural predisposition to become bullies when given the opportunity and our pathetic tendency to conform.

    Impoverished upbringing

    One of our main mechanisms for recognising someone as beautiful uses a kind of averaging system. This can best be illustrated by the work of Francis Galton in 1878 when he used the new invention of photography to attempt to capture an image which would be, he hoped, a distillation of the essence of pure evil. He took photographs of the inmates of a prison and made composites of all the images, blending them together. He was surprised to find that the resulting image was very handsome, instead of what he expected to be criminal evil. He abandoned the work because it didn’t fit his preconceptions. In fact, the reason the images were beautiful is that atypical, extreme features were averaged out by the blending process, leaving a face that was normalised. Our perception of beauty unconsciously does this averaging process for us. This means that if someone has a very narrow upbringing they don’t have a very wide set of types stored in their memory, so anything outside their distorted version of “normal” appears as ugly and detestable. It makes them feel repelled by people with different skin color, nose shape, eye shape, lip shape, and different kinds of hair. Modern movies and to some extent TV shows, have the potential to broaden people’s mental store of face and body types.

    Bullies

    It would appear that we are all programmed by our genes to become bullies. Anyone in an out-group is easily discriminated against, especially if they look or act different, are a minority, and are relatively powerless. Some very rare people are able to resist the temptation to become bullies. Nobody seems to know exactly why or how they do so. We all think that we are one of those special few, but statistically speaking, chances are excellent that we are not. Bullies turn racist feelings into the most terrible kinds of racist actions.

    Conformity

    We have a natural preference for conformity. James Surowieki, the author of the book The Wisdom of Crowds showed why insane crowds develop that do atrocious and stupid things (lynch mobs, riots, crowd panic, and so on). The major requirement for deranged crowds is conformity. Crowds in which the members are diverse and made up of loosely-coupled individuals, each marching to their own drum, become instead, strangely enough, smarter than the smartest person in the crowd. And paradoxically, removing the most stupid members from one of these diverse crowds makes it less smart, not more. This is because it reduces the diversity of the group. Our natural preference for conformity means we tend to become more stupid as we band together. If that conformity is accentuated by a single voice (a manipulative leader) and a single source of information (e.g. the mainstream media), and if we are pushed into dressing, speaking, acting the same, with similar hairstyles, and the same (Anglo) culture then we, as a group, become very very stupid indeed, and likely to make abysmal judgments. If, under those circumstances we, as a group, become prone to racist feelings then we become capable of the worst horrors.

    Monsters

    Something ignored by many people is that racism doesn’t just hurt the people who are being targetted by the racists. It hurts the racists themselves too, because it turns them into monsters… and who wants to be a monster? It causes them to do and say things they will regret if they ever mature, or that their children will be deeply embarrassed by and wish to disown. It amputates their sense of empathy in areas that could be of great benefit to them and all those around them, leaving them instead as ugly emotional cripples who live in completely unnecessary fear and hate of those who seem to be different.

    Waste

    From the point of view of the human race it makes me weep to see all that intellectual and artistic potential wasted by racism. The human mind is the most valuable thing on Earth. It seems to me the worst crime to waste it by suppressing great swathes of humanity and preventing them from making great contributions to our future history.

    Unjust and immoral

    But after all those arguments about how race doesn’t exist and racism endangers and damages our species genetically, intellectually, culturally, emotionally, and artistically, one point will always stand out as the most important: racism is unjust and morally wrong because it causes pain and misery in the people it targets.

    We need to end racism, along with homophobia, classism, sexism, and all the other kinds of ridiculous hate and fear of “different” people. It’s time we saw that we need diversity and should be embracing difference wherever we find it. It makes us stronger as a species. Racism could quite literally bring about our species’ end.

    This is what needs to be said to those who would indulge in the poison of xenophobia.

  2. Kyran

    One can’t help but notice that ‘white supremacists’ seem most often to be represented by the most inferior of whites. If only ‘our leaders’ would stop condoning these bullies by their silence. Thank you, Ms Corry. Take care

  3. Mercurial

    Bro Michael is right – we need more caterers!!

