full
Episode 417 - Be Alert or Be Manipulated
Topics:
(04:18) Steven Miles Laughs At Violence?
(19:07) Gaza Update
(20:21) UNRWA Aid
(23:36) What Propaganda? ... Exactly
(43:26) Biden Sliden
(50:13) Disconnect
(56:59) Sub Solution - Steal One
(58:26) Coed Vs Same Sex Education
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Transcript
Suburban Eastern Australia, an environment that has, over time,
Speaker:evolved some extraordinarily unique groups of homosapiens.
Speaker:But today, we observe a small tribe akin to a group of meerkats that
Speaker:gather together atop a small mound to watch, question, and discuss the
Speaker:current events of their city, their country, and their world at large.
Speaker:Let's listen keenly and observe this group fondly known as the
Speaker:Iron Fist and the Velvet Glove.
Speaker:Hello and welcome dear listener, just two meerkats for you tonight
Speaker:on this episode number 417.
Speaker:We're going to talk about news and politics and sex and religion.
Speaker:I'm Trevor the Iron Fist, with me UK correspondent.
Speaker:Now ensconced back in Peter Dutton's electorate, Joe the Tech Guy.
Speaker:Joe, well how are you Joe?
Speaker:Evening all, I'm surviving, slowly getting back into the Australian time zone.
Speaker:There we go, that's Joe.
Speaker:So, Joe got notes from me extremely late today, so he hasn't had a
Speaker:chance to read much of it, because I didn't have internet on the weekend
Speaker:and a whole range of reasons.
Speaker:Anyway, Joe will work his way through it.
Speaker:Um, cut him some slack if he doesn't see him across it entirely,
Speaker:but I'm sure you won't notice.
Speaker:If you're in the chat room, say hello.
Speaker:John's there, Watley's there.
Speaker:Thanks for saying hello on this Monday evening at our new time of 8 o'clock.
Speaker:And, um, yeah, what are we going to talk about?
Speaker:Well, we're going to kick off with
Speaker:Manipulation by the media of the thinking of the public, in a nutshell.
Speaker:Couple of examples of that, one will be local Premier in Queensland, Stephen
Speaker:Myles, and a press conference he was at.
Speaker:And then looking at the situation in Gaza and, um, Israel and just the way
Speaker:our thinking about that is manipulated by propaganda and how insidious it is.
Speaker:So not the shocking beat up about um, Barnaby Joyce.
Speaker:And I wasn't even going to mention Barnaby Joyce, but um,
Speaker:but seeing you have, Joe, um.
Speaker:Yeah, he was found sprawled on the street in Canberra, and it's just a
Speaker:different treatment isn't it, like the right wing side basically abused
Speaker:the people who took the video of him and said they should have been helping
Speaker:Barnaby rather than selling the video to the news groups, and didn't want
Speaker:to condemn him because he's I couldn't really judge what had happened and would
Speaker:have to talk to Barnaby to see what the truth was, so Well, no, apparently the
Speaker:truth was he'd taken some medication which reacted badly with alcohol.
Speaker:Which he'd been warned about, but it wasn't at all his fault.
Speaker:No.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Well, we'll leave that, if you like, dear listener.
Speaker:That's one version of the story, so, um So yeah, that was Barnaby.
Speaker:But yeah, we're going to talk about, um, media and, and how You've just got
Speaker:to be alert to what the media's doing, and once you are, you just spot these
Speaker:things from a mile away, I think, but so few people are alert to these things.
Speaker:It's very frustrating.
Speaker:Um, so we'll talk about that, and a little bit about, uh, Tucker interviewing
Speaker:Putin, um, a little bit about Joe Biden sliding into dementia, and then locally,
Speaker:the right for employees to disconnect and ignore emails from the boss after work.
Speaker:And a unique solution to our submarine problem, Joe, I didn't warn you about,
Speaker:which involves stealing a submarine.
Speaker:So, stay tuned for that one, dear listener.
Speaker:Indeed.
Speaker:So, um, yeah, okay, so Stephen Miles recently appointed as Queensland Premier
Speaker:because Anastasia Palaszczuk resigned, he got the gig, and, um, so, in my circles,
Speaker:dear listener, I do have contact with.
Speaker:The conservative boomer class of Australia.
Speaker:So, one sort of avenue to that, um, to that pool of thought comes via right
Speaker:wing Tony, who I Um, correspond with and talk to and unfortunately follow on his
Speaker:Facebook page, which saves me the trouble of subscribing to Sky News because Tony
Speaker:virtually reposts whatever they're doing.
