Jesus was a virtue-signaller not a vaccination, and science isn't black magic

Jesus was a virtue-signaller not a vaccination, and science isn't black magic

By Ranting Panda, 26 September 2021

Covid has brought to light some of the utter ignorance and arrogance of science-denying Luddite conservatives, many of whom are Christians claiming that they place their faith in God, not vaccines, masks, lockdowns, doctors or other medical professionals. They treat science as if it's hocus-pocus mysticism, while indulging in group-think cultism that glorifies anti-intellectualism. 

They seriously believe that God, not vaccines, will protect them from the virus, even though there have been more than 4.5 million deaths from Covid worldwide. In the United States, more than 850,000 people have died so far, many of those were Christians who had fallen for the racist and anti-science lies of the disgraced former President, Donald Trump, who was more concerned with racial vilification of China, than in actually taking the virus seriously. He was directly responsible for the genocidal scale of victims in the United States. Yet right-wing Christians practically worshipped him and continue to consider him to be a man of God. God knows what God they worship, but it's clearly not the Christian God. This shows just how degenerate conservative Christianity is ... how spiritually irrelevant it has become; steeped in superstition and stupidity.

Today's conservative Christians are incensed that their individual rights are being 'violated' by mandated vaccines, masks and lockdowns. They claim they are being persecuted. Meanwhile, they were nowhere to be seen when real persecution occurred of other people. These conservatives defended Trump and other conservative governments when they persecuted refugees, the world's most vulnerable people, by demonising them, locking them up in mandatory detention without charge, even though the refugees had broken no laws and had not been charged with any crimes. Conservative Christians defended and condoned this persecution. But the moment these cowards are asked to stay home and wear masks, they carry on as if they've been locked up on Manus Island for years on end. Clearly, 'do unto others as you'd have them do unto you', is something they only pay lip service to. It shows that they have no concern for others and are only concerned with themselves. 

This has been magnified during Covid-19, when they have shown no concern for the community, for reducing the spread of the virus throughout their neighbourhoods, minimising the risk of infection by others. Instead, they are only interested in themselves. Jesus said to 'Love your neighbour'. In fact, Mark 12:33 says that loving your neighbour is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.

It isn't showing love to your neighbour if you don't care about your neighbour being infected by a deadly virus. The Bible tells Christians to not be selfish, but to be selfless. Philippians 2:3-4 says, 'Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others'. Throughout Covid, conservative Christians have shown that they are selfish, not selfless.

Recently, Pastor Keith Marshall published an article entitled 'What does your faith exempt you from'. Marshall boldly suggested that as a Christian he was exempt from putting his own needs above others, claiming freedom in Christ without responsibility for his actions, or refusing to protect the most vulnerable. This sounds positively socialist. Dare he suggest that Christians were called to put the needs of others ahead of their own need? 

Not surprisingly, this caused a lot of consternation among conservative Christians, who were obviously convicted of their selfishness by his words. To be frank, it was a little entertaining reading their comments, which showed just how deluded and degenerate conservative Christianity has become. So a few of their comments are republished here and are representative of much of the commentary about the article.

Many of the commentators claimed that they put their faith in God, not in vaccines or science. Apparently, because God gives us an immune system, there is no need for vaccines ... after all, history shows how well our immune systems have coped over the centuries. 

Of course, there was the claim repeated ad nauseum of one's body being a temple ... hmm ... one can be confident that the Bible was not banning life-saving medication being used in said 'Temple'. Instead, it was more talking about allowing the Holy Spirit to dwell within ... you know a spiritual kind of thing, so it's really this redacted commentator who is twisting the Lord's word.

Many, many commentators banged on about God creating them with an immune system sufficient for pandemics such as this ... sadly, there's millions of dead Covid victims whose testimony from the grave shows that the immune system needs a bit of a kick along.

Then there was this person who doesn't appear to be aware of the significantly higher infant mortality rate before vaccines, and the much shorter average life expectancy before modern medicine … it seems that God did need a helping hand after all. And yes, redacted commentator, the vaccine does help to prevent the spread of the virus as well as reduce the severity of it in those who do become infected. Unvaccinated people account for more than 98% of deaths from Covid (Johnson & Stobbe, 2021).  

There was this irate statement accusing Marshall of virtue-signalling ... but keep in mind that Jesus was a virtue-signaller ...

Conservatives love to throw insults around when people are actually trying to do the right thing by others. For instance, they'll call them do-gooders, virtue-signallers, or politically correct. Christians should actually be all these things. The Bible says that Christians are 'created in Christ to do good works' (Ephesians 2:10). It says to 'let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven' (Matthew 5:16). Political correctness is simply about treating others with respect. You know that thing mentioned earlier about 'do unto others as you'd have them do unto you', well, that's political correctness Bible style. 

Many conservative Christians treat the sharing of wealth as though it's socialism ... oh wait ... I guess it is. But then, the Bible does describe how the people redistributed their wealth 'to each as anyone had need' (Acts 4:32-35). One would think the scripture was written by Karl Marx, 'From each according to his ability, to each according to his need'. Conservative Christians will often argue that the Parable of the Talents is evidence of capitalism being God's chosen economic system. This parable is described in Matthew 25:14-30 and likens the Kingdom of Heaven to a farmer who entrusts his servants with some of his property. He gives them differing amounts 'to each according to his ability' ... already it's sounding like something from Marx. The parable then talks of the servant who received five talents, making another five talents. The one who had two talents, made another two talents. The one who received one talent, buried it in the ground because he feared the farmer. Not surprisingly, the farmer wasn't happy. The talents were distributed according to each servant's ability, so the one who received one, had the ability to be more productive. Firstly, this is a parable about the Kingdom of Heaven, not an economic model. Interesting that the Kingdom of Heaven requires people to do good with what they have. Who'd have thought, huh? Do-gooders in Heaven, ala Ephesians 2:10 and Matthew 5:16!

 BUT ... if one wants to use the parable of the talents as an economic exemplar, then it merely shows that workers should be productive, which is necessary regardless of the economic model; socialism requires productivity, capitalism requires productivity, feudalism requires productivity ... you get the idea. In other words, 'from each according to their ability, to each according to their need', which does enable equitable redistribution of wealth and for people to do good works to help each other. 

Yet, many conservative Christians throw insults such as 'social justice warriors' (or SJW) at those who help the less privileged. By their standards, Jesus was the ultimate SJW. He was a do-gooder and a commo. Christ's teachings have a very strong socialist bias. He was about helping the poor and needy, about sharing wealth and showing love to the 'least of these', that is those who most need it, who have been shunned and ostracised by society. Christ did not preach a gospel of selfishness and accumulating wealth, or that one should be only concerned for themselves, or only care for other Christians. How often do we see Christians pray for other Christians, such as in Afghanistan or Iraq, but don't pray for Muslims persecuted in those same countries. Conservative Christians have lost the way.

Jesus was a virtue-signaller ... he hung out with prostitutes, tax collectors, drunkards, and sinners. By today's conservative Christian standards, this would mean that he was virtue-signalling to those who lived these lives rather than rebuking them and hanging out with the religious conservatives who didn't take kindly to his politically correct, do-gooder ways. For that matter, his harsh criticism of the selfish, egotistical religious folks, not to mention his temper tanty in the temple, was virtue-signalling to sinners who avoided the temple or criticised the profiteering priests and pious 'parishioners' of the day.  

Not all commentators pulled lemon-sucking, lip-pursing face when they read Pastor Marshall's article. Some pointed out the darker history of Christianity over the centuries, replete with warring in the name of God, subjugation in the name of God, enslavement in the name of God, abuse in the name of God, and killing in the name of God.

As a point of interest, observant readers would notice that the post highlighting some of Christianity's less than savoury accomplishments, received all of two 'likes', whereas those that criticised Pastor Marshall, received hundreds and even thousands of positive reactions. Wow! Way for conservative Christianity to shine!

Some seemed to make the rather tenuous assumption that being anti-vax was an indication of their love for God. 'How do they arrive at that?', you may wonder. To be frank, I've got nothing. But apparently, putting God first, means it's ok to be anti-vax, anti-mask, anti-lockdown, thus risking harm to their neighbours. 

