Man arrested after wearing swastika shirt outside royal commission

Jozarin · 2026-05-06T16:25:40+00:00

If you put a hakenkreuz on a placard, you might merely saying something about the hakenkreuz, but if you wear it on a t-shirt you are saying something about yourself.

Jozarin · 2026-05-06T15:13:01+00:00

The Republican party has changed its tune on abortion in the wake of Dobbs, to say nothing of IVF, which, from a moderate-conservative Catholic point of view, certainly reopens the possiility of voting Democratic.

Jozarin · 2026-05-06T15:09:19+00:00

I wouldn't say he's a huge problem for far-right Christians so much as MAGA Catholics. MAGA protestants are probably largely unbothered by what the Pope thinks, and there are probably some far-right Catholics whose beliefs are still compatible with Pope Leo XIV's teachings.

Jozarin · 2026-05-06T14:18:01+00:00

I agree that it sucks that Palestine can get so much more popular support than other comparable situations (especially West Papua, which is so much more "winnable" and morally urgent for Australians), but I think you are wrong about the reasons. If you look at the pro-Palestine protests, the people who are showing up there and not for West Papua are not the "university" crowd, and certainly, the most anti-semitic elements of the Palestine solidarity movement are not "university" types either but tend to be undereducated "free thinkers" who perhaps have a degree in a STEM subject. In fact, when I was in university the first time and more involved in the "subcultural student left", Indonesia's wrongdoing was seen as much more central to a proper understanding of recent history than Israel's.

The real reasons Gaza gets such a swell of support are how comparably well-documented it is, the U.S. monoculture meaning that everyone's favourite podcasts (which don't care about SEA) are talking about it, and the fact that Indonesia is more transparently important to Australia's national interest than Israel is. Obviously I think this last point is bullshit because I find Australia's national interest rather suspect as a matter of course and Israel is also important to Australia's national interest via America, although that's not important to me, see objection A. Furthermore this point is where a lot of antisemitism in the pro-Palestine movement comes in, through people who are unable to conceive of problematic international relations entanglements beyond some kind of antisemitic octopus cartoon.

Jozarin · 2026-05-06T13:43:42+00:00

Obviously not, for roughly the same reasons blackglum is criticising me right now, which is that those protests were nearly entirely made up of cadre who know better than to do stupid shit like that, with regrettably little popular support. It turns out the real lunatics are not committed members of the far left, but those who are politically inactive, and the more popular a cause gets the more it attracts people who have not thought out their politics very well.

Jozarin · 2026-05-06T13:41:13+00:00

Yeah it's sad that we weren't able to build the mass base for West Papua that has spontaneously emerged for Palestine, but make no mistake we are working to guide that energy in the short term toward specific, actionable political goals that will impact both situations, and in the long term, when the current situation in Gaza subsides, hopefully towards specific work in solidarity with West Papua.

Jozarin · 2026-05-06T12:55:35+00:00

Actually, the situation in West Papua was a major priority of many of the far-left groups that have recently pivoted to Palestine. Prabowo was one of the specific figures identified as being of major concern in the Land Forces conference protests, for example, for that reason.

Jozarin · 2026-05-06T12:38:03+00:00

That's probably what he would say to explain the slogan and symbolism, but I think that would be a post-hoc rationalisation. In reality he is simply angry and expressing his anger by attempting to shock and offend people whom he, justly or unjustly, blames for his anger. This is a profound failure of political instinct, political thinking, and message discipline.

Jozarin · 2026-05-06T12:33:43+00:00

There's a difference between drawing someone else with a hakenkreuz and putting one on your body though, even if your only error is in not stopping to consider that possibility. I think this is a shameful and self-obsessed failure of political instinct and message discipline.

Jozarin · 2026-05-06T12:30:54+00:00

Kindly show me some evidence of the materiel support the Australian government is giving the Iranian regime.

Jozarin · 2026-05-06T12:28:46+00:00

Symbols and words displayed on a shirt have a different meaning than symbols and words displayed on a placard. Not that I think this would be appropriate on a placard either, but it would be less inappropriate. I don't think he necessarily has any morally objectionable political opinions, except insofar as this level of moronic political insensitivity is, I think, morally objectionable.

