Wholesome Rage: That one time the CIA overthrew the Australian government, and Queensland ended up a fascist police state.

This week's article is about that one time the CIA overthrew the Australian government, and Queensland ended up a fascist police state.

I had fun with this one.

Comments

[Communist-Party]

While I agree whole heartedly with the artical on most points. I still condone both Black Lives Matter and Antifa. They have shown time and time again that they are both violent and disruptive organisations that care more about themselves and thier feelings than their cause. I am a Norwegian. So I have a outside in perspective on the situation in the US. Recently I watched in horror as UK arrested a man for making fun of Hitler and the Nazi by teaching his do to sieg heil and this because he posted it online and someone was offended. Antifa and Black Lives Matter behave quite similar to the UK goverment here and seems to want a police state of their own.

[Otterbee]

4861964
I also condone both Black Lives Matter and Antifa. Nazi punks fuck off!

[MrNumbers]

4861964

You know, I used to fully agree with you, and write as much. But then I read Dr King's Letter from Birmingham Jail;

"First, I must confess that over the last few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in the stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Council-er or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says "I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I can't agree with your methods of direct action;" who paternalistically feels he can set the timetable for another man's freedom; who lives by the myth of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait until a "more convenient season."

Shallow understanding from people of goodwill is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection."

And I realize, sure. They're occassionally loud and violent and appear self-sabotaging.

But what were people doing to help them before they drew that attention to themselves? What was being done to help them?

That's the problem of disenfranchisement. When it becomes keenly aware you have no power, no representation, you need to piss off enough people who do have power to act on your behalf - or else you'll keep being conveniently ignored. Sure, they're pissing people off, but they can't be ignored at that point, and that's the only leverage they can get.

Don't blame BLM for being BLM: Blame the environment that caused these actions to be the only effective ones.

[zimmerwald1915]

4861964
How exactly are the actions of the UK police supposed to reflect badly on BLM or Antifa? These groups are not known for their association with the Conservative or the Democratic Unionist Parties that form the UK government.

[iisaw]

4861970
Isn't it amazing how people can be so strongly opposed to the very concept of "black lives matter" and anti-fascist as a political choice? Some of the members of those organizations are rowdy, so we must condemn them all. And (of course) that means that the opposite must be 100% true: black lives are disposable, and a fascist dictatorship would be "good for business."

[iisaw]

I've read the article twice over now, and thought a bit about it. I was completely ignorant of the events, but none of them surprised me in the least, because they are all so similar to events I know very well. The only thing that seems to have changed between the late 20th century and now is that the elites no longer seem to have any fear of popular protests no matter how massive. I suppose that is because their strategies to disrupt and de-legitimize them have been honed to perfection.

Unfortunately for any hopes of countering the advancement of fascism in the US, our political left seems to be deeply mired in comforting fantasies. Most liberals are convinced there will be a "Blue Wave" during the mid-terms that will regain control of the house and senate... despite any supporting evidence. I constantly see articles blaming the whole mess on the citizens for not voting, or "tolerating government corruption." (As if we had any choice in the matter.) Actually, a good percentage (though not a majority) of voters heartily support racism and fascism, so I'd rather not encourage them to vote. Personally, I vote even though it is a futile gesture; my district is so successfully gerrymandered that the Democrats don't even bother to run a candidate here. And, thanks to the Electoral College, Californian votes in a presidential election are completely irrelevant and have been since 1876.

The correlation between conservative governance and poor living conditions is very clear in the US on a state-by-state basis. California, arguably the most liberal state in the union, has just become the world's fifth largest economy with one of the highest standards of living in the world, while Mississippi is slightly less safe and pleasant to live in than Ghana. But this is completely ignored by... well everyone, it seems.

