Tory Shepherd: An outpouring of humane reactions to Afghanistan crisis, but also predictable villainy

Pictures like those from Kabul bring hellscapes into our homes. Most reacted with sympathy, but the usual bad eggs stepped up with their terrible takes, writes Tory Shepherd.

There are certain images that sear themselves on to your brain, that bring home the horror of what can be an abstract problem in a faraway land. Phan Thi Kim Phuc, the nine-year-old burning, fleeing from a napalm strike in her Vietnamese village.

A toddler in a bright-red T-shirt, face down on a Turkish beach, drowned while fleeing Syria. And another boy covered in dust and blood in an ambulance after an air strike on Aleppo.

The Falling Man, plunging to his death from the Twin Towers on September 11.

There are so many. Taken in the aftermath of tragedy, they bring the hellscapes into our homes. Now, of course, we have the pictures of Hamid Karzai airport in Kabul. People desperate to escape clinging to the landing gear on planes, then falling. Hundreds packed on the floor of a single Globemaster, clutching their precious lives.

A US Air Force Globemaster cargo plane flew 640 Afghans out of a chaotic Kabul airport. Picture: Capt. Chris Herbert / US Airforce / AFP

Shocking. And then, here in Australia, something predictable. Good people looked for ways to help, to share news, to send money, to call for action. They started fundraisers, shared memories and stories, pressured the federal government to help those they could.

Everywhere, human and humane reactions.

Then, something else predictable. The usual cohort of politicians stepped in to make merry out of tragedy. Queensland Senator Matt Canavan tweeted: “Does anyone know if the Taliban will sign up to net zero?”.

People were mourning loved ones, the loss of their city, their liberties, and he used the moment to ridicule action on climate change.

Worse, maybe, was fellow Senator Pauline Hanson. As others called for Australia to welcome Afghan refugees – the way we did with those fleeing the Vietnam War – she kicked off a fear campaign about terrorism and “bleeding hearts … opening the floodgates” to the Afghan people. She didn’t use the word “swamped”, but the smell of it is always there, with her.

Meanwhile, the terror threat is already here. As the Taliban were toppling cities, Australian neo-Nazis were planning a new order of their own.

A Nine investigation into male white supremacists showed footage of them spewing racist bile, talking about infiltrating politics, plotting a violent revolution.

ASIO chief Mike Burgess says neo-Nazi groups make up half of the agency’s most important domestic counter-terrorism cases. Politicians on both sides have called for the National Socialist Network to be banned as a terrorist organisation.

But no, Senator Hanson is trying to stoke fear about floods of Afghan refugees – when Australia can’t even bring home all those who have helped us out over there.

The same bad eggs crop up again and again with their terrible takes on the most serious issues of our time. The pandemic, climate change and geopolitical instability.

The rogue pollies, the insta-famous, the twits, who mine strata of misinformation, disinformation and cherry pick information to put on top. They’re seeking fame, or power, or money, those three interchangeable lures.

They’ve struck a rich vein of faux-victimhood, and they’re trying to dazzle the Australian public with it. To make people feel as though their way of life is under threat and to use that fear to pull people into their toxic beliefs.

In this upside-down world, taking action on climate change will destroy you. Saving lives by wearing masks and staying home is actually a fundamental assault on your way of life. Those fleeing the Taliban regime, fearful enough to try to grab on to a moving airplane, are coming for you.

This dastardly flipping of the script is frightening. Anyone who uses phrases like “woke” and “cancel culture” and “political correctness” is part of the problem.

They’re trying to build the false impression that your freedom is under threat. But the only “freedom” they’re worried about is their own – the freedom to say hate-filled, racist things. The freedom to keep the vulnerable down. The freedom to stay at the top of the pecking order.

The Taliban. Neo-Nazis. Conservative “freedom” warriors. They’ll say whatever it takes to impose their system on others and to punish those who disagree.

And they all think they’re the good guys.