In the arms of a poet, you know what it means
This week, I have found myself collecting information about how I suspect we really “are that mean, you know, as a country”. The well-attended internet forums seem to be awash with people who are angry. Angry about, well, pretty much anything you can imagine.
Mothers, for example:
“If you can't afford to have kids and look after them, you shouldn't have had them. What about all the women on benefits who don't work”
Yeah, I think they’re called “mothers”. Even the Howard Government loves them, surprisingly enough. I’m not entirely sure how we got to this stage where we decided that the government had no role in supporting people to have children – a practice that has been in place for well over 100 years. At the risk of reducing Grizzlewick to a resource, he is part of the future economy and therefore worth the country’s investment (as was I, and judging that the variety of commenters on these forums are not 100+, YOU).
I’m never sure where people are going with this argument, as the same people who argue this way would have a PINK (or perhaps navy) FIT if you suggested that anyone who was pregnant without planning it should have an abortion.
“Either stay at home and look after your kids or foot the bill for childcare yourself. I'm sick of subsidising other peoples lifestyles”
Uh-huh. Working seventeen hours a day to keep your family off the streets is a lifestyle. Farming, on the other hand is….what exactly? I love farmers, they grow the food that keeps us alive. But in this era of drought, what part of farming is not a lifestyle choice, propped up by government subsidy? And don't tell me farming women couldn't do with some childcare assistance.
“I'm sick of rich women telling me that I need to fund their childcare experiments…some of these broads love throwing their babies in childcare, and asking the taxpayer to foot the bill. I'm no fool.”
Now I won’t argue that childcare isn’t expensive. But you know, you’re right. I’ve never met a working mother – sorry, broad - who doesn’t throw her child from a moving car while talking on her mobile phone and on her way to an Armani fitting before having her nails done.
Or feminists:
“Its about time people stop pandering to these silly feminist groups and idelogues (sic)”
I’ll be happy to take my place at the back of the bus, the minute that all parties stop “pandering” to “idelogues” like One Nation, Exclusive Brethren, lone fathers and the Australian Business Council.
“If all the marginal people would read this and see how Labor's pandering to the minorities will make Australia worse off, we might get the right leader in power”
So women are a minority now? Er, no. Nor are mothers who work for an income a minority. Sorry about that. Notwithstanding that I have a major bone to pick with the definition of “minority” here, I have to ask – given that the mainstream can look after itself pretty well, why not provide government support for groups that are more disadvantaged? Or should they just “get themselves together”?
They’re also crazy-mad about Indigenous people:
“[Indigenous people should] Thank your lucky stars you met polite bumbling Englishmen in 1788 and not Germans looking for Lebensraum in 1939. It could have been a *lot* worse!”
Wow - comparisons to the Holocaust are popular these days, aren’t they? Is this a bit like Tony Abbott’s “any boss is better than no boss at all”? Or maybe the idea is that if I have a terminal illness, I should cheer the f-ck up, because SOME people have died?
“Lotitja O'Donohue (sic). She is the only person I have ever encountered who thinks having an honorary doctorate entitles her to laud it over others as though she has actually completed a Ph.D, when she hasn't. She is just a bitter hateful Old Woman with a low IQ”
How about Shane Warne? Or Sting? Or any one of the other thousands of people with honorary doctorates who are more than adequately rewarded in their own fields. Notwithstanding all of this, I wasn’t aware that academic qualifications were a pre-requisite for having an opinion. In fact in some quarters, it seems it is downright offensive for academics to comment on anything at all.
And migrants:
“The White Australia Policy was never called such by anybody but pinko posers”
Pinko posers like the Australian Immigration Department?
Or Keith Windschuttle?
“If this country doesn't suit, you do not have to live in it you know”
Ah! Of course! The inevitable response to any criticism of society!
I could go on. But then I may have to put my head in a bucket and scream until next Tuesday.
Mothers, for example:
“If you can't afford to have kids and look after them, you shouldn't have had them. What about all the women on benefits who don't work”
Yeah, I think they’re called “mothers”. Even the Howard Government loves them, surprisingly enough. I’m not entirely sure how we got to this stage where we decided that the government had no role in supporting people to have children – a practice that has been in place for well over 100 years. At the risk of reducing Grizzlewick to a resource, he is part of the future economy and therefore worth the country’s investment (as was I, and judging that the variety of commenters on these forums are not 100+, YOU).
I’m never sure where people are going with this argument, as the same people who argue this way would have a PINK (or perhaps navy) FIT if you suggested that anyone who was pregnant without planning it should have an abortion.
“Either stay at home and look after your kids or foot the bill for childcare yourself. I'm sick of subsidising other peoples lifestyles”
Uh-huh. Working seventeen hours a day to keep your family off the streets is a lifestyle. Farming, on the other hand is….what exactly? I love farmers, they grow the food that keeps us alive. But in this era of drought, what part of farming is not a lifestyle choice, propped up by government subsidy? And don't tell me farming women couldn't do with some childcare assistance.
