Excellent post, JB.

Jay Bee,

The war of identities must end.
We need to stop preaching hatred.
Everything we say to try to tear people
apart, to divide people, to demonise
particular groups, set them against each other -
that all has consequences.

It needs to stop.

Foxy,

Here is an interesting comparison. Tony Abbott in 2015 responding to a rise in Islamist terrorism: “I’ve often heard Western leaders describe Islam as a religion of peace. I wish more Muslim leaders would say that more often and mean it.” This mild rebuke was too much for the Muslim community who reacted angrily, condemning the Prime Minister for his intolerant remarks. Fast forward a few years and all Australians are freely lectured by a noted Islamic activist about an attack on Muslims. Yassmin Abdel-Magied in 2019: “What are you going to do to make sure this never happens again? Yeh, You. Personally. What are you going to do? If you’re not going to change a single thing, and think it’s someone else’s job... do u think anything will change?” Why is the first response unacceptable but the second just fine? Unless both viewpoints can be respected there will be no coming together and resolving of our differences.

Well its obvious to me after being part of olo for possibly as long as Foxy that no one has changed each others opinions. Whether we have affected other people's opinions we will probably never know. Plenty of nasty insults from all sides while many consider my views 'hateful'. The forum has attracted bigots, snowflakes, lefties and righties. I think it would be correct to say that when I first started posting on olo that their was more lefties while that has swung around now to possibly have more conservatives. I think our country is certainly a lot more divided than I can recall in the 60 years or so of my life. I certainly have very strong views on issues however at the end of the day hope that my grandchildren get to live the privileged life I have lived in this great nation. Unfortunately I feel quite pessimistic.

Dear Jay Bee,

What am I personally going to do about it?

Glad you asked.

I'm going to do all the good I can
By all the means I can
In all the ways I can
In all the places I can\At all the times I can
To all the people I can
As long as ever I can.

How about you?

Foxy. "The war of identities must end."

Human beings are tribal and territorial, Foxy. Lacking horns, teeth, armour, spines and claws, our species should have been eaten and wiped out eons ago. But what made us formidable opponents against every other species on Earth, was our instinct to group together and fight as a group. It is in our DNA and it is what makes us human. You just can't tell people that they must rid themselves of their group identities to make world peace, because they can't.

It is just like telling teenagers that they must solve the world population bomb by patiently and reasonably telling them all that they must not have sex. Ain't gonna happen, Foxy.

The problem with you socialists, is that you keep trying to create a utopian society using human beings instead of robots. The old socialists tried to create a classless society and they failed. You can't make a classless society, because skill specialisation involving different levels of intelligence, and different types of intelligence will always stratify societies.

Now you are upping the ante and trying to make a race blind society and that is not going to work, either. As a matter of fact, just like socialism and the classless society, it never worked anywhere. Multiculturalism is just like the classless society, how many times does it need to fail before you admit it can't work?

Multiculturalism is a fantasy dreamed up by and rich and spoiled western academics. It has no currency at all among people who are not western. The Chinese, Russians, Indians, Arabs and Muslims could teach Hitler's National Socialists a thing or two about nationalism.

Every person has multiple identities which are very important to them. A woman might have a university educated identity, a career professional identity, a mother identity, a feminist identity, a vollyballer identity, and a Greens voter identity. But one thing is certain, there are other groups who are either in competition to your groups, or outright opposed to your groups. And you don't like them. Maybe even outright hostile to them.