This tweet explains why it is not ok for anyone, Christian or not, to be so self-centred. 

There's been a disturbing trend towards anti-intellectualism by many conservatives, not just Christians. They treat education as a if it's part of a broader socialist agenda to usher in an era of leftist intellectualism. They treat science as if it's black magic. So here we are ... people believing that God is some sort of wizard waving a magic wand to protect them from Covid-19, while thousands who eschew the vaccine die painful deaths from the virus.

Of course, there may well be people who truly cannot take the vaccine because of allergy or some other health issue. However, those people who can take it, but consciously choose not to, are selfish and have no concern for the welfare of others. Across the globe, the vast majority of deaths from Covid are among the unvaccinated. Lockdowns will eventually end as the vaccinated population reaches a certain point, but this won't end the virus. Instead, it will leave the unvaccinated vulnerable to the more serious effects of the virus, and sadly many of the anti-vaxxers will succumb to Covid because of their own ignorance and arrogance.  

The day a make-believe potato destroyed the world

The day a make-believe potato destroyed the world 

Conservative cancel culture & the perpetually offended right-wing

By Ranting Panda, 1 June 2021

Have you ever noticed how easy it is to rile a conservative? There are so many ways. I mean, just mention how easily offended people are today. Said conservative will launch into a tirade about everyone being offended so easily these days. A great response is to agree and then pick a topic, like 'Black Lives Matter, 'Australia Day should be moved', or 'Trump is a traitor'. Bust out the pop-corn, sit back and watch the fireworks. It's kinda ironic how easily offended conservatives are as they wail about how easily offended everyone else is. 

Another way to rile a conservative is to talk about political correctness and being 'woke'. Apparently being woke or politically correct is bad. Just ask a conservative. 'Woke' is just another word for critical thinking, however conservatives idea of critical thinking is to go 'conclusion shopping', that is they will seek out confirmation bias to support their ignorant beliefs. Being woke means to appreciate people (regardless of differences), the environment, and science ... without bigotry or ignorance. Critical thinking means that a person would change their views if presented with compelling evidence to the contrary. It's not surprising that conservatives reject being 'woke'; they aren't renowned for their critical thinking or self-reflection abilities. They believe anything they are told if it confirms their own bigoted biases, while criticising science and academic study. 

For conservatives, being 'woke', being considerate of others, the environment, and appreciating science, are all part of a Marxist plot.

But my personal favourite way to peeve a conservative is to discuss 'cancel culture'. Holy. Mother. Of. God. They will go off like a fruit bat in a mango tree at sunset! They'll get their knickers in a twist every tim; which doesn't solve anything, but it makes them walk funny. Conservatives often melt down over left-wing 'cancel culture'. Which is ironic because conservatives cancel everything!

Dare to question a conservative's uninformed opinion and they'll screech that their freedom speech is being curtailed, that everyone is easily offended, and that they're SICK AND TIRED of political correctness, woke snowflakes, lefty scientists, and GOD DAMN neo-Marxist cancel culture! Funny shit, really. 

Conservatives continue living in the dark ages, condemning anything and anyone who questions their ignorance.

Actual image of conservative cancel culture

A couple of recent decisions offended the sensibilities of conservatives so much that they took to social media to wail about 'do-gooder snowflakes' and 'political correctness gone mad'.

One decision was by Dr Seuss Enterprises, who decided to cease production of six of their own books that they felt were overtly racist. This was a business decision of the company and not the result of campaigning by any group (Helmore, 2021). Conservatives claim the books were banned by lefty snowflakes, however, they were not banned nor have they become illegal; they are just not being published because of a decision by the publisher. 

The second decision was by Hasbro who manufacturers the Mr Potato Head series. Hasbro rebranded it to 'Potato Head'. 

Yeah. That's it. Offended yet? Well ... our resident conservative snowflakes melted down like a ... er ... snowflake in the heat. 

Apparently, the 'de-genderisation' of a pretend potato was some sort of left-wing woke agenda to remove gender from society ... according to conservatives. In fact, according arch-conservative commentator, Piers Morgan, this was a harbinger of the apocalypse: '... woke imbeciles are destroying the world' (Mellor 2021).  It was nothing of the sort. Try to follow me here. There is the brand and then there are the products within that brand. The products include Mr Potato Head, Mrs Potato Head, and soon there will be little Potato Head children. Hasbro felt it looked a bit weird packaging Mrs Potato Head with a Mr Potato Head brand sitting on it, so they made the brand 'Potato Head' in order to more openly accommodate the various products sitting under that brand. So conservatives need not panic or rush out and stock up on Potato Heads, because Mr Potato Head, Mrs Potato Head and all the little child Potato Heads will still be available. 

The great Potato Head Crisis of 2021 was summed up nicely by Jon Stewart on Twitter.

Some years are defined by a significant event. For instance, 2020 has been defined by the emergence of the global Covid-19 pandemic. Surely, it couldn't get any worse right? Well, 2021 was particularly troubling for Conservatives, because the year was bookended by the Great Potato Head Crisis in February and the Big Bird Controversy in November. Focusing on the big things, Conservatives lost their collective minds over ... checks notes ... Big Bird. In case you're not familiar with this particular character, Big Bird is a muppet from Sesame Street ... a make-believe character of a giant, feathery bird. Said character innocuously tweeted in support of Covid vaccinations. The Conservative establishment melted down like ice-cubes on a hot bitumen road in the middle of summer in North-West Queensland. Big Bird (a pretend character remember) was accused of being a Communist and promoting government propaganda (Gillespie 2021). After all, sending a community health message is Communism according to the ultra-right-wing extremists who seem to dominate the Conservative establishment. 

Speaking of make-believe characters, there is the global phenomenon, Harry Potter, the fictional boy-wizard created by best-selling author, J.K. Rowling. Across the globe, conservative Christians burned or destroyed the Harry Potter books because they depicted witch-craft (Tucker, 2017). Those who didn't burn the books, often protested at cinemas showing the Harry Potter movies, or campaigned to have the books banned or removed from libraries. In 2017, conservative voters torched the books for political reasons, not religious ones. J.K. Rowling was openly criticising the inept, bumbling and racist Donald Trump. Of course, Trump supporters are not well known for having thick skins, so they react poorly to critical thinking and criticism. Trump's cult-like, brainwashed fan-base melted down like snowflakes dropped in a witch's hot cauldron ... 'double, double, toil and trouble'. They burned Rowling's books because of her opposition to Trump (Brockell, 2021). 

It is kind of funny how conservatives melt down over these things while accusing the left-wing of being snowflakes. 

Trivial things trigger intolerant minds.

Some commentators have even blamed President Biden and the Democratic Party for the Dr Seuss and Hasbro decisions, even though they had nothing to do with it (Cillizza, 2021). However, the reality is that conservatives confected their outrage by misrepresenting the facts ... yet again. 

Conservatives talk of 'cancel culture' and 'political correctness gone mad', yet they have their own forms of political correctness and cancel culture. For instance, it is politically incorrect in conservative mindsets to behave in an 'unpatriotic' manner, such as criticising the military action of conservative governments. When the ABC reported on complaints that the Australian military had physically abused asylum seekers, many conservatives claimed it was left-wing bias and that the ABC were traitors ... even though there was video evidence. Similar conservative outrage was unleashed when the ABC reported on alleged war-crimes by the Australian military in Afghanistan. Apparently, it was terribly unpatriotic to expect that Australia's defenders of democracy would not commit war crimes. 

When a journalist named Yasmin Abdel-Mageid tweeted about Anzac Day in a manner that was politically incorrect for conservatives, they were so offended that they unleashed a torrent of vile abuse, including threatening her with rape and murder. Yasmin left Australia in the wake of this abuse. This is a shocking example of conservative cancel culture, and is far worse than degenderising a make-believe potato.