“I'm sick of rich women telling me that I need to fund their childcare experiments…some of these broads love throwing their babies in childcare, and asking the taxpayer to foot the bill. I'm no fool.”
Now I won’t argue that childcare isn’t expensive. But you know, you’re right. I’ve never met a working mother – sorry, broad - who doesn’t throw her child from a moving car while talking on her mobile phone and on her way to an Armani fitting before having her nails done.
Or feminists:
“Its about time people stop pandering to these silly feminist groups and idelogues (sic)”
I’ll be happy to take my place at the back of the bus, the minute that all parties stop “pandering” to “idelogues” like One Nation, Exclusive Brethren, lone fathers and the Australian Business Council.
“If all the marginal people would read this and see how Labor's pandering to the minorities will make Australia worse off, we might get the right leader in power”
So women are a minority now? Er, no. Nor are mothers who work for an income a minority. Sorry about that. Notwithstanding that I have a major bone to pick with the definition of “minority” here, I have to ask – given that the mainstream can look after itself pretty well, why not provide government support for groups that are more disadvantaged? Or should they just “get themselves together”?
They’re also crazy-mad about Indigenous people:
“[Indigenous people should] Thank your lucky stars you met polite bumbling Englishmen in 1788 and not Germans looking for Lebensraum in 1939. It could have been a *lot* worse!”
Wow - comparisons to the Holocaust are popular these days, aren’t they? Is this a bit like Tony Abbott’s “any boss is better than no boss at all”? Or maybe the idea is that if I have a terminal illness, I should cheer the f-ck up, because SOME people have died?
“Lotitja O'Donohue (sic). She is the only person I have ever encountered who thinks having an honorary doctorate entitles her to laud it over others as though she has actually completed a Ph.D, when she hasn't. She is just a bitter hateful Old Woman with a low IQ”
How about Shane Warne? Or Sting? Or any one of the other thousands of people with honorary doctorates who are more than adequately rewarded in their own fields. Notwithstanding all of this, I wasn’t aware that academic qualifications were a pre-requisite for having an opinion. In fact in some quarters, it seems it is downright offensive for academics to comment on anything at all.
And migrants:
“The White Australia Policy was never called such by anybody but pinko posers”
Pinko posers like the Australian Immigration Department?
Or Keith Windschuttle?
“If this country doesn't suit, you do not have to live in it you know”
Ah! Of course! The inevitable response to any criticism of society!
I could go on. But then I may have to put my head in a bucket and scream until next Tuesday.
posted by gigglewick at
3:04 pm
8 Comments:
Reads like the letters page in the Herald Sun.
I think there's as many ignorant dickheads as ever, just the internet has given them a new voice.
Oh dear. I think these are the same people who say on ACA "I'm not racial but..."
Maybe you shouldn't read anymore of this stuff, I don't think it's good for you.
And yet despite the cost of childcare, our childcare workers are one of the most grossly underpaid professions in the country - despite the fact that this is a profession which requires a 2-3 yr university degree. This is a job you do for the love, not the $.
oh gigglewick, why do we do this to ourselves!? it can only end in a stroke.
immaculate* post though!!
*i should refrain from such religiously-charged lingo - it'll summon the spectre of tony abbott, who was today banging on about how 'the greens oppose a lot of christian values'. ummmm... not the love-thy-neighbour, inclusive, social justice lefty christian values of people like my parents, mr abbott! i'm not a believer, but it's a shame christianity has been so thoroughly hijacked by the right thanks to people like him.
All of your examples of inane bigotry have left me very worried. Not so much the comments themselves, I expect them from the great Austrayan Pubic, it's that I find myself asking who the hell let the stupid know about free speech? Can we retract?
gigglewick, I think you've been reading what I've been reading. Some of those comments got me a little upset, but I decided not to weigh in -- I was busy arguing with someone who is angry about thermodynamics.
Came here via crikey. Looks like your writing is worth reading, so thanks. Just for being there.
Today's entry should come with a warning - "do not read before bedtime as you may not be able to sleep after reading this" Indeed I think you may need to pass said bucket. OK but I'm a left leaning single mother...so definately one of the chosen people...
Susanna is really very right about this.
I was going to do another post about the Liberals and their sadly not quite unique take on religion but after that comment I don't need to any more.
Also, excellent post. It's painful to read stuff like this but it only makes me more determined to get rid of this government before we all end up stupid just from living here.
Great post, further evidence of our unevolved community can be found at the online forums where the Werribee DVD is discussed. A freind of mine - ahem - spends quite a bit of time there getting in heated online arguments with a poster who appears to be one of the mothers of a boy involved. She's still banging on about the girl being partly to blame - and these dudes have pleaded guilty.
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