Thanks Paul for such an incisive article. My father is a long time reader of the Australian and it’s been ac difficult task getting him to question the narratives they routinely support. Your article points to a noticeable shift from the previous decades where it is increasingly an isolated political class and their handmaiden media that is trying to prolong the appearance of the politics of yesteryear when it’s clearly evident to anyone that looks at the broader picture globally that it’s anything but. I particularly appreciate your mentions of the Oz and Paul Kelly as this will pique my fathers interest and help him to understand more clearly where the Oz sits in the media landscape today. He’s come around on vaccines and the mandates and dislikes the Covid era premiers seeing them for the thugs they presented as at that time. He resonated strongly with your Governor General piece so I have hope this will resonate somewhat, though will certainly be more challenging.
I wish I knew more people that could understand what you’ve written here so that I could pass it on… It’s of supreme importance for the moment as we’re all so scattered across the landscape with most in confusion or delusion. Your work is very clear and I’m very appreciative of what you’re bringing to the table. Once again, thankyou for your work.
24 hours since I wrote the above comment & looking at the numbers at the end of your article there’s been no increase in engagement since then. This really surprises me given the quality of your writing and arguments…
You unfairly paint people who would not put Assange in the same group as Trump. Z Farage and Le Pen. The biggest fans of Assange are the left wing press who would like to see all secrets laid bare. Consortium is one such publication. They also hate Jews. Assange did break the law and should have had the courage to face the music. Manning did but Snowden and Assange skulked away in hiding. I cannot respect such a person.
You make the mistake of thinking the conservative side of politics should have uniform views on everything. We don’t. That is what makes us more complex and nuanced than the left.
G'day Jillian and thanks for taking the trouble to comment, as always. I need to say a few things in response. The article is really about the defenders of the political class, defined as decision-makers in public policy, whether in government or not. It isn't really about Julian Assange, nor do I need to be especially a fan of his - I hardly know anything about him personally - to make the case against the useful idiots. I want to draw attention to the reflexive support for, in the case of Assange, the Asio class, a branch of the ruling elite. An elite that supports immoral, often unwinnable and wasteful wars and the acts contained therein. An elite that routinely crushes us in so many ways.
Whether Assange "broke the law" - and there those who argue that he did not - is of less importance than whether he, other whistle blowers and those who disobey immoral laws and unmandated, often evil, governments in other ways, are justified in so doing. My main point is that, with the social contract between the elected and the rest of us broken in clear, huge and non-reversible ways, all bets are off. This is a core matter of political obligation and of political theory. Of course it is controversial. Others have their views and I have mine. I broke laws during Covid. I now wish I had broken more. When decisions affecting our lives are made by the unelected, it is time for the middle finger. This is a theoretical justification of Assange-type people. Not a specific one. Again, the bigger point is not the case of Assange, but the case of the significance of those who have attacked him.
Second, I don't really care that the left press agrees with me on any topic. Some of them - not many - supported my position on Covid. Like the Left Lockdown Sceptics. CJ Hopkins. Mark Crispin Miller. Naomi Wolf. Indeed, I am an old former leftie who retains much sympathy fro some of the old lefts old causes. Like the working class. Indeed, many of my writings are at pains to suggest that the old left-right divide is over. Irrelevant. Even if partisans like to pretend it isn't. That is what they are paid for. That people who are sensible about much of the post-Covid state might hate the Jews will not endear me to them, by this is irrelevant imho.
And yes, I know that those who attack whistle blowers and those who attack insurgent politicians aren't automatically the same people. But I argue that those who attack whistle blowers because THE STATE IS RIGHT and those who defend the UniParty system and all of its works have something big in common. And I am sticking with that.
You did get one thing specifically wrong. I do not think that conservatives should agree on everything. Nor did I argue it, either explicitly or by extension. I don'r especially care whether conservatives agree on things or not. As a long term student of American conservative thought since WW2, I am deeply aware that many, many conservatives hated each other's views; often they hated each other. And there were many lesser agreements and factions. Fusionists, libertarians, the religious right, paleoconservatives, neocons, social cons, anti-communists, Straussians (of the east and west coast varieties) and the rest. We would wish only that all these types thought with their brains and were humble and had a strong eye on tradition as well as an ordered liberty version of freedom. All these differences - and many are important - are over ends. Don't start them on means! So to suggest that I would wish to reduce all "conservatives" to shared views on everything misses the mark, I'm sorry.
I might be wrong in all this of course! Lovely to hear your thoughts. Thanks again PC
Thanks Paul for taking the trouble. I by no means support the uniparty and also broke rules- I would not call them laws because government function was suspended during covid. I was just concerned that whilst the left - as in France can bury their differences, we don’t. I think that is a strength. As for Jew hating - to discount it is to not realise that when they come after Jews, coming after Christian’s follows. After Saturdays comes Sunday.
Really ..What are you saying ..Assange did not skulk away he was incarcerated and tortured for years for being the messenger,.Respect he deserves it unconditionally..as for Jews perhaps your confusing Jews with Zionists.