Remember when conservative Christians tried to cancel rock music? It was reminiscent of the Central Scrutinizer in Frank Zappa's album, Joe's Garage, in which music was banned. In fact, some Christian conservatives even went so far as to try to cancel anything with a 4/4 beat ... which was a bit awkward when they realised that quite a few Christian songs are based on 4/4. Some pastors quite seriously explained that 4/4 was the devil's music because it emulated the beats of our heart. Yes, the heart has 4 chambers, so 4 beats, so 4/4 is of the devil. I wish this was one of those light-hearted non sequiturs, but no ... they were serious as a ... er ... a heart attack.

Here's a reminder of conservative cancel culture in action:

• cancelled Dixie Chicks and burned their merchandise when they criticised the 2003 invasion of Iraq
• boycotted the NFL because Colin Kapernaeck knelt during the national anthem in solidarity with Black Lives Matter
• boycotted Cadbury Chocolate because of Easter Eggs that dared not mention 'Easter' ... even though they were chocolate eggs ... and sold at Easter ...
• boycotted shops and hounded celebrities who said 'happy holidays' instead of 'Merry Christmas'.
• boycotted Nascar because it banned confederate flags
• tried to ban Dungeons and Dragons because they believed it to be 'demonic'.

Diversity and inclusion are not high on the conservative agenda. As long as minorities and under-represented people tow the conservative line, then they might be tolerated by conservatives. If minorities want to be heard, to have equality, then conservatives will carry on about political correctness going mad and that the world is being taken over by a some sort of neo-Marxist agenda. In other words, minorities and under-represented people can be seen but not heard.

In May 2021, Australian Defence Force chiefs made the decision to ban diversity and inclusion activities, such as morning teas and lanyards (Greene & Mannheim, 2021). Apparently, this would make Australia a safer place. What it really showed was that as far as the ADF is concerned, Australia is for white, straight males. It meant that conservative cancel culture had cancelled morning teas or wearing rainbow lanyards or ally pins that supported events such as Harmony Day, Women's Day, National Reconciliation Week, or International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, Interphobia and Transphobia (IDAHOBIT). In other words, if you support these issues, conservative snowflakes have one message: don't be seen or heard.

Conservative cancel culture has been with us a long-time. You may recall many centuries ago, the burning of witches, and the Spanish Inquisition. In the 1950s, we saw something similar with the 'Reds under the bed' fear-mongering, in which hundreds of people were arrested, imprisoned, and their careers destroyed, for allegedly have left-wing sympathies. 

In the 1980s, Queensland was very much a hick state with an exceptionally conservative, authoritarian, and corrupt government led by Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen, supposedly a Christian. Jackboot Joh, as he was known, used the cops as his own personal attack dogs to violently quell protests and concerts. After all, how dare people protest against South African apartheid or the export of uranium, or march in solidarity with indigenous issues. How dare they attend concerts and have fun. Joh's fun police even raided record stores to remove albums that may offend the sensitive ears of conservatives ... even though conservatives would never listen to those albums any way. Joh hated communism so much that he established a fascist police state. He hated anyone who aligned themselves with left-wing politics, including the community radio station, 4ZZZ. Apart from supporting human rights causes and local music, Triple Zed was also holding the government to account over allegations of corruption and police brutality. Thankfully, Triple Zed outlasted Joh and his fascist dictatorship. 

By 1979, Triple Zed was operating out of the iconic and heritage-listed ballroom, Cloudland, which it also used for hosting large international and local bands that drew the ire of Joh and his police bully-boys. Many of ZZZ's journalists were subject to police surveillance and intimidation, and in some cases their homes raided (Stafford, 2004); so paranoid was the government of anyone who questioned them. On the morning of 7 November 1982, Brisbane residents woke to find that Cloudland had been demolished overnight. Joh had directed its illegal demolition without a permit. The demolition was an act of political bastardry against journalism, music and the young people who frequented Cloudland.

Conservatives can't claim the high moral ground against cancel culture, particularly when they are perpetually fearful and looking for things to offend their myopic sensibilities. Recently, they cancelled Coca-Cola, because the world's largest beverage company dared to criticise the Republicans for their anti-democratic voter suppression laws in Georgia (Carter, 2021). 

Conservatives have a very liberal approach to truth. The truth is whatever they say it is, regardless of the facts. Dare to contradict this narrative and you'll find yourself cancelled ... or worse. Conservatives seem to believe that Truth is a tool that Antifa uses to destroy democracy. Give them alternative facts so they don't have to deal with substantiated facts that contradict the comfortable lies they like to believe.

The Godfather of Conservative Hogwash is Donald Trump, former president who told thousands of lies while in power, who embraced and promoted racism, hate-speech, white-supremacy, and normalised lying as 'alternative facts'. In the face of overwhelming evidence that Trump lost the 2020 election, he tried to gaslight the United States into believing the election had been stolen from him. It was truly the most remarkable piece of blatant bullshit by a president in the history of the United States. His gullible followers believed him and refused to accept the legitimacy of the election. On 6 January 2021, whipped into a brainless furore by the Trumpenfuhrer, they stormed Congress in an attempt to cancel the election results. The attack on Congress went further than mere conservative cancel culture; it was an act of treason, of sedition. Republicans have since voted against holding an inquiry into the storming of the Capitol (SBS News, 2021), because they know they are culpable. Conservatives claim to be patriots, but that very act showed they are nothing but gutless traitors who act like spoilt kids if they don't get their own way. They hate democracy, because they don't want anyone else to have a say in running the country. Put it this way, these deluded snowflakes were so offended by losing an election that they tried to cancel democracy. Forget Marxist cancel culture, conservatives showed us fascist cancel culture ... these nutters are extremists, they are terrorists, they are cowards, they are traitors. 

What conservatives call cancel culture, is merely people asking that they be treated with respect. Ironically, conservatives will bemoan the lack of respect in today's society, while defending why they should be able to disrespect, abuse and denigrate others. Respected Australian entertainer, Kamahl, was subject to years of racist taunting while performing on the TV show, Hey Hey It's Saturday. He recently made the observation, 'I know they call it cancel culture, but they’re not stopping culture. They’re only trying to limit unnecessarily vulgar or crude terminology or gags or whatever ... If something has merit, if it is witty, if it’s clever, so be it. If it’s crap, maybe we can do without it' (Stafford, 2021).

The problem is that conservatives can't handle criticism. They accuse others of being sensitive snowflakes who are easily offended. Yet, the perpetually offended conservatives have a victim-mentality in which they believe they are being persecuted and their freedom of speech stifled whenever someone argues with them. Challenging falsehoods is not persecution. Asking someone to stop abusing someone else does not make the abuser a victim. All it demonstrates is the persecution-complex that conservatives wallow in.

Cancel culture is an innate part of the conservative psyche. They've been doing it for centuries. 

References

Brockell, G, 2021, Burning books: 6 outrageous, tragic and weird examples in history, The Washington Post, 13 November, viewed 15 November 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2021/11/13/book-burning-history.

Carter, A, 2021, Republicans are cancelling Coca-Cola after company denounced Georgia voting law, Now This, 7 April, viewed 7 April 2021, https://nowthisnews.com/news/republicans-are-cancelling-coca-cola-after-company-denounced-georgia-voting-law.

Cillizza, C, 2021, Why Republicans think Dr. Seuss and Mr. Potato Head can save them, CNN, 3 March, viewed 1 June 2021, https://edition.cnn.com/2021/03/02/politics/cancel-culture-potato-head-muppets-dr-seuss/index.html. 

Gillespie, E, 2021, The tweet from Big Bird that caused waves of backlash from US Republicans and anti-vaxxers, SBS News, 9 November, viewed 14 November 2021, https://www.sbs.com.au/news/the-tweet-from-big-bird-that-caused-waves-of-backlash-from-us-republicans-and-anti-vaxxers/c72d7924-a22c-43c8-9801-f5569206a25f. 

Greene, A and Mannheim, M, 2021, Defence declares war on political correctness, bans morning teas aimed at promoting inclusion and diversity, ABC News, 21 May, viewed 21 May 2021, https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-05-21/defence-chief-angus-campbell-political-correctness-morning-teas/100156436.

Helmore, E, 2021, 'It's a moral decision': Dr Seuss books are being 'recalled' not cancelled, expert says, The Guardian, 7 March, viewed 1 June 2021, https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/mar/07/dr-seuss-books-product-recall-cancel-culture. 

