Tim Blair: How could you, Australia? Quite easily in all honesty
They’re not coping well with the defeat of their ruinous and divisive Voice. Having lost the match, Yes campaigners and their leftist allies are now busily losing the post-match, writes Tim Blair.
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They’re not coping well with the defeat of their ruinous and divisive Voice. Having lost the match, Yes campaigners and their leftist allies are now busily losing the post-match.
The Guardian’s comical political editor Katharine Murphy, typical of her kind, claimed Australia failed a test of our collective humanity.
“Head down in life,” Canberra press pack veteran Murphy wrote, “lost in a fog of conflict and misinformation, we failed an empathy test.”
What an absolute tragedy. But don’t worry, Murpheroo. There are still empathetic Australians out there.
It’s just that they’re entirely located within the ACT and enlightened inner-city Greens/Teal/Tesla enclaves.
One day, God willing, those of us living beyond Australia’s holy empathy zones will achieve the same levels of sensitivity and understanding as, for example, a ‘hypothetical’ Yes-voting Darlinghurst meth addict who’s due in court next week on domestic violence charges.
Twitter leftists haven’t been this upset since the last time they were this upset, which is all the time. Here’s a sorrow sampler from just a few hours on Monday morning:
“I am deeply ashamed.”
“I am ashamed of Australia.”
“I’m ashamed to be a descendant of the white settlers/invaders in Australia today, more than ever.”
“I’m so mad and disappointed that Australia voted no … we are a racist and idiotic country.”
“I’ve never been so bloody depressed and ashamed of Australia in my life.”
“This is a shameful episode Australia will never live down. I’ve been a proud Aussie all my life, until this happened.”
Poor kids. Meanwhile, senior Yes folk were gorging on grief from Saturday night onwards. The Australian reported:
“Indigenous leaders across Australia who supported the voice have lamented the defeated referendum as a ‘bitter irony’ in that newcomers who had been on the continent for 235 years would ‘refuse recognition to the true owners of Australia’.”
This seems to be just a posh, ABC-friendly version of the old Cronulla riot theme: “We grew here, you flew here.” The Indigenous leaders’ statement continued:
“The referendum was a chance for newcomers to show a long-refused grace and gratitude and to acknowledge that the brutal dispossession of our people underwrote their every advantage in this country.”
Not a lot of “grace and gratitude” there towards the “newcomers”. By the way, where are migrants and refugees placed in the Yes team’s superiority structure?
In their statement, the leaders called for a “time for silence, to mourn and deeply consider the consequence of this outcome’’. They said a week of silence would be observed from Saturday night to “grieve this outcome and reflect on its meaning and significance”.
Two thoughts: maybe the Yes team would’ve done better if they’d shut up during the campaign rather than after it.
Also, a week of silence isn’t long enough. Extend it to decades. Please. You’ve earned it.
In the same piece for The Australian, Yes23 campaign chief Dean Parkin repeated his claim that his team’s mission was brought down by the “single largest misinformation campaign this country has ever seen”.
Some parts of the Yes campaign keeps citing alleged “misinformation” but declines to provide substantial examples. It’s as though “misinformation” in their minds is now synonymous with simple disagreement.
Also, they talk too much. Tax-funded ABC Radio National host Jonathan Green at least presented his case succinctly.
“F--k Australia,” he wrote on Friday night, before the referendum result was even known. “I mean seriously. What the f--k. How can you say no?”
Very easily, as it happens. Very easily for more than 60 per cent of us.
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Originally published as Tim Blair: How could you, Australia? Quite easily in all honesty