Can We Do It?

Guest Author Uncategorized

The “honour” of the first Guest Author thread for the year goes to Jaycee, with a modest proposal concerning what to do about what lies ahead for Australia and Australians in 2015. Thank you, Jaycee.

(Image Credit: Wikipedia)

As we venture into this new year, we enter the next phase of the LNP Government’s plan to reverse the social order of our nation. Make no mistake, the intention of right-wing ideology is not to appease, but to conquer and control economic, social and political policy direction of our country by the use of extreme measures that it has been carefully putting in place for the last year. Not for fear of terrorism were such search, monitor and police powers legislated … how many acts of terrorism have we ever suffered in this country to justify such complete control over our actions? And even if there were, would we not rise above such a situation with the stoicism and courage that many nations do when confronted with any such act? Australia is not as puny as a corporation born from one family’s twisted fortune. No, the right-wing has but one great fear: that it will lose control of the mechanisms that gain it both power and profit … after all, it was only for profit that Murdoch moved to put the LNP in power in the first place – that much is obvious.

The first six months of this year will be an “attack period”. Attacks on our social welfare system, attacks on social media criticism, attacks on the environment and political discourse. Perhaps, too, attacks on even our persons. The appointment of Scott Morrison to lead these attacks has been premeditated by warming him up with his unrelenting, cold-hearted cruelty towards asylum seekers. The gross hypocrisy of his claim of being cruel to be kind, by saving thousands from a watery grave, is exposed by the treatment AFTER ARRIVAL of those refugees he claims to have saved from drowning – as if they must now be taught a lesson for NOT drowning! No, the lessons of precise targeting learned from experimenting with asylum seekers, i.e., identifying and denouncing the “economic refugees”, the “no longer in danger” peoples and / or “how far to persecute and prosecute before strategic retreat from absolute cruelty” tactics will stand in good stead the master of the fates of any or all on some sort of welfare. According to the IPA’s philosophy, everybody knows “They’re nearly ALL malingerers of some sort – even those on an old-age pension – who, if they had any gumption at all, would have in their working life put away enough to fund their own retirement, just like Gina or Rupert or Twiggy!” Rest assured, Scotty has plans – oh yes! – he has plans … for us.

Now WE must plan. We, in social media, must work on a foundation platform of how to attack and render harmless the right-wing media which, as sure as sunrise, is going to set the tempo for this second year of the regime’s agenda. Murdoch knows he must either control or destroy the free democracy of social media. Social media is starting to confidently outstrip the MSM both news delivery and in satire of right-wing politicians, the MSM, and the MSM’s reporters and big-shot players. Not only that, but social media can now also lead in attack and parry and defence of ideals that appeal to a vast majority. Murdoch knows this ground: he has traversed it many times. The advantage we hold (at this moment) is the technology of the internet and the capability to use it. The old MSM is hamstrung by an unwieldy “hard-copy” press machine and with it an anachronistic “see, hear, report, edit, print” timetable. Social media has no such delays – it happens, it is visualized or tweeted as it happens – instant news! THIS is our weapon against the Murdoch juggernaut! Murdoch has only ONE power base: his employees, especially his journalists. Murdoch himself has no capacity to report or deliver – he has to rely solely on his employees – take them out of the picture and he is lost. It is the old story of the “for the want of a horse-shoe nail” – it IS that simple.

I believe we have to invent a brand new mechanism of political involvement via social media. We cannot do this alone or in individual blogs: we must try and involve the ALP, who need to build a broad information base and access to a wide readership. It would perhaps be to the party’s advantage to have instant rapport with its support and to reach out to those lurking and seeking persuasion to come over from the dark side! The ALP. already has a presence on Twitter, albeit a sort of loose familiarity – but it does twitter so much better than the LNP. After all, social media communication is more suited to those who sympathise with social equality and those who like to reach out and “touch” each other.

We have to build “chat tag-teams” to develop and push important topics along the conversation threads: to keep certain important policies in the public eye and discussion – not faking it, but delivering real issues to the front and centre of discussion AND having them discussed – not letting important news or policy be blown about by idle chatter then getting lost in the hubbub of gossip or advertising. We need “tag-teams” to liaise between the Party and the boards, to attack individual MSM journalists who propagandise for the LNP/ IPA/Murdoshians. We are beyond the point of beginning, but rather are seeking to complete the construction of a new generation of political discourse with social media at the centre.

This year will be an attack year for the LNP. They will have to cull Labor’s social policies and put in place their market-based options. It will be a slash and burn year for them. Murdoch will have his creatures going flat-out in support – his corporate future depends upon control of the media. They will probably use the Abbott / Morrison duo in a “good cop / bad cop” set-up. However they do it, they have to have their policy in place by the end of the year so as to butter the voters up for the next election. They have a plan, a strategy. We too must plan a counterattack and defence: it must be loud, wide-ranging and relentless. We must be able to melt back into the shadows and be ready to emerge with as much concentrated opinion as we can muster in as short a time as possible if we are to win this battle and we must be able to take it , via twitter, directly to the Floor of The House. Instant outrage! For it is a battle of ideology: to lose is to see a century’s worth of social infrastructure and a lifetime’s achievement of environmental restructuring wasted and destroyed. And for whom? For these people know no life save the barbaric solution of rapine and looting what is not and has never been theirs to loot!