What do we do? I agree that any "polite" means to correct the situation will be futile, but after 9-11, our police have become militarized to a ridiculous degree. They are not only completely ready for any sort of violent protest/insurrection, they are positively salivating at the thought of one. Not to mention that the FBI, NSA, CIA, and Homeland Security have perfected pervasive surveillance and infiltration, and no organized opposition has a chance of not being riddled with informants, assets, and agents provocateur.

Where does that leave us? My fear is that the way things are set up will drive us into a divided culture of totalitarian government vs. passively non-compliant citizens. North Korea is an extreme example; we would probably end up more like Greece or Mexico. As an autodidact historian, the most positive outcome I find plausible for is that the Federal government will collapse under the weight of its corruption and incompetence and the US will balkanize; great for California and a few other states, not so great for Mississippi and the rest.

Sorry for the scattershot reply, but your essay churned all these thoughts back up out of the mental sludge they were resting in.

[MrNumbers]

4862158

I really appreciate it. I'm glad there was enough here worth a second reading.

[Beltorn]

That was quite a fascinating read. And about Australia of all places for that to happen. Well done and thank you.

P.S. If you are still interested, you can ping me about Euromaidan and Ukraine since then.

[Shrink Laureate]

Thank you for this. I didn't know about any of these events - though, as has been commented, they are depressingly familiar.

[Murcushio]

4862158

Most liberals are convinced there will be a "Blue Wave" during the mid-terms that will regain control of the house and senate... despite any supporting evidence.

There's a fair bit of supporting evidence, but the most persuasive bit of it comes in two parts.

1) The red-to-blue swing of nearly every special election and many if not most municipal and local elections between November 2016 and now has been IMMENSE. Something like twenty points or more in even very conservative districts. Even ones where the Republican won... you should be nervous if you run in a district Trump carried by +20 and your predecessor carried by +17 and you only pull out a +2 win. That's a VERY BAD sign even if you won.

Which might not mean anything, but...

2) Historically, special elections between a Presidential election and a midterm are, in the aggregate, pretty decent indicators of which party has a tailwind behind it.

There are other pieces of evidence as well; the record number of GOP retirements, which, again, has a strong historical correlation with the party about to get whupped. Democracy might finally be coming to Pennsylvania, where thanks to the State Supreme Court elections there should flip from "gratuitously, comically gerrymandered in the GOPs favor" to "only a bit gerrymandered in their favor." That's almost certainly good for two to three seats.

So there's a bunch of supporting evidence. It might not be right, but you can't say it doesn't exist. I suppose you could take the tack of "past performance is no guarantee of future results" but that just means "people shouldn't study history and attempt to apply what they learn to the future," which seems... dubious to me.

That said, it is a hard hill to climb. The Senate map for Democrats this year is brutal; Dean Heller is a dead man walking in Nevada but everything else is gonna be tough for them, especially in Indiana. Furthermore, the House... it isn't as badly gerrymandered as Michigan is, but Democrats need to win the popular vote by around five percent in order to claim a bare, razor-thin majority. And there's some evidence indicating that it is POSSIBLE for them to win by as much as seven or eight percent and STILL not claim a majority, depending on how the votes are distributed.

(Single-member districts and first-past-the-post can blow me, by the way.)

[howard035]

It's an interesting story, but the author in question is getting it from the Guardian, which isn't really a credible source these days.

If you look at the Wikipedia article, it paints a more nuanced picture, including the fact that Whitlam was running some really shady practices to pack the Senate, and looked like he was planning to rewrite the Australian Constitution to consolidate his grip on power, like a 1970s Hugo Chavez.

I'm no expert in parliamentary procedure, but the fact that 1 month after Whitlam was dismissed the electorate crushed his party in the polls and heavily rewarded the opposition that drove him from power suggests that Kerr was backed more by the people of Australia than Whitlam was.

[iisaw]

4862251
I'm doubtful about the value of historical precedence, because we are going through what future historians will probably refer to as "a unique and chaotic period" which doesn't easily end itself to making accurate predictions. Whatever the outcome, it will certainly help to more clearly define the new political paradigm^[1] in the US. With that said, I desperately hope you're right, because if the Republicans can remain in control after the insane s#!t show that has resulted from their near total control of the government... well, it isn't going to be pretty.

