Tory Shepherd: The desire to be right too often outweighs the facts
THE burning desire to be the downtrodden victim means haters refuse to see the facts, or Easter eggs, in front of their faces, writes Tory Shepherd.
LIKE a bunch of wailing, tear-blind children trying to force coloured blocks into the wrong holes, the haters just desperately want to be right.
Even when it doesn’t quite fit.
Long ago, when men were clean-shaven and Doc Martens had 12 holes, I studied a feminism course that — as a side effect, maybe — helped one spot sexism.
Phallic symbols were always a classic, brought up in tutor groups that came augmented with goonbags. The Eiffel Tower! Pens! Rockets! Nothing to do, of course, with the ergonomic shapes of things.
It worked, though. Like putting phallic-coloured glasses on. You’d start to see symbols everywhere.
That must be what’s happening with some of our politicians. Threats everywhere.
Take the Australian Conservatives — a group started by our own South Australian Senator Cory Bernardi. He’s been joined by anti-Islam activist Kirralie Smith.
And they’ve started a campaign against “Holiday Eggs”.
Holiday Eggs! What an idea! The Australian Conservatives have started a petition to protest the removal of “Easter” from delicious chocolate products — they say chocolatiers are “bowing to political correctness” and turning Easter eggs into Holiday Eggs.
Only they’re not. No one wants to call them Holiday Eggs. A quick Google shows this is not a thing.
But the idea — like the idea that Christmas is soon to be a hanging offence (no crucifixion jokes, please) — fits with their vision of the world, a world full of menace.
Witness Pauline Hanson, who is set to celebrate two years of One Nation in the coming days. Every terror attack is proof that Muslims should be banned — even though recent events have shown how likely it is that a terrorist is homegrown.
But she embraced each attack with such unseemly haste, scrawling hashtags against Muslim immigration even as the Westminster dust settled, that you couldn’t help but think part of her was gleefully wanting to say “I told you so”.
Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce has declared her anti-Islam comments as “bat-poo crazy”, which is good copy — but more importantly spy agencies have warned against such language. They say it can increase the alienation that leads to radicalisation.
(NB: Senator Hanson yesterday called for people to buy non-halal, non-Holiday Easter eggs).
I visited a private all boys’ school last week and it was clear from the moment I walked in — when a puffed-up teen shouted “feminism is cancer” — that they were trying to force the idea of me into some preconceived idea. Nothing — no facts, statistics, logical arguments or emotional ones — was ever going to change their mind.
Feminism was out to get those poor, privileged boys.
One more example: Report after report into a federal inquiry into migrant settlement outcomes warns that there is a cycle in Australia. Migrants or refugees come here, many of them with barriers to fitting in and finding a job.
So they start to be excluded. That leads to ghettoisation, ostrasization.
Groups are isolated, and previous trauma means they are more susceptible to drug and alcohol abuse. Problems escalate and they can swiftly turn into the very thing that led people to ostracise them in the first place.
These are self-fulfilling prophecies. These people — the conservatives, the One Nationers, the schoolboys, the racists — exaggerate or distort the threats the world faces. They elevate themselves to a righteous victimhood.
Listening to the schoolboys — who questioned both man landing on the moon and the gender pay gap — it sounded as though they were jumping at shadows.
They must know the world has changed, is changing, and their dominant place within it is not as certain as it used to be. And their anxiety translates into aggression.
Chill out, I should have said. You’re still top of the heap, cream of the crop. Your chances of wealth and power still far outstrip the struggling masses.
It wouldn’t have helped. Once they’ve circled the wagons, it’s impossible to break through.
Any foray just becomes another bit of proof that they are under attack, strengthens the barriers.
And all because they got bent out of shape when they didn’t really need to.
Tory Shepherd is political journalist for The Advertiser.