Australia has become increasingly lucrative ground for peddlers of far-right themes from overseas. It is apparently not enough for Muslims, Jewish, queer and Indigenous peoples to deal with homegrown hate; they must deal with imported brands, too.
The latest such visitor was feted at the capital by David Leyonhjelm, Pauline Hanson, Mark Latham and their assorted hangers-on. It seemed to be all about being seen together. There was something pathetic about it, the scramble for selfies just to goad 'lefties' about their 'worst nightmare'.
Here are people's actual worst, living nightmares: being left stateless, broken and destitute for no more reason than seeking asylum by boat past a certain date. Being young, male and Indigenous in an over-policed community. Being visibly Muslim, trans or disabled in spaces dominated by those who are not. Being a parent on a ravaged planet, unable to offer a certain future.
These realities show up rightwing ideologues for what they are — performative, privileged contrarians. What else could they be, given that their version of free speech involves nothing more than telling othered people, with already fewer resources, to be even more resilient, to harden the fuck up, and most of all to play the game.
Because it is all just sport for people who can't think of anything decent to do. There is money to be had in provocation, in marketing hollow ideas as 'dangerous' and engaging in ventriloquy for the so-called silent majority. If not money, then notoriety can be a kind of power, too. It certainly gets invites to parliament.
It is exhausting for those who believe in concepts of dignity and fairness to be used like this, as a business model or career platform. It is an exercise in power, for power — taking up bandwidth that could otherwise be used to solve social problems, much less chart an actual direction for this country.
What can be done? Confronting hate-mongers lends oxygen to things better left to sputter out, but ignoring them bears risk of conflagration. That risk marks the difference between public and private hateful speech. Public speech constructs networks. Networks build political capital. Political capital, sooner or later, converts to policy or incubates certain cultures.
"It matters when hate-mongers are given a microphone. They might sound preposterous to us, and we might assume others will similarly dismiss them. But plenty enough take them seriously."
In whatever way we imagine liberal-progressive movements are shaped, there are shadow trajectories.