Guy Rundle posted:

Rundle: the greatest injustice of the Vietnam War, as suffered by Amanda Vanstone
Guy Rundle
Crikey writer-at-large

Free and friendly nation,
Born of our own hand,
Peace our greatest virtue,
Mighty southern land.

— Under Southern Stars (lyrics: A. Vanstone, mus. Elgar*)

My God, sometimes there are columns that are so perfectly pitched, you can’t tell whether they’re straight or knowing self-parody (i.e. every third Greg Sheridan piece), or unknowing self-parody (every second Bernard Salt piece). There is a third option, where you believe that someone may have hacked the newspaper’s content management system and supplied a fake column to embarrass the person it’s purported to be by.

That last and highest benchmark was achieved by Amanda Vanstone in her recent effort, in which she damns the recent protests at Parliament House. Vanstone thinks the protesters want to be able to act with impunity, i.e. she doesn’t understand how civil disobedience works — the whole point is to get arrested, Amanda — but that’s simply an example of her huge ignorance. What’s funny is this:

quote:

“When I left school I went to work for the then Myer group to train to be a buyer … [I had to] to walk a few blocks each day to pick up the uniforms that had been made to measure in a nearby factory and carry them back to the store … the nylon string binding the bundles of uniforms together would dig uncomfortably into my hands … with a big load in hand the road to return was blocked by a sizeable anti-Vietnam War demonstration. I couldn’t put my load down, they weren’t packed to sit on the pavement … I saw a bunch of students, all well fed, looking as though they were having a good day out …”

At the time, around 1970, Vietnam was being doused with Agent Orange to destroy its agricultural system, the US was contemplating nuclear bombing, and deaths were heading to a million, including 60,000 US troops and 500 Australians, most of whose surviving compatriots regretted their involvement. On the other hand, Working Girl got string burn. Huge ethical conundrum. It’s fun contemplating how else this would be applied — “Miss Parks, just sit at the back. I want to get home for Gunsmoke”. “Gandhi, come on, we have to order something to get a drink in this place.” “Oh, Primo Levi, Auschwitz Schmauschwitz, I’ve got a hangnail.”

Do they really think like this? Liberals, I mean. They think exactly like this. Too cowardly to imagine challenging power, they think it must all be for show. Incapable of connecting to anything larger than themselves, not in their own interest, they cannot imagine the motives of those who do.

quote:

“They want to be on TV, they want to tell everyone that they care. It’s just one big ‘I’m a nice person’ story. The subjects of their protestations, in fact, are an indispensable asset without whom they would lack a vehicle or springboard to promote themselves as caring people.”

Man, that’s such a student Liberal sort of comment, it takes you back: the chinos, pearls and hot chocolate crowd, wanting to be part of something with that energy, unable to bust out of their exoskeletons. Occasionally one would crack and come to the dark side — like the tightly wound Christian Youth rep on the Melb Uni SRC, cable-knit sweaters and tartan skirts and endless motions supporting Reagan, until she eventually broke, leaked a bunch of dodgy right-wing financials, and last I heard was running an olive farm near Ballarat with her bikie girlfriend, the one in the couple with fewer tatts. The rest watched the parade go by, muttering “they’re just showing off” (oh, and don’t buy the Little Orphan Mandy act — she’s a St Peters’ gal, Law/Arts Adelaide U, married a commercial lawyer, bumped into the Senate).

It’s a fantastically informative article, just not for the reason Vanstone imagines. Gives Grace Collier a run for her money (six days now, and no one has felt Grace’s pain, so I have started a change.org petition to help get the Borderline Collie to a Lodge drinx. Please sign.) As to the well-fed students, well I guess that’s moot now.

Nation made of many,
Bound in hope as one,
Building for the future,
Under southern sun.

Valiant into battle,
Courage to the end,
Standing firm for freedom,
Loyal southern friend

— Under Southern Stars

*Land of Hope and Glory, to be precise. Verses are from a song Under Southern Stars written by Vanstone over a course of six years, allegedly to provide music with “gravitas” for official occasions, which — play it in your head as if sung by a grade 4 class — it so would.

The Peccadillo posted:

demolishing 18c doesn't go far enough, people who say "friend of the family' should get tax breaks

quote:

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/dec/07/acoss-criticises-governments-appalling-jail-threats-to-welfare-recipients
“We’ll find you, we’ll track you down and you will have to repay those debts and you may end up in prison,” he said.

open24hours posted:

Recoome posted:

Also the """quote""" is the same as (((bracket))) and it's supposed to denote a jew lmao

Byolante posted:

Its the same account
Its actually the student saying it
The private group is anti-aboriginal (It might be, I have no clue. The use of """ suggests its certainly alt-right and anti-semetic)

Nam Taf posted:

No it's not, it's just denoting that he doesn't think Buzzfeed is legitimate journalism. It's the same as Maybe there's another context to it but I've personally used multiple quotes to denote airquotes since before SA had an airquote smiley and certainly before the alt-right were a thing. How long has it had this other context?


