A few weeks ago, in my regular column in the Hobart Mercury,
I reflected on what the Cronulla riots said about Australia in
2005. With reference to the horror of the Tampa incident in 2001, the
scandal of detention centres and the recent dismantling by the Howard
government of the rights of workers and the dispossessed, I argued that
“Australia has become a pigsty” where “the majority of voters have
succumbed either to materialism or to the underbelly of their soul, an
underbelly that gives free rein to fear, racism and xenophobia.”

A few days later one of Australia’s leading daily commentary websites, Onlineopinion, republished the column,
after which three conservative-with-a-capital-C commentators – David
Flint, Janet Albrechtsen and Hal Colebatch – attacked me for using the
word “pigsty.” (A flogging, it should be said, that is as painful as
being mauled by a dead sheep.)

What a pity that these commentators did not bother to publish some of the 220 odd comments
on my “pigsty” piece in the Onlineopinion forum section, a treasure
trove of xenophobia, racism, fear mongering and ignorance. As if on
cue, my article brought to the fore the underbelly of this nation that
an opportunist politician like John Howard takes pleasure in probing
from time to time, for base political advantage.

Take this post
from “Boaz _ David” on Thursday, 22 December 2005 at 12:21 pm, accusing
me of racism against people of Anglo/Celtic background. “[Barns]
clearly hates white people. Loathes them, Despises them. Acts on this
loathing, by writing disparaging articles against their legitimate
right to protect their culture” are the particulars of this “offence.”

On
22 December 2005 at 2:02 pm Vinny wrote that “these left wingers have a
check list they go thru no matter what the issue and in the end it’s
always johnnie howard’s fault.”

En passant Vinny also
observes, in another post, that Indigenous Australians are “mostly
incapable of adapting to a western style civilisation” and that the
“only hope for our natives is if the children are sent to boarding
school where they would receive proper care and a good education which
would enable them to integrate into white society.”

And as for
the media, particularly the ABC, and academia, well they destroyed this
country, according to Mickijo on 22 December at 2:53pm:

I would recommend that Greg Barnes apply for the posts of
being in charge of the Australian media and the ABC. They have a
cultural cringe and loathing of Australians so he would not feel out of
place.

What a pity he was not around in the ’70s and ’80s, that
was when the media and the academics really decided that this country
was of such poor quality that the only way to save it was to let it be
overrun from outstanding humane nations like Lebanon, Iraq, Iran,
various sections of Africa and the many Pacific superior islands.

Not
to be outdone, Harry 34 was up early the next morning to fill us all
with Christmas cheer. According to Harry 34, Greg Barns “will only be
satisfied when all of Australia’s culture and traditions have been
destroyed or swamped by accepting millions of migrants.”

Then
there’s this from Jenab (4:45am on 27 December). “Racial mixture causes
racism. Racial mixture has never led to anything except trouble. And
when you find any person or organization hell-bent on promoting (or
requiring) racial mixture, you have usually also found someone who
wants trouble to happen.”

He goes on: “If the Whites want to
be racially segregated, then for what purpose do leftists go to such
lengths to deny the Whites their wish?”

And of course there’s
plenty of Islam-bashing in amongst the 220 odd comments. Benjamin’s
post – 2 January at 2.40pm – is probably the nastiest of that tawdry
lot. According to Benjamin the Islamic faith has a greater
preponderance of paedophiles among its clergy than the Christian
churches. “In truth though, the mosques would be the worst for it,” he
writes. “I seen a case in Britain that a family brought forward against
a cleric assaulting a six-year-old girl (although to be fair, the
cleric would only be following the prophet’s example) but it was
dropped because of death threats from other parishioners! Nice people
hey!”

Lest anyone think this is a swipe at Onlineopinion, it’s
not. It’s a fabulous site and its forum section an insightful window
into Australia. In this case it’s a window looking into a pigsty.