It was only a matter of time, I suppose.
The Murdoch-transmitted bigoted book-banning virus has landed in the Sydney suburbs.
I'm pretty sure the local council doesn't actually have the power to ban books so it's just a bit of performative bigotry, but I'm 100% sure that councillor Steve Christou is about to have 15 more minutes of fame in the Murdoch press and on their misleadingly named 'Sky "News"' channel. That seems to be his grift. 🙄
It seems that councillor Christou is also fine with racism - or at least he was before he lost his job as mayor and began his current grandstanding campaign to try to get the job back:
If I were the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption, his desperation might raise a few red flags...
I mean, the main book-burner's even wearing an actual black shirt in his official photo 🙄
Good on Minister Jackson for calling out the member of her own party who voted for the book ban. And, to be fair, good on all the members of the state Labor government who've spoken out about this so far.
As expected, it seems that this council might have broken the state Anti-Discrimination Act and will, therefore, have its book ban overturned unless the councillors smarten up and get rid of it. Also, the state government controls funding to local councils, so that should wake these fools up.
And, typically, here's our curiously-coiffed Premier wading into the book-banning fray quite a bit later than others.
I'm never sure if he does this because he:
a) Likes to think things through before talking
b) Wants to come in as the news cycle starts to move on so that he can keep the focus on things, or
C) Is very indecisive
At any rate, better late than never, and he's on the correct side of the issue, even if calling it "a joke" is, also typically, a clumsy way to go about it.
Unsurprisingly, the council has been forced to back down from its discriminatory book ban. They voted 12-2 to rescind it.
Apart from an outcry nationwide, a bunch of "rowdy" protestors turned up to ensure the councillors knew what they had to do.
People power works!
Of course, some bigots had to turn up, and, equally unsurprisingly, they were "older local men who opposed reversing the ban." It's a religious part of town - both Christian and Muslim.
Another report:
Tolerant people almost always outnumber bigots. It's just that tolerant people tend to tolerate instead of trying to impose a bigoted view on others.
It's tough to get angry, intolerant people to understand that being tolerant isn't an imposition on them or a dismissal of their beliefs but rather just a part of the compact we made when we decided to live in numbers for safety millennia ago 🤷♂️
@DyDave the guy has a face only a steel toed boot can love
Yeah, if you were casting the part of 'colossal arse-clown' in a movie...
@DyDave I often wonder about people that have nothing better to do with their time but overthink themselves into irrationality.
Same. I've been thinking about that a lot.
A big problem, I think, is that It seems like an asymmetric conflict.
For example, I genuinely don't care if some of these people really don't like same-sex couples for whatever reason - religious or otherwise. I'm sad that they can't accept that people aren't all like them, but that's their problem as far as I'm concerned. Just don't try to impose it on me.
1/2
2/2
For them, though, that's not an option. They're convinced that their worldview is the only one that can exist, and they see any request that they don't impose it on others as an imposition on them.
It's very circular.
Also, the nature of being tolerant is to kinda let things happen. It's right there on the label. Those of us who are tolerant just need to be vigilant that we aren't giving away our rights by tolerantly letting others take them away.
@DyDave Those who measure others against themselves, and don’t see their own inherent flaws, don’t often see other people as people.
You are right about tolerating people and neglecting to call them out before their intolerance snowballs 👍🏻
The dehumanisation aspect is such an important point.
A great reminder that those of us who are both tolerant and occupy traditional positions of power (eg. European colonisers or deeply mediocre middle-aged white men like me 😂) need to also be vigilant that we're not tolerating bigots punching down on the less powerful.
It's a lot...
@DyDave lol Overcoming barriers is hard but not impossible. Traditional perceptions handed down over generations and becoming aware of these is a start in breaking the cycle so it is a lot.
@DyDave What is the significance of a black shirt? Almost all my shirts are black.
His behaviour suggests that he's openly trying to signal to the fascistic types that he's with them, and those guys love their Easter Egg-type symbols, so the back shirt strikes me thus:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackshirts
Note: he's also conspicuously wearing an Australian flag lapel pin which is not a common thing here, and these guys are known to do it. He's all symbols, this guy...
Of course he hasn't read the book. These book-burning fascistic types never actually read the book, do they? It's all about being as performatively bigoted as possible.
Nor do the 'constituents' they claim to be burning the books on behalf of ever materialise IRL. When asked by the journalists, he could only lie, “I’ve received more than five complaints”.
Shame on the Labor Party councillor for voting for the ban too. They need to kick his arse out ASAP.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/councillor-has-not-read-same-sex-parenting-book-he-led-charge-to-ban-20240508-p5gnn9.html