  4. Matters Not

    Miriam, all people, regardless of ‘location’, are (to a greater or lesser extent) ‘victims’ of ethnocentrism – defined in terms of.

    judging another culture solely by the values and standards of one’s own culture. Ethnocentric individuals judge other groups relative to their own ethnic group or culture, especially with concern for language, behavior, customs, and religion

    Being aware of that tendency should become a starting point for everyone.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnocentrism

  5. Rosemary (@RosemaryJ36)

    Anyone with a knowledge of history would see that the early, ground-breaking civilisations were not ‘white’.
    The Jews – of whom Jesus Christ was presumably one – were the Chosen People and firmly based in the Middle East.
    Despite the current attitudes of Israelis – some of whom have become clones of Hitler’s Nazis – the Jews of the Diaspora have produced an incredibly high proportion pro rata of talented musicians,philosophers, scientists and high achievers. Whether this is genetic or because their ancestors were bullied and harassed and they had to achieve in order to survive – who knows for sure?
    I strongly suspect that the flood of Renaissance paintings depicting Jesus and hi family with white skins (and often blue eyes, which do occur in the Berbers but few other tribes in the Middle East) has led a lot of naive bigots down the wrong path.
    As far as Australia is concerned, we were the invaders and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders are the true inhabitants of this land.
    Because their lifestyle did bot lead them to develop the wheel and move into an industrial revolution such as changed the West, they might seem ‘backward’ to their invaders whose home countries had been involved in brutal wars while Australia was in relative peace.
    We ought, in my opinion, to accept the fact that technology in the forms of fast travel and IT has effectively made the world a smaller place. with regular contact between – and exploitation of – people of different races and cultures.
    My personal view is that the ‘white’ races have raped, pillaged and despoiled a fair chunk of the world and need to take a hard look at themselves.
    The arms race, the gap between the obscenely wealthy and those who are displaced and without home, food or water is, to me, appalling.
    If there is one god who put us here, he does not, in my estimation, deserve any credit for what he has achieved. I am firmly with Stephen Fry on this one.http://www.theguardian.com/culture/2015/feb/01/stephen-fry-god-evil-maniac-irish-tv
    The sooner we realise that wars only make rich people richer while creating more impoverished and displaced people, the better.
    The movement among the Sunnis to return to the Golden Age of Caliphates, ruled by Sharia Law, is a step backwards into a past that should be forgotten.
    To take as a guide to guide for life records such as the Torah, the Bible and the Q’uran is foolish since the world in existence at that time has gone for ever. Scientific knowledge – which is continuously being modified and added to, has changed so much. A simple example is human sexuality – predestined in the womb and far from being an evil or psychological condition that can be changed by exorcism and aversion therapy.
    The world is over-populated – fact. The Catholic Church has views in this regard which should be modified.
    The aftermath of the industrial population and population growth is the effect on the climate which is becoming – if it is not already too late – a matter of far more concern than skin colour and national boundaries.
    The arms manufacturers are encouraging situations which require their products so the rest of the world fight unnecessary wards while the manufacturers revel in their luxurious lifestyle.
    To me there is a life hereafter if a few people remember me fondly after my death.
    In this life I believe we need to do as we would be done by – and I do not like living in poverty and discomfort.
    Do you?
    If the answer is no, then we need to unite to help those who need help and to make sure our leaders do as we want, not as some far right-wing political body says they should do in order to protect those who already have far more than a fair share of the good things f life.
    Forget White Supremacy and concentrate on good government by good people for the people!
    And remember – education is liberation!

  6. Itsazoosue

    I hope your response is published, Trish. These “creativity” nutjobs are home-grown religious extremists with an ideology as disgusting and dangerous as their Muslim counterparts:

    http://www.qcotc.asn.au/whatwebelieve.htm

    These morons think that the white race is a species! I think that they need a biology lesson from miriamenglish. If Pauline Hanson aligns herself with these people, she deserves the racist epithet.

  7. Matters Not

    But no need for more of the Nick Cater variety.

  8. Bilal

    These white supremacist ideas were once regarded as self-evidently true in western countries. Nowadays only the intellectually challenged are influenced by such drivel.

