“Move Fast and Break Things”
An early Facebook motto.
A few weeks ago I read an interesting comment from the man who lacked the ticker to become PM, Peter Costello. In an interview Costello said that he was surprised that the GST hadn’t been lifted from the ten percent that he and partner-in-slime, John Howard set it at. I found this an interesting comment because I clearly remember that the Coalition made it very clear that it was being set at ten percent and that they were putting in restraints that ensured that it could NEVER be raised.
This, of course, was a different “never” to the “never ever” of bringing in a GST that Howard promised when he was first elected. This was meant to stop even those high-taxing Labor communists from lifting it. I did think at the time that any thing that a government legislated could be undone by a future one if they had the votes in Parliament, but hey, it hasn’t been raised so maybe this never wasn’t a never ever and actually a never forever.
I can’t work out whether Costello felt that he could be honest now that he’s not involved in the day to day lies of politics, or whether he simply thought that we’d have all forgotten by now. As Milan Kundera wrote: “The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting.”
Part of the trouble I have with politicians of all hues is that I try to be part of that struggle. I try to remember what the party said one day versus what they’re saying today. I mean I remember that when they were talking about getting rid of 18C people had a right to say things and if you were offended then you needed to get over it and to quote George Brandis, “People do have a right to be bigots you know.”
I’m waiting for all the free speech warriors to express concern about the recent report from Jillian Segal where it’s suggested that people be deported for their views. And don’t misunderstand me. I understand that Jewish people may have more reason to be sensitive about being attacked for who they are because of the Holocaust whereas black people and other minorities have never been systematically… Mm, I may need to think that one through.
Anyway, firebombing synagogues and any other violence is illegal and people should be prosecuted. We don’t need new laws for that. As to what is acceptable speech, I’d argue that no person should be vilified because of their race, religion, sex or other identity, and that people should have some protections against that, but that criticism of such person’s behaviour is a whole different thing. But that’s the thing.
It’s only a few short years ago that the conservative forces were arguing that such protections were an affront to free speech and Andrew Bolt had a whole front page telling us that he wasn’t free to express his views any more just because they were factually inaccurate. Some might call that lying but I think Bolt could defend himself by claiming ignorance. A claim many would be happy to endorse.
Speaking of factually inaccurate, I found this on Wikipedia when I was looking up Joel Kaplan after reading “Careless People” by Sarah Wynn-Williams.
“In 2017, after Facebook had implemented changes to its algorithm to expose users to more content by family and friends and less by publishers who were determined by Facebook to engage in misinformation, Kaplan questioned whether the algorithm disproportionately hurt conservative publishers and successfully advocated for Facebook to change the algorithm again.”
It’s rather interesting that a Republican figure like Kaplan would actually suggest that changing the algorithm to combat misinformation would “disproportionately hurt conservatives publishers”, but there you have it.
“Careless People”, by the way, is a rather interesting book about the author’s time at Facebook and her growing realisation that someone who first created a social network to allow people to rate other people’s “hotness” didn’t have the sort of world view to change things for the better. It’s well worth a read, unless you’re currently finding the growing authoritarianism a wee bit overwhelming.
Also by Rossleigh:
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She’s an apologist for Zionism – trying to suggest that all those of us who are against the genocide in Gaza are anti-semitic.
Bigotry of any shade, shape or political persuasion is the same – there are no separations.
I almost didn’t buy the book because of it’s horrible cover until I remembered the Zuckerberg Paranoid Android blowing fuses. It was interesting but I do not like fictionalised non-fiction.