by Dr. Jim Saleam.
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Nick Xenophon’s Senator Rex Patrick is seeking a wide inquiry into “right wing extremism”. (But then he is a Kiwi)
Inspector Rex, March 25:
South Australian senator Rex Patrick (in Adelaide) wants a wide-ranging inquiry into far-right extremism following the Christchurch mosque massacre. “The scale of this threat must be rigorously assessed in light of the Christchurch tragedy.”
The senator believes more needs to be done to understand the scale of the threat and the demographics of far-right extremists, as well as the victims of their violence. He also wants an urgent investigation into the role of social media in propagating far-right extremist ideas.
“This is not just a narrow security and law enforcement issue, any inquiry must be broad in scope and must investigate all dimensions of radicalisation,” Senator Patrick said. He will push to establish the inquiry after the federal election in May.
– Australian Community Media division of Fairfax Media (Nine Entertainment, again) .
But hardly a patriot
This is just one bit of fallout from the Christchurch murders and it was an inevitable call.
A parliamentary inquiry or a commission of inquiry would resemble in general effect the various inquiries conducted into the Communist Party between 1949 and 1954. We would see: the paranoid assertion there ‘is’ an internal enemy out to destroy liberal democratic capitalism ; political police officers and assessors delivering ‘expert’ opinion ; shady witnesses asserting they have seen or heard this and that outrage being discussed by the extremists (sic); professors explaining how the new thought crime works ; and participants subpoenaed to testify in the glaze of lights and media.
Sum it all up and it is a call to arms by the state against those whom it would proscribe.
Rex Patrickism?
Of course, no Australian would be happy with any sort of potential terrorist lurking among them, but this sort of enterprise would be different. It would aim to delegitimise and then criminalise all sorts of people who would be branded as “far right extremists”.
An inquiry that the good Senator proposes must confuse any number of mixed up thoughts and opinions held by a few foolish people with sober thoughts of nationalism such that a repressive legal regime could be put in place.
That is a key trick.
Nationalists and patriotic people while they certainly reject terror and violence, may be justified in thinking that it is our own politicians who would impose a ‘terror’ of thought conformity to be backed up by force!
