2d ago

Welcome to Country booed by neo-Nazis at Melbourne Dawn Service

www.sbs.com.au

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I suffer from the paradox of tolerance whereby those who want a tolerant society must not tolerate intolerance. Those that are intolerant must be removed from society if you are to truly achieve tolerance.
I guess I'm fascist now too..
- The paradox is the result of the liberalist idea of some universal right to tolerance; that there's some inherent moral or pragmatic obligation for us to just tolerate everyone and everything possible.
  There's no moral nor pragmatic benefit to tolerating neo-nazis in a community. We don't need some mental gymanastical paradox to excuse that fact. Being a neo-nazi is a personal choice to be harmful antisocial scum, comparable to child abusers and billionaires, and the abstract liberalist idea that they automatically deserve freedom, liberty or tolerance in the first place is pointless and dangerous.
  
  The biggest issue with this is that people that think like this tend to throw accusations like “neo-Nazi” out like lollies, at everyone that they disagree with about on certain things that are in no way “nazi-esque”.
  Disliking the “welcome to country” does not make you a neo-Nazi. It is a divisive thing. It’s not some centuries old tradition, it was invented by Ernie Dingo in like the 90s. Many, many people think it’s completely pointless and irrelevant, and they’re entitled to that opinion just like you’re entitled to your opinion that it makes them racist. It doesn’t mean you’re automatically right and they’re wrong though.
  In this specific situation - welcome to country at an ANZAC day ceremony - it is extremely debatable about its use. The ANZACs, 99% of who were white non-indigenous people, died defending this country. “Welcoming” their relatives to the very country is rightly seen as incredibly disrespectful by many. Without those ANZACs giving their life to defend this country that is being claimed is not theirs, the aboriginals might have been eradicated off the face of the earth.
  Saying this is not racist. It’s not “neo-Nazi” views. You claim it is as an excuse to be intolerant towards those people. No matter how you try to sugar coat it, you are being intolerant.
- The paradox of tolerance isn't a paradox when you look at it not as a hard rule, but a social contract.
  If ya wanna decide the social contract, rules of order or just plain human niceties don't apply....well then they don't apply to you, either.
- Nah that's legit. If you're going to have a tolerant society, you can't show that same tolerance to those who are intolerant because they are a threat to the tolerance and will eradicate you. I think it was Karl Popper? To preserve a tolerant society we have to exercise the right to not tolerate the intolerant.

Clive Palmer's stupid campaign ad that mentions "not needing to be welcomed to our own country" probably contributed to this. Especially because the guy is 26 and those are constantly rolling on youtube.
- Nah, these were neo-Nazis, they're not taking their cues from Palmer, they're taking them from... another guy.
  From the ABC article (https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-04-25/melbourne-anzac-day-welcome-to-country-hecklers/105215124):
  Police were later seen escorting prominent neo-Nazi Jacob Hersant away from the service.
  In November, Hersant was the first Victorian found guilty of performing an illegal Nazi salute in public and was sentenced to one month behind bars.
  The ABC understands a group of far-right extremists were present at the Shrine.
  This quote cited on his Wikipedia page (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob_Hersant):
  After his conviction in 2024 for performing a Nazi salute in public, he stated to journalists "I'm ready to go to jail, because I'm a Hitler soldier and what I'm doing is right".[8]

Mfw the boring ass morning speech is preluded by a boring ass speech

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