Speaker:And then just um, uh, down at the Gold Coast in the complex that we
Speaker:stay in frequently, um, group of older people gather together there
Speaker:in the pool and talk about stuff.
Speaker:And they're an older boomer generation of the conservative
Speaker:end, most of them, not all.
Speaker:But um, anyway, my wife came back from being in the pool with this group
Speaker:and she said, Have you heard about what the Stephen Miles has done and
Speaker:laughing at, at um, victims of crime?
Speaker:And well, everybody in the pool is saying it's disgusting that they were talking
Speaker:about that lady who was murdered by the African gangs and that um And then Stephen
Speaker:Myles was laughing about it, and I said, I spend so much time reading things, and
Speaker:I hadn't come across any of this, but of course I wasn't listening to Sky News.
Speaker:And I said, sure as eggs, this will be some sort of Sky
Speaker:News beat up over something.
Speaker:So a few Googles and whatever.
Speaker:And, uh, I've got the clip, anyway, of what happened, so I'll play the clip and
Speaker:then I'll provide the context for it.
Speaker:So here we go.
Speaker:The absence of any reference to youth crime in your speech to the Queensland
Speaker:Media Club would have been noted.
Speaker:Um, by more than a few, including the people of those communities.
Speaker:Premier, I'm sure you can see the last two summers have been bookended.
Speaker:By the murders of young mother, Emma Lovell, and just three
Speaker:days ago, Grandmother, Violet.
Speaker:So, for those who can't watch the video, he was initially chuckling at the
Speaker:beginning of the question, and then as the questioner started listing the names of
Speaker:those people, his face got more serious.
Speaker:Joe, have you seen that clip before?
Speaker:Are you aware of this brouhaha?
Speaker:No.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:Did that look particularly condemning to you, of Stephen Miles?
Speaker:Did you look at it and go, what's going on here?
Speaker:He seemed to be chuckling about the question being a bit random.
Speaker:It was more, uh, he was shocked by the question just being
Speaker:out of what he was expecting.
Speaker:I think, yeah, I think he was more laughing about the
Speaker:bizarreness of the question.
Speaker:Correct.
Speaker:The context is that he was there.
Speaker:At an event which was to talk about their, um, uh, housing solution that the
Speaker:Queensland Government has come up with.
Speaker:And um, so it's, it's a press conference for housing and the
Speaker:Brisbane Bureau Chief for Sky News, Adam Walters, asked Miles why he had
Speaker:not addressed the subject earlier.
Speaker:of, you know, violent crime in his speech, to which Miles said
Speaker:it was a speech about housing.
Speaker:So, that all happened before that question.
Speaker:So, Sky News saying, why didn't you just talk about violence, uh, and why'd
Speaker:you leave that out of your speech?
Speaker:And Miles said, it's a speech about housing.
Speaker:And then, the reporter from Sky News.
Speaker:continued with asking a question about street violence, youth crime, and it
Speaker:was because he pushed again on something that Miles had dismissed, that Miles,
Speaker:you know, smiled and said, oh, come on.
Speaker:And that is the context that people Need to understand when
Speaker:they're watching that video.
Speaker:And of course, the Sky News clip of it doesn't give you that context.
Speaker:You've got to go and find it.
Speaker:Joe, it's just frustrating that people would think, even as much as you might
Speaker:hate the Labor Party and the Premier and whatever, it's, it's just not likely that
Speaker:That somebody in his position is going to be laughing about somebody's murder.
Speaker:No, I don't think so.
Speaker:I think that's You have to think, what is going on here?
Speaker:What's the context?
Speaker:There must have been some reason.
Speaker:What, what is the wider thing going on here?
Speaker:But so many people, A, didn't ask what that wider context might be.
Speaker:And then B, Joe, in this, um, sort of Twitter post that I was looking at, which
Speaker:described This context and the reasons.
Speaker:You've still got half the people in the comment section
Speaker:saying, Oh, thank you very much.
Speaker:It's nice to know the context.
Speaker:That'll make sense now.
Speaker:Wish I'd known that.
Speaker:But then these other half still going, makes no difference at all.
Speaker:The guy's a scumbag.
Speaker:Fancy laughing at violence and made no difference to their view whatsoever.
Speaker:Yeah, I mean, I think it's very much All about tribes, isn't it?
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Um, it really doesn't matter.
Speaker:It's given us an excuse to be outraged, and our tribe is outraged,
Speaker:therefore we'll be outraged.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Um, and thinking doesn't come into it.
Speaker:It's all to do with being a good member of the tribe.
