Thanks primarily to the indefatigable journalism of The Australian’s Janet Albrechtsen, the relentless probing of His Honour Walter Sofronoff and the courage of Bruce Lehrman, we have been accorded a rare glimpse behind the curtain of the Me-Too movement, and in particular that collection of misandrists who have evil in their hearts and ideology where their brains should be.
The term “jumping the shark” originated in the mid-1980s and referred to the point at which a television show begins to decline. One dictionary says:
… (of a television series or film) reach a point when far-fetched events are included merely for the sake of novelty, indicative of a decline in quality.
Here is another definition:
… (usually of television shows) to reach a point where something stops becoming more popular or starts to decrease in quality.
The reference to jumping sharks is a specific in-joke for fans of the sitcom Happy Days and Henry Winkler’s acceptance of a dare to jump over a shark on his water skis. People – at least Jon Hein and Sean Connolly, who invented the phrase – thought, this is ridiculous, is that the best they can do now? They have run out of ideas. They have gone too far.
Well, the me-tooists who have been going after Bruce Lehrmann on a decidedly wobbly (actually, let’s call it baseless) rape claim might well be said to have done a Henry Winkler.
First, they came for the late George Pell. Astonishingly, many believed his complainant’s story for a time. Or, at least, they wanted to believe it. It made sense of their world views. The belief in the “victim’s” narrative, probably peaked here. Then they came for Christian Porter. It worked against him, too. He was “disappeared”. Now they have come for a quiet, young Liberal Party staffer who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, and who has had his life destroyed by unproven (to put it at its kindest) accusations.
Thanks to media leaks, probing journalism, an inquiry into the Australian Capital Territory’s legal system following Lehrmann’s aborted trial, a trial unwanted by police, law suits brought by Lehrmann and now his Channel Seven interview, we have been given a rare glimpse at the realities of the previously untainted me-tooist movement. What do we see behind the curtain, revealed most recently in five hours of tape recordings of The Project’s Lisa Wilkinson and the alleged rape victim, Brittany Higgins? It is truly unedifying. And it should be utterly humiliating to those involved. Ten aspects of the case stand out.
First, we have the same old faces driving the rape narrative. Louise Milligan has been an activist-player, up to her armpits, in the cases of all three victims of misandry mentioned above.
Second, there are the high-level connections between politicians of the left and media celebrities. Then there are the publishers. And the cross-owned media corporates. The ideologically committed me-tooists are a vertically and horizontally integrated machine.
Third, the sheer cynicism of the players, revealed in the leaked tapes of the prepping of Brittany Higgins for her highly strategic, infamous appearance on The Project. Then there was the “get Linda Reynolds” play. And the “get Bruce” play. Make sure he never gets the chance to go for pre-selection! Before the trial. Oh yes, these characters are real pieces of work. The boyfriend, Sharaz, seems to have been in it up to his you-know-whats as well.
Fourth, the lies. See under Tanya Plibersek, who dissembled when reminded of all her questions in the House of Representatives about the Lehrmann case. See also under Peter FitzSimons in relation to the Higgins book deal (see below). Finally, see under “mental health”, as in the apparently shaky mental health of the accuser.
Fifth, the nature of the targets. All conservatives, and one a Catholic prelate. The best kind of alleged rapist you can get.
Sixth, the attempt in all three cases to kill the careers of the targets. Perhaps even their very lives. Pell could easily have died in prison, given his health at the time, and Lehrmann contemplated suicide. The peep behind the curtain reveals an agenda deliberately seeking to “get Bruce”. Porter, once realistically touted as a future prime minister, was forced to slink back to Perth to earn a living, having been milligan’d. (The verb “to milligan” means to set out to destroy someone of whom you disapprove or with whom you disagree ideologically, by spraying malicious falsehoods all over the national media based on the flimsiest of “evidence”).
Seventh, the lack of remorse of the perpetrators. One got a Gold Logie. To date, unreturned. Another got a two million dollar plus “settlement” from the (then freshly installed Labor) Government, allowing them to live in rented luxury by the beach on the Gold Coast.
Brittany Higgins has revealed that she and fiance David Sharaz have settled down on the Gold Coast.
The former parliamentary staffer shared images of the couple’s new home on Instagram, saying that it was their “little piece of nirvana”.
“Home sweet home,” Ms Higgins captioned the post.
In February, Ms Higgins shared that she and Mr Sharaz would be moving to the Gold Coast so that she could finish her Juris Doctor at Bond University.
Good old Brittany, a Juris Doctor! The Daily Mail called their new lifestyle “lavish” and the property as “flash”. And Mrs Higgins approves.
Ms Higgins also included a picture of her new living room, which is adorned with designer furniture - including a $500 white velvet mirror and a $330 decorative side table.
Her mother Kelly Higgins, who is a real estate agent, commented: 'It's exactly what you deserve my angel.'
“Brittany Higgins” and “angel” are not words you expect to see in the one sentence.
A third me-tooist perpetrator got multiple journalism awards for destroying Pell. No public sorrow there.
Eighth, the politicisation of the law, with the likes of Australian Capital Territory’s Director of Public Prosecutions (Shane Drumgold), an embarrassment to his profession, leading the charge. He is now, mercifully, on gardening leave and with fewer friends by the day. The me-tooist industrial complex did the same with Pell, massively benefitting from the performative parliamentary bowing before the might of the child abuse moral panic whipped up by the Gillard Royal Commission. Right between Pell’s first and second trials, we had ScoMo and Bull Shitten pleading “we believe you”. With Lehrmann, we had dozens of questions asked in the Parliament. And the very same ScoMo called Higgins a “victim”. Before the trial. That is both unforgivable and common these days. A me-tooist tactic.