Mellor, J, 2021, Best reactions as usual mouthpieces are foaming over a genderless Potato Head, The London Economic, 26 February, viewed 1 June 2021, https://www.thelondoneconomic.com/news/best-reactions-as-usual-mouthpieces-are-foaming-over-a-genderless-potato-head-222403/. 

SBS News, 2021, US Senate Republicans block bipartisan inquiry into the deadly 6 January Capitol riot, 29 May, viewed 29 May 2021, https://www.sbs.com.au/news/us-senate-republicans-block-bipartisan-inquiry-into-the-deadly-6-january-capitol-riot.

Stafford, A, 2004, Pig City - from The Saints to Savage Garden, Chapter 8 - Everybody Moves, Kindle 2014 edition.

Stafford, A, 2021, 'I felt humiliated': Kamahl on racism, Hey Hey It’s Saturday and cancel culture, The Guardian, 27 March, viewed 27 March 2021, https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2021/mar/27/i-felt-humiliated-kamahl-on-racism-hey-hey-its-saturday-and-cancel-culture.

Tucker, T, 2017, What do protests about Harry Potter books teach us?, The Conversation, 26 June, viewed 15 November 2021, https://theconversation.com/what-do-protests-about-harry-potter-books-teach-us-79327. 

Updated 15 November 2021

Honour the victims, expose the perpetrators: monuments, statues and revisionist history

Honour the victims, expose the perpetrators: monuments, statues and revisionist history

By Ranting Panda, 28 June 2020

Statues across the world are being attacked, torn down or defaced by people protesting against the history of the person represented by the statue. Oftentimes, the statue represents some head of state or war-time leader, perhaps a founding figure for a particular city. In most cases, these people perpetrated or gave rise to abhorrent practices, such as genocide, slave trading, or racism.

Many people who are defending the statues do not even know who the statue represents, let why they have a statue or the terrible history of the person immortalised in stone. However, while we certainly should not revere people who committed genocide, such as Churchill, or who traded in slavery, such as Edward Colston, tearing down their statues may not be the best approach to raising awareness of their heinous histories. It's an educational opportunity lost to remove those statues.

Although, those who so vehemently defend the statues in the name of history, would have to then agree with replacing the statues with monuments, so the victims are honoured rather than the perpetrators. More on that later.

In relation to statues, it would be much better to add a plaque to the statue explaining that person's heinous deeds for all the world to see. This may prove a tad more educational that relegating them to the dustbin of history. At least this way, people can easily and quickly read a short summary of Tweet-length proportions which should reach those who won't ever go near a history book. Instead of tearing down statues, historian Max Barton believes it is time to 'educate not eliminate' (Parkes 2020).

Plaque added to John Batman statue in 1992 (CAMD 2017)

Critics allege that the protesters are rewriting history. Newsflash to the critics ... the protesters are not rewriting history, they are ACKNOWLEDGING it, unlike the critics who want to whitewash and deny the horrendous history behind many of those statues. If anyone is rewriting history, it is often the original plaques or inscriptions on those statues. Take John Batman for instance. Batman founded the Australian city of Melbourne. An inscription on Batman's statue at Queen Victoria Markets states that he founded the settlement 'on the site of Melbourne then unoccupied'. Unoccupied? This must have come as news for the thousands of Aborigines who inhabited the area for millennia. The history originally depicted on the statue is wrong. In 1992, Melbourne City Council added a plaque to the statue, which read 'When the monument was erected in 1881 the Colony considered that the Aboriginal people did not occupy land. It is now clear that prior to the colonisation of Victoria, the land was inhabited and used by Aboriginal people'.

In acknowledgement of history, keep the statues & add plaques that clearly state the true history, rather than the revisionist one that many statues depict.

Below are examples of statues that could do with being updated.

• Winston Churchill, British Prime Minister
• Responsible for the genocide of around four million people in Bengal during World War 2, after knowingly and deliberately exacerbating a famine by redirecting grain to British and other allied troops ... because their lives were more important than Indians, whom he described as a 'beastly people with a beastly religion' (Tharoor 2016, pp. 132, 158-160). Churchill's exacerbation of this famine was recently confirmed through a scientific study conducted into causes of famines in India (Mishra et al 2019, p. 2080). Churchill's policies included confiscating rice and boats to deny the Japanese from accessing them ... but the Bengalis were the ones who suffered (Safi 2019).
• Edward Colston, British businessman 
• Colston was a wealthy and influential merchant who donated much of his wealth to charity. He is recognised as one of Bristol's 'most virtuous and wise sons', however, part of his wealth was built through the transatlantic slave trade and exploitation (Parkes 2020). 
• Lachlan Macquarie, Governor of New South Wales
• while Macquarie had been relatively sympathetic to Indigenous peoples, he became frustrated with the ongoing violence between settlers and Aborigines. Macquarie ordered his troops to 'punish' local Aborigines, resulting in the mass murder of 14 men, women and children. Macquarie's principle aim was to 'strike the greater terror into the Survivors' by hanging the bodies of grown men from trees, which his troops complied with by hanging up the bodies of two men and one woman. Later, their heads were cut off and sent to Edinburgh University. Macquarie then lied to British authorities by claiming the group was given the opportunity to surrender, when they weren't. (ABC Fact Check 2017).  
• Robert Towns, businessman, mariner, founder of Townsville, Queensland
• Robert Towns was a wealthy businessman who founded Townsville and contributed to infrastructure projects in Queensland. He was also involved in 'blackbirding', which involved kidnapping South Sea Islanders from their homelands and trafficking them to Australia to be enslaved in forced labour on cane and banana farms (Haxton 2017). The South Sea Islander community is calling for the statue to include a plaque and a statue to pay tribute to the people who were trafficked to Queensland and forced to work in the canefields (Haxton 2017).

It's interesting that people get so upset about a statue being defaced or torn down, yet still don't care about the destruction of culture by government and big business. For instance, where was the outrage when Rio Tinto blew up two 46,000-year-old Indigenous sacred sites in June 2020. While Rio Tinto apologised for it, the fact is that the law allows this to happen with ministerial approval. Indigenous groups have long been requesting the legislation be amended to protect sacred sites (Smoleniec 2020).

It is understandable that people would want statues removed. Nancy Pelosi explained why she supported the removal of a statue of Christopher Columbus, 'Monuments to men who advocated cruelty and barbarism to achieve such a plainly racist end are a grotesque affront to these ideals. Their statues pay homage to hate, not heritage. They must be removed' (Macardle 2020).

It is a form of revisionism to ignore the history of a person who was responsible for abhorrent actions, such as genocide, slavery, war crimes, rape, racism. Those who defend the statues of such people while ignoring their heinous behaviours are no different to the societies of the time who empowered such people and who condoned such behaviours. Let's take the opportunity to correct this revisionism and ensure that people never forget the blood that was spilled, the lives that were destroyed by these 'heroes', often in the name of their countries and often while building their own wealth and power.

While tearing down statues is about acknowledging history, the banning or censorship of movies is about ignoring it, covering it up. For example, cancelling movies such as Gone With the Wind and Song of the South because of their racist content. WarnerMedia pulled Gone With the Wind from its streaming service, HBO Max, with the explanation that 'these racist depictions were wrong then, and are wrong today, and we felt that to keep this title up without an explanation and denouncement of those depictions would be irresponsible', and that it would return with a 'discussion of its historical context and a denouncement of those very depictions', while on its return, the film 'will be shown as it was originally created, because to do otherwise, would be the same as claiming these prejudices never existed'. The film has since returned with an introduction that places the film in its historical context and describing that 'when it is not ignoring the horrors of slavery, pauses only to perpetuate some of the most painful stereotypes of people of color' and that it sentimentalised 'a history that never was'. Jacqueline Steward, history professor, provides the introduction, and has stated that 'If people are really doing their homework, we may be poised to have our most informed, honest and productive national conversations yet about Black lives on screen and off'. (Blackwelder & Stone 2020).

Taking the opportunity to explain this is much better than banning it. If movies are banned, should we then ban the books they are based upon? We've seen where that level of censorship leads. It is a fascist act to ban art. If we want to ensure fascism never returns, then let's not start with a fascist act. 

