Mike O’Connor-October 21, 2019 8:00pm
There are times when I feel like a stranger in my own country, the urge to scream in frustration all but overwhelming.
My problem is that I’m not a believer. I don’t believe in man-made climate change and shake my head in bemusement at the people who are presently running through the streets screaming “climate emergency.”
We now live in an age in which if something is said often enough by self-interested parties then it must be true. Anyone who attempts to voice a contrary view is howled down and branded a “denier.”
No one dares to be different. Such is the desperate need to be accepted and on-trend that we will happily go along with any point of view which will be favourably viewed by social media.
The intellectual laziness of the masses is as sad as it is tragic. We have become a nation of unthinking morons which unquestioningly accepts the views of self-anointed “experts” without wondering if their shouted declarations that the end is nigh might just be driven by the urgent need to justify their existence and get their hands on another research grant.
To be a climate denier is to suffer eternal damnation but it is perfectly fine to be a democracy denier as witnessed by the fact that there are large numbers of very noisy people who still can’t accept that Donald Trump is President of the United States and Scott Morrison Prime Minister of Australia.
They weren’t supposed to win. How did this happen? Apparently the Russians rigged the US elections but how Morrison managed to end up in The Lodge remains a mystery. The man’s a Christian, for God’s sake, and doesn’t believe that the world is about to end. Go figure.

Nor do I believe that people who attempt to lie and cheat their way into the country should be allowed to settle here and struggle to understand why people like Minister for Home Affairs Peter Dutton is pilloried for doing what he is paid to do — protect our borders.
My advice to those with bleeding heart tales who wish to live here? Get in the queue.
Admitting that you admire Dutton for his forthrightness is, of course, akin to confessing to devil worship and not something you would dream of doing in the company of strangers lest you be set upon and tarred and feathered.
I also have no time for the United Nations, a multi-billion dollar club which boasts among its members some of the great hypocrites and pontificators of our time and which seethes with corruption.
Australia Day is three months distant so the non-indigenous among us must ready ourselves to be branded as white supremacists celebrating a bloody invasion.
I don’t buy it. Instead of wasting energy moaning about historical wrongs, tackle the alcohol, drug and sexual abuse and poor parenting that denies so many indigenous children a shot at a better life.
This is not a point of view that people publicly express because they know they will be denounced as being racists if they do so. So be it.
Christmas in also coming but don’t mention Jesus or the birth of Christ lest in so doing, you offend someone and that would never do.
I’ll continue to live, then, in my own little offensive, racist, climate denier world but I’ve a feeling that I am not alone. Please feel free to join me.
Mike O’Connor is a columnist for The Courier-Mail.