Ninth, we have yet further evidence that once the big public lie is told, then subsequent little lies are needed to keep the narrative going, and, in the end, with sufficient journalistic prodding, the whole house of cards gets close to total collapse.
Tenth, there is the sheer sleaze of the whole episode. Signing a book deal before the rape trial even got under way? Yuck. Of course, the Milligan wrote her book on Pell – “semi-literate police talking points”, as one American observer described it – before his trial. Indeed, the book helped to ensure the trial.
These are merely the top ten. One could go on. Just as the climategate emails exposed a decade or so back, and more recently the “twittergate files” (related to collusion over the censorship of Covid dissidents) in the USA and the Covid WhatsApp revelations in the UK decision the appalling nature of the processes, actions and motives of public figures with malevolent agendas and their ne’er-do-well approach to public morality. Seeing the BTS (behind the scenes) footage and tapes should shatter the illusions of those who take at face value the workings of government. These glimpses of the sordid inner workings of the ruling class are rare and extremely valuable to the outsider class. The insider class knows full well that this is how the world works. Yes, we should be cynical.
With the Lehrmann case, you might well conclude that it isn’t a shark jumping we are talking of here. The me-tooists have jumped the bloody humpback whale. Making Higgins “the face of the Me-Too movement” was perhaps the greatest example of shark jumping. An own goal of epic proportions. And, shockingly, it was done before the (mis-)trial. “Had to” do media? Had to? What about justice?
As reported in The Australian:
AFP Detective Superintendent Scott Moller was ‘upset’ and ‘mad’ that the Victims of Crime Commissioner Heidi Yates was using an ‘investigation as a voice for reform’.
Moller, of course, has, almost single-handedly through his truth telling – a rarity in this affair – restored somewhat the reputation of the AFP, so sullied by the disastrous botching of the David Eastman/Colin Winchester investigation and trial and by the embarrassing careers of two of its “star” exports to VicPol, Simon Overland and Graham Ashton. But that is another story.
And the fallout is only just beginning. Questions that might be explored include the role of the Labor “mean girls” in the whole saga, the Commonwealth’s payment to Higgins, why Higgins’ former boss Linda Reynolds was prevented from appearing before the parliamentary inquiry that led to the, err, generous payout, why senior Australian Federal Police officers were ignored in relation to the bringing of charges, and how Shane Drumgold ever came to hold such a senior legal position.
One can also wonder how is Brittany’s (Peter FitzSimons’ negotiated) book deal going? As The Daily Mail suggested in February this year, as the Lehrmann law suit for defamation then neared:
Bruce Lehrmann WILL take the stand to tell his story for the first time - and Brittany Higgins' $325,000 book deal is in jeopardy: The shock fallout from lawsuits against Channel 10 and news.com.au.
… It is understood Ms Higgins's publisher was planning to go ahead with her book after the trial against Mr Lehrmann was aborted in November last year and the rape charge was dropped.
However, it is unlikely to be released in the near future due to the impending defamation cases.
Not looking good, then. One wonders how many words she has actually written, between law lectures at Bond. One suspects that, the shakier her story is seen to become, the speaking engagements might dry up too.
We are also still fresh from Lehrmann’s “bombshell” interview.
Law suits against Higgins? Further unemployment for Mrs FitzSimons? If Higgins’ book is ever written and published, will it appear in the fiction section of bookshops? Will the ACT legal system ever be brought into repute? Will me-tooist misandrists recover their former, esteemed place in the public’s affection?
It was reported:
Thousands of protestors attended "March 4 Justice" rallies across Australia calling for action against gendered violence in Parliament after Higgins went public with her allegations.
It was also reported that, laughably, in light of more recent revelations:
Higgins described the criminal justice system as "asymmetrical."
https://www.npr.org/2022/10/27/1131848669/australia-metoo-trial-brittany-higgins-jury-misconduct
Indeed, it can be. Bruce Lehrmann, having lost everything, contemplated suicide, and all but went through with it. His accuser, on the other hand, got two million bucks, a book deal, fame, adulation, TV stardom and a “lavish lifestyle”. All that looks a little asymmetrical to me. Who marched for falsely accused men? The law also takes its own good time. After it took Higgins two years to “go public” with the accusation, it was then another two years until the ACT’s DPP called off the second trial. They do the falsely accused very slowly, it seems. All the while leaving what is left of their reputations swinging in the breeze.
Perhaps the wrong person got the Gold Logie. Or at least a silver for “best actress”. And perhaps, just maybe, the Me-Too gels and their low-rent media celebrity-champions might pause a little and reflect on their cavalier approach to justice, before they march again into battle.
Paul Collits
8 June 2023
Making false report, election tampering, conspiracy to pervert the course of justice. Conspiring to commit fraud to overthrow a government….that’s before you even consider the poor bloke they set up. Those involved should be tried and jailed.
The whole thing just stank from the get go. I was amazed it went to trial and then to read the trial proceedings... The most disappointing part was Morrison’s behaviour. He just trashed the presumption of innocence. I just wish they’d all go away.