Forget facts, these days it’s all about the narrative

As Chris Kenny brilliantly demonstrates in his bingo card-ticking exposure of the shallowness and sheer deception of progressive issues, forget the facts — it’s all about the narrative (“How Dark Emu exposed the ostriches of the left”, 19-20/6) And apart from some pockets of sanity, the narrative is overwhelmingly anti-Western, anti-white, anti-male, anti-Christian, anti-Australian, anti-industry and most definitely anti-conservative. In fact, inclusive is starting to look rather exclusive.

It’s as if there’s an enthusiasm among our glitterati-twitterati to be the first to genuflect to any theory that paints these groups as guilty. As lesser. As shameful. There’s a chilling willingness to destroy not only lives and careers, but also our nation. These peddlers of influence are drip feeding ideas so poisonous that some schools are shaming white Christian boys simply for their identity, school curricula are being purged of much of Western history, the word “mother” is now hate speech, women are increasingly encouraged to see themselves as victims, our national broadcaster seems perpetually focused on baseless smear, and our children are marching in the streets convinced that our planet is burning or sinking or both, that there’s no difference between men and women and that police are murdering Aborigines in their cells. No facts. Just the narrative.

Bruce Pascoe’s book Dark Emu is a perfect example and while I’m relieved it has been outed as fiction, the real concerns are that, for so long and by so many, it was touted as fact, that this was largely ignored when raised by conservative commentators, and that it is still used in some schools. No facts. Just the narrative.

I’m puzzled. What do these woke warriors want? What does their vision for our nation look like? A socialist, atheist, androgynous, non-white, matriarchal mediocracy? Powered by windmills? And no facts please — just the narrative.

Jane Bieger, Brisbane, Qld

Chris Kenny expertly describes how the ABC and others often choose narrative over facts without considering the potentially disturbing consequences.

As the inaccuracies within the revisionist Aboriginal history Dark Emu become more widely appreciated, those who chose to embrace that account of human life before European settlement might ask themselves what impact this has had.

In choosing to ignore many Indigenous voices who refuted that version of history, did they display the same racist arrogance they so often accuse others of? In choosing to relegate a semi-nomadic, hunter-gatherer existence in favour of farming, as if the latter were so obviously superior and the former without merit, what damage have they done to our understanding and appreciation of the genuine achievements of early Australians and the way they lived?

Peter Lucas, Brighton, Vic

Congratulations to Henry Ergas on his well-researched critique of Bruce Pascoe’s book Dark Emu (“Scholarly light cast on Dark Emu’s claims”, 18/6). This book was acclaimed as expounding a different outlook on Aboriginal history. Published seven years ago, it has taken until now for the publication of another book, by acclaimed anthropologists to discredit Pascoe’s book as poorly researched and ignoring “large bodies of information which do not support the author’s opinions”.

Ergas explains the unpleasant truth of why it has taken so long for Pascoe’s views on Aboriginal history to be challenged, and congratulates Peter Sutton and Keryn Walshe — the authors of Farmers or Hunter-Gatherers? — on their courage to do so.

Ruth Tarlo, Bondi Junction, NSW

As usual, Henry Ergas brings his knowledge and sense of perspective to bear in his analysis of Bruce Pascoe’s book on Aboriginal history, Dark Emu. He nails it toward the end of the article, where he touches on the part played by universities in shaping future community attitudes.

As he says, in reference to the messages emanating from the present-day academy, “Being right matters far less than being on the right side.” Unfortunately, that same maxim is increasingly shaping the tone of much of contemporary journalism, film-making, advertising and public discourse. Truth is becoming an optional extra.

Peter Austin, Mount Victoria, NSW