Tuesday, 6 August 2024

Concerning world events [Note: Content Warning - links to reports on oppression/bigotry/hate, violence/abuse/war. Reader discretion is advised]

Note: CONTENT WARNING - some of this content is about upsetting, disturbing or triggering events & attitudes. Seek competent help - including professional - if you need it. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that linked articles may contains names and/or images of deceased people. READER CAUTION IS RECOMMENDED! For anyone distressed by anything in this post, or for any other reason considering seeking support, resources are available in Australia here, here, and here. In other nations, you will have to do an Internet search using terms such as “mental health support - <your nation>” (which, for instance, may lead to this, this, and this, in the USA, or this, this, and this, in France [biased towards English-language - my apologies]), or perhaps try https://www.befrienders.org/. 

Note: in my “from the news” posts, quotes are shown italicised and blue, my comments are in a different shade of blue, and “good” items are (when I remember) shown in green.

 

On this anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, I am going to begin this post by linking to some of my recent posts: 

“The hate and amathia of bigots that is being revealed by the olympics”   https://politicalmusingsofkayleen.blogspot.com/2024/08/the-hate-and-amathia-of-bigots-that-is.html      

“At last! A good assessment of the risks to Australia (and elsewhere) of the possible re-election of Mr. Trump”   https://politicalmusingsofkayleen.blogspot.com/2024/08/at-last-good-assessment-of-risks-to.html      

“Violence around the world”   https://politicalmusingsofkayleen.blogspot.com/2024/08/violence-around-world.html      

“Widening of the war in Ukraine”   https://politicalmusingsofkayleen.blogspot.com/2024/07/widening-of-war-in-ukraine.html     

“The far right’s undeclared global war on humanity [Note: Content Warning - links to reports on bigotry/hate, violence/abuse/war. Reader discretion is advised]”   https://politicalmusingsofkayleen.blogspot.com/2023/12/the-far-rights-undeclared-global-war.html      

In brief, the world is certainly doing its best to appear a more violent place, and my opinion is that it IS indeed getting worse - ever since the victory of Trump in 2016 and then Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine, and most noticeably since 7th October, 2023.  

In my opinion, those on the extreme far right have shown their lack of ethics by taking advantage of the lack of perspective & critical thinking and uncontrolled callow emotionality of their followers to quest for power at any cost - as best exemplified by the deterioration of the US Republican party to a fascist cult built around Trump.

I’ve commented on this blog on the decline of Australia’s conservative party, but that is nothing compared to what has happened in the USA. 

And, reprehensible as the leadership of Australia’s conservative party has been, especially in choosing to abandon Australia’s First Peoples by opposing the Voice referendum and in tying themselves to the hate cult of the christo-fascist  neochristians who could not handle a more decent world that had Equal Marriage in it, they have not yet sunk to the level of what is happening in the USA and the UK - but they must choose whether to start being decent human beings by toning down their hate-everything reactionary behaviour, or whether they will drift into effectively collaborating with violence by failing to take reasonable actions against cult-like thinking and violence. 

None of this has been helped by the incompetence and outright bias of most (not all!) of the world’s mainstream media, nor by those leaders of world floundering over the change of the Israeli response to 7th October from self defence to what is now a massive series of human rights crimes (and quite possibly genocide), a response which has now led to the likelihood of imminent (or underway, albeit in its early stages) war with Iran and its proxies - a war which was made far more likely by Trump casting Iran out of the international order by a puerile response to a flawed, but better than nothing, nuclear deal. 

It’s been like watching a kindergarten squabble spread to primary school playgrounds and then high school playgrounds ... 

The current playground-level-of-sophistication violence is in the UK, and comes with warnings about the risk of violence in Australia - see:

“Australian government raises terrorism threat level to ‘probable’ as officials warn risk spans ideologies”   https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/article/2024/aug/05/australia-government-terrorism-threat-level-probable-raised-ntwnfb   “Anthony Albanese announces the government is lifting the terror threat level from ‘possible’ to ‘probable’ but says it does not mean ‘inevitable’   ...   The Greens senator David Shoebridge said it was “deeply irresponsible for prime minister Albanese to use this moment as a platform to air his political grievances and conflate good people concerned with specific actions of his government with far-right conspiracy theorists”. [but see also this satirical commentary]   ...   Burgess acknowledged it was not ASIO’s job to intervene in lawful protest movements.   ...   “Yes, there’s plenty of antisemitism but there’s plenty of Islamophobia at the same time. It’s kind of an almost equal treatment, not quite, but almost equal treatment.”   ...   The sources said an erosion of trust in government and democratic processes was “endemic across western nations”. They pointed to the UK, where far-right riots have broken out in the past week.”      

