Things That Don’t Work Or Elon, Donald And Peter

Now if someone were to tell me that my fly was undone, I’d apologise and discretely zip myself up and hope that not many people noticed and that I hadn’t exposed anything that shouldn’t see the light of day in public. I wouldn’t launch into a rant about woke ideology and how it’s got to the point that a man can’t have a penis any more and it’s about time that we fought back…

Of course, while I am about to draw the comparison with Elon’s “is it or isn’t it” a Nazi salute, I realise that I probably shouldn’t have called this “Things That Don’t Work” if I was going to use that first analogy…

Anyway, the whole thing is problematic of how easily we are distracted from what’s important, not to mention what’s obvious. The question of whether Elon did or didn’t is so unimportant on one level, but it’s the fact that we focus on what might have been an accident rather than the obvious point that it’s only because of all the other things that make one suspect it was a suspect gesture. After all, if we saw a photo of Tom Hanks or Keanu Reeves with a slightly raised arm, we wouldn’t immediately jump to the same conclusion. No, I can see that everyone should be given the benefit of the doubt and the fact that Elon supports the far right party in Germany, has grandparents who were Nazis, supports Trump who is threatening taking over countries with military force and a whole range of other things mean that we wonder whether Musk just did the quiet bit out loud… no, not the quiet bit out loud. We’re wondering if he’s not bothering to hide the things he’s never bothered to hide.

Still I remember Godwin’s Law about how we quickly descend into calling people Nazis online and, it’s always worth remembering that we’ve had very few actual Nazis, including – apparently – most of the Gestapo… As Musk said recently, “It’s ok to be German”.

The whole idea of intergenerational guilt is a strange concept to me. I mean, I can acknowledge my ancestors committed crimes without feeling personally responsible. I can nod along when we, as a country, apologise for past misdeeds without personally taking on the guilt for them. I am not responsible for the past misdeeds of others… In fact – and my wife will support me here – it’s hard enough to get me to take responsibility for my own, so feeling guilt about what my relatives have done is just not in my DNA, but that doesn’t mean that I can’t acknowledge them and accept that others may have been harmed by them.

Speaking of the mistakes of others, I have to point out how ridiculous the Trump economic concept is… Of course, in pointing out how ridiculous something is, I’m not saying that it won’t work, just that it shouldn’t. I used to point out how ridiculous it would be to elect Tony Abbott because, while he was good at complaining, he had no plans beyond getting rid of the carbon tax and repeating “Jobs and growth” as though he was using some rosary beads to pray for such a thing to happen. And, of course, Tony was elected which proved me wrong because he had a successful two years as PM, only spoiled, he recently told us, by the left wing public service who thwarted him.

The Trump plan is to replace income tax with tariffs. The money raised by imposing tariffs on other countries will eliminate the need for income tax AND this will encourage goods to be made in the USA which will drive manufacturing in that country and there’ll be a Golden Age where everyone will be showered with more gold than in that tape Putin has of Trump. However, there’s a major flaw. If the tariffs encourage people to shift their factories to the USA so that they won’t pay the tariffs, then they won’t pay the tariffs and “getting the other countries to pay” won’t happen because there won’t be as many imports.

Yes, I know that there are all sorts of things you can pick at in the way I’ve described it, including Modern Money Theory and the fact that not everyone will move their manufacturing to America. But it’s a bit like doubling the tax on cigarettes to stop people smoking and then counting the revenue you’d get if you presume that the tax doesn’t affect anyone’s smoking habits.

The election of Trump has had many people wondering whether Peter Dutton will use similar tactics in Australia. Yes, people are actually asking questions about the possibility of Mr “I didn’t walk out on the Stolen Generation Apology because I’m racist” using anti-immigration rhetoric to further his political ambitions. Are we going to see the “Anyone who opposes me is divisive and unpatriotic” rhetoric that Trump used? Will we have a lot of policies that sound ok until one asks who they’ll work in practice? Did Charlie Chaplin base his moustache on Hitler or was it the other way round?

I’m not discounting the possibility of a Dutton government but it does seem strange to me that people are expecting that these tactics will work in Australia.

In the election campaign surely Dutton will be asked some of the difficult questions such as:

• If legislation to allow nuclear power is blocked, how long will you wait before declaring a double dissolution? (Answer: That’s a hypothetical)
• You’ve criticised the Albanese government for spending too much. What areas will you cut? (Answer: Government waste)
• Mr Albanese called you “nasty”. How do you respond? (Answer: Well, that’s just typical of that incompetent, weak little man who doesn’t have anything to offer and has to resort to personal abuse rather than debating the policies that have enabled division by having too many flags.)
• What more should be done to discourage anti-semitism? (Answer: The government should have stopped it a lot sooner. They should have spoken out and said no and just jailed anyone opposed Israel because they’ve been an ally since before they existed.)

Mm, I guess he’ll have answers to all those easy questions.

Recently, Dutton called Chalmers the worst Treasurer in our history and asked us to look at Angus Taylor’s business dealings as evidence of his ability as a treasurer, but I’m not sure looking at Taylor’s business dealings is the vote winner he thinks it is.

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