Right-wing pundits generally try to portray themselves as being strong and logical, not prone to the sensitive, emotional and allegedly illogical behaviours of the left-wing. Yet, many on the right-wing are extremely sensitive to criticism about God and country, often invoking emotional accusations of the left-wing not being patriotic or being communist, and then will follow this up by attempting to ban anything that doesn't meet their approval or which contravenes their 'values'.
Often these attempts to ban things are not accompanied by a great deal of logic, but based on logical fallacies and false equivalents. For instance, the right-wing have attempted to ban an entire religion and some of its aspects, namely Islam, halal, hijabs and burqas. Other things that the right has attempted to ban include refugees, abortion, homosexuality, marriage equality ... and even multiculturalism. Many of them completely melt down (pardon the pun) over climate change.
The right-wing get all touchy and upset whenever the left-wing accuses them of racism and bigotry. These accusations are usually based on the right's attacks on Islam, migrants from non-English speaking backgrounds or other things where people's race or religion come into it. Apparently running fear-mongering campaigns that accuse people from particular countries, races or religions as being terrorists, rapists and pedophiles is not racist or bigoted in the eyes of the right-wing. So, they retaliate and call the left-wing 'snowflakes' or 'libtards', and even attack fellow right-wingers as 'cucks' if they appear to have even a modicum of social justice values.
The right-wing got all offended when Michelle Wolf cracked jokes at Trump's expense(1), yet many of these were the same people who wore t-shirts at Trump rallies telling Democrats 'fuck your feelings'. Who's a little snowflake then?
The faux outrage from the right-wing didn't stop here. They were pulling their best lemon-sucking faces when Samantha Bee called Ivanka Trump a 'feckless cunt'(2). Yet they were fine when Sid Miller called Hilary a cunt(3) ... and for that matter when Ted Nugent called Hilary a 'toxic cunt' way back in 1994. Hilary's daughter, Chelsea Clinton, referred to Ted Nugent's comment when she called out the hypocrisy of right-wing outrage over Samantha Bee's comment about Ivanka(4).
The right figure that the left are snowflakes because they argue for political correctness. Keep in mind that PC is about treating people with respect which you'd think the religious right-wing would be in favour of. The religious right love to quote biblical scripture and nothing says the bible more than the golden rule articulated in Mathew 7:12, 'So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you'. In everything, huh? I wonder if that includes locking others up indefinitely on a remote pacific island when they've committed no crime other than to ask for protection from persecution ... but who knows, perhaps being brutalised on a desert-island has been a long-term fantasy of the right-wing.
The right-wing argue that left-wing snow-flakes take offence at everything, hence the whole PC thing. They accuse the left-wing of shutting down free speech and banning people from entering the country if they disagree with them. An example of this would be the left's attempts to ban speakers such as Milo Yiannopoulos and Geert Wilders, both of whom have been embraced by ultra-right-wing extremists for their extreme attacks on Islam, refugees and migrants ... not bigoted or racist, right?
So on banning people which the right claims they don't do ... there is the thing about banning asylum seekers from entering the country, whether it be Australia or the USA, even though under the UN Refugee Convention they are legally allowed to enter and seek asylum regardless of the irregular method of entry. Banning people fleeing persecution ... think about that. Thousands of people banned, yet the right-wing bang on about the left trying to ban a couple of hate-mongerers from entering the country ... hmm ... Funnily enough, the right-wing falls hook, line and sinker for the demonising of refugees and asylum seekers by the government and hate-mongerers. They are so gullible that they believe the lies about asylum seekers 'illegally' entering the country, so feel that if asylum seekers break the law, they should be locked up. If the right-wing is so concerned about the rule of law, then why aren't they upset about their government breaking numerous international laws and conventions, including conventions on refugees, torture and the rights of the child. It's hard to believe that they aren't motivated by racism and bigotry when they justify these human rights abuses in the name of 'border security' or preserving 'national values' ... it is really in the name of nationalism, which basically equates to keeping people who are different out of the country! Yeah, one can see why the left accuses these nationalists of racism and bigotry ... and fascism.