    A well respected scholar of the between wars period, J. Lyng, who enjoyed the title of 1927 Harbison-Higinbotham Scholar of the University of Melbourne, wrote in 1935 “Non-Britishers in Australia: Influence on Population and Progress”. It carried a foreword by Ernest Scott, one of the outstanding Australian scholars at the time. Scott’s ideas can be regarded as mainstream ideas for that period of history. In his foreword, he wrote “Mr Lyng …wishes to analyse and indicate those elements in the racial mixture of Australia which are likely to conduce most effectually to the successful development of the country.”

    The ideological basis of the “modern emphasis upon race”, commented Scott, is due largely to the writings of the French Count Gobineau. That philosopher contended: “The history of mankind proves that the destinies of people are governed by a racial law. Neither irreligion, no immorality, no luxurious living, nor weakness of government causes the decadence of civilisations. If a nation goes down, the reason is that its blood, the race itself is deteriorating.”

    Hitler of course followed this ideology and tried to “purify” the Aryan race with mass murder.

    Note how silent our front bench is on this variety of hate speech.

  9. Kaye Lee

    From federal member for Dawson George Christensen’s facebook page….

    “I’ve made the decision to speak at the Mackay Reclaim Australia rally, being held at 12.30pm this Sunday, in Jubilee Park. I want to support people who seek to defend our Australian way of life, our culture and our freedoms from the threat of radical Islam. I made the decision to speak after reviewing the Reclaim movement’s 24 principles. These principes include equality of law, equality of genders and freedom of speech as well as supporting Australia’s right to exile or deport traitors. But there are those who want to silence me and stop me from being at the rally. The left-wing Getup! website, communityrun, already has a petition on it trying to get the Prime Minister to stop me from attending this gathering of my local constituents. (As a side note, it should be remembered that Labor’s Bill Shorten was once a board member of GetUp!) Hell will freeze over before I give in to such intimidation. However, it’s plain to see who wants to shut down free speech and the right to peaceful assembly and protest in this country.”

    And we pay this moron hundreds of thousands of dollars.

  10. Kaye Lee

    Reclaim Australia:

    “All Law is biblical, and that it represents a Covenant between man and Yhwh which is characterized as divine revelation. when we consider that government is founded exclusively on law, government itself then becomes a religion to implement or execute or enforce divine revelation. when government abuses the authority delegated by Yhwh through Yhwh Law, then it also becomes a false religious cult. this makes all western government nothing more than a cult surrounding the false religion it created with its own unjust law because this law has become a vain substitute and an affront to Yhwh’s Law found in the bible.

    Do not lie, cheat and steal, the “Government”, the banks, the judiciary and the “Australian Tax Office” hate the competition.”

    Oh yes, how appropriate for a government minister to advocate for this bunch of whackos and to speak at their rally.

  11. Matters Not

    The influence of the (modern) ‘eugenics’ movement in Australia (based on the ideas of William Goodell 1829-1894) was profound.

    https://theconversation.com/eugenics-in-australia-the-secret-of-melbournes-elite-3350

    It was particularly important in the development and implementation of Aboriginal Policy:

    The eugenics program of constructive miscegenation, of breeding out the colour of the half-castes, might have represented a mere footnote in the history of Australian ideas were it not for the fact that in the late 1920s and early 1930s two of the three most important administrators in Abo­riginal affairs, the Protectors in the Northern Territory and Western Aus­tralia, Dr Cecil Cook and A. O. Neville, were enthusiastic converts to this cause, and that both devoted part of their energies to the creation of a blueprint for the implementation of a policy for the breeding out of the mixed descent population under their control.

    — Robert Manne, ‘The Stolen Generations’, 1998

    (Despite what Windschuttle may aver).

    By the way Kaye I don’t think that George Christensen is yet a Minister. But it’s early days.

  12. Matters Not

    trishcorry, Rockhampton and surrounds has always produced some colourful characters including those who practised the art of politics. Rex Pilbeam who was both a long serving Mayor and a State MP will be remembered, in part at least, because his mistress shot him at close range (and only received a suspended sentence). Nevertheless his ‘bed hopping’ continued apace. Had a very tolerant wife.

    Then there was Vince Lester who excelled in walking great distances. All the time looking at where he had come from; not where he was going. In Parliament, Robert Schwarten wanted him listed as an endangered species, claiming he was really a Hairy Nosed Wombat. The irony was that Vince won the next election while Robert was defeated

    Schwarten himself was also a ‘bit of a wag’. Loved a beer and loved a fight, usually on the same day and in that order. And he didn’t care which party his opponent was affiliated with.

