“No one can resist the truth wrapped in a good joke, and ridicule is your most powerful weapon against the nannies and scolds of the left.” That was the advice of gay Jewish conservative “internet supervillain” Milo Yiannopoulos, who came, saw and conquered this week, dispatching speeches, op ed pieces and bitchy bon mots while sending media personalities like Waleed Aly and Karl Stefanovic running for their mummies. He also won a lot of new fans from the ranks of informed Australians, so for this week’s Readers’ Comments column, add a heaped spoon of Milo and stir well. Let’s engage ...
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In his guest column for The Australian yesterday, Milo exploded into print with a withering barrage of anti-left barbs, claiming ‘rape culture’ and the ‘gender pay gap’ were just lies spread by angry, middle-aged feminists “reeking of cat urine and disappointment”. Trevor wins Comment of the Week for his Milo-inspired short history of satire:
“This fellow is the real deal: Milo of Croton was a 6th century BC wrestler of memorable strength, skill & courage.
“Add now MY’s wit and you have a parallel connection to the ancient world, this time to the Roman satirist Juvenal whose bitter invective against mediocrities of early 2nd century AD Rome gave rise to a tradition of satire that led from Pope, Dryden, Swift, Johnson and indeed, our own Barry Humphries, to Mr Yiannopoulos.
“So, to all you Lefties: as your old pin-up mass murderer Mao Zedong said: ‘Let a hundred flowers bloom; let a hundred schools of thought contend’!”
A job, said John:
“Editor, please sign this guy up for a regular opinion column.”
Erzsebet dug out the D.H.:
“As D.H. Lawrence (1885-1930), possibly not a ‘conservative’ in his day, once accurately prophesied:
‘Men fight for liberty and win it with hard knocks.
Their children, brought up easy, let it slip away again, poor fools.
And their grand-children are once more slaves.’ ”
More Milo, said Mark:
“How wonderfully refreshing! The truth without a hint of political correctness. My mum always said a serving of Milo a day was good for you.”
Tim had a dream:
“If only Milo could have met Bill Leak.”
Andrew said appalled:
“When the cry-bullies of the Left (Exhibit A - Clementine Ford and Waleed Aly) refuse to debate Milo then you know they are gutless cowards who are deadly afraid of being shown up for what they really are — mindless, humourless and vindictive authoritarians who lust for nothing more than power and influence.”
Leigh was light-hearted:
“It’s marvellous what a difference Milo makes”.
Dominic declaimed:
“Milo is to the totalitarian left what Trump is to the swamp. Has them clutching their pearls and pressing the back of their hands to their foreheads in a swoon because of his complete disregard for their sacred cows. At times his coarseness makes me cringe, but, as he would say, our repressive left-wing dominated culture has made him necessary.”
Jonathan interjected:
“In every country in the world, women outlive men by an average of 2 to 4 years. If the statistic was reversed, it would be labelled a global epidemic. But because it isn’t, we never talk about it, it is just accepted. We are not allowed to speak up for men, because in the left’s postmodernist eyes, either this implies we are denigrating women, or because men are ‘powerful’ and not deserving of our attention.
“Milo has made mistakes, but when he calls the left cowards and hypocrites, he is spot on. And even if he wasn’t, his freedom to speak should never be curtailed.”
Angela acclimatised:
“Milo — you are like a breathe of fresh air. Welcome to Australia. For too long we, the people, have allowed ourselves to be cowed and bullied by radical feminists, climate change activists, virtue signallers, guilt peddlers, those who scream racist to shut-down debate, social justice warriors and compliant politicians.
“The silent, suffering majority are waking up and must be prepared to stand-up to these people, stare them down and put a stop to the cultural marxists who are trying to reshape our society. The cultural bullies will fold up like a pack of cards because they are paper tigers.”
Christine confessed:
“I have a terrible admission to make. I don’t think I have ever been discriminated against for being a woman in all 70 years of my life. In fact I think I get better deals BECAUSE I am a woman. And I have used my femininity throughout my life shamelessly to get what I want. In fact I get the distinct impression that blokes like us. Misogyny? What’s that?”