Former US President, Henry A. Wallace stated, 'a fascist is one whose lust for money or power is combined with such an intensity of intolerance toward those of other races, parties, classes, religions, cultures, regions or nations as to make him ruthless in his use of deceit or violence to attain his ends'.
And then there are some examples of specific individuals that the right-wing tried to ban. Cast your minds back to when an Australian woman named Yassmin Abdel-Magied dared to post an Anzac Day tweet that said, 'Lest. We. Forget. (Manus, Nauru, Syria, Palestine…)'(5). This was hardly an insult to Anzacs or the Australian military in general. It was acknowledging the role of the Australian military in these locations as well as the government's attempts to cover-up ongoing abuses of people fleeing war and persecution. Considering the Australian military has fought for our freedoms, then why not call out government actions that remove freedoms of people, particularly when they ordered the military to help out in its 'border security' operations. Right-wingers across Australia showed that they too have their own version of what they consider politically-correct, which often is anything that dares to criticise the military or their political and religious views. In this case, Yassmin was bombarded with death-threats and vile abuse from right-wingers who attacked her politics, her religion and her gender - nothing racist or bigoted about that, yeah? When she finally decided it was too much, Yassmin left Australia and moved to Britain, to great howls of approval and back-slapping from right-wingers who felt they had justifiably run her out of town. A couple of years later, Yassmin hosted a new show on the ABC and the right-wing went from indignant to apoplectic in micro-seconds(6). They called for the show's banning ... but aren't they the self-appointed guardians of free speech, always telling the left-wing snowflakes to suck it up whenever the right-wing offends someone? If the military fought for our freedoms, then it is an insult to their sacrifice to deny freedoms to others seeking our protection.
While this letter refers to America, the points it makes about the Allies fighting against fascism to defend freedom is relevant as the right-wing instead tries to defend fascism and hate-crimes.
In England there was the case of Munroe Bergdorf, a trans-gender model and political activist who dared to criticise the 'racial violence of white people', and stated 'Yes ALL white people. Because most of ya’ll don’t even realise or refuse to acknowledge that your existence, privilege and success as a race is built on the backs, blood and death of people of colour. Your entire existence is drenched in racism'. Bergdorf has made numerous posts about the racist behaviour and history of white people. Apparently, having an actual history lesson about the blood-drenched impacts of colonialism is not PC in the right-wing world. The right-wing did what they do best: they unleashed all manner of vitriolic attacks on her, which eventually forced her to stand down from the Labour Party's LGBT advisory board. Bergdorf stated, 'This is a decision that I’ve had to make due to endless attacks on my character by the conservative right wing press and relentless online abuse. I refuse to be painted as a villain or used as a pawn in the press’ efforts, especially those at the Daily Mail, to discredit the Labour party and push their transphobic rightist agendas'(7).
For people who claim to stand for freedom of speech, they sure do have issues when people exercise that freedom. This has been particularly evident when the media challenges statements and actions of the right-wing. Donald Trump is consistently accusing the press of fake news and being left-wing. In Australia, the right-wing are constantly attacking the ABC and SBS for unbalanced reporting. This is pretty ironic considering that most of the people attacking the ABC don't actually listen to, read it or watch it with any regularity. They generally tend to read the Murdoch papers which have little balance and are more prone to publish opinion than fact. The ABC can and does challenge politicians from all sides of the fence about the claims they make. Right-wingers criticise the ABC for being too left-wing, yet it is only that the critics are so right-wing, they see any unbiased article as left-wing. The fact is that the ABC is banned by law from providing opinion and is required to be balanced; it can only provide facts, it interviews politicians and commentators from both sides of the fence, and its correspondents and hosts are from both sides of the political divide, e.g. Philip Adams from the left and Amanda Vanstone (former Liberal politician) from the right.
So what does the right-wing do? They de-fund the ABC through forced savings of $324 million in 2014 and funding freezes in 2018 that cut $84 million from the ABC's budget which impacts their service delivery(8). Then they appoint a former Murdoch-stooge to conduct an 'efficiency review' of the ABC(9). Clearly the government doesn't want to pay to protect the free speech that it claims to value.