  13. Kaye Lee

    Matters Not,

    Yes you are correct. A slip on my part, though he is a prime candidate being one of the chief nodders. For those who may want to contact Mr Christensen, his number is (07) 4944 0662. I promise you an interesting experience.

  14. jimhaz

    Racism, classism etc will always exist, because basically it is a clash of egos based on learnt categorisation. If one word was used to describe the difference between animals and humans it would be egotism. Well, except for cats, tehy are like us.

    One of the other problems with a lack of such negatives is that greed trumps all (there are many forms of greed – wealth, power, emotional, consumption, ideological and so on). As a result any group that did not discriminate would be taken over by the group with the most numbers. In this widest context racism is not at all, because it forces species wide evolution or destruction of the status-quo both parties.

    One could say it is class based self-flagellation to expect only whites to not be racist and it is. It blatantly assumes the entire choice is held in whites hands and that compromise is entirely up to us.

    Christensen and his type are just emotionally and thus intellectually malformed due to the ego pumping up affect religion (leading to delusionary self-righteousness). There are other like me who mourn the evolutionary opportunity loss in excessive immigration from poorer countries – every immigrant changes Australia’s personality and immigrants from poorer countries lower the common denominator due to a lack of cultural experience in more organised societies. This is not the case where immigration is moderate as the dominant culture wears down the differences more in the immigrants than those already here and they adapt accordingly. To me the rise of boganism is partly due to the cultural divide and conquer effect resulting from too much immigration (maybe 30% of the cause, the rest being a mix of the affluence causing too high a level of entitlement-without effort and the negative affects of neocon rule).

  15. mars08

    …the dominant culture wears down the differences more in the immigrants than those already here and they adapt accordingly. To me the rise of boganism is partly due to the cultural divide and conquer effect resulting from too much immigration…

    Good grief! What on earth is Australia’s dominant culture? What was it two years ago? An who, exactly, is doing the dividing and conquering? Let me guess… is it the new arrivals????

  16. doctorrob54

    Oh she is misunderstood all right,poor old A Bolt too.People still can’t see what hateful racists they truly are.It sickens me to think a very large part of Australians agree with them.

  17. jimhaz

    [Good grief! What on earth is Australia’s dominant culture?]

    Everyone has a culture. I’m thinking of the period during the 70-90’s when unions were strong and society was making progressive cultural improvements. I’m thinking of the integrity and honesty of my parents and uncles. I am thinking of the scientific cleverness we had been fostering. I thinking of the level of cooperation we had with each other.

    Yes, we were xenophobic, so we did need immigration and to be pushed into increase levels of multiculturalism, but as for all things moderation is the key. With the number of folk here now who were born overseas, I cannot for the life of me consider immigration over the last 15-20 years as moderate.

    [What was it two years ago?]

    Same as now. The over-immigration had already occurred. We’ve already been saturated.

    [An who, exactly, is doing the dividing and conquering? Let me guess… is it the new arrivals????]

    It is the division of loyalty and team spirit that will occur when people mix from different backgrounds that are so markedly different. It loses much of the power of the sum relative to the parts. We become less effective. Sometimes differences are a definite advantage, but not so when the differences are too great – it takes more time and effort to get things done as managing and adapting to these difference takes additional effort that could be more productively spent. [eg how much time has been wasted on the muslim issue alone, it is a loss of opportunity. What if that time had of been spent on helping aboriginal folk instead?]

    It terms of infrastructure spending particularly at state levels, we are always playing catch-up due to consistent high levels of population growth from outside. You end up with dud suburbs because the money is spent on the provision of necessities as opposed to quality improvements. Dud living environments produce many value subtracting people such as seen with generational unemployment.

    Business is doing the dividing and conquering as they are the cause of the over-immigration via political and media sycophants to their growth and cost cutting desires. Lefties are as well by supporting without question the idea of multiculturalism without analysis of its effects.

  18. corvus boreus

    Kaye Lee (12;51),
    The ‘Reclaim Australia’ you quoted from are a different group of extremist nutters from the anti-muslim mob.
    The rabid bigots have a hyphen in the middle in their web address (reclaim-australia.com) to differentiate them from the rabid fundies (reclaimaustralia.net).

