The Truth About Populism
Populism bedevils the Right far more than those on the progressive side of things. The truth about populism is that it offers up easily digestible faux answers to much more complex issues. Take a political party like One Nation, which blames the immigrant for much of Australia’s economic problems. Especially, those immigrants with the wrong coloured skin. The housing crisis is not at its core about a too big population lacking the homes to house them. Rather, there have been a number of changes in how Australians want to live domestically, since the pandemic. In addition, rental stocks have been hard hit by a shift to short term holiday rentals via online platforms. Combine this with the economic thrust of investor led inflation pumping up house prices like there is no tomorrow. Unaffordability for millions of Australians has been the result over decades of this runaway train.
Populism For Dummies
Populism, right wing style, eats and breathers the politics of grievance. Blame the other mob for everything is their MO. Too high taxes and that is invariably the fault of the incumbent, whoever may have historically imposed or supported them is not in the remit of the complainer. Those on the Right, following their American mentors, encourage disdain for taxes, despite these funding our essential government services like health, education and the military. Indeed, big American multinationals and the wealthy do not pay their fair share of tax here or anywhere. This has ben led by the GOP over many decades. It has infected, via neoliberalism, right wingers everywhere. They then, blame others for the higher taxes and ignore the need for essential government services. ‘I’m alright Jack,’ is the motto of Social Darwinism, where only the strong/wealthy survive. Trumpism in America has shown itself to pander to billionaires whilst cutting the healthcare requirements of the poor and needy. Pauline Hanson and Gina Rinehart are both big fans of Donald Trump. The underlying belief is that if you have a lot of money and assets, you should not have to pay a lot of tax proportionate to your wealth and earnings. Right wing parties like regressive, flat taxes like the GST.
Populism & The Ignorance Trap
The truth about populism is that it looks for impassioned views about things like trans folk and trans kiddies. It, then, exaggerates the prevalence of such things and blows it up into a political issue. Far right candidates go around whipping up anti-trans sentiment by making the private lives of others public fodder. Less than 1% of Australians identify as trans. Leave these folk alone and let them get on with their lives – it is none of your business. Another truth is that those who did not finish secondary school and joined the workforce early, like Pauline Hanson, are not best placed to judge others. In my experience, many of these individuals have made a virtue out of a necessity. As if their lack of education has made them more than those who studied hard to get to a higher education. The truth is that it is only at university are you asked to study the perspective of others. Pauline Hanson reveals her ignorance about others constantly and makes hay from them by scapegoating whole nationalities and ethnicities to their detriment and that of the nation. I do not want a leader of such poor form and educational standards. I want the best.
Populist Persecutions
We live in the era of social media, where the culture of complaint has been raised to the level of a ratty Greek chorus on steroids. Social media is an American invention. Right wing billionaires of the American variety go around encouraging neo-Nazis and trumpeting their right to free speech. Hate speech is their thing. Trolling women from the manosphere, where incels froth and sputter like their lonely dicks. Populism embraces the poor downtrodden male, as if this gender has been the exemplar of victimhood instead of the arch oppressor. No one is safe from the hungry right wing populist in search of another mantle of victimhood to exploit for electoral gain. Even Jews of the far right Zionist persuasion cry wolf whilst persecuting Palestinians and all those who consider the mass murder of 74, 000 Gaza inhabitants a genocide of epic proportions. Antisemite!!!!! How dare you criticise the state of Israel. We can do no wrong, we are the descendants of the Holocaust, don’t you know!
The Butcher’s Bill Of Populism
Populism promises easy solutions to complex problems. Ban all Muslims. Don’t allow migration from the Middle Eastern Arab countries. Remigration, which is the forced expulsion of these kinds of new Australians. These are racist and xenophobic policies, which will not improve the economy for ordinary Australians. Culture wars do not make better places, just look at the United States if you want proof of this. Trumpland is an economic mess and things are rapidly getting worse. American citizens have been shot dead by ICE, unarmed Americans murdered in cold blood. This is the butcher’s bill of populism.
The Blame Game Is Like Fast Food – Full Of Unhealthy Crap
The truth about populism is that like the highly processed foods filling our supermarket shelves it poisons our communities. It promises stuff but never delivers. Indeed, instead it delivers more pain and injustice. Meanwhile, the ultra-wealthy, the 1%, profit from having their political puppets in power. More tax cuts for billionaires and their corporations. More attacks on the evils of the welfare state. Right wingers do not care about all of us, they are only interested in enriching themselves at the expense of the rest of us. Donald Trump, Gina Rinehart, Pauline Hanson – these grifters are all birds of a feather.
“Psychologically those individuals who back strongman leaders often feel that they need the protection of bullies. Trump voters in America, the MAGA faithful fall into this category. Why do people back the loudest voice in the room? White supremacists and racists are, when you boil it down, fearful of those they perceive as different from themselves. They want the faces on their streets to comfortably resemble their own. Far right political parties like One Nation use social media to emphasise examples of crimes being committed by Australians with dark skin, as if these folk are the only ones doing such things. This misleading propaganda rallies their supporters around key elements of their anti-immigration platform.”
What alternatives are there?
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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