Peter peddled punchlines:
“He’s right. Laughter at the self important misandrists of the left is the best antidote to their sanctimonious piffle. Laugh loud and laugh often, I do and it helps deal with their endless tirade of personal preferences dressed up as social justice.”
Bruce bit back:
“Spitting venomous insults to counter other insults is amusing but counterproductive in the end. The arguments should be looked at irrespective of who is spouting them. Such values as loving one’s neighbour as oneself and turning the other cheek will go a long way to bringing unity to our society. Constant class war is not the answer.”
Milo’s not the Messiah, said JohnB:
“Please don’t make the mistake though of thinking that he is some sort of messiah for cranky conservatives. He is just making you laugh and taking your money. Be happy with that.”
Rocky had his corner:
“Milo’s unique ability to use facts, logic and common sense, delivered with humour, wit and often exaggeration or sarcasm, to destroy today’s PC apologists is wonderful. Please give him a regular column to give us more ammunition to use against the left’s constant, deceptive propaganda ... and political correctness.”
Et tu, Lynne?
“Milo can you please move permanently to Australia, we need a daily dose of you. Perhaps the Oz could give you a column.”
Gone baby gone, said Guy:
“The ABC and Fairfax seem to be completely unaware that Milo is in the country.”
John offered perspective:
“Just for contrast, elsewhere in this newspaper today: ‘Cultural police’ academic blight — Growing on-campus intolerance for diverse views was potentially damaging Australia’s academic credentials, Rob Stokes said.”
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When Calamity Sam, AKA Shanghai Sam, AKA Sam Dastyari was outed as having tipped off a Chinese billionaire with Communist Party links about phone taps, readers were less than impressed. Lloyd looked at the label:
“Made in Iran, packaged in China, sold to the Australian public. A gift that just keeps giving.”
Santoc was shocked:
“Short of Dastyari leading the annual Chinese military parade, what does he need to do to be disowned by the Labor party and expelled from parliament?”
Reds under the bed, said Robert:
“One can safely say the ALP is infiltrated by a sellout Chinese 5th column. Malcolm, you are supposed to be PM of Australia, do something!”
Peter pondered:
“How is this tolerated by the Labor party? Any loyal Australian must put a million miles between themselves and the ‘Manchurian Candidate’. I am looking up the official definition of ‘treason’.”
Con aired absurdities:
“So someone born here but who has a grandparent or parent born overseas is not eligible to sit in our parliament.
“But a person who passes on his private debts to be paid by foreign nationals and who holds important positions in one of our major political parties and warns foreign businesses that their phones are being tapped is free to sit in the national parliament.”
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Conservative MPs were furious after the government legislated same-sex marriage without enacting protections for freedom of speech and religion. religious beliefs.
J eremypined:
“Christopher Pyne appears to making good his comments about ramming through SSM. He and his ilk may have won the battle, but they just fired the first real shot in the inevitable civil war. Fortunately he will lose, but alas, his actions will split the Liberal Party and consign them to at least two terms of a Shorten ALP government.”
Deirdre saw a disconnect:
“Turnbull before the vote :‘Religious protections are more important than SSM’.
After the vote: “legislate SSM now and worry about freedoms later”.”
Neville was narky:
“This is the only country in the world to have introduced SSM without fundamental rights and freedoms already in place. Time will tell whether this makes the reform better or worse than it has performed anywhere else but a study of how it has fared in Spain, the UK, Ireland, Canada, and the US would tell anyone that having these basic freedoms in place first is a minimal bulwark against vengeance policies and laws that seem so often to follow.”
Stephen suggested:
“If the Liberals had done what it says in their job description, and actually distinguished themselves from Labor sufficiently on economic policy, they would be free to implement sound social policy with impunity.
“And, contrary to assertions by the Liberal left, sound economics and social policy are inextricably linked. You can’t build a strong economy in a culture of entitlement, fake victim-hood and identity politics.”
