The ‘left’ – and by this term I mean Labor, Teals, the moderates of the Liberal and National parties, as well as our loony-far-left Green friends – are very, very good at shaping public opinion.
So good that the ‘right’ in Australia are a minority reduced to a few brave souls still willing to stick their heads above the parapet and take a verbal bullet or two for the liberty of the nation. Thankfully only metaphorically, for now.
As I write this, the Queensland state government is trumpeting its Orwellian ‘hate crime’ laws banning the display of ‘hate symbols’ and jacking-up jail time for crimes that are ‘motivated by hatred or serious contempt’.
Sounds great, until you realise that the definition of ‘hate’ is totally subjective. Precisely whose definition of ‘hate’ will apply?
Professor James Allan of University of Queensland Law School, and a regular scribe for this publication, noted at a public event in Brisbane recently that UQ Law is widely regarded as ‘Australia’s most conservative’ institution for shaping the minds of our future judiciary.
He then immediately noted that only a handful of the school’s 40-or-so faculty could be regarded as ‘not being Labor or Green voters’. The point sent shivers down the spines of the libertarian and conservative crowd – if you think our judiciary is trending ‘Woke’ now, give it another 20 years and a jail cell may await anyone whose views tend right of Daniel Andrews. Better clean up those Facebook posts, or the cops will be cuffing you in your pyjamas in front of your kids in no time.
‘But what do we dooooooo?’ one earnest soldier in the crowd – her despair palpable – inquired.
‘Speak up,’ Allan replied.
Easier said than done if you want to keep putting food on the table in modern Australia. Speaking up about conservative positions on matters of identity can cost you your job and your reputation.
Even positions that were once considered moderately centre-right, such as expressing the view that if you were born with a penis you’re a man and no surgery or drugs can change that fundamental biological fact, are taboo in modern corporate and government Australia.
Refusing to participate in ‘forced expression’, such as not wanting to don a rainbow jersey for your team’s football match during pride week, may be career-ending. That’s ‘passive hate’ or a ‘microaggression’ against a ‘marginalised group’. Never mind the ones doing the objecting being hated and marginalised.
The left have so much control over the language nowadays that writing without lots of quotation marks has become impossible for those of us who don’t want to buy into their bizarre worldview.
It’ll be interesting to watch the anti-trans feminist movement as it tackles these new ‘hate speech’ laws. As a group that predominantly sits on the left, I’ll greatly enjoy seeing how they cope being on the other side of the intolerant violence of their fellow social justice warriors. Men tend to do fast physical violence, women tend to do slow tortuous reputational violence (yes, I’m stereotyping a bit) so I guess we are in for an unholy mix-up of the two.
Conservatives will need to be a lot smarter if they’re going to win this war. And it is a culture war. Forget the gaslighting of the left arguing, ‘What are you all so upset about, you crazy right-wing nut-jobs?!’ That’s just part of the strategy. Leaving us periodically all wondering, ‘Am I the crazy one?’ and whether we are one step away from alfoil headwear, is precisely the confused state of frustration and hopelessness they want us in.
We need to be courageous. We need to discover bravery. We need to be covert. Not everyone has to be as stupid as to start a national podcast and TV show and stick their head out as far as I am (yes, this is an unsubtle plug for the return of my weekly news commentary show The Other Side on ADH TV from April 14).
I’m past my prime and nobody in mainstream media wants to hire me anyway. But there are ways to play with the system and its massive contradictions and hypocrisy.
One is to start turning the language and games of the left back on them at work or school: ‘I’m having trouble feeling safe here. I’m part Persian and my conservative Zoroastrian father has strict views about homosexuality that make it very triggering and traumatic to have to see a rainbow pride poster every time I step into the coffee room – do you think we could take it down?’ That’ll suck up hundreds of dollars of staff time as the 20-somethings in HR try to remove the pain in their brain and solve your issue without offending anyone. If enough of us do it, every single day, maybe shareholders will start to notice the real cost of their feel-good ESG and DEI cult worship?
I exaggerate. But you get my drift. Have some fun. Be a bit of a nuisance. Use the Art of War technique of turning the enemy’s weapons back on them. And laugh. A lot. It’ll keep you both healthy and sane.
But we do suck at shaping the culture. And we simply can’t afford to stay silent any longer. A thorough web search and a call to the Queensland Opposition media office hasn’t yielded any media response to the government’s hate crime announcement (as at 3pm Friday). The Liberal-Nationals have completely – and very deliberately – checked out of the culture war. It’s a strategy that’s working superbly for them, don’t you think?