It's not. The Buzzfeed article is atrociously full of poo poo and fictional. It's not some racist/alt-right hideout. It's not some anti-aboriginal page. It's a meme and shitposting group started by some guy named Brock after he was banned from the QUT SS group for constantly posting about sports in all-caps. It predates the whole 18C saga by a number of months and the only relation is that it has a significant overlap with the QUT crowd. It's apolitical and pretty centralist, if not slightly left leaning, simply by virtue of that being the political distribution of uni students and young adults. It's no more racist than all of SA is because occasionally FYAD posts poo poo like that.

I've no idea if that's actually Calum or if it's a fake account (there's multiple on there). The post got (rightly) called out later in the thread. Regardless, because the place was conceived as a place where anyone can post anything off-topic (in that it's just full of shitposting about anything and everything), the admins try to avoid deleting anything where possible as a rule and instead tell people to block those they don't like.

Either way, if it's actually Calum he's a tremendous idiot for thinking he should say that even possibly as a joke. If it's not him, whoever it is will gently caress him over something chronic in his ongoing lawsuits and they're a dickhead for it.

Recoome posted:

lmao then why use the three quotation marks? It's a really bizarre thing to do because using the """quote""" is hyper specific and also unusual. Also it may have had a different meaning previously, but it's recently been used to mark out Jews, or suspected Jews, on the internet.

quote:

Also I guess you are a QUT student or something?

open24hours posted:

Are there any examples of triple quotes being used in that way? I've only ever heard about the parentheses.

Nam Taf posted:

As I said, because he wanted to use it as airquotes because he thinks Buzzfeed are hacks and calling them journalists is an abuse of the word 'journalist'.

Literally just read it as journalist and you have his intended meaning. I am sure he's as oblivious to this alternate meaning as I was until reading auspol this morning.

Milky Moor posted:

(((thing))) gets used in all sorts of contexts now. Look at Birb Memes on FB that seems to use it to denote emphasis or loudness.

I think people are just parroting it because they don't know what it means.

quote:

'This is a kangaroo court': Rod Culleton High Court hearing underway

quote:

Australia's economy shrank 0.5 per cent in the September quarter, well below already pessimistic analyst forecasts and its steepest decline since the global financial crisis of late-2008.

The annual rate of growth came in at an anaemic 1.8 per cent, also below expectations.

quote:

Sydney man John Wilson, a One Nation supporter, was escorted from the court as he yelled out that it was a "kangaroo court" and a "star chamber".

Nam Taf posted:

Jobs and Growth, Mr Speaker

http://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2016-12-07/economic-growth-gdp-data-abs/8099480

Cirofren posted:

Star chamber?

quote:

BREAKING: the 55 sacked Carlton and United Brewery maintenance workers have just WON all their demands and will RETURN TO WORK!

This was only achieved thanks to the strength of the workers and the massive #boycottCUB movement that has swept Australia.

To all those who stopped drinking CUB, held a CUB-free BBQ, came to a rally, or let the company know what they were doing was wrong; you helped win this result.

No matter how strong a multinational corporation thinks they are, no one has a right to cut our wages and conditions.

We will fight them. And we will win.

tithin posted:

Synthbuttrange posted:

WhiskeyWhiskers posted:

The liberal response to the ((())) thing on Twitter and stuff is hilariously telling. Someone came up with the bright idea of non-Jews putting parenthesis around their own names so the Nazis couldn't tell who was a Jew and who was a liberal. As if Nazis are going to give a poo poo.

It's just so indicative of a mindset that thinks fascists can be reasoned with and need to be allowed to hold their views.

quote:

http://www.essentialbaby.com.au/pregnancy/baby-names/no-you-cant-name-your-baby-anzac-seaman-god-or-sir-vic-government-says-20161205-gt4rim
While some parents have had their baby names picked out since primary school, for others, naming a baby can be a pretty complex process.

And it is a big responsibility - after all, your little one will be wearing it for the rest of her life (or until she can legally change it via deed poll).

While Pokémon or cult TV series names might be in, there are some names that are definitely out.

Although parents have an almost endless list of names to choose from, there are a few that have been permanently vetoed - and now the Victorian government has released a list of 46 names that have been outlawed, including Anzac, Christ, God, Saint and Seaman.

All the controversial names on the list had been suggested by parents who were then turned down.

The most common names on the banned list are titles, such as Minister, Mister, Princess, Queen, Sir and Sergeant. Likewise, names with religious connotations - Jesus, God, Satan, Saint and Christ - were also outlawed.

Of course, Victorian parents are not alone in their bizzare baby name choices. A list of names that has been banned nationally includes Bonghead, Chow Tow, iMac, Ikea, Maryjuana, Panties, Ranga, Smelly and Thong.

Legally, officials can refuse names that are too long, contain symbols or are contrary to public interest.

Here is the Victorian banned list in full:

Admiral
Anzac
Australia
Baron
Bishop
Brigadier
Brother
Cadet
Captain
Chief
Christ
Commodore
Constable
Corporal
Dame
Duke
Emperor
Father
General
God
Honour
Judge
Justice
King
Lady
Lieutenant
Lord
Madam
Majesty
Major
Messiah
Minister
Mister
Officer
Premier
President
Prime Minister
Prince
Princess
Queen
Saint
Satan
Seaman
Sergeant
Sir
Sister

Doctor Spaceman posted:

I had assumed people did it to mock the concept, in the same way that Knights and Dames prompted a lot of noble titles on Twitter.

quote:

A list of names that has been banned nationally includes Bonghead