Last week a rally of at least two-hundred left-wing thugs, some holding signs calling for the death of government ministers, violently attacked attendees and police at a fundraiser for former Prime Minister Tony Abbott. Included amongst the victims were Abbott’s sister Christine Forster and her partner Virginia Edwards who were pushed, shoved, pelted with fruit, spat on and screamed at by the mob who even tried to rip the clothes off Ms Forster’s back.
It took thirty to forty police to rescue them from the screeching crowd.
As is usual for leftist violence and intimidation, zero charges have been as yet been laid.
This multitude of violent extremists were led by the Stalin-loving Greens senator Lee Rhiannon, Marxist activists Mark Goudcamp, Tooba Anwar and Daniel Cotton of Ian Rintoul’s Solidarity organisation and Lily Campbell of Socialist Alternative: the largest, most violent, and most radical political extremist group in Australia today.
Another Socialist Alternative member Josh Lees publicly gloated about the violence he and his comrades had organised, declaring that “none of these Tories are innocent” and that a mass assault on people trying to attend an event he politically disagreed with was “one of the best demonstrations in years”.
The reaction from press and public figures was swift.
Opposition leader Bill Shorten condemned the attackers on Channel Nine, stating that Australia “should have zero tolerance for abuse like that”. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull joined him, declaring: “What is this country coming to, when you can’t go out and have a meeting without being abused by idiots”.
The Guardian ran editorials calling the mob “sickening for its malice and its cowardice”. Waleed Aly tweeted furiously that “I don’t get along with Tony Abbott, but there is NO EXCUSE for the harassment his sister copped today”.
Greens leader Richard Di Natale was grilled relentlessly by all sectors of the press as to how he could be associated with Senator Rhiannon after she had helped organise such a violent attack on his political opponents. When he refused to clearly denounce the thuggery media outlets across the country printed ringing condemnations and questioned whether the Greens should even be considered a mainstream party.
Jon Faine on ABC Radio in Melbourne called those who perpetrated the violence “ratbags” and “peanuts”, while ABC stablemate Fran Kelly called them out as “extremists” and “far-left dolts”.
And then a unicorn flew over Sydney Harbour Bridge and farted rainbows out of its arse until the Opera House was covered like snow.
Because of course none of that happened.
When hundreds of rabid leftists led by known violent extremists, not to mention a sitting Senator of what is supposed to be a mainstream party, participate in a violent blockade of an opposition political meeting the media and political left barely said a word against them.
Yet when three Aussie blokes in Hi-vis confront two elected politicians in a university pub and put them on the spot [whilst admittedly being rude] the supposed right leaning voices in this country lose their minds.
After Neil Erikson’s little stunt with Sam Dastyari, Prime Minister Turnbull did say on Channel Nine that we “should have zero tolerance for abuse like that”.
The supposedly evil-right-wing-Murdoch Australian did run an editorial stating that heckling Senator Dastyari was “sickening for its malice and its cowardice”.
Sky News talking head Paul Murray was the one who said “I don’t get along with Dastyari, but there is NO EXCUSE for the harassment he copped today”.
Pauline Hanson, who had no link at all to the men in the pub, was almost washed away by a deluge of ink denouncing her for not sufficiently disapproving of three people who not only were not members of her party but whom she had never even met.
Andrew Bolt was the one who called them “ratbags” and “peanuts” and Rita Panahi was the one who called them “extremists” and “far-right dolts”.
It’s the same story as ever.
Every time someone on the right tries to use even mild and non-violent versions of the activist tactics that the left has used successfully for generations, the first thing you will hear is the sound of prominent voices of the Australian Right screaming their denunciations.
The establishment Left never seems to feel the need to do the same despite the rocks, Molotov cocktails, bricks and metal bars their side brings and the opposition blood they leave on the streets. Why should they? Their side is winning.
Andrew Bolt, the loveable daggy old uncle of the Australian Right, loves to showcase how he denounces even the mildest right-wing rudeness while the left ignores open thuggery amongst those they consider on their side. In his mind and the mind of many other right of centre commentators, such double-standards are proof of their superior morality and the righteousness of their cause.
Bolt even has a catch phrase regarding such events: that for the Left it’s not the principle that counts, but the side.
He’s wrong.
The Left believes their crazed principles are incredibly important, but they also realise that principles don’t matter at all if your side loses.
The violence and intimidation of the Left means they are able to decide who gets to easily speak in the public square, and outside the establishment who gets to speak at all. That’s one of the main ways they win.
Has it ever occurred to these people that no matter how many times you attack your own side it never seems to prompt the Left to do the same? Has it occurred to them that this might have something to do with why the Left has been winning over and over for the last eight decades or so? Has it dawned on them that playing nicely and by the rules doesn’t really work when the other side has no intention of doing so?
You know what, it probably hasn’t.
But I’m sure our “right wing” commentariat feels very comfortable sleeping at night wrapped in all that moral righteousness.
