<< …the language used by shock jocks and the Howard government about the boat people was pretty condemning: Illegals,criminals, invaders, terrorists, diseased, ragheads >>

Briar rose, this sort of language came from very few people as I recall. Of course shock jocks would use end-of-the-spectrum language and opinions in order to cause as much of a stir as possible. Members of the Howard government were considerably more restrained.

Being the strong language that it is, it sticks in the minds of people such as yourself, CJ and Jennifer [not a major criticism as I can understand why that would happen], while those who express gentler language don’t get remembered.

Briar, IMHO you are very wrong to associate such language with the majority of people who want to see the onshore asylum seeker issue brought to a close.

BTW, only one of your six words could be construed as racist.

<< Maybe Jennifer Wilson should give up writing satire and parody for OLO >>

Er, yes…if that’s what it was intended to be!

In her two posts, she (Seaspray) gave no indication of satire or parody. And as I expressed in my last post, that sort of language doesn’t work, and it doubly doesn’t work for you if you are knocking your detractors for using the same sort of language…unless it is very obvious that you are being satirical or parodical, which was certainly not the case with Jennifer’s article.

Amicus - cj "doesn't stop our.....

Some folk are not here to express any view than rant at the right of others to express their view.

Bearing that in mind and with regard to the likes of cj....

A few words of advise from my previous post

“They are the leftie swill, overdosing on personal self-loathing and they view their fellow Australians with contempt.

The more they are ignored, the better off we will be.”

Hi Col! More "Socialism by Stealth" from the "leftie swill", eh?

Suck it up, old son.

“They are the leftie swill, overdosing on personal self-loathing and they view their fellow Australians with contempt. The more they are ignored, the better off we will be.”

Ferdinand Marcos and Augusto Pinochet = For the People. Thanks for clearing that up, Stern.

Ludwig, a quote from the Solicitor General made in the High Court during the events of the Tampa period when he was arguing the Coalition's case for having various islands excised:

"Today, invasions don't have to be military...they can be of diseases, they can be of unwanted migrants"

The juxtaposition of diseases and unwanted migrants and invasion is no accident.

If you read the Senate Select Committee report "A Certain Maritime Incident" you will find evidence to the effect that Howard gave explicit instructions as to how the faces of the asylum seekers were to be kept out of photographs whenever possible so that Australians could be manipulated into seeing them as less than human. As faceless.

If you know anything about propaganda you will see the similarities in the language and actions of the Coalition, and the Nazi propaganda against Jews. Race hate is race hate. There's not much scope for interesting language and ideas.

<< "Today, invasions don't have to be military...they can be of diseases, they can be of unwanted migrants" >>

Briar rose, what is wrong with this?

It seems like a sensible comment from the Solicitor General. I’m sure he made it amongst many other points, not in isolation.

You seem to be seeing the worst in those that you disagree with. That’s nothing unusual, so it seems, throughout the history of this particular debate, and indeed throughout the history of humanity wherever there is any conflict or disagreement.

<< Howard gave explicit instructions as to how the faces of the asylum seekers were to be kept out of photographs whenever possible so that Australians could be manipulated into seeing them as less than human. >>

So that Australians could be manipulated into seeing them as less than human??

That’s a very strong interpretation of Howard’s motivation. You can’t assert that, briar.

Could it be that he simply saw it as sensible to keep their faces out of the media so that the whole issue remained a little less emotive, without in any way wanting to make those people on the boats seem any less human or any less deserving of getting their claims properly processed?

<< If you know anything about propaganda you will see the similarities in the language and actions of the Coalition, and the Nazi propaganda against Jews. Race hate is race hate. >>

Wow! That really is way over the top…. IMHO