Speaker:And if you're a good member of the tribe, you're outraged.
Speaker:Yeah, I just, it's so frustrating and disappointing, like, if something
Speaker:really weird came out about Peter Dutton or something, laughing at
Speaker:something like that, you'd just go, hang on a minute, what was the context?
Speaker:I'd like to think I would anyway.
Speaker:I mean, the whole Barnaby falling off a planter box.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:It is, is in character.
Speaker:I don't want to cast suspicions, but apparently he has a reputation
Speaker:for liking a bevy or two.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:So, so him falling over drunk in Canberra is not a shocking thing, and
Speaker:therefore doesn't require much scrutiny.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Whereas Barnaby, I don't know, laughing at some Christian thing
Speaker:would be so out of context.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:But whether it was true or not, you'd be going, hang on, that doesn't sound right.
Speaker:People have lost the capacity, Joe, to just go.
Speaker:There's something fishy about this, something not quite right.
Speaker:I mean, the guys made it to Premier of the State.
Speaker:You've got to have just a little bit of brains, if only when
Speaker:it comes to media management.
Speaker:Like, you've got to know how to kiss a baby and pat a dog.
Speaker:Preferably don't get them mixed up.
Speaker:And um, give some people some credit and just think.
Speaker:But I just think, Joe, that I think the older generation is just way
Speaker:too trusting of traditional media.
Speaker:I know there's the tribalism aspect that you said, but I also think there's
Speaker:just this inherent trust that if If they see it on the news or read it
Speaker:in a paper, they give it far more trust than younger people would think.
Speaker:Yeah, I mean, I think it was around the 80s it all changed, wasn't it?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So people who grew up with the media before the 80s were
Speaker:used to a level of diligence.
Speaker:Um, and the media was big money.
Speaker:Now the media is scrabbling for pennies.
Speaker:Um, so they are journalists, they literally churn out whatever they
Speaker:can, um, and if somebody's gonna write a press release on their behalf,
Speaker:uh, and they have to do the minimum amount of work, they'll take it.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And I think, um, Murdoch has, well, it was, um, Fox News
Speaker:was the original, wasn't it?
Speaker:It was a Republican Uh, press department, effectively.
Speaker:But even, you know, the Australian used to be a proper newspaper, and it changed,
Speaker:and the people who read it, there's a lot of people who still think of it
Speaker:as the way it used to be, and not the way it is now, which is a caricature
Speaker:of a right wing rag, who don't get it.
Speaker:Yeah, it's a right wing broadsheet, isn't it?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And you know, I'll say to people, like I could go into that pool tomorrow and
Speaker:say, um, Where did you get this from?
Speaker:You know it's from Sky News, you know that they're biased.
Speaker:Yeah they're biased, but then the ABC and the Guardian are biased.
Speaker:So they're all, you know, it's just evens out.
Speaker:I could, I've got to start getting a spiel ready on the bias of the ABC, Joe.
Speaker:So my question would be, okay, they're biased in the
Speaker:opposite direction, you believe.
Speaker:Okay, do you watch them?
Speaker:Do you, do you take your news from them as well and try and
Speaker:work out where the truth is?
Speaker:Because if one side is lying in one direction and the other side is lying
Speaker:in the other direction, Surely the truth is somewhere in the middle.
Speaker:Excuse me, Joe, while I write that down.
Speaker:That's really good.
Speaker:Are you watching them as well?
Speaker:Good point.
Speaker:Are you watching them as well?
Speaker:Because there's a lot of the ABC that has actually got a right wing bias.
Speaker:For example, Insiders, compared by David Spears.
Speaker:X NewsCorp very soft on, on the right wing ringers who come in
Speaker:there, softball interviews, 'em.
Speaker:The panelists are invariably from Murdoch Publications.
Speaker:It's a very right wing show.
Speaker:Occasionally has, you know, Nikki, Ava there.
Speaker:But I mean, even Nick Ava, while she's currently viewed as left wing, used
Speaker:to be, um, a right wing advi advisor for a right wing, um, politician.
Speaker:I think so.
Speaker:So there would be that, um, off the top of my head as well.
Speaker:Um, Patricia Cavallis is, is no lefty.
Speaker:Um, uh, the former 730er, Lee Sayles was not a lefty.
Speaker:That didn't make it easy for the left and would softball the, the right.
Speaker:And, um, another one off the top of my head, um, Lisa
Speaker:Miller is another one on ABC.
Speaker:Like, you can name presenters who Are, uh, are easily seen as being
Speaker:potentially soft on the right wing.
