[Peetwo]

ALL HAIL THE UNIPARTY!!

Has Dutton revealed his true colours??

Via X:

Australians vs. The Agenda
@ausvstheagenda

Moments ago: Opposition Leader Peter Dutton responds to the question: Covid was unprecedented – but what does it say to you about government overreach, and government, essentially, controlling people’s lives and the effects that that can have?

His response: "The talk of massive increases in relation to mental health needs, etc., and many families tie that back to the very significant heavy hand of Daniel Andrews with the lockdowns in Victoria.

None of that, though, should give rise to the sort of conduct that you’re referring to. I would say to anybody in our community, whether it’s within your friendship group, your family group, the work group, whatever it might be, where you see somebody’s behaviour changing, regardless of their motivation, or if they’ve changed radically their thoughts about society and government, etc., you need to report that information to ASIO, or to the Australian Federal Police as a matter of urgency."

In reply:
 

Gerrie Hoogland
@WatchtowerRome2

When I joined the Liberal Party of Australia almost 20 years ago, I did so because I genuinely believed I could try to make a contribution to ensuring our society could be all it was meant to be, morally and materially.

I sat in meeting after meeting listening to people saying they were committed to the same thing. And much of that was because they were unhappy with the then current government policy and attitude toward Australians in general.

You could say they were “anti-government” in the sense that they disagreed with what the government was forcing people to live with via legislation that did not make sense to the well being of this nation.

Fast forward almost 20 years, and I sit here aghast to now hear a Liberal Party leader address the nation and tell them to snitch on their family, friends, neighbours and work colleagues in the name of the greater good.

When a political leader, who will likely be the next Prime Minister of Australia, issues a directive to the general population to snitch on those family members, friends, neighbours and work colleagues, they are potentially lighting a fire under an existing powder keg of mistrust and suspicion.

Sadly, most people will merely read and hear the cliff notes of what Mr Dutton had to say.

They won’t see the bigger picture - that caution must always be adhered to before knee jerk reactions, and that it is always necessary and prudent to look back at history before casting aspersions.

Society in general has become so addicted to being kept safe by the government, that anything they are told which hints at them being harmed, will lead to a default position of feeling they must do the “right thing.”

Rather than reading the whole story, they will read or hear the trigger words and phrases.

"Whether it’s within your friendship group, your family group, the work group, whatever it might be, where you see somebody’s behaviour changing, regardless of their motivation, or if they’ve changed radically their thoughts about society and government, etc., you need to report that information to ASIO, or to the Australian Federal Police as a matter of urgency."

The Ancient Greek historian, Plutarch, asked the following question in relation to the actions of the newly formed triumvirate of Octavian (soon to be Rome’s first emperor, Augustus), Antony, and Lepidus as they turned on their Roman countrymen in their quest for power in the final stages of the fall of the Roman Republic in 43 BC:

"Is there no wild beast more savage than man when his passions are armed with power?"

It is a reasonable question to be asked of anyone aiming to assume leadership over their fellow citizens, no matter the period in history. That we have enough warnings of the traps which men fall into, should be uppermost in our minds when it comes to seeing our democracies as fair and reasonable.

Today, I watched an ordinary man, granted the extraordinary opportunity to represent his fellow citizens, tell them to turn on those same citizens.

And it is devastating!

MTF...P2