  19. Kaye Lee

    So I have been told cb. The Judean People’s Front or the People’s Front of Judea – splitters!

  20. eli nes

    Just ask a supremist or an abbuttian to explain “our” culture? Be careful not to laugh, without an escape route.
    If you are game, repeat for an atsi/jew/christian/muslim/atheist.

  21. olddavey

    @miriamenglish
    July 16, 2015 at 9:38 am

    Miriam,
    The thing that annoys me most about these Neanderthals is that they don’t have more than two brain cells between them, but RWNJ’s like Abbott rely on them to get elected.
    I despair if that after the next terrorist attack (genuine or confected) inspired election the nutters manage to have themselves installed for another ten years.

  22. Matters Not

    jimhaz @ July 16, 2015 at 4:14 pm

    I had a detailed rebuttal written but I decided not to post, for I think it’s a waste of time.

    What is clear is that the real enemy (in my view) lies within.

    Or as Pogo put it: “We have met the enemy and he is us!”

  23. miriamenglish

    Davey, it is a worry. I just hope any fools who are low on self-control can resist doing any violence. The last thing we need is for them to deliver Abbott what he desires most: an excuse to double down on control. He is just the sort of bastard who would love a dictatorship.

    I’m pretty certain Abbott is a genuine half-wit, and I’m fairly certain his government has plenty to match him in low intelligence, there are actually a number of those in the LNP who are certainly not stupid. Amoral perhaps, but not stupid. Why they put up with an imbecile in charge is beyond me.

    The same is true of racists generally. Often in my frustration I call them idiots, but honestly, there are plenty of racists who are very smart people. It’s like the religion mind-parasite — it’s hard to believe intelligent adults actually swallow those fairytales about gods and spirits and magic, but they do. Similarly, there are plenty of intelligent people who are racists. We have to be careful not to underestimate the power of such beliefs.

    We need strategies to undo racist belief. Unfortunately, since Howard started feeding and nourishing it nearly 20 years ago racism has grown into a massive infestation. After the atrocities of genocide during colonisation and then the White Australia Policy it had started to subside. It’s always been present in some form, though since the 60s it has mostly simmered below the surface. As I say, Howard and Pauline Hanson and Murdoch began feeding it, but Abbott in his stupidity and shallow opportunism with the help of Murdoch again has boosted it to a horrifying degree. We’ve let it get so far out of control now it’s going to be difficult to undo the damage. But we really need to fix it.

    In my opinion the first thing any sane government MUST do is dismantle Murdoch’s empire. Break it up and nationalise the crap out of it. If that asshole can’t play nicely he should have his toys taken away from him. If it wasn’t for Murdoch, Abbott wouldn’t’ve had a snowflake’s chance in hell of gaining power, we would be much closer to fixing carbon emissions, and our society would be far more harmonious, diverse, and productive instead of wasting so much time and effort chasing our freaking tails with this stupid anti-science, racist, religious, nationalist crap. Goddammit! I get so tired of it! I want it to be over so we can be moving forward again instead of backward!! F*CK!! (Please excuse the little outburst.)

  24. Matters Not

    Why they put up with an imbecile in charge is beyond me

    Perhaps it’s because the ‘imbecile in charge’ delivered them government and will, more likely than not, keep them there.

    Miriam et al, what action(s) did you undertake today, apart from preaching to the converted on this site, which might cause the downfall of the ‘imbecile’?

    And if today was inconvenient, what do you plan for the tomorrow(s)?

  25. Annie B

    Great article from Trish Corry … and some very interesting comments. I have to ask if this is where the KKK in Australia ( masquerading under a different name now – the ‘Church of Creativity’ ) has permanently dumped its’ vile backside … in Rockhampton ? …

    This alleged ‘Church’ ( and please no one tell me they are able to be tax free under the name of a ‘church’ ) …. is anti-Christian, anti-Jewish, anti- Muslim – and most obviously anti- anybody who is not ‘white’. They have their own ‘white bible’ which bears no resemblance to any christian bible, as they are actually against christianity. So – if it is indeed the anti Muslim Reclaim Australia group leading this gathering, they could run into this church at their rally !….