Speaker:But yeah, that's a good one, Joe.
Speaker:I'll try, I'll report back as to how that, um, how that goes.
Speaker:Is to say, why are you watching them as well and trying to work out where the
Speaker:truth might lie between the two of them.
Speaker:I mean, my news feed is Apple News and I deliberately haven't liked or
Speaker:disliked any content, so I get a balance.
Speaker:And I can literally, by the headline, pick out where it's coming from.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:I can go, that's a Murdoch one.
Speaker:That's a Murdoch beat up, I can guarantee that.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Just by the headline.
Speaker:Um, and the same with the Guardian.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Or even worse, some of the others, like Jezebel and, um, uh, Mamma
Speaker:Mia is the latest mis influenced.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:Yeah, yeah, you see the headline.
Speaker:My bastard husband was a bastard, and you go, that's got to be Mamma Mia.
Speaker:Well, maybe he was.
Speaker:Maybe he was, but I mean, you can tell it's every headline that
Speaker:comes up in the news feed from them is about men behaving badly.
Speaker:Okay, five ways to determine whether your partner is a bad
Speaker:dad or something like that.
Speaker:Yeah, it's just, whether they're balanced, what pops up in my
Speaker:news feed just follows a content.
Speaker:That's it.
Speaker:The same as the Murdoch stuff does, the Sky News, the um, uh, Daily Fail.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Um, actually, I don't know if Daily Mail is Murdoch, but
Speaker:it's definitely right wing.
Speaker:Um, look, I think it was the Daily Mail that told the backstory, at
Speaker:least, of this Stephen Miles story that I've just been explaining.
Speaker:So I think I got the quotes from that, so, um, so, yeah.
Speaker:Just frustrating that People, A, don't look for the backstory, they
Speaker:don't suspect, um, they don't see the smoke and think there might be fire
Speaker:here, and then even when they are told, tribalism kicks in and they go,
Speaker:well he's just an idiot anyway and he still should be kicked out, argh.
Speaker:Yeah I mean I think it's very much a, rather than challenging their assertions,
Speaker:is asking them how they got to that position and what would change their mind.
Speaker:Is the, is the sneaking attack.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Lots of comments coming through on the chat.
Speaker:I'm going to try and address the chat at the end.
Speaker:I was listening to a podcast the other day and they sort of did a
Speaker:whole show where they just address their chat as a separate item.
Speaker:And I think what we might try and do is at the end of this, um, we'll
Speaker:just go back to the comments and try and address them at the end.
Speaker:So keep making your comments and I think we'll try and run through
Speaker:them towards the end rather than interrupting the discussion.
Speaker:Um, with the comments.
Speaker:Let's try that, see how it goes.
Speaker:So anyway, that was Stephen Miles and my frustration with the Australian
Speaker:boomer class on that issue.
Speaker:And, um, let's just think about Palestine, Gaza, Israel for a moment.
Speaker:Um, so, more than half a million Palestinians, one in four, are
Speaker:starving in Gaza, according to the UN.
Speaker:1.
Speaker:3 million displaced Palestinians live on the streets.
Speaker:of the southern city of Rafah, which Israel designated a safe
Speaker:zone, but has begun to bomb.
Speaker:Families shiver in the winter rains under flimsy tarps amid pools of raw sewerage.
Speaker:An estimated 90 percent of cars, as 2.
Speaker:3 million people have been driven from their homes.
Speaker:Joe, is there any end, what's the end game here for Israel?
Speaker:Is this just going to drive these people to starvation?
Speaker:The end game is a The depopulated Gaza Strip, isn't it?
Speaker:They're either going to die of starvation or disease at the rate it's going.
Speaker:Or be refugees in another country.
Speaker:Yeah, or just be blown to bits by bombs in the meantime.
Speaker:They're just not letting up.
Speaker:Um, also, we did that, um, discussion about the, uh, UNRWA.
Speaker:The U N R W A, which was like the aid organisation.
Speaker:And There were allegations that a dozen employees in an organisation
Speaker:that has, I don't know, whether it was 10, 000 employees, it's a big
Speaker:organisation, an allegation by Israel that a handful were members of Hamas.
Speaker:And on the basis of the Israeli allegation, the US, Australia and a
Speaker:bunch of others, decided that they were going to stop funding that organisation.
Speaker:If any organisation needed money, if there were a group of people needing
Speaker:aid, it's pretty clear that they did.
Speaker:You know, my, my view was, I don't care if it's proved that they were Hamas.
Speaker:I don't care if a thousand of them are Hamas.
