In Australia one of the current favourite targets for bigots, scumbags, libertarians and other assorted Trump-emboldened shitheads is section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act 1975, which makes unlawful any act reasonably likely to
offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate another person or group of
people because of their race, colour, nationality or ethnicity. There's a push, which our Prime Minister (a weak-kneed and utterly pointless shell of a man who has mastered the lawyer's art of believing and orating pompously about whatever he has been paid to believe) now supports, to have it removed from the nation's laws.
Yesterday I saw this book, No Offence Intended: Why 18c Is Wrong, published by local right-wing dipshit press Connor Court, and the total dishonesty and speciousness of its cover really riled me up.
It's not young Asian women who are being "censored" by 18C. It's invariably the sort of white men who want to deport Muslims and abolish feminism, and who are terrified of the reality of a world that doesn't all look exactly like themselves, and whose frothing rabid hate speech hasn't exactly been curtailed by this law they claim to be so restrictive. Until 11 September 2001, these turds were shitting on Chinese and Vietnamese immigrants (when they weren't taking sex tours to Thailand). Now they pretend that these victims of theirs are the ones being oppressed, and that they are bravely defending their freedoms. To which we can only respond with a hearty Go fuck yourselves!.
Gloriously no-holds-barred, thank you. Now looking forward to similar diatribes against the western world's depressing rightward lurch. You might feel they should tie in with book cover reviews, but that was such a cathartic blast I really don't mind if they don't.
ReplyDeleteThank you! I take it 'George' is not followed by 'Brandis', then?
ReplyDeleteAh, I'm currently suffering under Brexit, so I wasn't familiar with George B. He sounds a charmer.
ReplyDeleteBrexit? My commiserations! We seem to be living in an era where voters enthusiastically punch themselves in the genitals while cheering like maniacs, and then blame someone else when it hurts afterwards.
ReplyDeleteBeen a while since I've chimed in, but it saddens me this kind of idiocy seems to be spreading like plague throughout the world. Bad, misleading, cover; worse ideas. Just awful. Life is not getting easier or better, these days.
ReplyDeleteAmerican here, saying thanks for writing this.
ReplyDeleteBob--good to hear from you again. I can only hope this fuels some funny, angry comocs!
ReplyDeleteLisa, I can't exactly say my pleasure, but you know what I mean.
Thanks, everybody.
It's not even a good cover, really. Hasn't that "censored" tape over the mouth been done a hundred times already? It's one thing to be a bigot; it's another to be derivative.
ReplyDeleteChiming in from California here, thinking my own blog will get a lot more political over the next four years and secretly rooting for #Calexit.
It's not even a good cover, really. Hasn't that "censored" tape over the mouth been done a hundred times already? It's one thing to be a bigot; it's another to be derivative.
ReplyDeleteChiming in from California here, thinking my own blog will get a lot more political over the next four years and secretly rooting for #Calexit.
This is a publisher who publishes people who think only in cliches, so I guess the cover is appropriate.
ReplyDeleteGood luck in the future independent republic of California!