I'm gratified by the number of Republicans running for the hills (and even switching parties in one case), but I'm not sure how much of that is not wanting to "get whupped" and how much is sheer disgust at what their party has become. Several have outright said so.^[2] If they think quitting is a better option than trying to steer their party back in the general direction of sanity... again; not pretty.

-------------------
[1] I sincerely apologize for using such a tired buzzword, but it does accurately convey my meaning.

[2] Yes, there are some Republicans who have a reasonable sense of ethics and service to the nation! If you read stuff written or said by people like Eisenhower, Goldwater, or others of that era, they sound like flaming progressives nowadays. Even George W. Bush recently quipped, "I don't look so bad now, huh?" (Unable to source that so it might be apocryphal. But I want it to be true.)

[Communist-Party]

4862051
I never said their actions are suppose to reflect badly on BLM or Antifa. I used the reccent developments in UK as an example of the sort of goverment they seem to want. A state were if someone is offended, the offender must be harshly punished. I use the UK's complete lack of historical insite and fear of offense as an example because I see a similar thought pattern in them.

[Communist-Party]

4861995
Karl Marx had some good intentions and he was an opponent of child labour. He also believed that to achieve a greater society the people must take power with violence and install a dictatorship which he claim would then when it was time, give all it's power to the working class. The road to hell is paved with good intentions.

[zimmerwald1915]

4862350
I'm still at a loss as to how you get from "right-wing government opposed by the Left" with "the kind of government leftists want." Unless you're just in the business of stuffing words in other people's moths, in which case there probably isn't any point continuing this conversation.

[Kuairu]

A Brazilian I once knew told me that Good thinks of politics as their tools of power, while Evil looks at laws as their tools to power. With the way police and upper government seem to isolate themselves from normal justice because they have special rules and people in place, hearing people getting basic slaps on the wrist for their crimes these days does get normalizing to a point.

4861995
Dr. King has been rather white-washed himself for being this sort of "we black people need to be peaceful and show we are not savages" whenever he gets taught in schools, especially in my catholic, random non-standard sisters high school. How does MLK get taught in Australia?

[iisaw]

4862359
I'm not one to judge by appearances, but since it's a deliberate choice, I think his user pic is sort of a clue.

[zimmerwald1915]

4862406
Sad to say I don't recognize it

[iisaw]

4862410
"Egon Olsen" is a fiction gangster who (supposedly) only fails because his underlings are morons. I.e., he's an old white guy who thinks he's a genius and that laws don't apply to him. For someone to identify with an anti-hero like that... yeah, you're wasting your time trying to get a rational reply.

[MrNumbers]

4862258
I read through many, many sources on this and chose the Guardian as simply the most accessible distillation of the information I discovered.

4862388
"How does MLK get taught in Australia?"
He doesn't, not on the curriculum. Our social sciences classes are a bit of a joke.

[Communist-Party]

4862359 Antifa and BLM from what I have seen, both want a state that enforces the cultural norms and political views they consider to be the correct once and punishes those that critique them as well those that do not fit into their worldview. I used the recent incident in the UK as an example of how such a state would behave. I can see that I fumbled around a bit with my first response.

[MrNumbers]

4862916

They're both reactionary groups motivated around perceived injustices: AntiFa around preventing the alt-right from organizing and stabilizing, and Black Lives Matter from police shootings and unequal policing practices. They aren't trying to make a new state, they're just trying to get the current one to act in favour of their issues.

both want a state that enforces the cultural norms and political views they consider to be the correct once and punishes those that critique them as well those that do not fit into their worldview

The cultural norms of the former are "no open support of fascism". Of the latter "less militarization of the police, less innocent people dying from law enforcement". I consider both these objectives noble, and I have no objections to their opponents being punished in either situation.