Without a doubt, many movies are racist, but to bury this, ignores the injustices that were perpetrated against black people, or anyone seen as racially inferior. To purge art of everything that contains racist content would obliterate much of the historical record. Rather than eliminating history, we should be educating people about how such racist attitudes developed, why they were so wrong and what should be done to address the systems of racism that still exist today.

Sanitising history will not end racism or sexism, whether it be individual, systemic (institutional and structural), or casual. Far better to educate people on how poorly others were treated because of their race or gender, and then understanding why those behaviours were so wrong, and the importance of civil rights. Certainly, call out racism in all its forms; make it unacceptable.

It is understandable that people would want to ban movies that have racist content, but it is a band-aid solution that will not stop racists from being racist. Instead, it may well empower them as they argue about 'political correctness gone mad'. Far better to educate and highlight just how unacceptable and atrocious such attitudes are. 

Of course, when too much outrage is not enough, along comes the Murdoch press to inflame the situation. Australians from coast to coast were outraged ... apoplectic even ... when the Herald Sun reported that Aboriginal woman and Greens Senator Lidia Thorpe was 'demanding' that the state of Victoria should change its name so it is no long associated with 'someone who’s caused harm or murdered people'. This article did nothing but stir up racism and foment anti-Greens animosity. The story was a beat up. Lidia Thorpe had not called for Victoria to be renamed. Instead, the suggestion was put forward by the Herald Sun itself and she was asked to comment (Lewis 2020). When she said a name change could be considered, that was enough for the Herald Sun to twist that to sound like an Aboriginal Greens Senator was demanding that Victoria be renamed. And the predictable hate speech and vile attacks ensued, as the Herald Sun knew they would.

Better than maintaining statues to racists, mass murderers and slavers, would be to construct monuments that remember the victims. People who defend the statues and claim that tearing them down is to deny history, must surely be in favour of remembering history through such monuments.

An example of a moment that ensures the victims are remembered and history is not forgotten or revised, is shown in the preservation of the Nazi death camp, Auschwitz (Donadio 2015). More than 1.3 million people were murdered there, 90% of whom were Jewish, but Nazi victims also included dissenters, socialists, communists, the unhealthy, LGBTIQ+, and those who were considered 'racially inferior', which in addition to Jews, included Roma and people of colour.

The need to remember this history was highlighted recently, when President Donald Trump's campaign released an ad attacking Antifa by placing an inverted red triangle behind the word 'Antifa'. The Nazis had a classification system to identify demographics of its victims; the inverted red triangle was used to identify political prisoners (US Holocaust Memorial Museum n.d.).

Howtofightantisemitism.com (2020)

Revitalising a Nazi symbol of hate to promote President Trump demonstrates the need to ensure that history is not forgotten. This became even more pertinent when it was revealed that the Department of Homeland Security released a report on the greatest threats facing the United States. This report did not mention Antifa, however it did mention far-right extremists, such as the Boogaloo movement; but it was Antifa (which is an anti-Fascist ideology, not an organisation, by the way) that Trump and his campaign have targeted (Sargent 2020). It's disturbing that the Trump campaign resorts to Nazi symbols of fascism to demonise anti-fascists. Meanwhile, Trump's followers accept his growing fascism, hate-speech and racism, without challenge.

Not that this is the only Nazi symbol appropriated by the Trump re-election campaign. They are also selling 'America First' shirts with a logo that features an eagle with talons gripping an American flag in a circle, which bears a striking resemblance to the Nazi symbol that featured an eagle in a similar pose, whose talons were gripping a swastika in a circle (Elliott 2020).

Is it any wonder, that many of Trump's followers claim to be Christian? It was Christians who empowered Hitler, his white supremacy and his genocidal fascism. German Pastor Martin Niemöller blamed Christians for Hitler, which he highlighted in this speech (Niemöller 1947). This quote is disturbing on so many levels, given the parallels with Trump and his Christian followers, their attacks on black people, on leftists, and even on dismantling public health systems which 'cost the state money'.

'When Pastor Niemöller was put in a concentration camp we wrote the year 1937; when the concentration camp was opened we wrote the year 1933, and the people who were put in the camps then were Communists. Who cared about them? We knew it, it was printed in the newspapers. Who raised their voice, maybe the Confessing Church? We thought: Communists, those opponents of religion, those enemies of Christians - "should I be my brother's keeper?" Then they got rid of the sick, the so-called incurables. - I remember a conversation I had with a person who claimed to be a Christian. He said: Perhaps it's right, these incurably sick people just cost the state money, they are just a burden to themselves and to others. Isn't it best for all concerned if they are taken out of the middle [of society]? -- Only then did the church as such take note. Then we started talking, until our voices were again silenced in public. Can we say, we aren't guilty/responsible? The persecution of the Jews, the way we treated the occupied countries, or the things in Greece, in Poland, in Czechoslovakia or in Holland, that were written in the newspapers. … I believe, we Confessing-Church-Christians have every reason to say: mea culpa, mea culpa!'

Let's not forget our history, let's not deny our history.

A common adage repeated ad nauseam by many conservatives is that 'people should stop living in the past'. This is usually directed at people protesting racism. The people who say this, are also often the same ones vehemently defending statues of some long-dead genocidal, slave-trading, rapist racist. They obviously don't see the irony. They also don't understand that racism is still alive and destroying lives today. They don't understand that today's systemic racism exists because of the systems established years ago by these 'heroes' they defend and the revisionist history they believe. This is why we must never forget the past and it musts be used to help destroy existent systems of racism and discrimination that perpetuate the pain and suffering of victims here and now! Racism is built on the past and it is present in today's systems and in the attitudes of many people who clearly do not understand the harm it causes.

Honour the victims, expose the perpetrators.

References

ABC Fact Check 2017, 'Fact check: Was Lachlan Macquarie a mass murderer who ordered the genocide of Indigenous people?', 10 November, viewed 22 June 2020, https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-09-27/fact-check-did-lachlan-macquarie-commit-mass-murder-and-genocide/8981092?nw=0.

Blackwelder, C & Stone, M 2020, ''Gone With the Wind' returns to HBO Max with intro detailing historical context', Good Morning America, 24 June, viewed 27 June 2020, https://www.goodmorningamerica.com/culture/story/gone-with-the-wind-returns-hbo-max-commentary-71171554.

CAMD 2017, Melbourne’s John Batman statue, Council of Australasian Museum Directors, 1 September, viewed 20 June 2020, https://camd.org.au/melbournes-john-batman-statue/.

Donadio, R 2015, 'Preserving the ghastly inventory of Auschwitz', The New York Times, 15 April, viewed 27 June 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/16/arts/international/at-auschwitz-birkenau-preserving-a-site-and-a-ghastly-inventory.html.

Elliott, J 2020, 'Trump 2020 campaign accused of ‘ripping off’ Nazi eagle logo', Global News, 2 July, viewed 4 July 2020, https://globalnews.ca/news/7130932/trump-nazi-eagle-logo-america-first/.

Haxton, N 2017, 'South Sea Islanders say statue of Townsville founder 'whitewashes' slave history', ABC News, 24 August, viewed 21 June 2020, https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-08-24/townsville-statue-whitewash-slave-history-islanders-say/8838984.

HowToFightAntiSemitism.com 2020, 'Trump campaign uses Nazi concentration camp symbols in Facebook ads', 17 June, viewed 27 June 2020, https://www.howtofightantisemitism.com/timeline/trump-campaign-uses-nazi-concentration-camp-symbols-in-facebook-ads.

Lewis, C 2020, 'Anatomy of a News Corp beat up', Crikey, 22 June, viewed 25 June 2020, https://www.crikey.com.au/2020/06/22/anatomy-of-a-beat-up-news-corp-lidia-thorpe/.

Macardle, M 2020, 'Columbus Statue to Be Removed from California State Capitol after 137 Years', National Review, 17 June, viewed 27 June 2020, https://www.nationalreview.com/news/columbus-statue-to-be-removed-from-california-state-capitol-after-137-years.