    Now THAT could end up being interesting !!

    corvus and kaye — There are at least two “Reclaims” … but the one who organised the rally in Melbourne ( which descended into a brawl ) and elsewhere in Australia a few months back … are anti-Islam 100% … and on their Facebook page, they lauded the comments by the PM – when he said ‘ If you go to the Middle East to fight with a terrorist army—we don’t want you back.” >>>>>. …. There might even be 3 Reclaim Australias at work now, as the page I found on Facebook seemed to show as spokesperson, Daniel Nalliah – an “Australian Christian evangelist pastor ” ? He may have taken over from the young caucasian guy who spruiked through YouTube for Reclaim and the first lot of rallies. ?? … They also occasionally refer to themselves as “Rise Up, Australia” ….they are allegedly Christian.

    The other Reclaim Australia is mentioned by Kaye – and is based on christian principles … the “All law is Biblical etc. …. ” … and they use the abbreviation of Yahweh – “Yhwh” … perhaps like some Jewish people who do not type God, but show instead G*d. They most certainly WOULD clash with the anti-christian church of creativity !!

    I have had enough of scrounging on the internet for more info, at this point, however.

    ……….

    Added to all this, a damned fool of an MP is going to actually attend and address this rally. …. but the good RC leader of our country, will say nothing, do nothing, speak nothing and hear nothing …. 4 ( not 3 ) inert monkeys in the same skin !! …. Pauline Hanson most likely will get her head in there somewhere as well.

    ….

    From what I can gather, this whole new church of ‘creativity ‘ ( how dare they use that word ) … began in the U.S. – ( where-else ? ) – promoted and organised by the writer of the ‘white bible’ – Ben Klassen – who, in 1993 committed suicide, allegedly because of the death of his wife, and the decline of his church.

    As for the use of the ‘Bro’ title …. many christian sects / cults, use the terms ‘brother’ and ‘sister’ when speaking to one another … had a friend in the U.S. who was head to toe Pentecostal ( definitely a sect in my opinion ), and she was addressed as ‘Sister Julie’ … and she always addressed others with those ‘church’ imposed titles. We parted company when she began to preach my ultimate demise in disgrace and damnation, if I did not ‘follow her’ into the Pentecostal movement. … hmmm !

  26. Pingback: White Supremacist says Ms. Hanson is misunderstood – » The Australian Independent Media Network | olddogthoughts

  27. corvus boreus

    AnnieB,
    The “young caucasian guy” you refer to, the ‘great Aussie patriot’ of Youtube, has formed his own splinter hate group (‘Patriotic Front’ or some such rabble-rousing militia type title).
    I gather there was a clash of egos (fancy that) and ideologies, with some disagreement over how much ‘we-claim straya’ (anti-muslim variety) wanted to be openly associated with neo-nazism and white-supremism.

  28. corvus boreus

    Kaye Lee (12;46, 16/7),
    Funny that George Christensen claims to support ‘equality of genders’, and yet explicitly states that he believes women are intellectually inferior.
    “Most Aussie men often try to crack onto good-looking women and neglect the not-so-good looking (read fat) ones
    Perhaps it’s the intelligence of women or, rather, the lack of it?
    My thoughts: the truth is women are stupid and that’s that. ” (George Christenson)

  29. Kaye Lee

    cb,

    That’s the tip of a very ugly iceberg.

    He also failed to resign from his position on the Mackay Regional Council before the 2010 election so should have been disqualified.

    Would you take advice from this man?

  30. Möbius Ecko

    Whilst Abbott is beating the drum of fear of external terrorism, internal terrorism in the form of white supremacist groups is growing. So much so the police are now openly talking of it being a main threat to our social cohesion.

    Other police authorities are also keeping a watch on the rise of these groups.

    The rise and coming out of these groups can be sheeted home to Abbott, as it was when Howard used surreptitious racial vilification for political gain. Under Howard these groups also became emboldened and became more vocal. But then, though the lid on the bottle was loosened, it was never fully removed. My fear is that Abbott either through ignorance, stupidity or deliberately will let the genie out of the bottle and blame the victims for what he unleashes.

  31. Zathras

    A pity the more serious White Supremacists don’t mention the full description of their (Biblically endorsed) belief about the difference between the races.

    The doctrine is that non-whites indeed evolved from apes but whites were created independently by God to rule over the earth.

