This is from a recent activism email to an MP.
***
The inspiration for this email was an "Ette Media" podcast which focused on the PM's use of the term "turn down the heat" - which I consider clearer than the journo making the podcast seems to think, but
- it is worth being aware of this critique;
- there are some (critical) points in the podcast which merit consideration; and
- the podcast raised some past issues which I have been concerned about.
Firstly, the podcast details:
- “ONLY FRAN: It’s not the public who must turn the temperature down” on Ette Media’s “We Used to be Journos” podcast https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/we-used-to-be-journos/id1823491652?i=1000797824978 or https://youtu.be/nFHZCB7qYok “In the wake of the violent and deplorable attack on Independent MP Helen Haines, the Prime Minister has been asking everyone to “turn the temperature down”, but Jan Fran is not entirely clear on what that means or who it’s directed at. In this episode of Only Fran, Jan Fran combs through previous examples of the PM using that phrase and finds that some people are turning the temperature up more than others.”
The concerns raised in that podcast about the actions of
- the [ ... ] head of the current US regime,
and
are, IMO, important, and need to be addressed - for the sake of social cohesion, which includes ensuring that Australia is genuinely livable for targetted minorities, including women, LGBTQIASB+ people, the disabled, and First Peoples and other people of colour, which requires addressing structural discrimination and unmanaged unconscious bias, as well as interpersonal conduct (and bigots, in my experience, never hide their hate as well as they think - their facial expressions and body language are particularly telling to people on the receiving end of hate, who need to be able to "read the room" for the sake of survival).
As you know, I am a member of the first four of those five groups I listed. The hate that has come our way over the last fifteen years or so (from political and media [ ... ] on the far right) has been particularly extraordinary, although a lot of the hate has also been around for much longer.
The worsening of that hate is, IMO, connected to the rise of the extreme/far right - a group that I consider does meet the definition of fascism, and, in making that comment, I note Madeline Albright wrote a book warning about this, and journalists such as Rachel Maddow and other experts such as Professor Timothy Snyder, Anne Applebaum, and Tad Stoermer have also been making the same sort of warning (including in books and online) for years.
In such matters, defending democracy and "social cohesion" does not require an enforced superficiality of niceness: it requires those who are agents of hate being vigorously, nonviolently, and effectively addressed.
As I write that, an incident from (neoliberal, conservative, right wing) Reagan's presidency comes to mind, which was when his advisors pointed out that USA's refusal to ratify an international convention meant the USSR could use that to avoid human rights obligations, very effectively trashing the USA's reputation in the process. Once the treaty was ratified, the USA's standing was restored, and their comments promoting a better world - i.e., one where human rights were better respected and realised - were more effective.
In our case, things like failing to charge the homophobic child abusers who were using lies to campaign against things like drag reading and LGBTQIASB+ events in libraries a few years ago provided:
- active encouragement for the haters;
and - evidence that [ ... ]
To be clear:
- I consider events such as the violent assault on Camp Sovereignty was very likely encouraged by the failure to act against anti-LGBTQIASB+ (especially anti-trans) hate.
Under such circumstances, calls for calm are seen by those haters as a sign of weakness.
It should also be noted that there is quite a bit of commentary, from sources that seem competent to me, about disturbing aspects such as the desire to cause pain of long term, rusted on haters - such as the long term members of M_oG_ in the USA and their equivalents here. No amount of nice words will affect them, but then, as Dr Martin Luther King Jr put it:
- "It may be true that the law cannot change the heart, but it can restrain the heartless."
That is why we need laws, and why those laws need to be used.
This is particularly important in this world, which, since 6th January, 2021 (although less so here), has been increasingly divorced from anything bearing resemblance to "normal" politics - as outlined, in part, in a video from Tad Stoermer today at https://youtu.be/gNJYzgCmKvY.
In summary, we do need words urging civilised, civil, decent responses and actions, but we also need actions that recognise, as with the build up to World War Two, the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and the ongoing climate crisis, that our situation is not "normal", and extraordinary actions are required.
PS - one of the reasons addressing these threats to our democracy is so difficult is that they cannot be approached solely from the point of view of rationality/intellect: emotion is a key part of it.
To illustrate that with an example, this week SBS had a human interest story about a woman who has chosen not to have children as a result of what may happen in the future. That was portrayed as fear, which is an aspect of it, but there is also incredible ethical strength and responsibility (when the predicted death toll from the climate crisis varies from one to four billion), manifested as giving up what is undoubtedly a major life goal for most people.
Our - meaning all of humanity - response to the climate crisis has been marked by emotional overwhelm - which is something that cannot be rationalised away or intellectualised into submission: the emotions, particularly around grief at the loss of planned or expected life, must be dealt with as emotions ... which is why I want critical thinking and emotional competence (not emotional intelligence, which has been perverted into a tool for manipulation) taught from as early as possible in schools (I have seen recommendations for critical thinking for kindergarten).
That is a reason for compassion for those who are struggling to adapt to the world's current circumstances, but not for inaction or letting haters off the hook: the price of inadequate or ineffective action is too high
***
Possible flaws
Where I can, I will try to highlightopossible flaws / issues youoshouldoconsider:
- there mayobe flawedologicaloarguments in the above: to find out more about such flaws and thinking generally, I recommend Brendan
Myers’ freeoonline course “Clear and Present Thinking”;
- I could be wrong - so keep your thinkingocaps on, and make up your own minds for yourself.
Gnwmythr
teaching the "good" (balancedopositive and spirituallyomature [BPM])
safer and more effective ways to counter the "bad" (outoofobalance, spirituallyoimmature [nonBPM/antiBPM])
IMO, OTAAT (“one term at a time”) is the next action to save representative democracy, along with establishment of an organisation of human-rights observing democracies as a functional alternative to the UN (especially the veto-sabotaged UN SC), along with all organisations being run using the seven "business" principles listed here, but also note this and this “Vision for Humanity”
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Remember: we generallyoneed to be more human being rather than human doing, to mind our Mӕgan, and to acknowledge that all misgenderingois an act of activeotransphobia/transmisiaothat puts trans+ lives at risk
& accept that all insistence on the use of “trans” as a descriptor
comes with commensurate use of “cis” as a descriptoroto prevent “othering” (just as binary gendered [men’s and women’s] sporting teams are either both given the gender descriptor, or neither). #PsychicABetterWorld and may all that I do be ofovalue and actively BPM used for and byothe nonphysical BPM because #KindnessIsThePoint
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