Speaker:If a, if a reasonable proportion of the aid will find its way to Palestinians
Speaker:in Gaza, then that's good enough for me.
Speaker:Give them the aid.
Speaker:I say.
Speaker:Yeah, I mean the concern is that your aid is going to get diverted
Speaker:off to fund a terrorist group.
Speaker:And I don't care if a large proportion is, because I just think the people, the
Speaker:innocent people there who had nothing to do with anything that went on on
Speaker:October 7th, um, deserve some help.
Speaker:But anyway, um, so Caitlin Johnston, um, one of my favourite bloggers,
Speaker:and she's, we'll be quoting her a lot in this episode, actually, um.
Speaker:Dear listener, um, much of your subscription money to this podcast
Speaker:ends up with Caitlin Johnston and the John Manatee blog, as well as, uh,
Speaker:an economist called Michael Hudson and a couple of things I subscribe to
Speaker:because I have to, like the Courier Mail and the Guardian and whatever.
Speaker:But anyway.
Speaker:Uh, Caitlin does get some of, uh, your money via me, because it,
Speaker:uh, uh, gets returned back to her.
Speaker:So, anyway, a few articles from her, and, so she says that Australian Foreign
Speaker:Minister Penny Wong has acknowledged that Canberra joined, um, a bunch of
Speaker:other countries in cutting off the funding without having seen proof of
Speaker:Israel's claims against the organisation.
Speaker:And as she said, if you're going to say a bad thing happened and we therefore
Speaker:need to cut off aid to the most aid dependent population on earth, then
Speaker:you'd better at least be able to prove the bad thing actually happened.
Speaker:If evidence exists, then show it.
Speaker:If you insist on starving two million people, you can't do it on vibes alone.
Speaker:And um, she says, how is this not obvious to everyone?
Speaker:How is it not immediately obvious the instant it came up?
Speaker:Yeah, so, I think Penny Bond's been wanting to reverse that decision
Speaker:and start funding again, I think.
Speaker:Fair enough.
Speaker:Not sure of the latest.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So, um, still Caitlin Johnston, returning back to our original theme.
Speaker:So, we talked about Miles and the sort of propaganda of Sky News, and now we're just
Speaker:going to sort of look at the propaganda in relation to Gaza, Palestine, Israel.
Speaker:So Joe, did you happen to see Tucker Carlson's interview with Vladimir Putin?
Speaker:Strangely enough, no.
Speaker:You've had lots of time on your hands.
Speaker:Yes, I don't tend to follow Tucker Carlson anyway.
Speaker:Yeah, neither do I.
Speaker:Mr Putin, I don't know, uh, I would trust a word that comes out of his mouth.
Speaker:Yes, that's fair enough.
Speaker:Any other politician?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So, even if you thought that he was, even if you were convinced that he was
Speaker:lying with every second sentence, I still think it's worthwhile watching,
Speaker:because the guy at least is intelligent and in control of his faculties.
Speaker:And can run a compelling argument, now it might be littered with bullshit,
Speaker:but um, there is a brain and an intellect operating there, far and
Speaker:above what Joe Biden or Donald Trump or Boris Johnson or Rishi Sunak or
Speaker:Anthony Albanese or others might offer.
Speaker:Yeah, I mean, Boris Johnson, I, I think, was one of those, he played
Speaker:a character of a bumbling fool, but apparently, he was a very intelligent
Speaker:man, is a very intelligent man.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Um, and the bumbling fool allowed him to get away with
Speaker:some absolutely shitty things.
Speaker:True.
Speaker:If you do an intelligence test, um, IQ test, uh, probably
Speaker:Boris Johnson would come out.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I'll do that on that.
Speaker:I mean, Biden, Trump, yes, absolutely.
Speaker:I think he's a bumbling fool.
Speaker:Um, and Biden, I think he's in his dotage.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Uh, I don't know that it really matters in America because
Speaker:aren't they just puppets anyway?
Speaker:We'll get onto that.
Speaker:We'll talk more about that.
Speaker:But, um, I think it was just interesting that he, he's, yeah, it was probably an
Speaker:hour and a half or two Sit down discussion between Putin and Tucker Carlson.
Speaker:It was kind of like a podcast.
Speaker:It was just long form conversation and at one point really in the very beginning
Speaker:the first half hour or so Putin's really giving a description of Russian Ukrainian
Speaker:history as a means of trying to show that this geographical area currently known as
Speaker:Ukraine has always been You know, Russian, if you like, and, um, actually it was
Speaker:Turkish, uh, yes, you, maybe you should listen to what he says, Joe, and then
Speaker:you can put it apart wherever you like.