Mishra, V, Tiwari, AD, Aadhar, S, Shah, R, Xiao, M, Pai, DS, Lettenmaier, D, Drought and Famine in India: 1870-2016, Geophysical Research Letters, 28 February 2019, Vol.46(4), pp.2075-2083.

Niemöller, M 1947, 'Of guilt and hope', analysis by Harold Marcuse, University of South Carolina Beaufort, 17 September 2004, viewed 27 June 2020, http://marcuse.faculty.history.ucsb.edu/projects/niem/Niem1946GuiltHope13-16.htm.

Parkes, P 2020, 'Who was Edward Colston and why is Bristol divided by his legacy?', BBC News, 8 June, viewed 21 June 2020, https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-bristol-42404825.

Safi, M 2019, 'Churchill's policies contributed to 1943 Bengal famine – study', The Guardian, 29 March, viewed 21 June 2020, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/mar/29/winston-churchill-policies-contributed-to-1943-bengal-famine-study.

Sargent, G 2020, 'Leaked document makes Trump campaign’s use of Nazi-era symbol look worse', The Washington Post, 20 June, viewed 27 June 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/06/19/leaked-document-makes-trumps-use-nazi-era-symbol-look-worse/.

Smoleniec, B 2020, 'After blasting 46,000-year-old Indigenous caves, Rio Tinto backs calls for changes to WA heritage laws', SBS News, 5 June, viewed 25 June 2020, https://www.sbs.com.au/news/after-blasting-46-000-year-old-indigenous-caves-rio-tinto-backs-calls-for-changes-to-wa-heritage-laws.

Tharoor, S 2016, Inglorious Empire: What the British did to India, Kindle edition, Scribe Publications, London, UK.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum n.d., 'Classification system in Nazi concentration camps', Holocaust Encyclopedia, viewed 27 June 2020, https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/classification-system-in-nazi-concentration-camps.




Updated 4 July 2020

Facts, alternative facts & the psycho-ceramic-crackpot-in-chief

Facts, alternative facts & the psycho-ceramic-crackpot-in-chief

By Ranting Panda, 25 February 2020

Trump is a Psycho-Ceramic.

What are pyscho-ceramics? They are 'the cracked pots of mankind' ... as described in Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, which went on to observe that 'perhaps the more insane a man is, the more powerful he could become, Hitler for example'. Trump is testament to this. He is mentally deranged & morally derailed, yet holds the most powerful office in the world ... meanwhile, the increasingly desperate, delusional & degenerate right-wing continue making excuses for him, justifying him and completely ignore the truth.

Take Senator Lindsey Graham for instance, who bizarrely stated that Trump shouldn't be removed from office, because 'he did nothing wrong in his mind' (Moye 2020). So what if his mind is a cracked pot.

There's a lot wrong inside Trump's mind ... If the right tolerate this behaviour, what will they tolerate next?

Trump is a demagogue: he appeals to his voters through manipulating their fears and prejudices, rather than by making rational arguments. His speeches are devoid of facts, heavy on lies and barely more than an incoherent, rambling, alphabet soup of puerile insults and bigotry.

In One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Kesey goes on to observe, 'mental illness could have the aspect of power, power'. Now, this isn't an attack on people with mental illness, it is questioning whether Trump's particular mental illness makes him unsuitable to lead a nation. Psychologists from all ideological persuasions have determined that Trump has 'narcissistic personality disorder' (Psychology Today, n.d.).

This may explain some of his more concerning behaviours, such as gas-lighting, compulsive lying, distortion, disregard and denial of facts, erratic and contradictory statements, paranoia and his snowflake sensitivity to criticism. Most concerning is how this plays out in the lives of innocent people. He has not only imprisoned people seeking asylum in the United States, but torn their children from their arms and separated them from their families. There are at least 26,000 children, many of whom will never be reunited because Trump did not have plans for recording the children's details before separating them (Blitzer 2019). This is the man who represents 'family values' to his followers.

Trump was impeached for extorting Ukraine to provide dirt on one of his political opponents. The Republican-dominated Senate was so sure of his innocence that they refused to allow new witnesses and evidence to be presented. One of the religious nutters who supports Trump, called for an 'angelic army with flaming swords' to protect Trump  from impeachment (Hamilton 2020).

Trump was accused of colluding with Russia in fixing his 2016 election win. Wikileaks founder, Julian Assange, is currently fighting extradition to the United States on espionage charges. In 2016, Wikileaks published emails that were damaging to Hillary Clinton's election campaign. The lawyer acting for Assange has asserted in court, that Trump offered Assange a presidential pardon if he stated that the emails were not leaked by Russia (Borger 2020).

These are not the actions of an innocent man.

It's not just that Trump is a crack-pot. He is a dangerous crack-pot. He has unbelievably managed to herd Christians behind his corrupt, bullying, abusive agenda. He has done this through the equivalent of slapping a 'fish' sticker on his car. In this case, the fish sticker is his abortion policy, which blind, unquestioning Christians think makes Trump a good Christian, while excusing every other immoral, amoral, corrupt, deceitful, bullying action. All these people defending Trump and claiming he is a Christian, claiming he has family morals and values. Yet would they really want their children behaving like Trump?

Even more disturbing is the correlation of increased hate crimes since Trump's election. The FBI reported attacks against Latinos was at a 16-year high (Hassan 2019). Furthermore, a study examining hate crime trends since 1992, concluded that not only was Trump's election win associated with a 'statistically significant surge in reported hate crimes across the United States, even when controlling for alternative explanations', but that this increase was most evident in counties that voted for Trump (Edwards & Rushin 2018). The report was comprehensive and concluded that it wasn't just Trump's 'inflammatory rhetoric throughout the political campaign that caused hate crimes to increase', but that Trump's election 'validated this rhetoric in the eyes of perpetrators and fuelled the hate crime surge'. Further to this, Trump's influence as holder of the most powerful office in the world, has normalised racism globally and legitimised the rise of far-right political parties and their policies of intolerance, prejudice and discrimination (Giani & Meon, 2019).

Then there's Trump's so-called 'peace plans' for Israel. This particularly appeals to Zionist Christians, and of course, Israel. Meanwhile, it legitimises Israel's war-crimes and ethnic cleansing in Palestine. Firstly, he relocated the US embassy from Tel Aviv to the contested area of Jerusalem. Trump stated, 'God decided Jerusalem was the capital of Israel more than 3,000 years ago during the time of King David' (Usher 2018). Meanwhile, Israeli soldiers were shooting Palestinian protesters, leaving more than 50 dead (Davis 2018). More recently, Trump proudly unveiled his 'peace plan', which has an uncanny resemblance to the apartheid of South Africa, of which Israel was the greatest contributing external party, providing diplomatic support, financial aid, military weapons, and other resources for building and maintaining the bantustans (Liel 2020). Trump's peace plan was developed without any Palestinian input. Instead of returning land to Palestinians, which had been illegally taken and occupied by Israel, Trump's plan will create enclaves in the West Bank for Palestinians. It is no different to the bantustans of South Africa. All of this plays into the hands of Israel and Zionist Christians who have white-washed Palestinians from history, claiming they don't exist and have no rights over the land. The very creation of modern Israel was based on the myth of a 'land without people for a people without a land'. The land did have people and they had occupied it for thousands of years (Brownfield 1998). Trump's rhetoric, actions and 'peace plan', legitimise the ethnic cleansing of Palestine from history and the land ... all in the name of God.

Trump claims to be a Christian, but the bible does state, 'by their fruits you shall know them'. Trump's fruit is racism, hate-speech, hate-crimes, apartheid, war-crimes and the justification of ethnic cleansing.

To quote the 1971 song 'One Tin Soldier':

Go ahead and hate your neighbor,
Go ahead and cheat a friend.
Do it in the name of heaven,
You can justify it in the end.

It is from the movie, Billy Jack. The song, One Tin Soldier, tells the story of an age-old battle for a buried treasure, and the blood spilled in pursuit of it. The song ends with the treasure being revealed. Rather than the treasure being gold, silver or jewels, it is simply a message: 'Peace on earth'.