Can we do it??? . . . “Yes we can!”

(Image Credit: Allposters)

560 thoughts on “Can We Do It?”

  1. “Jay Weatherill looks as dark as a dog’s guts as Abbott rabbits on as the SA fire presser”

  3. I’m all for tolerance and living peacefully, I’m all for freedom if expression, but I do not think provocation and offensive behaviour is part of that.

    There’s no saying more cliched than “Don’t ever discuss religion or politics.” Some people get upset when you do.

    It’s common sense. If you want a fight, pick on someone’s religious beliefs or their politics, particularly when they hold them very strongly. If you don’t want a fight, talk about the weather, or the footy.

    The Absolutist’s belief system is that there is only one absolute truth. Our belief system in the West (in general, excepting various religious nutters of all denominations) is that the right to hold an opposing opinion is more important than absolutism. Even though our laissez-faire system is disguised as “relative morality”, accepting all beliefs, it is actually founded on as absolute a belief as straight absolutism itself. To the religious or political nutter that belief is what’s causing all the trouble in the world.

    Most people just avoid religious discussions, or political arguments. But some look for them. Charlie Hebdon’s editor actually said (a few years ago after his newspaper was bombed for the first time) that he was prepared to die for the right to publish cartoons. That is a pretty absolutist belief. He continued to publish, and died for his belief.

    I’m not welcoming attacks like the one in Paris today, but I can’t help thinking that Charlie Hebdon might have taken a less stringent stance. It’s only cartoons anyway. If someone was mad enough at my artworks to threaten me with execution, I’d listen intently. If I realized they were serious, I might reconsider, or temper my work with discretion. Call me a coward, but I’m not willing to die for belief, at least not before I’ve explored other, less fatal – and final – options.

  4. The reformation had to come about to stop Canon Law over-riding Civil Law…it seems at all times when tribal societies are “overtaken” by civil societies, there is great conflict with the clash of legal codes, usually accompanied with the clash of arms!

  5. Perhaps we should ask our selves if maybe just maybe it is decades of the West organising coups, overthrowing democratically elected government , propping up brutal despots , invading , bombing the crap out of the muslim world might have a bit more to do with why we get atrocities like the one in Paris.

  6. Too true. For example, the Reformation. It all seems so quaint now, but back in the 1500s it was deadly serious.

  8. There will have to come a time when the “God discussion” will have to be recognised for what it really is..: a confrontation with the knowledge of our own mortality and the fear of what that means. All religion is a kind of a joke upon ourselves…; we build extraordinary monuments and fill them with treasure as a mockery to our own poverty and fallibility.
    I like the pun that the Christian church was built upon..; ” Thou art Peter ; The Rock…and upon this “rock” I will build my church “……good one , Jesus!

  10. Also spread by personal contact is a new disease stalking the land , Ebola Politicus colloquially known as Tony Abbott.

  11. Let’s face it, the LNP. in whatever state or format is an anachronism that cannot take the nation forward…they have a governing policy of Authoritarian Absolutism…and THAT is a dead-end for any society, as it involves the few consolidating their position and wealth at the expense and social advancement of the majority…hopeless.
    Murdoch can’t allow the NBN. to go ahead in it’s original format.
    The mining/energy lobby can’t stop the fracking and ruthless exploitation of their private reserves.
    The banks cannot allow govt’ regulation to cut into their ruthless financial exploitation.
    And so it goes…there is no room for movement by any aspiring middle-class movement….

  12. My Mum was very scathing of the $1000 for fire victims from the Abbott gov’t. As I said, it would not even pay for the vet bills for your pets’ burnt feet.

  13. The bit I saw of the Abbott presser was Jay Weatherall not blinking. He stood next to Abbot and blinked very little, like he was holding his tongue and enduring pain. He looked at Abbott a couple of times as though he could not believe what he was hearing. I bet some choice descriptions of Abbott are heard by the walls of the Premier’s office.

  16. One of many excellent comments at AIMN on Michael Taylor’s http://theaimn.com/tony-abbotts-media-monitoring-message/:

    Dear snooping minions of the Lizard Lord,

    I would suggest that in order that he appear to better fit in with the humans, you respectfully recommend your master to refrain from the following behaviors;

    *The constantly flicking of his tongue, it makes him look like a goanna questing for carrion.
    *The bullfrog mouth-bubble pop he proceeds his sentences with, it is makes a disconcerting smacking sound.
    *The cowboy-swagger, it makes him look like he is compensating for an inferiority complex or a bad case of thigh chafe.
    *The reel-em-in gorilla-grip handshakes in diplomatic situations, it alienates rather than intimidating or impressing.
    *The downward eye-flicks to cleavage/package, it creates moments of extreme awkwardness for those who feel ‘the eye’.

