ABC duped by Four Corners Scott Morrison QAnon conspiracy report

[Neferti]

ABC duped by Four Corners Scott Morrison QAnon conspiracy report

OPINION

Elizabeth the First was perhaps the most important ruler of the past thousand years.

Were it not for her reign, we would probably all be speaking Spanish, Catholics and Protestants might still be waging world war, there might never have been a United Kingdom and we may never have seen the writings of Shakespeare.

The key to her incredibly long, successful and stable reign was moderation. She eschewed both extreme papists and extreme puritans but refused to persecute English Catholics in the same way that her predecessor Mary ruthlessly persecuted Protestants.

While the Spanish Inquisition was running rampant on the continent, extracting under torture people’s deepest beliefs, Elizabeth famously declared: “I have no desire to make windows into men’s souls.”

It is therefore passing strange that almost half a millennia later we have a new brand of puritanism that demands windows into the soul of every man, woman and child to determine if they are ideologically pure enough to be members of society.

And now it appears that that censoriousness applies not only to an individual’s own beliefs but those of their friends and family.

This brings us to the ABC’s somewhat bizarre Four Corners report on a family friend of Scott Morrison – his wife’s friend’s husband – who has fallen into the online wormhole of the QAnon conspiracy theory.

I have literally no time for any of the QAnon crap – I have wasted neither thought nor word on it until Four Corners propelled it into the national political debate – but the idea that any politician or public figure should be held accountable for the beliefs of some weird bloke they know seems to me a pretty odd course of prosecution.

For one thing, we all have a batshit crazy mate. If you don’t, you haven’t really lived.

I have a friend of more than 25 years who is a nutbag anti-vaxxer and believes all sorts of lunatic conspiracy theories. I still love him to death and would do anything for him.

Must I excommunicate him in order to prove my outspoken championing of vaccination programs? Or is he perhaps infiltrating my messaging? Maybe there is a secret conspiracy to make me so aggressively pro-vaccination it will turn people away from it! Someone should do an investigation.

I also once had socialist friends who welcomed the election of John Howard in 1996 because they felt certain it would bring on the revolution. Should I have reported them to ASIO? It seems a bit late now.

So what was the point of the great QAnon conspiracy that was exposed by Four Corners on Monday night – not to mention on the Crikey website more than 18 months ago? A semantic debate about the PM’s apparently coded use of the word “ritual”? A question of whether the PM has sufficiently interrogated all his friends about their deepest beliefs?

It is hard to say. According to the Four Corners report there were concerns the PM was too close to his QAnon buddy. By the next night these had miraculously transformed into concerns for the PM’s own safety, lest he suffer at the hands of his QAnon infiltrator. It’s certainly a wriggly little conspiracy.

More puzzling is that the PM’s supposed signal he was all in on QAnon came not in October 2019, when Crikey first reported it, but in October 2018 when he made his “National Apology to Victims and Survivors of Institutional Child Sexual Abuse” in Parliament.

“The crimes of ritual sexual abuse happened in schools, churches, youth groups, Scout troupes, orphanages, foster homes, sporting clubs, group homes, charities and family homes as well,” Mr Morrison told the House of Representatives.

That was apparently the great call to arms that QAnon had been waiting for and if anyone can tell me what happened next I’ll give them a biscuit.

Here’s a clue: Nothing. Nada. Zilch. Zip. Zero. Sweet mother-loving FA.

If these all-powerful online bedwetters were waiting for the glorious right-wing revolution in which the armies of righteousness were unleashed upon the dark forces of Lucifer they must have been a tad underwhelmed over the past two-and-a-half years.

But why? Why did nothing happen? Was this all part of a greater conspiracy? Did the liberal left media conspire to snuff it out? Or is the evil patriarchal capitalist hegemony still plotting and scheming its strike against the freedom fighters of Ultimo?

Maybe we’ll just have to wait and see. Or maybe it’s all just a massive load of horseshit and the only people dumb enough to believe it are the cult followers of QAnon and, unfortunately, the once great Four Corners itself.

https://www.news.com.au/national/politi ... 4eadbdcff9

[Aussie]

Written by a Murduch hack who completely ignores that fact that he is discussing the Prime Minister of Australia, not himself and what he should do if he has extreme friends with crazy crap views....it is a far different kettle of fish for the PM who must exercise great discretion when it comes to with whom he associates and even holidays, especially when it is clear Morrison was duped by this Stewart whackjob in allowing said Stewart to have an input into what Morrison said in Parliament in an important speech.

The media has been far too gun shy in attacking Morrison for his 'faith.' Bible bashing, speak in tongues, happy clappers have a tendency to become cultists.

