

No, you’re not wrong. Someone else has also corrected me.
Apparently Dutton even lost his sit.
So, good news on that front at least.
No, you’re not wrong. Someone else has also corrected me.
Apparently Dutton even lost his sit.
So, good news on that front at least.
Is this a warning? I hope most of you have spotted this sooner than this article seems to have, because this has been going on for quite a while.
There’s even been articles uncovering far right groups financing influencers and youtubers as a way to sever through culture.
And I keep saying that “Gamergate” was the true opening of that avenue into the mainstream almost a decade and a half ago. That was the time to spot it. By the time that “kermit the frog impersonator” and the “no chin alpha” showed up on the public radar, the problem was already unfolding wide and around for a while.
And I have a suspicion that what started Gamergate was just some good old sport trolling that then turned into… well… the opening of the gates of hell.
Obviously that I have no way to confirm this.
But I still have some fun imagining those who were indeed just trolling for some dumb fun back then, now aged with their scruffy beard and hair greying, holding their knees in a fetal position muttering to themselves “What did I do?”- and yes, it’s kind of fucked that I find that funny.
But I also keep saying the same thing over and over…
This is not just an American problem. This is everywhere.
If you disagree, I suggest you take a stroll through Europe…
You can start with Portugal, and the ridiculousness with the party Chega and its circus of followers, moving next to Spain with Vox and their own clown show, then France and don’t tell me you haven’t even heard of Marine Le Pen. Just take a look up from their to Britain with good old Brexit and the tumour Nigel Farage with the cancer that is Reform. What about Italy? Anyone thinking that Georgia Meloni snuck up on Europe must’ve been in a coma during the Berlusconi years, because the orange blob as president is just a terrible American remake of that Italian classic. And Germany, did it elude anyone the fact that AFD scored the second place in the elections and is even polling in first now, apparently? I could keep going, but we should stop before we get to the Balkans, right?
“Well, that’s just Europe and the U.S. then.”
What about Australia, with Peter Dutton and the crazy brand of fascism they have going down under? Or Canada and what the hell is even Pierre Polievre who was all set to win? Yes, these two did lose but not by much and the type of fuel they ran on is still there to burn.
This is a problem that is everywhere. And what creates this madness is that there are grifters who are willing to say whatever it takes, that take problems that affect almost everyone except the elite class, but then single their message across to a particular subset of the public which is too uneducated to understand the rest of the conversation that everyone is trying to have. And because the indignation is something that so many others can join in on when there’s so much to feel angry towards, the menace spreads wider as a result of a compromise to meet the end they desire.
But this second wave of rage that joins in has the logic that if there’s things that need fixing in one’s household, the best is to burn the house down, apparently.
And the really sad part is none of this is new.
Socrates thought that elections were too important to be handed to a general public which was too ignorant to understand its functioning or its true value. And who was it that believed that there was a need for a lie to “deceive” the population into doing the decent thing? I can’t remember which of them said that. (If you do, please do tell) But that was what many found religion to be the method to accomplish it. As ludicrous as that might sound.
It’s just the same loop of the revolt of the idiots. “My pain is truer than yours” type of nonsense.
On and on.
But if anyone knows how to make the arrogant humble and the idiot know their idiocy, please do tell.
Because you would’ve made the greatest discovery in human history that would break this seemingly never-ending loop.
It checks with everything else. I’ve never seen this level of overt neglect to public health from any government of any country in my lifetime.
From vaccines to healthcare research and healthcare access and even food inspection safety… from climate research, to weather monotoring to natural disaster prevention… they’re readying a level of catastrophe that I can’t even fathom what’s to come.
I’ve already met a lot of terrified Americans who migrated to my country in Europe to avoid so much of this. I can already see a lot of more of them to come, and it frightens me the global health crisis that will erupt from it.
And by the way, isn’t asbestos still legal to use in the US? I’m genuinely asking. I remembered being told so and was shocked that it still was. But that was a while ago.
Thank you for the correction and the very good news in just one go.
And I apologise if I misrepresented the Australian national identity in the process. That wasn’t my intention. And it’s always good to know that this brand of populism is unpopular in some countries.