The Corrupt Nature Of Populist Politics
President Trump, in an obvious act of desperation, is offering every adult American a cheque for $5000 if his Republican party wins the primaries. This would cost some $1.3 trillion in a nation already $40 trillion in debt. Responsible Republican politics? The corrupt nature of populist politics is there for all to see. Now, I know Americans are pretty dumb but Trump has previously failed to honour promises for DOGE dividend cheques and for tariffs he imposed. Compound that with his promise to improve affordability for everyday Americans, which has not been realised thanks to his war with Iran and those many Trump tariffs.
Things could not be much worse economically for ordinary Americans right now.
Populist Pauline Hanson & Her Gutter Politics
In Australia, we have Pauline Hanson, the One Nation leader modelling herself on Donald Trump (they share an orange tint). Her party is promising cheaper ciggies (less excise) and less superannuation money coming out of wages if this far right party were ever to gain power. Sugar hits for the electorate are what right wing populist politics are made of. Hanson is a 30 year veteran of anti-immigration gutter politics downunder. Blame everything on the migrant and refugee is the One Nation motto. If you have dark skin beware, when One Nation comes to town. Pauline Hanson is backed by Gina Rinehart, a Trump loving billionaire from WA. White supremacy and racism are the bread and butter of this far right populist bid for power.
The corrupt nature of populist politics is there for all to see.
Populist Right Wing Politics Are Profoundly Corrupt
Wherever you look around the world, right wing populist politics is accompanied by corruption and grift. Nigel Farage, the Reform UK party leader, is constantly enmeshed in corrupt money from wealthy donors seeking undue influence scandals. Right wing billionaires like Elon Musk, Peter Thiele and others are funding far right populist parties in Europe and elsewhere. Musk, of course, backed Donald Trump to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars to get him elected at the back end of 2024. The United States of America is a bad joke when it comes to the inadequacy of its laws governing bribery in the political sphere. The corruption is endemic, as revealed by the Trump administration in its second term.
Right wing, today, means no respect for fair play or the rule of law in the 21C.
One Nation’s Drug Addict Candidate
One Nation is putting forward a candidate in Victoria, who is an ex-drug addict and proud of parts of his drug taking but not others. Ice is, apparently, on the nose but ecstasy, pot and cocaine are quite okay in this bloke’s view. Populist politicians are seeking power for the benefits that brings. They are not hell bent on changing the world to make it a better place, rather they want in on the riches it can bring. Candidates like this are not the best of us, nor do they come with gubernatorial experience. This is called exploiting the protest vote to get your own snout in the trough. One Nation is popular with older white Australians, many of whom wish to see a whiter Australia.
Pauline Hanson Calls Andrew Hastie A Traitor
“Australia’s largest veteran support group has warned calling veterans traitors is a “slur” and an attack on every veteran’s service. It follows a bitter rift between the Liberal frontbencher Andrew Hastie and the One Nation leader, Pauline Hanson, after the latter refused to apologise for a cartoon her party published that labelled Hastie a “traitor”.
In a statement this afternoon, the Returned & Services League of Australia, better known as RSL Australia, said using the word sends a “corrosive message to the wider veteran community” that “your service can be recast as betrayal the moment it’s politically convenient”. “
The 2 Types Of Voters
The older I get, personally, I see the world split into 2 distinct camps. There are those who put forward, almost exclusively, their own desires for more in life. They see the political sphere as a place where a competition exists for pieces of a finite pie. These folk vote for the representative, who has their economic interest front and centre. You will find these self-centred individuals on the Right and right wing populism feeds on their values.
In the other camp, are those who hold a broader conception of community. Sure, they care about their own financial interests but, also, value their place in the bigger scheme of things. What has contributed to this different view upon the political sphere for these folk? Education for some, greater wealth for others, and, perhaps, youthful idealism for another demographic within this coalition. Progressive politics is their bag and they wish for a better Australia for all.
The Nature Of Right Wing Politics
Right wing politics has long championed individual agency over the collective. The Republicans in America have had lower taxes as their dangled bait for prospective voters. Australian conservatives have copied their American counterparts wherever possible in the political sphere. The obvious reason why there is a $40 trillion deficit in the US, is the fact that corporations and wealthy Americans have drastically reduced their taxes over the last 50 years. The top income tax rate in America in the 1960s was around 90%, it is now down to around 37%. Company taxes have been continually lowered over that period as well. American corporations avoid paying tax all around the world, including here in Australia. They achieve this via clever accounting tricks shifting profits to tax havens in places like the Virgin Islands and Ireland. Big Tech does this to the tune of tens of billions every year in Australia. News Corp, Rupert Murdoch’s company, which owns most of our newspapers and News24, has not paid any corporate tax for more than a decade downunder. If tax rates in America had been maintained at their higher rates, government debt would not have blown out as it has.