This message reflects Carl Sagan's powerful, poignant, perceptive observation of the 'Pale Blue Dot'. Sagan describes the Earth as a 'mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam'. Sagan goes onto to poignantly observe:

'The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds'.

War has existed for millenia, with people fighting for power, for control, for land. Yet, underpinning the belief-systems of many of these warriors are religions that claim they want 'peace on earth'.

There are Christians who follow Trump, yet cheered him on as he took the world to the brink of war against Iran (Grant 2020). Christians supported President George W. Bush and the 'Coalition of the Willing' in their illegal invasion of Iraq that resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocent people. Christians supported Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush in their wars in Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan. Christians supported the wars in Vietnam and Korea. Christians supported Adolf Hitler in the wars he waged and his persecution and genocide of Jews, communists, gypsies, unionists and many others.

Why is this so important? Because many of these same people will criticise Islam for being inherently violent because of terrorist attacks waged by Muslim extremists. Meanwhile, these Christians fail to understand that Christian-led wars have killed far more people than any other religion. This inability and unwillingness to self-critique provides a firm platform for Trump and his ilk to harvest votes from xenophobic messaging and politics.

These behaviours are described so eloquently by French philosopher, Blaise Pascall, when he stated, 'Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction'.

For many years, right-wing voters have been seduced by fear-mongering messages aimed at 'othering' to create division and hatred between people. The following message is similar to that presented by many right-wing parties across the globe. They create an enemy, they create fear, and then they use this to remove people's rights. It turns the people against each other, rather than against those people who promote hate and fear. And from this, war is justified, persecution of minorities is justified, authoritarianism is justified ... exactly what we are seeing with Trump.

'The streets of our country are in turmoil. The Universities are filled with students rebelling and rioting. Communists are seeking to destroy our country. Russia is threatening us with her might and the republic is in danger. Yes, danger from within and without. We need law and order. Yes, without law and order our nation cannot survive. Elect us and we shall restore law and order'.

By the way, that statement was made by Adolf Hitler, but it echoes the messages of politicians, such as Donald Trump and his ilk, which includes Australia's Scott Morrison. It is a message being reflected by right-wing parties across the globe, such as the German far-right party, Alternative for Germany, which has broken decades old laws about curtailing Nazism, in Spain there is the far-right Vox party, Austria's Freedom Party, France's National Front led by Marine Le Pen, the Sweden Democrats, Finland's Finns Party, the Conservative People's Party of Estonia, Poland's Confederation Party, Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban, the Slovenian Democratic Party led by former Prime Minister Janez Jansa, and in Greece there is the Greek Solution and the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn (BBC 2019). All of these parties and politicians have common messages and policies around anti-intellectualism, anti-socialism/communism, anti-unionism, anti-migration, stronger law and order. They do so through messages of fear that demonise Muslim refugees as terrorists and blame them for destroying the economy, or that socialism is infiltrating schools and universities through science, climate change, gender-fluidity, and political correctness.

Have we forgotten the lessons of Nazi Germany? The Germans in Nazi Germany did not realise just how far Hitler would take them, however, they embraced his message and did his bidding. We should be concerned when these parties are elected into positions of power.

In the United States, Trump ran a similar message in his electioneering and was installed into the highest office in the land. He is not articulate, his messages are rambling and irrational, but while they lack substance, they appeal to his supporters. This is not unlike Hitler, who was also rambling and irrational. In Australia, it is very similar with Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who has no substance to his policies, but continues the irrational and rambling messages of his predecessors, such as Tony Abbott and John Howard. The messages of each of these appeal to the masses because they invoke fear and hatred of the 'other'. They demonise minorities and blame them for economic ills, while providing greater freedom to the wealthy who continue to exploit minorities and the poor.



In the opening scene of the movie, Billy Jack, Billy confronts the sheriff for trying to shoot horses on Indian land. The sheriff declares 'We have the law here'. Billy Jack retorts, 'When policemen break the law, then there isn't any law; just a fight for survival'. This could be modernised to reflect Trump's approach to the law. He has consistently broken it, then criticises police for investigating it, while pardoning criminals with connections to him (Baker et al, 2020).

Ironically, those who support the idiocracy of Trump, claim they support democracy. They don't understand that democracy has died through the division of society, through turning the people against each other, through making some people less human or less deserving of rights than others. Dare I quote Padme from 'Star Wars - Revenge of the Sith', when she stated, 'So this is how liberty dies, with thunderous applause . . .'


The hate-speech of the far-right is often masked in neo-liberal economics, which argues for free-market trade, deregulation, privatisation, small government, user-pays systems for health and education, and no welfare. The victims of neo-liberalism are the poor, so it is inherent in neo-liberal strategies to turn the population, including the poor, against a common enemy. That common enemy should be the neo-liberal politicians and big businesses who are only interested in profit over people. However, the common enemy becomes minorities in western countries, such as refugees, LGBTIQ+ people, Muslims, and even the poor themselves. Neo-liberalism is intimately entwined with neo-fascism, neo-Nazism and racism.

Why are these simplistic messages of hate so powerful? Abbott and Morrison both used three-word slogans, such as 'stop the boats', 'lifters not leaners', 'debt and deficit', 'axe the tax'. (Quiggin 2015). These slogans had no substance, no explanation, and were aimed at spreading fear and division. Most people did not go beyond the superficial messaging. Trump is the same. He spreads a simple message of hate. He declared that all Mexicans are murderers and rapists (Jacobs 2018). He continues to wage prejudicial campaigns against Muslims, declaring that 'Islam hates us'. He banned all Muslims from entering the USA. Following the mosque terrorist attacks in New Zealand that killed 51 Muslims and injured many others, he tweeted a link to far-right site Breitbart that had declared Muslim refugees were 'rapefugees'. Trump has retweeted hate speech videos by neo-fascists who wage campaigns of violence against Muslims while claiming to be Christians (Klaas 2019). While Trump claims he isn't racist, his language and actions have empowered Nazis, the Ku Klux Klan and white supremacists (Simon & Sidner 2019). Hitler also used these simplistic, rambling messages of hate, fear and division. Hitler claimed he was doing the 'work of the Lord' in attacking communists, Jews and others. Each of these leaders wrapped their messages in Christian beliefs to mask their terrible agendas while seducing Christians into thinking they are defending moral values.

The common theme in these simplistic messages of intolerance and fear is absolutism.

Right-wing politicians will deplore 'moral relativism'. Yet the opposite of relativism is absolutism. Relativism looks at context and nuance. Absolutism does not. Absolutism fails to recognise the differences in people, societies, cultures, perspective. It rejects science because science requires relativism. Absolutism finds fertile ground in religion, because it is easy to manipulate the religious into a superstitious fear of judgement and condemnation by their supreme being if they dare to question. For example, Trump appointed a spiritual adviser, Paula White-Cain, who proclaimed that 'To say no to President Trump would be saying no to God' (Thomas 2019). Wow! Talk about feeding the superstitious fears of the gullible.

Staying with the Star Wars quotes, Obi Wan Kenobi stated 'Only a Sith Lord deals in absolutes. I will do what I must'. Ok, we don't have Sith Lords, but we do have powerful politicians claiming they are doing the work of the Lord. We have politicians dealing in absolutes, because that makes it easier to demonise and divide. It makes it easier to control the gullible to do their bidding. The key though is fear. Send the message that there is an attack on their freedoms, create an imaginary enemy, and the gullible are ripe for manipulation.

Truth and facts? Nah. What use are these when being told what to believe by Trump or other clowns.

Remember when Press Secretary Sean Spicer grossly inflated the attendance numbers for Trump's inauguration? Counsellor to the President, Kelly-Anne Conway decided to cover for him by declaring that these were 'alternative facts'. Chuck Todd, of Meet the Press, explained to Conway, 'Alternative facts are not facts. They are falsehoods' (Blake 2017).

For instance, when politicians or commentators are called out for racism or bigotry, they will either deny it or gaslight it. There may be video footage of the exact statement and they will say that they never said it. Or, they will indignantly declare that their freedom of speech is being attacked by politically correctness 'gone mad', by socialist snowflakes. It is reminiscent of Orwell's dystopian novel, 1984, 'The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command'.