Articles about what is happening in Gaza include the following - and note that the IDF has arrested some of its soldiers and charged them with abuses, which the far right in Israel has responded to violently: 

And there are other places where risks should not be forgotten: 

“‘Firing a loud shot’: Taiwan TV show Zero Day aims to spark debate over potential China invasion | Taiwan | The Guardian”   https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/aug/04/firing-a-loud-shot-taiwan-tv-show-zero-day-aims-to-spark-debate-over-potential-china-invasion     

The media is also one such place: 

“The Bait-and-Switch Crisis: A Dangerous Disconnect Between Headlines and Content”   https://joanwestenberg.com/the-bait-and-switch-crisis-a-dangerous-disconnect-between-headlines-and-content     

 

Another issue here is the failure to remove bigots and haters from positions of power and/or influence anywhere that such deplorables may be, and the need to do that was well commented on in the following:

“NT police commissioner’s apology means nothing without sacking racist officers, top lawyer says”   https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/article/2024/aug/05/garma-2024-nt-police-commissioner-apology-racist-officers-northern-territory-ntwnfb   “Former bar association president tells Garma panel ‘there is no due process’ for Aboriginal people in NT courts, and derides Albanese’s pledge for more engagement   ...   A senior Darwin-based criminal barrister says ... instead of apologising to them for 154 years of racist treatment, its police commissioner should sack the racist officers in his force”     

A variation of that is: 

“Hiring women, rather than just talking about it, works. That doesn’t mean all men are on board, it turns out | Renate van der Zee | The Guardian”   https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/aug/05/hiring-women-rather-than-just-talking-about-it-works-that-doesnt-mean-all-men-are-on-board-it-turns-out     

 

Something else to be aware of when considering the changes that have happened in recent years (which echo past changes) is: 

“Overton window”   https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Overton_window&oldid=1238399172      

[Content Warning - crude use of foul language]   “Understanding the Overton Window: How Crazy Ideas Become Mainstream”   https://youtu.be/U-i4VT2Ldck     

One aspect which has been encouraging is the performance of Joe Biden (and, in writing that, I also consider the change of candidate was essential), which was mentioned in the following: 

“Just how Traumatising will Election 2024 Be?”   https://www.juancole.com/2024/08/just-traumatizing-election.html   “Imagine my surprise when, nearly eight months ago, commenting on the state of the country as it approached the 2024 presidential election, New York Times columnist Michelle Goldberg noted that “Biden has set himself the task of trying to jolt the country out of its learned helplessness in the face of Trump’s exhausting provocations.” Unbeknownst to most Americans, that term, “learned helplessness,” was profoundly and inextricably tied to this country’s disastrous post-9/11 Global War on Terror and, in particular, its horrifying torture program. Yet there it was, being used in a new context”      


We ALL need to learn to overcome our learned hopelessness. 

 

Something which may help with that, which I consider a variation of Voltaire’s admonishment to not let the perfect get in the way of the good (more literally “the best is the enemy of the good”), is: 

“(How) Should We Vote?”   https://jewishcurrents.org/voting-chevruta   “An investigation through Jewish text on the ethics of choosing the “lesser of two evils.””     

Voltaire also wrote: 

“Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.”  

Professor Timothy  Snyder has also written on this. See: 

“Professor Timothy Snyder on “Fascism and Fear””   https://politicalmusingsofkayleen.blogspot.com/2024/07/professor-timothy-snyder-on-fascism-and.html      

“Giving up power and anticipatory obedience”   https://politicalmusingsofkayleen.blogspot.com/2019/06/giving-up-power-and-anticipatory.html      

“What I’m currently reading”   https://politicalmusingsofkayleen.blogspot.com/2019/05/what-im-currently-reading.html     

 

So ... write emails/letters, make polite phone calls, consider supporting NON-VIOLENT, LEGAL, protests, etc   

It took a while after Voltaire’s warnings, but we now have international human rights treaties, mass education, and communication systems - and, as the far right have shown, the latter can be every effective, which means WE can also use them for good, to advocate for things like ... caring enough to overcome learned helplessness / cynicism. 

If you don’t, you’re making yourself part of THE PROBLEM, but you can seek help from others about how to overcome the challenges enough to try, and become part of A (IF NOT THE) SOLUTION. 

Try. 


 

In the unlikely event that I have more energy, I may add more links to past articles of mine. 

 

 

Assumptions / basis 

In writing this, I have assumed / started from the following: 

  • this blog states quite clearly that it is about political and human rights matters, including lived experience of problems, and thus I will assume readers are reasonable people who have noted the content warning in the post header;

Possible flaws 

Where I can, I will try to highlight possible flaws / issues you should consider:

  • there may be flawed logical arguments in the above: to find out more about such flaws and thinking generally, I recommend Brendan  Myers’ free online course “Clear and Present Thinking”; 
  • I could be wrong - so keep your thinking caps on, and make up your own minds for yourself.

 

If they are of any use of interest, the activism information links from my former news posts are available in this post. 

 

If you appreciated this post, please consider promoting it - there are some links below. 

Note that, as with my main blog [see here], I am cutting back on aspects of my posts.

Remember: we need to be more human being rather than human doing, and all misgendering is an act of active transphobia/transmisia that puts trans+ lives at risk & accept that all insistence on the use of “trans” as a descriptor comes with commensurate use of “cis” as a descriptor to prevent “othering”.

Copyright © Kayleen White 2016-2024     NO AI   I do not consent to any machine learning aka Artificial Intelligence (AI), generative AI, large language model, machine learning, chatbot, or other automated analysis, generative process, or replication program to reproduce, mimic, remix, summarise, or otherwise  replicate any part of this post or other posts on this blog via any means. Typo’s may be inserrted deliberately to demonstrate this is not an AI product.     Otherwise, fair and reasonable use is accepted under Creative Commons 4.0 on an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike basis   https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/  

 

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