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When the cameras did not look away
When the cameras did not look away, and what we cannot unsee The street is bright with winter glare. Snow is packed hard at the curb, greyed by traffic and footprints. A cluster of men […]
Articles by Lachlan McKenzie
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Beyond the Overton Window: The Reality Dashboard
What Australians were told was “normal”, what we experienced instead – and why the old model no longer works For a long time, the Overton Window was a useful way to describe Australian politics. It […]
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Daddy Issues, Castrati, and the Political Pathologising of Women
I watched a short clip of Miranda Devine attempting to explain why younger women dislike Donald Trump. It was awful. Not “controversial.” Not “provocative.” Just awful – in the way that makes you sit back […]
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We Can’t Stop All Bushfires. But We Can Stop Pretending Total Loss Is Inevitable
Australia is rightly having another conversation about bushfires, housing vulnerability, and what can realistically be done to reduce loss. A recent article in The Age argued for a “simple system”: a standardised way to assess […]
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Some Things Are Too Powerful to Love Up Close
Living in Australia teaches you an early lesson about proximity. When you swim in the ocean here, you are almost certainly closer to a shark than you realise. Not because sharks are everywhere in a […]
Environment
Australia Is Getting Heat Data Wrong – And It’s Putting People at Risk
Australians are told every summer how hot it’s going to be. But increasingly, the information we’re given bears little resemblance to the heat people are actually exposed to – and that disconnect is becoming dangerous. […]
Satire
Clarke & Dawe – “UNSLEEPEN™”
(Bright, cheery corporate music. Neutral set. Everything beige.) Dawe: Good evening. Tonight we’re pleased to announce an important update to the English language. Clarke: Yes. Following an extensive review, the word “woke” has been removed. […]
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Clarke & Dawe – “The Transactional States of America”
Dawe: Mr President, are the United States at war with Venezuela? Clarke: No. Dawe: So there has been no invasion? Clarke: No. We’ve simply taken control. Dawe: By force. Clarke: Efficiently. (Pause) Dawe: Under what […]
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Clarke and Dawe: The Opposition Spokesperson on “Our Rules” and “Their Order”
INTERVIEWER: So the Prime Minister has said Australia is concerned about events in Venezuela, emphasised restraint, international law, and the need for stability. OPPOSITION SPOKESPERSON: Yes. Very disappointing. Weak. Soft. Un-Australian. INTERVIEWER: Because he didn’t […]
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Palestine Before Nationalism: What Was Lost – and Why It Matters Now
Before Palestine became a battlefield of competing nationalisms, it was something far less dramatic and far more instructive: a plural society. Muslims, Christians, and Jews lived across the country under the governance of the Ottoman […]
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From Shared Failure to Heinous Crime
Why How We Remember World War I Shapes How We Understand World War II The way societies remember war is never neutral. Memory shapes what is excused, what is repeated, and what is permitted to […]
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Jesus Without the Myth: Who He Was, Why He Died, and Why He’d Be Targeted Today
Introduction: Removing the Halo to See the Man Few historical figures are so well known – and so poorly understood – as Jesus. Over two millennia, theology, empire, myth-making, and political convenience have layered stories […]
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WWTD? Predictable Moves and the Pattern we Kept Ignoring
WWTD (“What would Trump do”) is no longer a hypothetical. It is a pattern of behaviour repeated so consistently that its outcomes are now predictable. These moves (30 in total) are not a list of […]
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The Politics of Misery and the Performance that Follows Tragedy
Australians often respond to tragedy with compassion and solidarity. Too often, that moment is quickly overtaken by a cycle of performative outrage – loud, divisive, and indifferent to the care it claims to express. Like […]
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When “Low Fat” and “Low Sugar” Labels Hide a Bigger Problem
Modern nutrition science tells a more complicated story than food labels suggest. When fat or sugar is stripped out, flavour, texture, and shelf life still have to come from somewhere – and the replacements are […]