The problem with being fixated on minority groups is that it makes stamping out their marginalised status impossible.
At a certain point, when victimhood is the defining identity of the era, you get rich bodies climbing over rich bodies to claim the highest moral ground:
Remarks from a key figure in the Voice No campaign about Indigenous journalist Stan Grant and independent senator Lidia Thorpe have been condemned and labelled disgusting and grotesque.
Australian Jewish Association head David Adler, who sits on the advisory board of top No outfit Advance with former prime minister Tony Abbott, insists he was not trying to insult the prominent Indigenous pair when he questioned Thorpe’s Aboriginal heritage and repeatedly suggested Grant had artificially darkened his skin.
Or, try this one:
A prominent Yes campaigner for an Indigenous Voice to Parliament has accused No campaigner and Shadow Indigenous Australians Minister Jacinta Nampijinpa Price of “hate” for First Nations people after she called welcome to country ceremonies “divisive”.
Or this:
Like many Australians, the young footballers idolise Matildas star Sam Kerr.
But it’s not just a love of the game that they have in common with the Chelsea striker.
“She’s my favourite player. She is really inspiring, and her background is also Indian, which makes her more inspiring to me,” Clea, 11, whose mother is Indian, said.
Or this:
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton says he does not support a public holiday if the Matildas win the World Cup.
“In terms of the public holiday, no, I’m not supportive,” he told Channel 9.
“It is a $2 billion cost to the economy. It is at a time when small business I don’t think can afford it.”
Virtue signalling is now rife in politics, but it is still not enough to hide what is really going on. The election of Albo has intensified the war on youth and working people via crushed wages, inflated houses and destroyed public services.
The only difference is the choice of culture wars to cover it up. Some realise that this is not enough:
Unions and delegates from Anthony Albanese’s Left-faction will push a radical new youth-focused policy agenda at national conference that redistributes intergenerational wealth, removes health levies and pauses indexation on higher education loans.
Labor for Housing, the CFMEU and Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union are working together to win support for a raft of left-wing tax, health and housing policies ahead of the three-day national conference, which begins on Thursday.
They will push to abolish HECS indexation and seek to end levies on Australians who don’t take out private health insurance.
Albo’s “left faction”? “Radical plan”? This is PR.
Albo may be from the NSW left, but it is notoriously right-wing, more like Ghengis Kahn’s left arm than anything resembling socialism. Moreover, Albo was a backroom number cruncher at Sussex Street, not a policy wonk or visionary.
He loves corporations and working with them.
How to hide this? Find a few marginal issues worth a few pennies that are high-profile Coalition policies to get some great PR.
Let’s finish with this little beauty:
Qantas (QAN.AX) on Monday unveiled plans for some aircraft to carry special livery supporting recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Straits Island people in Australia’s constitution, stepping into the divisive debate on Indigenous rights.
This, as Albo prevents Qantas competition by blocking QATAR’s application for increased flights to and from Australia and gives Albo’s son exclusive access to the Chairman’s lounge.
Symbolism over substance is all that matters to the fake left and right – culture wars trump class consciousness in a politics of sound and fury, signifying nothing.