[Neferti]

Written by a Murduch hack who completely ignores that fact that he is discussing the Prime Minister of Australia, not himself and what he should do if he has extreme friends with crazy crap views....it is a far different kettle of fish for the PM who must exercise great discretion when it comes to with whom he associates and even holidays, especially when it is clear Morrison was duped by this Stewart whackjob in allowing said Stewart to have an input into what Morrison said in Parliament in an important speech.

The media has been far too gun shy in attacking Morrison for his 'faith.' Bible bashing, speak in tongues, happy clappers have a tendency to become cultists.

What does Morrison's choice of religion have to do with the ABC Four Corners report about his wife's friend's husband?

[Aussie]

Nothing. I raised two issues in response to your lousy cut 'n paste.

[Neferti]

Nothing. I raised two issues in response to your lousy cut 'n paste.

Glad you enjoyed it.

[Aussie]

Nothing. I raised two issues in response to your lousy cut 'n paste.

Glad you enjoyed it.

It will not happen again. Expect a different response the next time you lazily pose as making a contribution when in fact, all you do, is copy large chunks of the writings of others without any personal commentary.

[Neferti]

Nothing. I raised two issues in response to your lousy cut 'n paste.

Glad you enjoyed it.

It will not happen again. Expect a different response the next time you lazily pose as making a contribution when in fact, all you do, is copy large chunks of the writings of others without any personal commentary.

Copying newspaper articles is allowed, you know. I do make comments, when I see fit. All you are doing is commenting about me not making comments. Have you anything worthwhile to say, at all? If not, ferme la bouche!

[Aussie]

Nothing. I raised two issues in response to your lousy cut 'n paste.

Glad you enjoyed it.

It will not happen again. Expect a different response the next time you lazily pose as making a contribution when in fact, all you do, is copy large chunks of the writings of others without any personal commentary.

Copying newspaper articles is allowed, you know. I do make comments, when I see fit. All you are doing is commenting about me not making comments. Have you anything worthwhile to say, at all? If not, ferme la bouche!

Yes....but it is pathetic that is all you do, and then pretend you make a positive contribution here. If I want to read that stuff, I''ll subscribe to the newspaper. Let's see you make an attempt at posting a cogent argument of your own on any of that stuff.

[Neferti]

Nothing. I raised two issues in response to your lousy cut 'n paste.

Glad you enjoyed it.

It will not happen again. Expect a different response the next time you lazily pose as making a contribution when in fact, all you do, is copy large chunks of the writings of others without any personal commentary.

Copying newspaper articles is allowed, you know. I do make comments, when I see fit. All you are doing is commenting about me not making comments. Have you anything worthwhile to say, at all? If not, ferme la bouche!

Yes....but it is pathetic that is all you do, and then pretend you make a positive contribution here. If I want to read that stuff, I''ll subscribe to the newspaper. Let's see you make an attempt at posting a cogent argument of your own on any of that stuff.

I'LL DO IT MY WAY, if you don't mind. Thanx for your smarmy, unwarranted, suggestion.
Now ferme la bouche!

[Aussie]

Expect me to intervene every time you do that lousy crap. Have some balls and post YOUR OWN opinions, not those of others.

Here is the Rule on this very matter on another Forum:

THREAD CREATION

The opening post of a thread sets the topic and the tone of the discussion. It should contain a member's opinions or questions with sufficient elaboration to establish a foundation for respectful discussion and debate. Threads should not be posted in the wrong forum, or be duplicates of other threads and/or topics (creating multiple threads with fundamentally the same topic is not allowed). Images, links, quotations, etc., should be used to support a member's opinion, not to replace it. Quoting from an article is optional. If a quote is added, it must be clearly distinguishable from the personal commentary. Quotes may only contain a small portion of the article. We do not allow the entire article to be posted. Personal commentary must be a paragraph with at least 3 sentences of respectful elaboration. Thread titles should be a description of the thread topic (and if not they may be altered by the moderators). Whether a thread has sufficiently set a basis for respectful debate on the thread topic will be at the discretion of the moderators. All other board rules apply to thread titles and creation. Threads may be deleted, merged or closed for not meeting any of the requirements listed.

There are additional rules for "Latest U.S and World News" and "Current Events": All thread titles must be copy/pasted from source article titles. Article titles that are too long to fit, should be abbreviated, keeping as close to the original title as possible. No personal opinions are allowed within thread titles. Threads must have a sourced article or news video, and the full article/video must be accessible upon clicking. (Content behind a paywall does not qualify as a source.)

Bloody good Rule.