Anti-fascists enjoy themselves in Melbourne, even if some are confused about freedom
A spot of bother in Melbourne, home of the ultra-righteous Left. The Australian online, Saturday:
Opponents trying to disrupt a public speaking tour by Canadian alt-right commentator Lauren Southern have been accused of kicking an own goal by drawing more attention to the event with a violent protest outside. Ms Southern joked that it was all “very fun” as two anti-fascist protesters who managed to get inside the venue and interrupt her address were evicted. “Any more ticket sales for Antifa?” she quipped, as the women were hauled off by security guards.
Reporter Rebecca Urban continues:
Protester Nita Habibi … was pounced on by security as she invaded the stage during Ms Southern’s presentation. “I love freedom of speech,” Ms Habibi told The Australian after being evicted. “I wanted to interrupt the thing. I think it’s really dangerous what’s happening. Hate speech should be interrupted.”
The BBC had a stab at defining fascism, October 2009:
But the clearest problem in the definition of the word “fascist” is the very wideness of its application over the years. There is a plethora of uses from Rick in The Young Ones deploying it as an insult, to the Oxford English Dictionary’s differing definitions “a person of right-wing authoritarian views” and “a person who advocates a particular viewpoint or practice in a manner perceived as intolerant or authoritarian” … Broadly speaking, in political discourse it is a “boo word”, a term used more for purposes of condemnation … The Nazis were bad, and in this view their ideology was fundamentally linked to fascism, meaning that fascism is fundamentally bad.
Lauren Southern cops it in her country, too. Toronto Sun, March 7, 2016:
Outspoken Rebel media reporter Lauren Southern expected to get wet on a rainy Friday evening when she showed up to an “anti-fascism counter-protest” in front of The Railway Club … in downtown Vancouver. What she didn’t expect was to get soaked with a bottle of urine.
More from the Toronto Sun:
Southern, who also ran as a candidate in 2015 for the Libertarian Party of Canada, before having her candidacy suspended for challenging females at Vancouver’s SlutWalk … argued against the notion that there is a “rape culture” among Canadian men, and against the idea there are more than two genders. That’s when things got, well, sticky.
London’s The Independent quoted a Home Office spokesman, March 13:
“Border Force has the power to refuse entry to an individual if it is considered that his or her presence in the UK is not conducive to the public good.” Ms Southern, who supported a seaborne mission seeking to hamper the rescue of refugees, claimed British authorities had told her she was “officially banned from (the) UK for racism” after being detained. “They just locked me out and said ‘au revoir’ … banned from (the) UK for ‘racism’.’’
Radio New Zealand on Auckland mayor Phil Goff banning Southern from any council venue:
(Acting NZ Prime Minister Winston) Peters said … “Despite the fact that what they might have to say is the very antithesis of what nearly all of us believe here, we still believe in their freedom and the right for them to express it in free speech.”
In 1944, George Orwell said fascism was difficult to define:
It is not easy, for instance, to fit Germany and Japan into the same framework, and it is even harder with some of the small states which are describable as fascist.