Another great quote from Billy Jack, is when Billy states, 'It's funny isn't it? Only the white man wants everything put in writing. And only then, so he can use it against you in court. You know among the Indians, a promise is good enough'. 

Trump throws even this on its head. It doesn't matter whether it is in writing or there is video evidence of what he has said, he will blatantly lie and deny. It's not just that he is corrupt, but that he treats people with contempt and knows that his supporter base are so gullible, they will defend him no matter what he does. He is the embodiment of corruption and his supporters are complicit, easily-led and ... suckers.

Unbelievably, his supporters will deny facts simply because Trump tells them to. Speak to the brain-washed Trump fans and they will claim he is an amazing president who has turned the economy around. Many of the economic indicators show that Trump has just continued on Obama's trajectory without staging any miraculous economic recovery. For example, the following chart shows unemployment rate by racial and ethnic category. Apart from the dates, can anyone show when Trump took over and 'turned this around'? Of course not. Obama had already established policies that had reduced unemployment following the highs of the Global Financial Crisis which occurred under President George W. Bush.

Source: Jacobson 2020

Clearly, truth does not matter to Trump or many of the other right-wing politicians on the international stage. When people defend Trump or Morrison or any of the others who propagate a culture of deceit, hatred, fear, and division, they are taking their respective nations down a slippery slope that we have seen leads to fascism, authoritarianism and gross human rights abuses.

Trump is a crack-pot.

A dangerous neo-liberal, narcissistic crack-pot.

So how do we counter this threat to democracy?

The left-wing needs to mobilise and unite. Instead of factional in-fighting, it needs to fight against the horrid policies and behaviours of the intolerant right-wing. While Trump and many of those on the right-wing are sensitive to criticism, this shouldn't stop anyone challenging their racist, irrational, damaging politics. Realise that they will attempt to gas-light, they will claim they are victims of political correctness 'gone mad'. Hold them to account for their shallow policies, ask them to explain them and what evidence they have. Sadly, as we have seen, evidence and truth plays no part in their rationale, but they still must be challenged. Identify alternatives to their intolerance and absolutism that still address moral issues, such as caring for the persecuted, creating jobs and establishing living wages. This may be difficult, as many on the right have a warped sense of morality, thinking they are already defending family values and the morals of the bible, and sadly see any assistance for the poor or marginalised as socialism.

It can be discouraging and demoralising trying to hold a rational discussion with the irrational far-right. There could be a case for not holding these discussions. After all, as some anonymous pundit observed, 'Arguing with an idiot is like playing chess with a pigeon. It'll just knock over all the pieces, shit on the board, and strut about like it's won anyway'.

Nonetheless, the less anonymous Martin Luther King provides an explanation of why it is so important to challenge the intolerance and harmful politics of neo-liberals, neo-fascists and the far-right. 'In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends'.

Let's not be silent in the face of fascism, intolerance, hatred, fear-mongering and bigotry.

Stand up against bullying by the likes of Trump and challenge the irrational claims of the far right.


References

Baker, P, Goodman, D, Rothfield, M, & Williamson, E 2020, 'The 11 Criminals Granted Clemency by Trump Had One Thing in Common: Connections', The New York Times, 19 February, viewed 22 February 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/19/us/politics/trump-pardons.html.

BBC 2019, 'Europe and right-wing nationalism: A country-by-country guide', BBC, 13 November, viewed 22 February 2020, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-36130006.

Blake, A 2017, 'Kellyanne Conway says Donald Trump’s team has ‘alternative facts.’ Which pretty much says it all', The Washington Post, 23 January, viewed 22 February 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/01/22/kellyanne-conway-says-donald-trumps-team-has-alternate-facts-which-pretty-much-says-it-all/.

Blitzer, J 2019, 'A new report on family separations shows the depths of Trump's negligence', The New Yorker, 6 December 2019, viewed 22 February 2020, https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/a-new-report-on-family-separations-shows-the-depths-of-trumps-negligence.

Borger, J 2020, 'Donald Trump 'offered Julian Assange a pardon if he denied Russia link to hack'', The Guardian, 20 February, viewed 22 February 2020, https://www.theguardian.com/media/2020/feb/19/donald-trump-offered-julian-assange-pardon-russia-hack-wikileaks.

Brownfield, AC 1998, 'Zionism at 100: The myth of Palestine as "a land without people"', Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, March, viewed 29 February 2020, https://www.wrmea.org/1998-march/zionism-at-100-the-myth-of-palestine-as-a-land-without-people.html.

Davis, JH 2018, 'Jerusalem embassy is a victory for Trump, and a complication for Middle East peace', The New York Times, 14 May, viewed 22 February 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/14/us/politics/trump-jerusalem-embassy-middle-east-peace.html.

Edwards, GS & Rushin, S 2018, 'The effect of President Trump's election on hate crimes', SSRN, 14 January, viewed 22 February 2020, https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3102652.

Giani, M & Meon, P 2019, Global racist contagion following Donald Trump's election, British Journal of Political Science, 11 July, viewed 22 February 2020, https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/british-journal-of-political-science/article/global-racist-contagion-following-donald-trumps-election/222D3AC82A8E3BD95880F262EB3F1F87.

Grant, 2020, 'Could tension between the US and Iran spark World War 3?', ABC News, 7 January, viewed 22 February 2020, https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-01-07/world-war-3-qassem-soleimani-trump-us-and-iran/11841254.

Hamilton, M 2020, 'Christian prophetess calls on ‘angelic army with flaming swords’ to protect Trump from impeachment', DeadState, 23 January, viewed 22 February 2020, https://deadstate.org/christian-prophetess-calls-on-angelic-army-with-flaming-swords-to-protect-trump-from-impeachment/.

Hassan, A 2019, 'Hate-Crime violence hits 16-year high, F.B.I. reports', The New York Times, 12 November 2019, viewed 22 February 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/12/us/hate-crimes-fbi-report.html.

Jacobs, B 2018, 'Trump defends Mexican rapists claim during conspiracy-laden speech', The Guardian, 6 April, viewed 22 February 2020, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/apr/05/trump-mexico-caravan-voter-claims-speech-west-virginia.

Jacobson, L 2020, 'No, the economy didn't suddenly get strong under Donald Trump', Politifact, 6 February, viewed 23 February 2020, https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2020/feb/06/donald-trump/no-economy-didnt-suddenly-get-strong-under-donald-/.

Klaas, B 2019, 'A short history of President Trump’s anti-Muslim bigotry', The Washington Post, 16 March, viewed 22 February 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/03/15/short-history-president-trumps-anti-muslim-bigotry/.

Liel, A 2020, 'Trump's plan for Palestine looks a lot like apartheid', Foreign Policy, 27 February 2020, viewed 29 February 2020, https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/02/27/trumps-plan-for-palestine-looks-a-lot-like-apartheid/.

Moye, D 2020, 'Lindsey Graham bizarrely defends Trump: 'He did nothing wrong in his mind'', Huffington Post, 24 January, viewed 23 February 2020, https://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/entry/lindsey-graham-trump-defense-twitter_n_5e29f14cc5b6779e9c2f8373

Psychology Today n.d., 'President Donald Trump', viewed 22 February 2020, https://www.psychologytoday.com/au/basics/president-donald-trump.

Quiggin, J 2015, 'Three-word slogans have left Abbott with an economic quandary', ABC News, 21 August, viewed 22 February 2020, https://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-08-21/quiggin-abbotts-economic-quandary/6714896.

Simon, M & Sidner, S 2019, 'Trump says he's not a racist. That's not how white nationalists see it', CNN, 16 July, viewed 22 February 2020, https://edition.cnn.com/2018/11/12/politics/white-supremacists-cheer-midterms-trump/index.html.


Thomas, C 2019, 'Does Trump need spiritual adviser Paula White-Cain?', The Washington Times, 6 November, viewed 22 February 2020, https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2019/nov/6/does-trump-need-spiritual-adviser-paula-white-cain/.

Usher, BP 2018, 'Jerusalem embassy: Why Trump's move was not about peace', BBC News, 15 May, viewed 22 February 2020, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-44120428.

Updated 29 February 2020