Take note, fuckwitts.

[clappamungus]

Regardless of the state of the current debate about population in Australia, this ad effectively sums up the boneheaded crap that both sides are throwing around concerning asylum seekers.

Click to view

As I said to someone else, bring on a catastrophe and a mass migration of the "Boat Skips". Schadenfreude be my friend.

Comments

[hakucho_cygnus]

Governments focus on asylum seekers for what reasons, again?

[clappamungus]

Largely because the people of Australia are a xenophobic bunch of morons who've bought into the myth that "these darkies are comin' over here, costing us money, takin' our jobs, boostin' our population to unacceptable numbers, and these illegals are jumpin' the queue

[hakucho_cygnus]

Damn... I was told about racism in the country, but I didn't know how bad it was. XP

Is there any political party that seeks to SUPPORT the "boat people"?

[saithkar]

It's actually not that bad, just a vocal minority spurred on by right-wing shock jocks on talkback radio. If you want to see real racism, you’d have to go to a country like the United States or India. The majority of us are opposed to high population growth through immigration and the domestic birth-rate for reasons detailed elsewhere.

Unfortunately there seems to be no party espousing a sensible middle ground in this country. Contrary to the two major parties' scoring of cheap political points of people's fears of high immigration, are the too left-wing Greens who advocate throwing the doors open to anyone who wants to turn up, ignoring all the problems this would create and labelling anyone who disagrees with them as a racist.

It's a complicated issue with many nuances that can't be simply summed up.

[clappamungus]

Population is a complicated issue, yes, as is immigration. The current load of "boat people", however, is not. As has been made abundantly clear to anyone, most of the unacceptable immigration is by visa over-stayers. Boat arrivals could start being a real issue if hundreds of people arrived every week, but that has not happened largely I think because Australia is so far away from most of the places from where people are fleeing that the boat journey is too damned daunting.

From what I can see, the Secular Party seems to have a fairly commonsense approach to immigration - though of course it's very easy for them to make policies such as these when they won't be taking power any time soon.

[saithkar]

We can agree on that, but sadly the hysterical hyperbole that we have been admonishing the media for engaging in is also on display here. Phrases like "racist" and "nuke 'em" don't help move the debate forward, they only perpetuate stereotypes and encourage wild emotions in place or sober rationalism.

I think the fact that population is being discussed at all is a step in the right direction, and as people become more educated about the realities of the situation (such as the numbers of "boat people" against what The Chaser brilliantly described as "womb people") the more the debate will mature. Did you see Dick Smith's doco on population last week on the ABC, and too a lesser extend the Q&A panel afterwards? We need more Dick Smiths and less Alan Joneses talking about issues such as these

[clappamungus]

Yeah, you're right. For reasons I don't quite understand, I tend to tolerate leftish hyperbole much more than I do when it comes from the right, even though I consider myself a moderate. Maybe because when it comes from the right it seems so much more hateful, with no capacity for any rational argument whatsoever. And while I don't particularly like Dick Smith and think he's a bit of a hypocrite, the likes of him are much better than Alan Jones, John Laws, Neil Mitchell, Andrew Bolt, etc etc.

On the racism question, I do believe that when it comes to the asylum seeker issue, many people are seeing it in terms of "darkies swamping our shores" rather than "people swamping our shores". I have a feeling that if these boats were filled with Zimbabwean farmers escaping Mugabe's regime, people would be much more tolerant. And it does pain me to say this. All the talk about "the queue" and "population increasing" is a smokescreen - I really do believe the majority of people don't like the idea of a bunch of non-Anglos coming to Australia,

[saithkar]

Not wanting to call you out on your own journal, but I do demand a certain level of intellectual rigour from people and I will call bullshit where I run across it in conversation, online or in the media. Likewise I expect to be called out on any nonsense I commit to print, or at least forced to back up my assertions with facts. I used to be more left wing but part of the reason I moved towards the centre is the PC hysteria on the left - comparing everyone they don't like to Hitler etc - is as moronic as any wacky conspiracy theories you'd hear on the right. And if we're going to bemoan the poor quality of political discourse in this country then isn't it up to us to set the standard

[clappamungus]

Thanks for the link. I'll have a read of it when I have a bit more time (trying to apply for a job, so of course I'm procrastinating).

Call me out if you think it requires it, mate, seriously. I would do the same in anyone's journal (and have). I agree that the Zimbabwean example wasn't the best one. I have in the past had infuriating conversations with people about "queue jumpers" and the like (one when we were on our honeymoon - the tour operator holed me up in a corner, asked me where I was from, and then proceeded to regale me with his educated "opinion" on "queue jumpers" and "pull factors" and it took all I had not to punch him...), and people like Steve Fielding opening hi9s mouth and infecting everyone with stupid when it comes to this issue (actually, any issue, really...). It really does befuddle me as to why everyone latches onto boat people as part of the "expanding population" problem when it's patently not the case that their current arrival levels are what's causing our population woes. Probably because it's an easy

[saithkar]

Re the Australian people's intelligence. I am beginning to think this problem and that of the wretched media are interlinked. If people only hear gossip and rubbish how are they supposed to be informed about the world? I read http://www.foreignpolicy.com/ every day to stay up to date, but how much world news would you get from Sunrise/The Today Show, the Herald Sun or talkback radio? Is this why no one discusses foreign affairs any more, we just have emotive, parish-pump stuff like money for families and fear campaigns or debt and refugees? And Steve Fielding is wrong about everything, can't wait for this weekend when he gets thrown out of the Senate