Speaker:I'm, I'm, I'm summarising.
Speaker:He, he may well have mentioned some Turkish involvement there, I can't
Speaker:remember, but, um, uh, at one point sort of Tucker Carlson is trying to, Sort of
Speaker:rein him in and say, yeah, but come on, let's, let's move on and talk about,
Speaker:you know, the war in Ukraine now and, and that, and Putin basically says to
Speaker:him, you know, Are you doing a show or are we having a real discussion here?
Speaker:Are we having a real conversation?
Speaker:You know, I thought we were gonna have a conversation, a real genuine
Speaker:conversation, not just some show, and then he says, bear with me.
Speaker:Let me just keep going here.
Speaker:It's all, you'll understand why I've said it as I get through it.
Speaker:That sort of, um, response.
Speaker:You know, without wanting to go Godwin's Law, I'm sure if you sat down with Hitler
Speaker:for half an hour and had a conversation, he would tell you the history of Jews in
Speaker:Europe and why they were such a bad people and why they deserved to be wiped out.
Speaker:Yeah, and at the end of it I'm sure you could have a long form conversation
Speaker:which would absolutely justify his Yes.
Speaker:Um, behaviour.
Speaker:Yes, and at the end of it you might go, that was a pack of lies, but gee, it
Speaker:was a well constructed pack of lies.
Speaker:Yeah, that's my point.
Speaker:That's my point about the Putin interview.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:It might well be a pack of lies, but it was a well constructed,
Speaker:elucidated pack of lies, is my point.
Speaker:That's my first point.
Speaker:Yeah, I'm sure he has to sell it internally.
Speaker:Yes, and maybe to other countries in the global south and who's Possible.
Speaker:And China and other states like that.
Speaker:So, um, so yeah, um, anyway, during the interview, Putin implied
Speaker:that NATO powers were behind the Nord Stream pipeline bombing.
Speaker:Shocking.
Speaker:And Tucker Carlson responded by asking Putin why he didn't
Speaker:present evidence to the world so as to win a propaganda victory.
Speaker:And Putin said, Quote, in the war of propaganda, it's very difficult to
Speaker:defeat the United States because the United States controls all the world's
Speaker:media and many European media, so, um, he sort of just made the point.
Speaker:Uh, what's the point?
Speaker:Um, the United States are the champions when it comes to propaganda.
Speaker:They control too much.
Speaker:Um, basically, I, I wouldn't win that propaganda war.
Speaker:And, um, Clayton Johnson says I was going to say, I don't know
Speaker:that the United States do, but certainly vested interests do.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:The Western oligarchs do.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:Uh, yes.
Speaker:And then, but the state Kind of gets what it wants because it kind of, the
Speaker:oligarchs I would say, if anything, the US is a tool of the oligarchs,
Speaker:rather than the other way around.
Speaker:Yes, and that the state is the result of what the oligarchs want.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:And if that's the case, then the state is probably going to provide The
Speaker:propaganda that the oligarchs want.
Speaker:Yeah, but I think it's the oligarchs who, the oligarchs own the press.
Speaker:Yeah, although let me just get on to that because, um, so, Caitlin Johnson
Speaker:says, The US empire has by far the most sophisticated and effective propaganda
Speaker:machine ever to have existed, um, operating with such complexity that
Speaker:most people don't even know it exists.
Speaker:And in a fact checking article, Five Lies and One Truth, from Putin's interview
Speaker:with Tucker Carlson, Politico Europe labels the claim, um, by Putin that
Speaker:America is the king of propaganda.
Speaker:And the reason that Politico Europe says that is because Russia
Speaker:has a state run media, whereas the US media is privately owned.
Speaker:According to the Politico fact checking article pooh poohing Putin's theory,
Speaker:they said, quote, The biggest news media companies are privately owned
Speaker:and operate without direct government control, in contrast to the state
Speaker:controlled media landscape in Russia.
Speaker:And this was written by Politico's Sergei Goryazko.
Speaker:He said, he added, Russian state TV and the primary news agencies there
Speaker:are the property of the government.
Speaker:And the Kremlin controls other media or destroys those not willing to collaborate.
Speaker:So he's saying Russia's a bigger propaganda machine because
Speaker:it owns the media, whereas in the US, it's privately owned.
Speaker:At the bottom of the article from Politico, it reads, Sergei Goriosko
Speaker:is hosted at Politico under EU funded EU for Free Media Residency Program.
