On Seven’s interview with Blair Cottrell

Leon Knight writes: Re. “Channel Seven’s Summer of Nazis raises national security fears (Tuesday)

Well sadly the ABC is not so innocent either.  I can’t believe how many times they replay video footage of the youth violence in Melbourne – that feeds into the community fear, and emboldens the armed militia mentality of those hateful “patriotic” groups. Shame on our Auntie too, and they can’t use odious revenue raising as an excuse, only trying to keep Turnbull, Dutton and Fifield out of their annual funding.

JQ writes: Re. “Channel Seven’s Summer of Nazis raises national security fears (Tuesday)

I would have thought the usual principle here would have been to give Cottrell sufficient rope with which to hang himself. If the journalists (lolz) involved did not ask sufficiently probing questions, then it’s fair to state they failed to provide even a modicum of journalistic integrity.

Having not watched the segment, I hesitate to comment further, however consider the following: these people are out there. Is censoring or de-platforming their viewpoint going to eradicate it? I think not, and I would argue there is sufficient evidence to assert the opposite – that driving these views underground allows them to fester and propagate.
Having a sophisticated discussion about why such views are unacceptable, and by offering alternatives – both to their contributing factors and to viable solutions – is precisely the corrective that is necessary.

Shielding people from dangerous ideas does not make them “safer”; it enfeebles them. We need to be exposed to these ideas so that we can counter them forthrightly and effectively. Ideas are “mainstreamed” through a process of mass acceptance. Reckon Cottrell and his ilk have the capacity to convince Australians of the purity of their positions? Well, if the current level of political/media debate is anything to go by…