Thanks Paul for such an incisive article. My father is a long time reader of the Australian and it’s been ac difficult task getting him to question the narratives they routinely support. Your article points to a noticeable shift from the previous decades where it is increasingly an isolated political class and their handmaiden media that is trying to prolong the appearance of the politics of yesteryear when it’s clearly evident to anyone that looks at the broader picture globally that it’s anything but. I particularly appreciate your mentions of the Oz and Paul Kelly as this will pique my fathers interest and help him to understand more clearly where the Oz sits in the media landscape today. He’s come around on vaccines and the mandates and dislikes the Covid era premiers seeing them for the thugs they presented as at that time. He resonated strongly with your Governor General piece so I have hope this will resonate somewhat, though will certainly be more challenging.
I wish I knew more people that could understand what you’ve written here so that I could pass it on… It’s of supreme importance for the moment as we’re all so scattered across the landscape with most in confusion or delusion. Your work is very clear and I’m very appreciative of what you’re bringing to the table. Once again, thankyou for your work.
I ended my subscription of the Oz because of Paul Kelly and Sheridan.
24 hours since I wrote the above comment & looking at the numbers at the end of your article there’s been no increase in engagement since then. This really surprises me given the quality of your writing and arguments…
You unfairly paint people who would not put Assange in the same group as Trump. Z Farage and Le Pen. The biggest fans of Assange are the left wing press who would like to see all secrets laid bare. Consortium is one such publication. They also hate Jews. Assange did break the law and should have had the courage to face the music. Manning did but Snowden and Assange skulked away in hiding. I cannot respect such a person.
You make the mistake of thinking the conservative side of politics should have uniform views on everything. We don’t. That is what makes us more complex and nuanced than the left.
G'day Jillian and thanks for taking the trouble to comment, as always. I need to say a few things in response. The article is really about the defenders of the political class, defined as decision-makers in public policy, whether in government or not. It isn't really about Julian Assange, nor do I need to be especially a fan of his - I hardly know anything about him personally - to make the case against the useful idiots. I want to draw attention to the reflexive support for, in the case of Assange, the Asio class, a branch of the ruling elite. An elite that supports immoral, often unwinnable and wasteful wars and the acts contained therein. An elite that routinely crushes us in so many ways.
Whether Assange "broke the law" - and there those who argue that he did not - is of less importance than whether he, other whistle blowers and those who disobey immoral laws and unmandated, often evil, governments in other ways, are justified in so doing. My main point is that, with the social contract between the elected and the rest of us broken in clear, huge and non-reversible ways, all bets are off. This is a core matter of political obligation and of political theory. Of course it is controversial. Others have their views and I have mine. I broke laws during Covid. I now wish I had broken more. When decisions affecting our lives are made by the unelected, it is time for the middle finger. This is a theoretical justification of Assange-type people. Not a specific one. Again, the bigger point is not the case of Assange, but the case of the significance of those who have attacked him.
Second, I don't really care that the left press agrees with me on any topic. Some of them - not many - supported my position on Covid. Like the Left Lockdown Sceptics. CJ Hopkins. Mark Crispin Miller. Naomi Wolf. Indeed, I am an old former leftie who retains much sympathy fro some of the old lefts old causes. Like the working class. Indeed, many of my writings are at pains to suggest that the old left-right divide is over. Irrelevant. Even if partisans like to pretend it isn't. That is what they are paid for. That people who are sensible about much of the post-Covid state might hate the Jews will not endear me to them, by this is irrelevant imho.
And yes, I know that those who attack whistle blowers and those who attack insurgent politicians aren't automatically the same people. But I argue that those who attack whistle blowers because THE STATE IS RIGHT and those who defend the UniParty system and all of its works have something big in common. And I am sticking with that.
You did get one thing specifically wrong. I do not think that conservatives should agree on everything. Nor did I argue it, either explicitly or by extension. I don'r especially care whether conservatives agree on things or not. As a long term student of American conservative thought since WW2, I am deeply aware that many, many conservatives hated each other's views; often they hated each other. And there were many lesser agreements and factions. Fusionists, libertarians, the religious right, paleoconservatives, neocons, social cons, anti-communists, Straussians (of the east and west coast varieties) and the rest. We would wish only that all these types thought with their brains and were humble and had a strong eye on tradition as well as an ordered liberty version of freedom. All these differences - and many are important - are over ends. Don't start them on means! So to suggest that I would wish to reduce all "conservatives" to shared views on everything misses the mark, I'm sorry.
I might be wrong in all this of course! Lovely to hear your thoughts. Thanks again PC
Thanks Paul for taking the trouble. I by no means support the uniparty and also broke rules- I would not call them laws because government function was suspended during covid. I was just concerned that whilst the left - as in France can bury their differences, we don’t. I think that is a strength. As for Jew hating - to discount it is to not realise that when they come after Jews, coming after Christian’s follows. After Saturdays comes Sunday.
Really ..What are you saying ..Assange did not skulk away he was incarcerated and tortured for years for being the messenger,.Respect he deserves it unconditionally..as for Jews perhaps your confusing Jews with Zionists.
Lehman, when there were critics of her stand published a picture of herself on twitter in a bra/ tank top with the caption;
Take that you critics.
Too silly to continue bothering with her views.
Amr