Attacks on the press are almost de rigueur for the right-wing. In the United States, the Texas Governor laughed about shooting reporters(10). Donald Trump, feckless President of the United States, has incessantly waged war on the media, as have many others in the Republican Party. Trump has accused the media of being the 'enemy of the people' and during his election campaign, t-shirts were available that said, 'Rope. Tree. Journalist. Some assembly required'. This war hasn't stopped at words. A Republican candidate was charged with assaulting a reporter(11). Right-wing troll, Milo Yiannopoulos stated that he 'can't wait for vigilante squads to start gunning journalists down on sight'(12). Days later, a gunman walked into a newspaper office in Maryland and shot five people dead(13). The attacks from Trump and others may not have directly inspired the killings, but a number of people from the so-called alt-right rejoiced in the murders(14).
The Australian government doesn't just attack the media, but threatens to prosecute it for reporting government corruption. In 2014, the then Abbott-led government passed legislation that could see journalists and whistle-blowers jailed for up to 10 years for reporting government actions, corruption and bungles by security agencies(15). The most recent case being of 'Witness K' and, astoundingly, his lawyer(16). Witness K was a former Australian spy who revealed that during tense negotiations over oil and gas revenue between Australia and East Timor, the Australian government illegally bugged the East Timorese cabinet room. The government was not concerned about the illegality of the bugging, but they were concerned about it being exposed so they've taken particularly vindictive action by not just charging Witness K but his lawyer. This is not just an attack on free speech, but an attack on civil liberties. Everyone charged with a crime has the right to legal representation, so how can the lawyer be charged? In July 2018, saw enactment of the National Security Legislation Amendment (Espionage and Foreign Interference) Act 2018. Originally introduced to parliament by Prime Minister Turnbull, the new Act criminalises the leaking and reporting of classified information; this includes whistle-blowers. Imagine a government that is less concerned about crime and more concerned about charging those who expose crime.
The UN has condemned the Turnbull government for an 'anti-democratic slide' in which there is 'mounting evidence of regressive measures being pursued by the government', this includes 'frequent vilification by senior public officials of charities, community groups and democratic institutions who hold the government to account'(17).
The left-wing love a good protest. So the conservative New South Wales government banned protests on crown land. The Council for Civil Liberties condemned it as being an 'unacceptable infringement on the civil liberties of people in NSW'(18).
As can be seen, the right-wing has double-standards around offensive language, behaviour, freedom of speech and freedom of movement. Many people have compared their actions to those of Hitler and the Nazis in 1930s Germany. While we haven't yet seen the mass incarceration of unionists socialists, we do see deportations of people who have lived in the country for years, we see the demonisation, vilification and indefinite detention of innocent men, women and children from other nations who have done nothing worse than flee war and persecution. They are often accused of being terrorists even though many are fleeing terrorism. In Australia, refugees are usually characterised as being Muslim, yet they are a mix of Muslim, Christian, Buddhist and other religions, and sometimes of no religion. We may not have arrived at the full-scale brutality of Hitler, but we are on the path to it. The latest method of the Australian government to justify these human rights abuses is to attack compassion itself. The Home Affairs Minister, Peter Dutton, stated that 'It's essential that people realise that the hard-won success of the last few years could be undone overnight by a single act of compassion in bringing 20 people from Manus to Australia'(19). So the indefinite detention of people who have not committed a crime or been charged with a crime will continue. There are thousands locked up by the government in the name of border security and the right-wing condones and encourages it. Recently, the Greens pushed to stop the reciting of the Lord's Prayer in parliament to howls of protest from the religious right who fail to abide by the bible in their treatment of refugees, the poor and in the basic commandment of loving their neighbours and loving their enemies ... Forgive us of our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us ... yep, the right seems to miss this in their outrage.