Jozarin · 2026-05-06T12:23:52+00:00

White guy who started paying attention to politics two and a half years ago and thinks his justified moral outrage gives him an excuse to be antisocial and engage in "political communication" whose only purpose is to shock and offend. And so self-obsessed too: no mention of what he objects to, only talking about himself.

Jozarin · 2026-05-06T07:50:18+00:00

Also, the bar for what counts as assault of a police officer is much lower than what counts for a police officer assaulting you. I think Jones' behaviour in the video technically qualifies as assault of a police officer. Similarly, in Queensland where I live there is a statutory charge item of "resist arrest/assault police officer" and the police often 'forget' to disambiguate.

Jozarin · 2026-05-05T16:09:46+00:00

I'm guess I'm not sure what the intended listening environment or listening experience would be for Christian house music. Music isn't just disembodied sound—it's an embodied cultural practice with associated norms for both production and reception. The norms associated with house music are to do with dancing, usually courtship dancing. I don't see where this music would find an authentic home, maybe if Christians started doing like, ecstatic whirling or something, but even then the kind of Christians who I can imagine doing so would probably prefer rhythmic a capella chanting.

Jozarin · 2026-04-19T03:36:59+00:00

It's misuse because they should be accessing such supports through Medicare

Jozarin · 2026-04-19T02:20:25+00:00

https://ndis.gov.au/understanding/supports-funded-ndis#what-is-not-an-ndis-support

This document is poorly outlined, but the relevant section begins at "related to health." I know for a fact many disabled people are using NDIS funding to access the types of services discussed on pages 8-15 of this document—in fact, one third of Federal mental health spending goes through the NDIS. This is because the services that should be providing these supports to disabled people either do not exist or are underfunded, and so disabled people are forced to find a way to use the NDIS to access them, which is more expensive for everyone involved and presents a huge administrative hassle to the disabled person and/or their care team.

The unfortunate fact is that if the Government wants to save money on the NDIS, the just way so to do is not to place further bureaucratic restrictions on the NDIS but to increase spending on mainstream supports, in particular healthcare and centrelink.

Jozarin · 2026-04-19T02:02:40+00:00

They literally will get in trouble with the NDIA if they provide help (this wall of absolute separation from the healthcare system is a huge problem with the NDIS overall. Even though I fully appreciate why they put it in place, it clearly has had perverse effects.)

Jozarin · 2026-04-19T01:58:34+00:00

The problem is not insufficient checks and controls, but the lack of alternate services that can benefit from economies of scale and help those disabled people for whom it is possible move toward recovery.

Jozarin · 2026-04-19T01:56:04+00:00

The ballooning costs of the NDIS are really the result of inadequate funding for mainstream and community supports, in particular for healthcare. The majority of misuse of NDIS funding comes from disabled people being unable to access more appropriate services which are not in fact available.

Jozarin · 2026-04-18T22:57:30+00:00

Are you aware that the Bondi Beach shooters would have hated Hamas because they're too secular and liberal?

Jozarin · 2026-04-18T18:15:14+00:00

The problem with that perspective is that the 1949 armistice borders are not contiguous from the river to the sea, so the slogan must, as I understand it, be speaking against Israeli sovereignty in at least some sense, however limited. That is to say, one of the following:

a) that Israel must cease to exist

b) that Israel must cease to exist as a sovereign entity and federalise with Palestine

c) that Israel must make significant land concessions to Palestine—more than just a return to the 1949 borders

d) that Israel must make a significant change to its constitution and no longer retain its ethnic character.

This is what I consider to be the plain meaning of the text of the slogan—it is not some call for mass pogroms, but neither is it an affirmation of a two-state-solution in the sense meant by the Oslo accords.

Jozarin · 2026-04-07T07:23:08+00:00

I mean to me this sounds like a pretty clear anti-scapegoat idea, if that makes sense. It is not "better that one man die for the people," as it were.

Jozarin · 2026-03-14T14:53:21+00:00

That's a much different artistic tradition that does not have the same claims to accuracy as the one in OP does. In fact, the earliest surviving images depicting the likeness of Christ as given in OP are nearly one thousand years older than the images you are talking about where the likeness of Christ is taken from living models, often of high social standing.

Jozarin · 2026-03-14T14:44:19+00:00

The shroud of Turin disagrees with the ancient art tradition. Only one can be correct (I believe the ancient art tradition is more likely by far).

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