Doomed, said David:
“Let’s face it, the conservatives in the Coalition has been completely out-foxed on the SSM issue. The postal plebiscite did not allow the proper for and against arguments to be put before people started voting producing a result skewed by the early onslaught of pro-SSM emotive
“Then, Turnbull via his cronies refused to cooperate with any amendments and Dean Smith simply put his bill into the Senate without any partyroom debate because Turnbull had closed down parliament for a week. There are too many coincidences for this to have been accidental.”
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Nick Cater took aim at green causes gone crazy with his op ed piece on ‘Buy Nothing Day’. Tom S was on boar d :
“Let’s combine the next ‘Buy Nothing Day’ with an ‘Eliminate a Thousand Public Servant Jobs Day’, then pop one on the calender every three months for the foreseeable future.
Given the climate is going to ‘change’ regardless of what Rattenbury does, or doesn’t do, he can signal his virtue by being the first cab off the rank.”
Arvid was unimpressed:
“Utopian dream. Free energy from the sun and wind. Good article as always Nick. The jig will be up further when the full cost of non recyclable batteries and the poles and wires impact of unreliables stops being subsidised too.”
Christine ceded:
“I’ve stayed out of this debate for 18 months now as the ideologues have taken to their corners to shout at each other. Nick’s view is fine: no more subsidies ... a wonderful point of view until the simple FACT that EVERY coal powered station in Australia was built on a 100pc government subsidy is acknowledged. Ignoring this basic historical fact allows the delusion that somehow coal and gas aren’t (or weren’t) subsidised. Until there is a proposal for a coal or gas facility that does NOT require a price guarantee funded by the taxpayer, as Alinta did at Port Augusta, then this remains a ‘discussion’ based in fantasy.
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Spare the rod and spoil the child? Weekend Australian Magazine columnist Nikki Gemmel got a strong reaction after revealing she did not smack her children. Barbra begged to differ:
“I smacked my 2.8-year-old grandson the other day. He had a bottle filled with water. One of those generic ones you buy to fill with water for ironing. He went to squirt it at his baby sister who was asleep in her pram.
“I said ‘no’ and then said we would go outside where he could squirt it wherever he wanted. As I turned to go, he deliberately squirted his sister in her face. I smacked him very lightly on his little leg. He cried but I ignored it and took him outside to do what we planned. I don’t really care what other people think. He was deliberately naughty. He’s my grandson. I want him to learn about consequences because that will keep him alive.”
Matthew mentions:
“My siblings and I were all raised knowing that if we stepped out of line we would cop it. Sets your boundaries on right and wrong quick smart. I also smack my kids on the butt from time to time to correct their behaviour — and have absolutely no issue with it at all. My kids are growing up into great people and they respect and love their parents.”
Tanja gave the odd tap:
“Massive difference between violent abuse and corrective discipline. I’d never abuse my son. But I’ll never stop disciplining him. And he remains an extremely happy child notwithstanding the occasional smack on his bum.”
Anthony agitated:
“My abusive mother smacked me when I put a knife in the toaster. Name and shame her I say.”
Corporal punishment is natural, said Konrad:
“I’m no scientist. Human beings are animals. Mother cats whack their kittens, lionesses whack their cubs, mother monkeys whack or bite the babies, mothers of other species bite or bang their babies. Animal kingdoms appear to be managing well in the social sense.
“Parents and school teachers once upon a time smacked children, and society was balanced and successful. Since social scientists and other moralist-types decided corporal punishment was wrong or inappropriate society has become unbalanced and less successful.”
Stuart shared his trinity of terror:
“My mother had three implements of torture. The fly swat, damp dish rag, and a green switch. She used them when necessary and I rewarded her with a stable life as did my three siblings. Good on ya Mum!”
Miners change tune on climate change
Peak mining industry body The Minerals Council of Australia has joined the fight on climate.
Easy to point the finger
Demanding we abandon coal for climate is akin to asking NZ to give up love affair with sheep.