    If you could persuade him to dispense with these behaviors, it might help slightly lessen the common public perception and fear that we are currently being ruled by a malevolent,domineering, chimeric critter who wants to either eat us or use us to breed.

    (my emphasis)

    Corvus boreus, I dips me lid.

  18. Man allegedly carrying knife detained outside Parliament House ministerial wing
    http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/man-allegedly-carrying-knife-detained-outside-parliament-house-ministerial-wing-20150108-12k4t2.html

    More than ‘detained – the coppers tasered him. Just another nutter? Some poor sod pushed to breaking point by the government’s policies? A sacked public servant? Who knows? The MSM will do their duty and tell us lies to cover up the real reason.

  21. Janice

    She came on tv when my Mum was staying a little while back, and she wasn’t very complimentary about her, of course we both fully agreed with her sentiment.

  22. If I realized they were serious, I might reconsider, or temper my work with discretion. Call me a coward, but I’m not willing to die for belief, at least not before I’ve explored other, less fatal – and final – options.

    I feel the same. Why inflame the nutters? Each time one of those cartoons is published innocent people die. Why give those criminals so much joy? I’d say “temper” your work if you urgently wish to make fun of Mohamed.

  23. Really, for those who believe the “crazies” will stop threatening you if you “be nice”..just look back less than a hundred years in our own back-yards…to the “wobblies”…Joe Hill..the Tollpuddle martyrs etc…women in particular ought to be very aware of the difficulty obtaining the vote, and many other shares in equality that even now elude them…there is no separating the one bit of freedom for all from the one bit of “don’t touch the soft spot” when we talk of liberty for the most downtrodden…Just watch how the Tory bastards will play this!

  25. Via Leone:

    The PM has toured #safires zone & has announced Disaster Recovery Payments – $1000 for adults, $400 for children affected by the disaster

    — Andrew Greene (@AndrewBGreene) January 7, 2015

    I’ll be watching intently to see exactly how he defines ‘affected’. I suspect that money won’t reach as many people as it ought to.

  26. Bill Shorten has leapt onto the bandwagon, talking about ‘terrorism’.

    The Charlie Hedbo killings were not an act of terrorism, they were carefully planned executions. Cold-blooded murders certainly, retaliation for repeated acts that gave offence, killings that had been threatened in the past, by Jewish extremists as well as Muslin extremists in response to continuing provocation, but not ‘terrorism’.

    However calling this an act of terrorism fits the agenda of so many governments, it fuels anti-Muslim feelings, it allows governments to justify their filthy wars in the Middle East, it allows them more reasons for stepping up surveillance of innocent civilians and passing more laws that further restrict us all. And while doing all that they bleat on about ‘terrorists’ attacking our ‘freedoms’.

  27. What pisses me off is the hide of the abbott spewing out his hate as soon as he gets in front of a camera. Everything he says about ‘death cults’ and atrocities is designed to strike fear and hate into the citizens of this country so that ‘terrorist’ incidents happen here to enable him to look like a strong leader attending a series of memorials and placing big (taxpayer funded) bouquets with those of grieving citizens. If there was any justice, or if there is a god of any denomination, then he would be struck dumb and disabled forthwith so that he can wither away to nothing in the hate he can no longer spew forth.

  30. CTar1
    It must be a coaching fad. I remember when we did Women’s Self Defence, we were encouraged to yell when we struck.

    I reckon tennis coaches of women pushed this line, which has had some very unfortunate consequences – like me turning the sound off when certain women play tennis.

  31. ctar1

    I wish Monica Selles had never started that circus. It’s like a dog, he needs to bark to frighten things away. These women believe they need that grunt to intimidate their opponent. imo they look grotesque and the sound is extremely ugly and irritating. Men are much more pleasant to watch.

  36. Abbott sticks to his new found formula . Try and equate/link an event here with an overseas terror attack , shout Death Cult !! , tell us it could happen here but then goes on to say people should relax and go about their normal business. Somehow I don’t think his intention is to reduce panic/fear/worry among the electorate.

  38. I just wish that the MSM would stop calling these individuals “terrorists”.

    What they are doing is criminal. They are, by definition, criminals – and the French identified and were reporting that fairly quickly afterwards. The reaction of our media seemingly is to spread fear (terror). In which case, why wasn’t Ivan Milat or Michael Bryant called a terrorist?

    I am occasionally tempted into the realms of crazed conspiracy wondering if the people who want yet more ‘power over everything’, for possibly psychological reasons, are in cahoots with those perpetrating these offences, or are just opportunistic carpet-baggers.
    I tend towards carpet-baggers with one group of individuals, but I’m not so sure when it comes to some of the other groups taking advantage of this situation.

  48. Gigilene,

    Given that the $7 “co-payment” applied to vaccinations (among other things), yep.

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