Karnal wrote on Jul 22^nd, 2015 at 11:01am:


Probably - their facebook page certainly exposes a lot about the sorts of people they are attracting.

Still, I don't think that their carefully stated agenda necessarily has to be a racist agenda. As FD said, its plausible that it could be about defending liberal democracy. Christensen was very careful to express his concerns as only against radical islam - though it must have been slightly awkward for him when everyone else at the rally omitted the word "radical" from the phrase.

But I'm still trying to get over the hypocricy. FD has spend the last 3 years that I've been here relentlessly howling me down whenever I suggest that a tiny minority of rabble rousers does not represent the group overall. Now he's pushing the line that the reclaim mob are really legitimate defenders of our liberal democracy - and his silence over the presense of nazi skinheads and placards about ending non-white immigration - is deafening. He even accused those calling the protesters racist as liars. I mean this is the guy who labelled a peaceful protest against the overthrow of a democracy - complete with pro-democracy and pro-freedom placards - as a sinister front for oppressive anti-freedom. He even used the argument that there was 'only one' sign mentioning the word democracy (a big ten foot one leading the whole march), and they didn't quite use the word 'freedom' in a convincing enough way - therefore the protest was a complete sham.

Good grief, imagine what FD could do with this reclaim mob if he suddenly switched sides. It would go on for years.

polite_gandalf wrote on Jul 22^nd, 2015 at 11:37am:


True. It doesn't. But Reclaim Australia is all about racism. You only have to look at the placards to work it out. Reclaim Australia is the latest version of the old Asians Out crowd. They've been around since the gold rush - the second period of mass migration to Australia. This crowd are waving the liberal-democracy banner now, just as they waved the workers' rights banner then. The core of the movement is good old fashioned racism, which there are no end of excuses for.

The fact that Islam is not a race has nothing to do with it. Islam has lots of awful tinted people saying mean things about whitey. That's enough. During the Cold War, Chinese communism and the domino theory offered exactly the same threat: Australia being invaded by yellow hoards.

Yellow hoards, Musel hoards, tinted hoards, you name it. As a recent discussion here uncovered, it's an invasion.

... wrote on Jul 22^nd, 2015 at 2:25pm:


your logic is erroneous. please make a meaningful statement either positing an opinion or refuting anothers opinion.

Pho Huc wrote on Jul 22^nd, 2015 at 2:34pm:


Why start now?  The most common opinion here is that there were racists present, therefore everything they believe in is wrong.  I just want to see how far the contrariness goes. 

So, if they said 2 + 2 = 4, would you argue?  I think you would.  There doesnt seem to be any attempt to address what they say, only "dey raciss".  They may very well be, but even a stopped clock is right twice a day.

... wrote on Jul 22^nd, 2015 at 5:20pm:


A good question, Honky. Personally, I wouldn’t. One of the 20th century’s most important philosophers was a member of the Nazi party, but that doesn’t stop Heidegger being one of the most influential thinkers in the Western tradition.

If Reclaim Australia argues that the tinted races should be sent back, how could this be anything other than a racist agenda?

Muslim doctors, teachers, aged-care nurses, all thrown out because a few crackers think the tinted races aren’t servile enough.

Yes, if a proposal is based on a completely irrational, counter-productive fear like racism, it has to be wrong.

double plus good wrote on Jul 22^nd, 2015 at 6:43pm:


Sometimes a question is just a question, Homo.

polite_gandalf wrote on Jul 22^nd, 2015 at 2:53pm:


Of course there were some racists, but trying to pass the whole protest off as racist, when they had a tinted speaker, is a lie by Karnal's standard. He will normally look a lot harder than that to find one. Hence the question - when is he going to become a born again apologist for anti-Islam protestors?