Such human rights abuses are often lost in the mire of economic debate. The right-wing will claim that conservative governments are the better economic managers than more left-wing governments, as this justifies the abuse and torture of innocent people. Surely human rights atrocities take precedence over balancing the budget. It should be kept in mind that during the 1930s, Hitler turned Germany's economy around as it recovered from the Great Depression, yet his economic successes are eclipsed by his human rights atrocities and the holocaust. Numerous historians have stated that had Hitler died in 1938, he would be remembered as the greatest statesman in German history(20). Had his supporters challenged his human rights and civil liberties abuses instead of crowing about his economic and nationalist successes in 'Making Germany Great Again', then there wouldn't have been the holocaust or the second world war.
The comparison to Hitler is not exaggerated. Holocaust survivor, Stephen B. Jacobs, states, 'America today feels like 1929 or 1930 Berlin. Things that couldn't be said five years ago in public are now normal discourse. It's totally unacceptable. Trump is an enabler. He's a sick, very disturbed individual. Appeasement of fascism is what led to everything'.
The right-wing carry on about political correctness stifling freedom of speech, yet as can be seen, they take offence at all sorts of stuff which they try to shut-down or ban. To accuse the left-wing of this, to accuse the left of being sensitive souls in a state of perpetual outrage is particularly disingenuous and a failure of circumspection by the right-wing.
The left-wing claim to be tolerant in the face of the right's intolerance. Of course, the right-wing then accuses the left of being intolerant to their freedoms of speech because of 'politically correctness gone mad'. However, challenging someone's views and opinions, asking them to explain the evidence, is not attacking their free speech. Having said that, the left, and for that matter the right, should not tolerate intolerant hate speech, racism or bigotry. There is a thing called the paradox of tolerance, which states that to tolerate the intolerant is to destroy tolerance.
Right-wing politicians and correspondents have turned the people against each other. This brain-washing is based on fear-mongering and false-hoods, which are wrapped in the flag of patriotism and pages of a misinterpreted bible to con the gullible. They scapegoat the most vulnerable who are blamed for society's ills, when it is the greed of politicians and businesses that have caused job losses, low wage growth in the name of 'efficiency' and are cultivating hate in the hearts of fearful people who mistake it for patriotism.
Those who blindly defend these abuses of power and people, do not take kindly to their myopic views being challenged; views which are based on opinion rather than fact. When the left presents facts, the right-wing call them elitist. Facts by themselves can be misleading, for instance, we've all heard the adage, 'lies, damned lies, and statistics'. Facts without context can be twisted to suit anyone's viewpoint. How often do we hear bigots quote the Koran without context to justify their bigotry, yet when the bible is quoted without context those same people try to explain it away with, 'yes, but ...'. Call the left-wing snowflakes, libtards, cucks, elites or whatever else, but this doesn't change facts of history, politics or social issues. This willingness of the right-wing to see strength and patriotism in such ignorance is reminiscent of the Ministry of Truth's slogan in George Orwell's 1984:
Sadly, it goes beyond just facts and context. There is the whole issue of respect and basic decency. Under Trump, disgusting behaviour has become the new norm(21) and right-wingers across the globe (and in many churches) absolutely wallow in this deplorable behaviour as some sort of badge of honour. From making jokes about rape and sexual assault as though women are just being too sensitive, to tearing children away from their families, to his blatant and compulsive lying about pretty much everything. Conor Friedersdorf of The Atlantic perfectly sums up the situation in relation to Republican leadership relating to their tolerance of Trump and his deplorable behaviour, which also applies to anyone supporting Trump and overlooking his amoral and immoral actions and words: 'They can no longer be trusted to oppose racism or sexism. With a civic arsonist in the White House, they decline to summon the fire department. In short, they have become irresponsible citizens'(22).
As Lieutenant General David Morrison stated: 'The standard you walk past is the standard you accept'. Those on the right-wing who accept racist, sexist, bigoted behaviour cannot be surprised or offended if they they are labelled racist, sexist or bigoted. It is not a badge of honour to defend such deplorable behaviour, particularly when they declare anything that exposes this as being 'fake news'.
Those who feel threatened by facts, context, respect and decency are the real snow-flakes.
