Former Major General and new Liberal senator Jim Molan has posted on his facebook page, several videos which are anti-Muslim. These videos came from the same right wing racist hate group, Britain First, which Donald Trump was widely condemned for promoting. Unsurprisingly, Molan cannot even verify whether the videos are real or faked. Trump had the same problem1. It was subsequently shown that at least one of the Trump posts was faked, and obviously so, as it was so poorly ‘staged’1,2.
Molan has stated that he did this as a way to ‘generate debate’, but this is just an Abbottesque post-hoc justification for rampant stupidity, of which Molan seems to have plenty. In addition to these videos, Molan has also shared articles about banning Muslim immigration. He has also highlighted Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s poor Newspolls (26 and counting!) and has advocated lurching the nation to the right1. That seems to be where the nation is headed under this government anyway. We have race-baiting3, laws before parliament nobbling journalists4, government money-laundering5, gifts to the compliant Murdoch media6, and nobbling and dumbing down of the Australian Broadcasting Commission7. I doubt that Molan could hasten this; it is progressing quickly already.
The driver for this lurch to the right is that the conservative side of politics know that their neoliberal economic paradigm is finished, and social conservatism is dying, and they realise that their conservatism will pass into history. As a consequence, they will fight tooth and nail to prevent this happening, even to the point of sacrificing democracy. Initially they will try to give themselves the guise of respectability by attempting to win the election, using whatever means available, mostly by using the compliant media and their huge donations from the beneficiaries of their tax cuts, their subsidies and privatisations. After that, it may be journalists who will be first at risk of being jailed, but they will come for all of us dissenters eventually.
Sources
- http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/new-liberal-senator-jim-molan-posts-inflammatory-anti-muslim-videos-20180204-p4yzek.html
- https://www.businessinsider.com.au/trump-jayda-fransen-britain-first-retweet-dutch-authorities-confirm-false-2017-11?r=UK&IR=T
- http://www.blotreport.com/australian-politics/victorian-election-campaign/
- http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-01-23/journalists-at-risk-of-jail-under-foreign-interference-laws/9353606
- http://www.blotreport.com/australian-politics/touting-for-bribes/
- http://www.blotreport.com/australian-politics/money-brown-paper-bag/
- http://www.blotreport.com/australian-politics/abc-prepared-privatisation/
