More than two months since Israel began its genocidal war on the Palestinian people, Australian mainstream media continues its unwavering support for Israel.
Although its bias towards Israel is unsurprising, given its role in upholding the , it is nevertheless sickening to see the apologisms for mass murder.
Meanwhile, reporters who do attempt to provide truth and full context聽are being censored.
However, cracks are showing in the propaganda machine: People are seeing through the lies and making links between the settler-colonialism of Israel and the genocidal violence of settler colonialism here.
The managements of the ABC, The Guardian, The Sydney Morning Herald (SMH), The Age, The Saturday Paper and The Monthly (Schwartz Media) are being protested聽by their own staff, as well as readers who are demanding accurate reporting.
Yet, their content is increasingly becoming absurd and Orwellian.
The SMH and The Age published a hit piece by conservative commentator on December 10, as the ninth mass rally for Palestine was about to get underway. McGuinness鈥 target? The growing grassroots movement in support of Palestine.
McGuinness鈥 article, titled 鈥淟eft-wing populism: Come for the rent caps, stay for the conspiracy theories鈥, purports to be a critique of left-wing populism.
But reading it makes one doubtful she has any understanding of populism.
Instead, McGuinness does what many such commentators do: use the term 鈥渓eft-wing populism鈥 as a pejorative against the growing mass movement.
According to McGuinness, 鈥減opulism鈥 pits 鈥渆lites鈥 against 鈥渢he people鈥. She asserts that 鈥渓eft and right populism can be hard to tell apart [because] their issues are often the same鈥.
While she notes, correctly, that there is a dichotomy between 鈥渢he people鈥 and 鈥渢he elites鈥, McGuinness then conflates popular policies, such as rent freezes and rent caps, and the right-wing populism of a figure like Donald Trump.聽
McGuinness fails to acknowledge important differences between left-wing and right-wing populism.
Left-wing populism involves a struggle for more participatory, or communitarian, democracy: it seeks to mobilise people in politics.
It has been championed by philosophers such as Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe, whose work influenced the 听补苍诲 Greek Syriza party.
According to Laclau and Mouffe, left-wing populism mobilises people around a or 鈥溾 to change the status quo.
Trump鈥檚 鈥渟trong-man leadership鈥 style epitomises right-wing populism. He appeals to anti-elite sentiment by presenting himself as 鈥渘on-elite鈥 through techniques such as the use of obscene language and a disregard of political norms.
Right-wing populism mobilises voters by stirring up racism, xenophobia and other reactionary sentiment.
McGuinness鈥 conflation of left- and right-wing populism is deliberate fear-mongering that seeks to undercut support for the nascent mass movement in support of Palestinian liberation.
Her claim that left-wing populism inevitably (鈥渉op, skip, jump鈥) leads to conspiracy theories, is not only unfounded, it is debunked by the very study she cites.
The 2019 , a survey of more than 25,000 people over 24 countries, found that right-wing populists are more likely to believe in conspiracy theories, such as the COVID-19 vaccine, than others.
That study noted that: 鈥淭he finding did not hold for voters of Spain鈥檚 left-wing populist party Podemos, who were less likely to believe in a vaccine conspiracy than voters of most other Spanish parties鈥.
McGuinness describes her interaction with 鈥測oung university students from Socialist Alliance鈥 to attack young people in general as ignorant and vulnerable to conspiracy theories. She accused聽91自拍论坛 and Socialist Alliance of peddling in the 鈥渕urky world of conspiracy theories鈥.
McGuinness鈥 assertion that GL and SA鈥檚 opposition to the Israeli apartheid state and its genocidal war on Gaza is 鈥減opulist鈥 and 鈥渃onspiratorial鈥 reveals the pressure she and the mainstream media are under.
Young people are one of the largest cohorts at the Palestine rallies: they are some of the most vocal for justice for Palestine. According to a recent , 62% of people aged 18-24 years think the federal government should call for an immediate ceasefire.
Increasingly, too, young people 聽on establishment聽media for their news, because they can see through the bias and absurdity of reporting, including by people such as McGuinness.
Contrary to McGuinness鈥 assertion of conspiracy: since 2022, 听补苍诲 聽have formally described Israel as an apartheid state.
At the time of writing, more than 24,000 Palestinians have been slaughtered by Israel and still more are facing death by starvation and disease due to the siege. Many experts, including the Israeli Holocaust scholar聽, have decried Israel鈥檚 actions as a 鈥渢extbook case of genocide鈥.聽
In her final slur, McGuinness tries to argue that there is a direct evolution from progressive anti-capitalist politics to antisemitism: 鈥淥ne day you鈥檙e voting for rental caps, the next you鈥檙e peddling the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.鈥
This is laughable. Even the most casual reader can see such leaps in logic are absurd.
If not for the ruling class鈥 modus operandi 鈥 Orwellian doublethink 鈥 which gives unfaltering support to capitalist Zionism, it would not be worthwhile responding to McGuinness鈥 contortions.
We all need to reject and call out attempts to silence resistance to genocide before it is normalised.
The toxic conflation of anti-Zionism with antisemitism needs to be exposed for what it is: 鈥淭he repudiation of morality while laying claim to it鈥, as defines doublethink.