Skewed priorities in Left’s selective anger

Joe Aston — a sometimes-­controversial columnist for the national business daily Australian Financial Review — recently did something that ought to have been seen as not controversial at all. He simply went to work, as he usually does.

Reaction to this was explosive. Aston was denounced online by his colleagues at Fairfax Media, publisher of the Financial Review, and endured a campaign of online abuse from unionists and their supporters. It’s still under way today, more than a week after the fateful event.

Aston’s crime, you see, was to go to work while most of his Fairfax colleagues were on strike over the company’s plans to cut 120 journalist jobs.

Leftists can be remarkably intolerant, when it suits them. Aston’s mild announcement on Twitter — “Grateful for Fairfax Media colleagues remaining behind (= abiding by the law) to produce the news for our readers. We’re not all on strike” — produced the sort of rage usually only reserved for Coalition election victories.

“You’re exactly the kind of ‘hero’ who would applaud apartheid police beating protesters for ‘upholding the law’,” seethed ACTU chief of staff Ben Davison. “Extraordinary that anyone could be proud of this betrayal and cowardice,” declared unionist David McElrea. “Scabs are one rung above kiddie-fiddlers,” railed another.

As the strike’s end loomed, former Fairfax columnist Mike Carlton — funny during the ’80s, not so funny in his 80s — anticipated ongoing hostility: “I imagine Fairfax journalists will have a warm welcome for the scab Aston if he shows his face this morning.”

Aston dealt with it easily enough. “I am not a scab,” he wrote in response. “I am turning up to work for my employer, as per my contractual obligations, and I am declining to participate in an unlawful strike organised by a union I’m not a member of …

“Meanwhile, weeks before they cover — independent, always — a federal election to be fought on the issue of union impropriety and thuggery, all of Fairfax’s reporters in the Canberra Press Gallery are out on a wildcat strike.”

Good point. Of course, there is one way Aston could have won the admiration of his colleagues and fellow leftists. There is one way he’d have guaranteed they would be making ­excuses for him rather than condemning him as a scab. There is one way he’d have leftists calling for his motives to be understood, and for his actions to be considered in the broader context of global events.

All he needed to do was convert to Islam and kill a few people. It’s just that easy. Our leftist friends would never dare use such strong language against Islamic terrorists, not even when they slaughter nearly 3000 people.

Within weeks of September 11, 2001 (pictured), Fairfax’s Peter Fitz­Simons set the tone for the next 15 years of pathetic leftist grovelling.

“We are sorry,” the former rugby union player-turned-republican dress-up pirate wrote.

“We are desperately sorry that the world has now moved to the point where it is on the edge of an abyss from which there can be no return.

“We accept that such hate as drove the planes into the World Trade Center towers can only have come from incredible suffering and we are desperately sorry for that suffering, even if we are yet to come to grips with its specific cause.”

That “specific cause” still eludes the likes of FitzSimons, mainly because they simply refuse to consider it. Might it be self-inflicted? Something to do with Islam, perhaps?

Interestingly, the left’s latest tactic is to completely erase September 11 from any terrorism analysis.

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/opinion/skewed-priorities-in-lefts-selecti...

John Smith wrote on Mar 28^th, 2016 at 11:38am:


All I can smell right now is Nacho's. The microwave just dinged. BTW, you have no problem with this guy being attacked simply because he went to work instead of participating in an illegal strike organised by a union in which he is not a member? Hmm, maybe it's not the nacho's you can smell but your own bile surfacing at the back of your throat?

Hmm..  How would you feel if you spent hours/days negotiating your own salary/wage packaging and then your boss provides the same conditions afterwards to someone who didnt' put in the same time/effort?  The time you put in to negotiate is valuable hours that could be used for paid hours/billable hours/unpaid hours to spend with family.

stunspore wrote on Mar 28^th, 2016 at 12:04pm:


He's not a member of the Union.
He went to work, as per his contract.
The rest of what you say is noise.

Armchair_Politician wrote on Mar 28^th, 2016 at 12:15pm:


Right.  Exactly.  Union members paid for representation.  Those who are not in the unions get the same payrise without needing to negotiate, without needing to "put out", without needing to take actions (e.g. strikes) to enjoy improved conditions. 

Armchair_Politician wrote on Mar 28^th, 2016 at 11:53am:



come on ap.. they have come a long way.. since the days of cement boots......

lets be honest.........I laughed when I read where Aston said he doesnt care if they call him a scab..

hilarious

now we understand why the lefties on here call everyone who disagrees with them childish names..

they still use the term "scab"....

what a joke they are....living in the past and using threatening tactics to get their own way.

I bet half of those who walked were afraid NOT TOO.

... tough titties --- you wanna be a contracted scab and stab your mates in the back - be prepared to cop the flak.....

cods wrote on Mar 28^th, 2016 at 1:50pm:



Let me get this right... if you strike to protect jobs under threat from mechanisation etc.... you are taking money out of the starving boss' mouth, the same boss who will cop a hefty remuneration either way anyway,and who is actually creating a situation where he will join the losers since he is creating the unemployment that means fewer papers etc will be purchased ... but by striking to preserve jobs for the boss and many others as well as the boss.... you are wrecking jobs?

Bizarre.. simply bizarre.......?  Would you prefer they appeal to his generosity and good nature?