Capitalism & Right Wing Politics
Capitalism is the main game globally. Our political spheres operate within this economic framework. If you look back at the recent history of the world, the various empires operating at these times, capitalism drives the bus. Democracy is akin to a smoke screen hovering over where the real power resides within nations and empires. Right wing politics has always been representative of the greatest capitalists, fossil fuel and mining companies throughout the 20C have been the power behind the modern day thrones throughout the world. American power was built on oil for many decades globally. Its military power, until Trump, was the elephant in the room. Speak quietly and carry a big stick, used to be the credo of US political leaders. American Big Tech is the new capitalist power throwing its trillion dollar weight around these days.
Big Tech Rules The World
What does Big Tech offer governments? It offers a digital framework capable of extracting payments from their citizenry. It offer surveillance capabilities promising far greater security within populations. Big Tech is about control. If you have a population constantly looking down into the screens of their phones, you have the means of control. 1984 Orwellian control. Global populations so enamoured of this technology are willing participants in this surveillance and control. AI is the next step, where the message going out is that the powers that be, those with the wealth, value artificial intelligence over human beings. Hundreds of millions losing their job, well that is a price that these companies and their share holders are willing to pay. That the governments, supposedly our governments, are willing to pay. Universal Basic Income? I have not heard any concrete offers coming from the powers that be in relation to this. Personally, I have already lost my career/employment to AI, as I worked directly in the sector most impacted. Tough shit, is what I have experienced on this front. Too bad and fuck off!
Digital Surveillance
Palantir is a digital surveillance and data management company. The Australian government is currently working with Palantir.
“Personal information of national disability insurance scheme participants may have ended up in controversial software company Palantir’s analytics platform as part of a massive multi-agency sharing program investigating fraud, Guardian Australia can reveal.”
What few of us properly realise is that the sheer volume of digital surveillance in our lives has reached dangerous levels. Palantir employs AI capable of digital scrutiny, of which Australians have no conception of. A number of AI industry scientists and techs have come out and warned the rest of us just how imminent the danger we face from this technology is. Extinction level danger within 5 years. The global digital networks already established, means that generative AI will be able infiltrate and achieve outcomes at incredible speeds. Most people have no conception of this and how it will impact their lives. Basically, 99.9% of the human population do not comprehend the languages of the digital networks. People use computers but have no idea how they actually work. This makes us all incredibly vulnerable to something like AI. Take a moment to consider how incompetent the Trump administration is and how often President Trump tells lies about everything. The fate of the world is under the absent direction of a convicted felon and narcissistic cretin.
Trump’s Deceitful & Empty Promises
The corrupt nature of populist politics is on full display via President Donald Trump and his billionaire cronies. That One Nation Aussie MAGA types want to get in on the act, just shows the moral vacuum within these people. The hate speech of Pauline Hanson has been in our face for 30 years. Only now, it is being funded and spread via a right wing billionaire and the digital highway. Most folk are too dumb and lazy to wonder where the content in their social media feeds actually comes from. If you don’t understand how something functions you are vulnerable to manipulation. Sugar hit promises from One Nation appealing to innate racist views and greed are top of the pops for older white folk who never bothered finishing school. These folk call themselves self-made men and women. Actually, what you learn in higher education is to consider the perspective of others outside of yourself. I have met very few tradies and small business proprietors who exhibit this capability. Focusing on your own bottom line, all the time, does not make you conducive to such ways of seeing the world. I would not hold your breath waiting for President Trump to deliver any cheques. Nor would I hold out much hope for corruption not being an integral component of any One Nation government.
Right Wing Billionaires Control Your Newsfeed
“Much of the news you view downunder is controlled by News Corp, which is owned by a right wing American billionaire. Facebook and Instagram are owned by another right wing billionaire, Mark Zuckerberg. X, formerly Twitter, is owned by yet another American billionaire, Elon Musk. American billionaires control your news feed. Can you perceive a bit of a pattern here, folks? The news you get either by legacy media or social media platforms comes via Trump supporting oligarchs. AI is likewise owned by a bunch of American billionaires, who have kissed the ring of President Trump. Your news and information comes via a filter, a right wing filter, which puts a decided slant on things.”
Robert Sudha Hamilton is the author of The Stoic Golfer; The AI Heresy; What Price Life?; America Matters: Pre-apocalyptic Posts & Essays in the Shadow of Trump; and other titles. NOW AVAILABLE AT APPLE BOOKS & GOOGLE PLAY BOOKS. Google Play Books AUDIOBOOK
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