Speaker:And according to Caitlin Johnston, EU for Free Media is a European Union narrative
Speaker:management operation set up to help integrate Russian journalists in exile
Speaker:into leading European publications, i.
Speaker:e.
Speaker:to provide maximum media amplification to Russian expats who have a to pick
Speaker:with the current government in Moscow.
Speaker:It is run with the participation from Radio Free Europe, Radio Liberty,
Speaker:which are US government funded media operations under the umbrella of the
Speaker:US Propaganda Services umbrella, USAGM.
Speaker:So the guy who was saying Putin is wrong because you are, you know,
Speaker:Western media is privately owned.
Speaker:Worked for Politico, which is essentially funded by the US government, in a, in
Speaker:a summary, and creates these sorts of organisations to give the appearance
Speaker:of independent media commenting when in fact they're owned and operated
Speaker:essentially by the US government.
Speaker:Interesting case study, I thought.
Speaker:Yeah, I mean, Radio Europe is certainly known as a CIA front from the Cold War.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Or Radio Free Europe, I remember.
Speaker:It was certainly well known.
Speaker:As being a CIA front.
Speaker:Um, the big difference is, you know, as shitty as, um, the West
Speaker:have been to Julian Assange, Um, he still hasn't fallen out of a window.
Speaker:Well, he doesn't Has he?
Speaker:No, but he's been locked away in Belmarsh Prison, like, you know, just
Speaker:like the, uh, the Russian opposition leaders in a Siberian prison.
Speaker:Julian's in a Belmarsh high security prison.
Speaker:Belmarsh is slightly better than the Gulag.
Speaker:It's one of the worst prisons he could possibly be in.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:It's a really hardcore, terrible prison to be.
Speaker:Um.
Speaker:Totally inappropriate for somebody who's committed the sort of, even if
Speaker:true, the crimes that are alleged.
Speaker:Yeah, I mean, look, um, one doesn't justify the other, but I think
Speaker:there's, uh, there's a different scale.
Speaker:of, uh, dealing with the opposition.
Speaker:You know, at least, at least say the Russian opposition
Speaker:leader was arrested in Russia.
Speaker:Well, yes.
Speaker:For supposed crimes against Russia, and put in a Siberian jail.
Speaker:Julian Assange, an Australian citizen, is not even in America, and he's
Speaker:arrested for breaching an American crime.
Speaker:And he's not even in America!
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Like, doesn't Anyway.
Speaker:That's another rabbit hole.
Speaker:We might refer to that later as well.
Speaker:So, um, so as Caitlin Johnson says, there's an old joke that says, uh,
Speaker:A Soviet and an American are on an aeroplane seated next to each other.
Speaker:And, um, the American asks, Why are you flying to the US?
Speaker:And the Soviet guy replies, To study American propaganda.
Speaker:The American replies, What American propaganda?
Speaker:The Soviet says, Exactly.
Speaker:It's true.
Speaker:It's really true.
Speaker:People don't see it.
Speaker:So, as she says, let's talk about that sort of private ownership of
Speaker:media, as opposed to government.
Speaker:She says anyone who's wealthy enough to control a mass media platform
Speaker:is going to have a vested interest in preserving the status quo upon
Speaker:which their wealth is premised.
Speaker:And they will co operate with establishment power structures
Speaker:in various ways towards that end.
Speaker:That make sense?
Speaker:The fact that these mass media outlets look independent, but function as
Speaker:propaganda organs for the US Empire, allows its propaganda to fly into
Speaker:people's minds without triggering any gag reflex of scepticism.
Speaker:Which, uh, which would happen if people knew the outlets
Speaker:were feeding them propaganda.
Speaker:So propaganda only really has persuasive power.
Speaker:If you don't know, it's happening to you.
Speaker:Ah, the invisibility of U.
Speaker:S.
Speaker:propaganda is further aided by the subtle methods by which it is administered,
Speaker:which we've seen exemplified beautifully in the coverage of Israel's ongoing U.
Speaker:S.
Speaker:backed atrocity in Gaza.
Speaker:So, this is now we're going to talk about, dear listener, the way articles
Speaker:and headlines are worded, um, uh, subtly.
Speaker:The Intercept reports that a review of a thousand articles from the New York
Speaker:Times, the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times about Israel's war on Gaza.
Speaker:found that the outlets consistently used word choices which served
Speaker:Israeli information interests.
Speaker:Highly emotive terms for the killing of civilians like Slaughter,
Speaker:Massacre and Horrific were reserved almost exclusively for Israelis
Speaker:who were killed by Palestinians, rather than the other way around.
