The Waiting Man

I'm sure the very notion of fact-checking Tucker Carlson of Fox News (in)fame(y) is akin to King Canute trying to hold back the tide... but sometimes these right-wing, ignorant fuckers just get under my skin with their inflammatory mis/dis-information

Take his latest reported outburst for example...

Fox News host Tucker Carlson has unleashed over what he’s dubbed Australia’s Covid-19 “totalitarianism”, accusing state and federal governments of mindlessly embracing martial law, shooting rescue dogs and lockdown lunacy.

“In Australia, the government has implemented total lockdowns nationwide, and imposed martial law to enforce them,”

Okay, just stop there FTucker - there are NO nationwide lockdowns, they are NOT total & there isn't the slightest whiff of Martial Law on the Spring breeze. Unarmed soldiers have been brought in to help with quarantine enforcement, but only for those meant to be isolating because they HAVE COVID, not for the general population. The lockdowns that are in place vary from State to State & different areas have different levels of restrictions. The whole country is NOT locked down & cowering behind its doors as the armed forces patrol the suburban streets in tanks, armed with flame-throwers & lasers...

“What’s the justification for this? Here are the numbers: from mid-July to last week, the entire country of Australia — a population of 25 million — has averaged about 1.5 Covid deaths per day.

Whoa there FTucker - this is blatant manipulation of numbers. It's not about national deaths per capita, it's about community infection rates &, more importantly, where the deaths are happening: mostly the elderly &, worryingly, it's getting into the indigenous communities. My home State of New South Wales is averaging over 1000 new cases per day & losing about 10 people per week, give or take. NSW's population is about 6 million, so if you now want to apply FTucker's version of mathematics, it paints a grimmer picture...

“That has been enough to justify the end of Australia and totalitarianism. In one recent case, authorities executed rescue dogs — shot them to death — to prevent Australian dog lovers from travelling to adopt them. Leaving your home is not allowed, so they just killed the dogs. And the population put up with it. They were told they had to.”

I can hear the rising tone of voice & blood pressure in this quote but, bad grammar aside, it's still inaccurate. This was a one-off, isolated incident, with the emphasis on isolated - the town that killed the dogs is hundreds of kilometres from anywhere else &, under current travel restrictions, assumed no one could come for the dogs, so euthanised them... by bullet sure, but the population has NOT put up with it, nor were we told we "had to". There is a government enquiry underway into the incident & the public response has been universally angry. So much so, that the town's Council are not returning any calls right now...

And what is it about every right-wing fanatic's fascination with "Totalitarianism"?? Is this the new boogyman who's taken over from Communism as the greatest threat to humanity since, well since Fascism - I'm sure FTucker knows all about fanatical nationalism, persecution of social & ethnic minorities & propaganda as fact

Here FTucker: I looked it up for you... does it sound like someone you know & probably voted for a few times?

totalitarianism
/təʊˌtalɪˈtɛːrɪənɪz(ə)m,təˌtalɪˈtɛːrɪənɪz(ə)m/

noun

a system of government that is centralized and dictatorial and requires complete subservience to the state.

All this, coming on top of Australia being called 'smug' about our previously enviable Covid situation, is a bit much... I mean, how much can a koala bear?!?

And it comes, as no surprise, from the Murdoch global media 'empire'...

Global warming is fake, climate change is fake, 'Greenies' are communists, coal is good, greed is better...

Proof that, as Terry Pratchett often wrote in his books, 'A lie can get halfway around the world, before the Truth has got its boots on...'