Those who blindly defend these abuses of power and people, do not take kindly to their myopic views being challenged; views which are based on opinion rather than fact. When the left presents facts, the right-wing call them elitist. Facts by themselves can be misleading, for instance, we've all heard the adage, 'lies, damned lies, and statistics'. Facts without context can be twisted to suit anyone's viewpoint. How often do we hear bigots quote the Koran without context to justify their bigotry, yet when the bible is quoted without context those same people try to explain it away with, 'yes, but ...'. Call the left-wing snowflakes, libtards, cucks, elites or whatever else, but this doesn't change facts of history, politics or social issues. This willingness of the right-wing to see strength and patriotism in such ignorance is reminiscent of the Ministry of Truth's slogan in George Orwell's 1984:
War is peace
Freedom is slavery
Ignorance is strength
Sadly, it goes beyond just facts and context. There is the whole issue of respect and basic decency. Under Trump, disgusting behaviour has become the new norm(21) and right-wingers across the globe (and in many churches) absolutely wallow in this deplorable behaviour as some sort of badge of honour. From making jokes about rape and sexual assault as though women are just being too sensitive, to tearing children away from their families, to his blatant and compulsive lying about pretty much everything. Conor Friedersdorf of The Atlantic perfectly sums up the situation in relation to Republican leadership relating to their tolerance of Trump and his deplorable behaviour, which also applies to anyone supporting Trump and overlooking his amoral and immoral actions and words: 'They can no longer be trusted to oppose racism or sexism. With a civic arsonist in the White House, they decline to summon the fire department. In short, they have become irresponsible citizens'(22).
As Lieutenant General David Morrison stated: 'The standard you walk past is the standard you accept'. Those on the right-wing who accept racist, sexist, bigoted behaviour cannot be surprised or offended if they they are labelled racist, sexist or bigoted. It is not a badge of honour to defend such deplorable behaviour, particularly when they declare anything that exposes this as being 'fake news'.
Those who feel threatened by facts, context, respect and decency are the real snow-flakes.
References
1. The Telegraph, Our Foreign Staff, 29 April 2018, Michelle Wolf draws laughs - and gasps - with barbs at Trump and Sanders at correspondents' dinner. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/04/29/michelle-wolf-draws-laughs-gasps-barbs-trump-sanders-correspondents/. Accessed 15 June 2018.
2. Buzzfeed, Krystie Lee Yandoli, 1 June 2018, Samantha Bee And TBS Have Apologized For Calling Ivanka Trump A “Feckless Cunt”. https://www.buzzfeed.com/krystieyandoli/samantha-bee-ivanka-trump-feckless-cunt. Accessed 2 June 2018.
3. San Antonio Current, Alex Zielinski, 1 November 2016, Sid Miller Called Hillary Clinton a "Cunt." Are We Supposed to Be Surprised? https://www.sacurrent.com/the-daily/archives/2016/11/01/sid-miller-called-hillary-clinton-a-cunt-are-we-supposed-to-be-surprised. Accessed 7 July 2018.
4. Huffpost, Sara Boboltz, 2 June 2018, Chelsea Clinton Points To Right-Wing Hypocrisy In Samantha Bee Outrage. https://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/entry/chelsea-clinton-hypocrisy-samantha-bee-outrage_us_5b1059dae4b0d5e89e1e2a71. Accessed 7 July 2018.
5. ABC News, 26 April 2017, Yassmin Abdel-Magied: ABC can't sweep presenter's Anzac Day controversy under the carpet, Joyce says. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-07-11/yassmin-abdel-magied-says-she-feels-betrayed-by-australia/8699138. Accessed 7 July 2018.
6. Junkee, Tom Clift, 11 April 2018, Yassmin Abdel-Magied Has A New Show At The ABC, And Conservatives Are Throwing A Massive Tantrum. http://junkee.com/yassmin-abdel-magied-abc-show/153763. Accessed 12 April 2018.
7. The Guardian, Jessica Elgot, 6 March 2018, Model Munroe Bergdorf quits as Labour LGBT adviser. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/mar/06/model-munroe-bergdorf-quits-as-labour-lgbt-adviser. Accessed 8 March 2018.