    However some of the whites were created by Satan for his own purposes – specifically the Jews.

    It’s also a terrible sin to dilute the bloodline of the white race by interbreeding with the lesser ones.

    That alone should disqualify them from further public consideration about anything they may ever think or say.

    The previous One Nation policies were identical with those of the political wing of the KKK with the exception of the KKK withholding welfare from convicted drug dealers and various other criminals.

  32. miriamenglish

    Trish, forgive me replying here, off-topic, but a while back, in another thread, you said that the mining industry is worth backing in Queensland because of jobs. At the time I thought this sounded wrong, but was distracted doing other things instead of researching it. Today I got an email from the Australia Institute on this topic and suggest you watch this short informational video regarding just what return on investment Queensland gets from one part of the mining industry: coal mining. I expect the return from other forms of mining would not be much different. I believe you have been misled.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJT4kvR0FOI

    I can go along with other forms of mining, with appropriate restrictions on where they can dig and the methods they’re allowed to use, but there is no longer any excuse for coal mining when wind power has been cheaper for years now and the cost of solar power has dropped to similar levels. There is certainly no sense in investing billions of dollars into coal mining when the monetary return is so low, especially when the environmental costs (both immediate and deferred) are so high. Most of the profits from coal mining go offshore, whereas the profits from tourism largely flow in the opposite direction, bringing money into Queensland from overseas. Investing in other local service industries makes great sense too, because increasing the health and education of Queenslanders brings incalculable benefits for years to come, by increasing standard of living, and building new businesses to generate even more wealth.

    As for jobs, the employment record of the mining industry is not great, and it is worsening as they are leading efforts to automate. While service industries will continue to employ more people, mining will employ less. It is a terrible investment in that respect.

  33. Trish Corry

    No Miriam. I said that mining can’t just disappear like the Greens want. It needs to be a rational and incremental approach or it will cause economic devastation in CQ where I live. I an NOT an advocate of mining and I look forward to the day they don’t exist.

  34. miriamenglish

    Hmmm… I get the impression you didn’t really read more than a couple of sentences of I said.

    I didn’t say that mining needs to be abolished immediately (though I’d be glad if we could stop funding coal mining and let it die a natural death). I didn’t mention the Greens, but now that you have, they don’t recommend ending mining either (except for coal and uranium).

    Please do watch the short video. It’s not from the Greens. It’s very illuminating and filled with useful figures.

  35. Trish Corry

    HI Miriam, I was just correcting what you thought I said. Miriam posted: Trish, forgive me replying here, off-topic, but a while back, in another thread, you said that the mining industry is worth backing in Queensland because of jobs.”
    That is all.

  36. miriamenglish

    No worries. Sorry about the interruption to the thread. 🙂

  37. Annie B

    To corvus boreus

    Thank you for clearing up the question of the white supremicist who has now launched himself in a different way, but in the same direction … into “Patriot Front” … The Aussie patriot in full bloom — until someone else enters his newest order, and confronts and confounds him with other ideologies.

    These bods are a dime a dozen – choosing to take their 15 minutes of fame and then sink into oblivion – ultimately. … But then in a ‘free’ society, they have the right to bare their souls and put forth their ideas.

    Maybe they are of the same mind-set as our current leader – who likes nothing more than a punch-up, over absolutely anything … these ‘patriots’ also seem to want to slam and deride, any thought of acceptance of humanity in all it’s colours, forms and creeds. …. The only difference is, that the pee-em, seems to be able ( occasionally ) to temper his comments to agreeable and acceptable conformist / politically correct standards. … that’s however, a recent innovation on his part. !! …. perhaps someone else is writing his speeches these days ?

  38. Annie B

    @ Kaye Lee

    re : “That’s the tip of a very ugly iceberg.” – and ” would you take advice from this man” (AIM)

    Somehow, I missed that article – ( there are so many to read and digest these days ) …. and it was something I wish I had not read. … What kind of person is he – this George Christenson ? …

    I have now read all of the article, but perhaps need not have. … One look at his visage presented in the photograph that accompanied the article, would be enough to know what kind of person he might be.

    I don’t usually judge books by their covers, but in this instance, it is very obvious … a bully type, standing beside another bully …

    Christenson – another brute in the L-NP. !!

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