Monthly Archives

June 2018

Economic rationalism and neoliberalism are dead in Australia. In an unexpected twist, the idea that markets are good and governments are bad was killed by the right wing of Australian politics, who simply couldn’t resist the desire to shovel public money onto their friends and tie their opponents up in red tape.

Richard Denniss

It remains, as ever, an axiom of conventional wisdom that the use of propaganda as a means of social and ideological control is distinctive of totalitarian regimes. Yet the most minimal exercise of common sense would suggest a different view: that propaganda is likely to play at least as important a part in democratic societies (where the existing distribution of power and privilege is vulnerable to quite limited changes in popular opinion) as in authoritarian societies (where it is not). It is arguable that the success of business propaganda in persuading us, for so long, that we are free from propaganda is one of the most significant propaganda achievements of the twentieth century.

Alex Carey

[Across Australia] 30 MPs have been elected to represent One Nation. Six are current members. Nineteen resigned in their first term, two were disqualified in their first term, only three lasted long enough to face re-election, two were defeated and only one One Nation MP has ever been re-elected.

Antony Green

Kim plays Trump

By US PoliticsNo Comments

The recent Singapore summit between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-Un is still blowing up my (Blotreport’s Melbourne correspondent) newsfeed, and, more ‘interestingly’, brought out some Trump fans (trumpettes) among my…

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Here's an easy way to figure out if you're in a cult: If you're wondering whether you're in a cult, the answer is yes.

Stephen Colbert

The only thing that differentiates a cult from a religion is the number of adherents. They are all about control, mostly of women, and all are malevolent.

John Laurie