8. The Guardian, Amanda Meade, 1 June 2018, ABC axes another 37 jobs in wake of $84m budget cut. https://www.theguardian.com/media/2018/jun/01/abc-axes-another-37-jobs-in-wake-of-84m-budget-cut. Accessed 7 July 2018.
9. The Age, Jennifer Duke, 6 July 2018, Ex-Foxtel boss Peter Tonagh set to head ABC review. https://www.theage.com.au/business/companies/ex-foxtel-boss-peter-tonagh-set-to-head-abc-review-20180706-p4zpyx.html. Accessed 6 July 2018.
10. Newsweek, Alexander Nazaryan, 26 May 2017, Texas Governor Greg Abbott Makes Joke About Shooting Reporters. http://www.newsweek.com/texas-governor-greg-abbott-makes-joke-about-shooting-reporters-616403. Accessed 1 July 2018.
11. Newsweek, Alexander Nazaryan, 25 May 2017, Trump's war on the press reaches dangerous levels as Republican candidate charged with assaulting reporter. http://www.newsweek.com/trump-war-press-dangerous-615316. Accessed 7 July 2018.
12. Observer, Davis Richardson, 26 June 2018, Milo Yiannopoulos Encourages Vigilantes to Start ‘Gunning Journalists Down’. http://observer.com/2018/06/milo-yiannopoulos-encourages-vigilantes-start-gunning-journalists-down/. Accessed 7 July 2018.
13. The Guardian, Naaman Zhou , Kate Lyons, Julia Carrie Wong and Oliver Laughland, 30 June 2018, Maryland shooting: five victims named after 'targeted attack' – as it happened. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2018/jun/28/capital-gazette-shooting-annapolis-latest-live-news-updates-today-maryland
14. Hope Not Hate, The Right Response Team, 29 June 2018, Five journalists were murdered — and the alt-right celebrated. https://hopenothate.com/2018/06/29/five-journalists-murdered-alt-right-celebrated/. Accessed 7 July 2018.
15. ABC News, 14 October 2014, Fact check: Journalists face 10 years' jail for exposing security agency bungles. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-10-14/journalists-face-jail-for-exposing-security-agency-bungles/5776504. Accessed 7 July 2018.
16. Human Rights Law Centre, Michelle Bennett, 29 June 2018, Turnbull Government criticised for prosecution of people who exposed government wrongdoing.
https://www.hrlc.org.au/news/2018/6/29/turnbull-government-criticised-for-prosecution-of-people-who-exposed-government-wrongdoing. Accessed 30 June 2018.
17. Human Rights Law Centre, Michelle Bennett, 1 March 2018, UN expert ‘astonished’ at the Turnbull Government's anti-democratic slide. https://www.hrlc.org.au/news/2018/3/1/un-astonished-at-the-turnbull-governments-anti-democratic-slide. Accessed 7 July 2018.
18. New South Wales Council for Civil Liberties, Michael Brull, 20 June 2018, Council for Civil Liberties condemns regulations allowing for bans on public gatherings. http://www.nswccl.org.au/council_for_civil_liberties_condemns_regulations_allowing_for_bans_on_public_gatherings. Accessed 7 July 2018.
19. SBS News, AAP-SBS, 23 June 2018, Compassion can undo efforts against people-smugglers: Dutton. https://www.sbs.com.au/news/compassion-can-undo-efforts-against-people-smugglers-dutton. Accessed 7 July 2018.
20. Encyclopaedia Brittanica, John Lukacs, Adolf Hitler, Dictator of Germany, Hitler's Place in History. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Adolf-Hitler/Hitlers-place-in-history. Accessed 6 July 2018.
21. The Washington Post, Alexandra Petri, 6 July 2018, The disgusting 'normal' under Trump. https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/compost/wp/2018/07/06/the-disgusting-normal-under-trump. Accessed 8 July 2018.
22. The Atlantic, Conor Friedersdorf, 13 February 2018, When Deplorability Is No Longer a Dealbreaker. https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/02/what-donald-trump-supporters-cannot-be-trusted-to-do/551201/. Accessed 8 July 2018.
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