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The egging of Anning.

By MICHAEL BLACKBURN.

NOBODY SHOULD BE surprised that malevolence can be found in the hearts of humans wherever they live, even New Zealand. The massacre at the mosques in Christchurch was not surprising because it happened, given the febrile nature of the world, but because of where it happened. I don’t want to be rude to our Kiwi brethren but they are so far away and so diminutive they are usually off the international socio-political radar. The reaction of the political establishment in New Zealand was quite predictable but I don’t think anyone was so cynical they expected a 17-year-old in Australia would take it as a chance to grab his 15 minutes of fame.

So it has been, unfortunately. The young man, whose name I shall not utter, whacked an egg on the back of the head of Fraser Anning, an Australian Senator, who had blamed Muslim immigration for the mosque attacks. Anning is controversial, even by Aussie standards, for his views, so was an obvious target for anyone who dislikes dissenters from the current PC dogmas. Egg Boy filmed the attack on his phone and continued filming even after he received the first slap from Anning. He’s a true Child of Our Age.

Anning decided to take another swing at him but the scrap was swiftly ended with various minders separating the two and taking Egg Boy down to the floor.

The adulation of Egg Boy means the perpetrator should be praised and rewarded publicly for committing an act of violence. All the better if the perpetrator is young and can get the youth vote onside.

Egg Boy is now feted in the Antipodes, receiving offers of free entry to rock gigs and having an online fund set up for him, the money from which, to his credit, he says he will donate to the victims of the mosques massacre. He seems taken aback by what happened and does not recommend anyone following his example. He is right on that score. It’s a pity all the people emoting over him don’t step back and think about what their adulation means. It means they think violence against a politician is acceptable as long as the target is someone they can call a Nazi. It means they think that anyone perpetrating such violence should be protected from the law — and, according to current PC dogma, be portrayed as the real victim. It means they think the perpetrator should be praised and rewarded publicly for committing an act of violence. All the better if the perpetrator is young and can get the youth vote onside.

Meanwhile back in the spotlight of ostentatious public virtue, New Zeland’s PM, Jacinda Ardern, donned the obligatory headscarf, repeated the creed of diversity, inclusion and the this-is-not-who-we-are mantra, opened her first parliamentary speech since the massacre with an As-Salaam-Alaikum, and called for an international crusade, no, sorry, not the right word; jihad, no, that’s not right either; fight, yes, that will do: an international fight against right-wing ideologies.  And plans for greater gun control.

Let us be mindful that Ardern is just an identikit modern politician fully signed up to the progressive package, which means she doesn’t have to think for herself since all her ideas are preprogrammed and ready to go. She is a former advisor to Tony Blair, and a self-identifying agnostic, which gives her some leeway in going along with the scarf and prayer stuff. It is amusing to see the alacrity with which people of Ardern’s ilk, who are usually atheists, eagerly according respect to a religion, provided it is not Christianity.

No sooner had Ardern’s establishment PR machine got itself into full dhimmi gear, than the figure of Jordan Peterson suddenly materialised out of the ether, as a New Zealand bookshop (Whitcoulls) removed his book, Twelve Rules For Life, from their shelves. One reason they gave is that he was photographed at a recent tour in the country with a man wearing a T-shirt that said, “I’m a proud Islamaphobe”. If the permanently offended had bothered to read the rest of the garment they might have understood what he meant, since this continues the definition with (among other things) “rape, wife-beating, slavery, homophobia, Sharia courts, genital mutilation, and anti-Semitism”. I’m against those and would have thought every decent leftist would be as well, but they’re all labels and no substance, these people, so we’ll have to assume they’re cool with it.

Peterson continues to act as a lightning rod in the culture wars, attracting the condensed electrical hatred of the cretinocracy around the world. The book-removing took place at the same time that Cambridge University’s school of divinity rescinded their offer of a visiting fellowship to him, as a result of the usual process of academic spinal extraction.

What a time to be alive, eh?


suxcoverCurrente Calamo columnist, poet and writer Michael Blackburn lives in Lincolnshire. A Royal Literary Fund Fellow at Lincoln University (2005 – 2008), his poetry has appeared in numerous publications and anthologies over the years, including Being Alive (Bloodaxe) and Something Happens, Sometimes Here (Five Leaves Press). His most recent book is Albion Days (perennisperegrinator press). Sucks to Your Revolution is a collection of his Fortnightly columns.

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