Conservative hate speech no different to Islamic propaganda

Innocent lives are being taken by both sides, as the seeds of hate-based politics sown have blossomed into unspeakable evil.

An injured person is loaded in an ambulance following a shooting at the Masjid Al Noor mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand, Friday, March 15, 2019. Picture: MARTIN HUNTER

OPINION:

WHAT a week of contrasts.

Nightmarish, hellish for our New Zealand neighbours.

Disgraceful from some of our elected representatives and their cheer squads.

Impressive from a couple of NZ women who've shown the dignity that should be required of politicians.

Some of the comments from the public I've seen online following the Christchurch massacres have left me dumbfounded.

How did those innocent men, women and children slaughtered by a terrorist in any way deserve the fate they met?

Just because they're Muslims and Islamic extremists have killed Westerners?

How is that a justifiable argument?

Flowers and messages of respect are placed in Hagley Park across from the mass shooting scene at the Masjid Al Noor, Christchurch, New Zealand. Picture: MARTIN HUNTER

Not all Catholic priests are pedophiles. Should we treat them all as if they are?

And of course, because we are where we are in this nation at the moment, the double standards flowed in the horrific aftermath.

Instead of using dignity, empathy, compassion, courage and integrity, aka Jacinda Ardern, our politicians, some elected on less than 20 votes, ramped up their dog-whistling, blamed the victims and incited more hatred.

Others tried to renege on inflammatory comments made years ago.

Comments and incendiary hate speech they've peddled for years and have used to carve out political careers, gathering followers on their platforms of hate, fear and misinformation.

Abbott, Dutton, Morrison and co cannot just offer thoughts and prayers, condemnation and absolve themselves of their sins, the seeds of hostility they've sown for years.

Mourners place flowers as they pay their respects at a makeshift memorial near the Masjid Al Noor mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand. Picture: Vincent Yu

Fraser Anning shouldn't be anywhere near the corridors of power of our nation.

Anyone who considers the senseless bile he spewed out comparable to having an egg cracked on his head needs something much heavier than an egg cracked on theirs.

The likes of One Nation have peddled his sort of hate speech for decades. And guess what.

Now their chickens have come home to roost, those former wagers of war against those supposedly threatening our way of life are trying to distance themselves from their stances and the horrors carried out inspired by a similar manifesto.

This is what happens when your foundations are scaremongering and hatred.

OUTRAGE: Senator Fraser Anning was targeted after an insensitive statement he released after the Christchurch attacks. Picture: KENJI WARDENCLYFFE

Leveraging off the one-percenters of evil-doers to fuel nervousness among voters and widespread bigotry against entire races or denominations.

It always has been and always will be ugly politics.

And now, after years of reinforcement, of using your platforms to tell us you're working to prevent these attacks to our way of life, you've inspired horrific massacres as evil as those you've so vehemently told us to fear.

What makes the violence-inciting hate spewed by hardcore conservatives any different to the propaganda of extreme Islamists?

At the end of the day it's killing innocent people as well.