Apologies for both the interval between posts and the thematic repetition today. I tried to write about something else but the idea that the west hates itself just keeps popping up everywhere.
Let’s forget the self-saucing outrage pudding that is the Whinger and Ginger royal schism; it has an element of western self-loathing but, frankly, a plague on both their houses.
Australia is more amusing however, as it prepares for its traditional festive fun of convincing itself it doesn’t deserve to exist.
One of the half dozen legacy media organisations, TV channel Ten, has publicly announced its new policy of not making reference to Australia’s national holiday, the imaginatively named Australia Day (January 26th).
Imagine RTÉ boycotting St Patrick’s Day, Canal Plus giving Bastille Day a miss or an American TV channel ignoring July 4th. Their boycott announcement would be a virtual suicide letter.
For those who previously hadn’t given enough of a damn about Australia’s national day to find out what it celebrates, here’s the cliff notes; it marks the 1788 landing of the First Fleet at Sydney Cove. So, not the first arrival of Europeans on the continent, nor the “discovery” of Australia by Captain Cook, but the start of the first European settlement.
Ok, the settlement was a penal colony so, regardless of how the incumbent residents felt about it, not the most auspicious of starts for a nascent nation. History doesn’t care about your feelings though, to misquote Ben Shapiro. That’s yer actual history, Australians, own it.
Those who would boycott Australia Day refer to it as “Invasion Day”. They have a fair point, of course. Things definitely went rapidly downhill for the locals when the British and Irish arrived.
At this point, we could spend a few hundred words describing the historic and ongoing injustices against the aboriginal population, including the modern trend of people fraudulently claiming an aboriginal identity for the kudos and financial rewards available to them in (particularly) eastern city metro areas.
It’s not really the point though, is it? January 26th, 1788 wasn’t the day that started; that was probably more likely to be 19th April, 1770, when James Cook made Australian landfall on a mission specifically to find new lands for Britain. That’s when the Aboriginal people’s future was set.
Bill’s Opinion
The raison d’être of the boycott is a rejection of the Australian history. The date of the national day doesn’t matter at this point; it might as well be Christmas Day or a randomly-selected date from the calendar.
The people who don’t like Australia’s history don’t like a national day that celebrates a significant date in Australia’s history. It probably wouldn’t matter to them what that date was.
Ultimately, they will get their way; the Australian national day will move from January 26th.
How do I know this? Because they are fighting against people who value a feeling of national unity, nationhood. Eventually those people will realise, like the mother of the baby presented to King Solomon, a national day that divides a nation can’t continue forever.
The only real question is, will those boycotting January 26th get behind the new day and come together to celebrate Australia the nation at that point?
I don’t think so. I don’t believe that’s how this ends. See the previous post for reasons why.
It’s like renaming “Coon” cheese. Trying to appease these pathetic, self loathing dimwits never, ever works. Ever. So why give them any satisfaction? If we had any politicians with balls that weren’t wholly owned subsidiaries of GloboHomo*, they’d double down and really lean hard into celebrating Australia Day.
I’m surprised anyone even watches channel 10 any more, apart from reruns of Star Trek The Next Generation and MacGyver what do they have to offer?
* You’d have to go back a looooong way to find any. I won’t even speculate.
I probably should clarify that, like nearly all Australians, I have only ever enjoyed Australia Day as a shallow excuse to get munted and/or generally laze around having a bludge. I don’t much care what you do on January 26th, but if you want to whinge and moan about people arriving in the late 1700’s and dragging a stone age culture into modern times, do it quietly. Far, far away preferably. I hear the Soviet Peoples Republic of New Zealand is nice.