Sunday, January 11, 2015

Making the Most of Charlie Hebdo at The Australian

As you'd expect, over at The Australian, Murdoch's myrmidons are putting the Charlie Hebdo massacre to good use: columnist Brendan O'Neill, for example, would have us unleash our inner Charlie Hebdo and mouth off whenever 'the spirit' (of... ?) moves us:

"So, if you want to pay tribute to the brave souls at Charlie Hebdo don't just hold up a pen in public and then go back to accepting the idea that offensiveness should be strangled - be a bit Charlie Hebdo in your everyday life and blaspheme against gods, prophets, orthodoxies and stupidities in the name of freedom and progress." (Restore the right to offend, 10/1/15)

The trouble with Brendan's urging is that he doesn't tell us which particular gods, prophets, orthodoxies, stupidities, freedom and progress we're supposed to blaspheme against, or whether there's a time and a place for this sort of thing, or (very important this) what we should do if following his advice gets us into trouble. Then, of course, there's that all important question: What if, like Brendan, we know SFA about what we're blaspheming against

But seriously, folks, if from now on you notice an eruption of walking, talking Daily Telegraphs or a rash of Ray Hadleys where before there were none, I think it's probably safe to assume they're following Brendan's sage advice.

Of course, The Australian wouldn't be The Australian unless someone, somewhere in its sandpit, used Charlie Hebdo as a stick to beat the Palestinians with. Meet Jennifer Oriel:

"In the long view of history, the Western world's response to terrorism will be seen as a paradox of criminalising the effects while cossetting the cause. Only a few weeks prior to the murderous attack on Charlie Hebdo artists in Paris, the European Parliament uncritically acknowledged the terrorist group Hamas as a standing government in its motion to recognise Palestinian statehood." (Wink at Hamas is a nod for Islamist terror, 10/1/15)

Thanks for conflating the Palestinian resistance with the Charlie Hebdo assassins, Jennifer, but no thanks.

Israel, eh? Now there's one orthodoxy you'll never find Brendan (or, I suspect, Charlie Hebdo) blaspheming against. Funny that.

5 comments:

patrick connor said...

In Australia , for example , our Jewish parliamentarian representatives all seem to be , not only Israel supporters , but default supporters of Israel's atrocities against humanity .
The same applies (with little but notable exception) to the "Jewish" Lobby in Australia .
Those opposed to the Lobby's point of view are kept quiet by the most vilest , most vindictive & vengeful personal

patrick connor said...

attacks .
On Murdoch the Unfit's test, those Australian groups share the blame for Israel's atrocities .


Our Australian PM , Tony Abbot , is a notorious old-boy of Murdoch's Australian .
Even now , he seems not to have progressed past the stage of lowest

patrick connor said...

Sorry .
RUPERT Murdoch (NOT Malcolm).

Grappler said...

"be a bit Charlie Hebdo in your everyday life and blaspheme against gods, prophets, orthodoxies and stupidities in the name of freedom and progress."

Where was Brendan O'Neill over the Mike Carlton and Glen Le Lievre affair? And where were all of these people when journalists covering the carnage in Gaza were being killed by the IDF? The stench of hypocrisy!

Anonymous said...

Ah, Jennifer Oriel - everybody's favourite rightwing libertarian radicalesbian feminist!