Speaker:Um, and in the report, the term slaughter was used by editors and
Speaker:reporters to describe the killing of Israelis versus Palestinians, 60 to 1.
Speaker:And massacre was used to describe the killing of Israelis versus Palestinians.
Speaker:125 to 2, and horrific was used to describe the killing of Israelis
Speaker:versus Palestinians 36 to 4.
Speaker:I find that useful, Joe, because, you know, I could say, as I did before, Oh,
Speaker:well, you know, Lisa Miller, David Spears, Lee Sayles, whatever, you know, I consider
Speaker:them fairly right wing ABC journalists.
Speaker:And it's hard to quantify that feeling, other than just saying I'm a critical
Speaker:watcher and this is the view I've come to.
Speaker:But to be able to actually look at words like slaughter, massacre, um,
Speaker:horrific, and see such an imbalance of when those words are used, in a
Speaker:situation where we've got such a horrific massacre occurring in Gaza, and every
Speaker:reason to use those words, I find it really compelling argument, um, so.
Speaker:That was a useful report, and that's the sort of thing that, you know, okay, The
Speaker:Intercept's a very left wing magazine, but, uh, or outlet, but I think when
Speaker:they say they've counted those words and that's what they get, I think we
Speaker:can trust that that would be correct.
Speaker:So, as Caitlin Johnston says, this is the sort of manipulation that a
Speaker:casual news consumer wouldn't notice.
Speaker:Unless you're on alert for bias, um, Do you hear about that girl, Joe, in
Speaker:Gaza who was, um, trapped in a car, her family were killed, she was the
Speaker:only one alive, somehow gets on the phone, I think, I think she's six years
Speaker:old, and she sort of rung saying, you know, help me, um, I'm really scared
Speaker:and I need help, and ambulance was sent and it was blown up as well.
Speaker:Um, cute little girl, terrible.
Speaker:Terrible thing to imagine happening to somebody.
Speaker:So, in the reporting of that, um, is another illustration
Speaker:of how things are worded.
Speaker:So, in the um, CNN, New York Times, BBC, reporting on that story used
Speaker:headlines such as, Five year old Palestinian girl found dead after being
Speaker:trapped in car under Israeli fire.
Speaker:Also, missing six year old and rescue team found dead in Gaza, aid group says.
Speaker:And Hind Rajab, six, found dead in Gaza days after phone calls for help.
Speaker:That was the Western media.
Speaker:In contrast, Al Jazeera reported, body of six year old killed in deliberate
Speaker:Israeli fire found after 12 days.
Speaker:And the Middle East Eye, um, used the words, Hind Rajab, Palestinian
Speaker:girl found dead after being trapped under Israeli fire for days.
Speaker:So, it's this sort of softballing description versus the more
Speaker:explicit blaming of Israelis.
Speaker:And it's easy to spot the difference.
Speaker:When you have them side by side like that, but if you're just reading
Speaker:one outlet, you don't pick that up.
Speaker:Um, another example she mentions is, last month the BBC published
Speaker:an article titled, Record number of civilians hurt by explosives in 2023.
Speaker:As though they were mishandling fireworks, or something.
Speaker:Instead of being actively killed by Israeli bombs.
Speaker:So, the headline was, Record number of civilians hurt by explosives in 2023,
Speaker:um, uh, contrast this with the BBC's headlines when reporting on Ukrainians
Speaker:killed by Russians, and the headline would be, Ukraine more, Russian airstrikes
Speaker:claim five lives in Kiev and Mikhailov.
Speaker:Uh, or Ukraine War, baby killed in Russian strike on Kharkiv Hotel.
Speaker:So, in Ukraine, people die from bombs because Russia launched
Speaker:Russian airstrikes and killed them.
Speaker:Whereas in Gaza, people get hurt by explosions because they got too close
Speaker:to some type of explosive material.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:It's their own fault.
Speaker:Yeah, really interesting examples.
Speaker:So, the concluding comments in this great article.
Speaker:These little manipulations fly under the radar if you're
Speaker:not on the lookout for them.
Speaker:Such as the brilliance of the US Empire's invisible propaganda machine.
Speaker:That's why it's very difficult to win a propaganda war against the United States.
Speaker:That's why Westerners have been so successfully manipulated into
Speaker:accepting a status quo of endless war.
Speaker:Echo Side, Injustice and Exploitation, and that's why the world looks
Speaker:the way it looks right now.
Speaker:So, yeah, there we go, media manipulation.
Speaker:It's a sad toy, story.
Speaker:Um, we mentioned previously, just earlier.
Speaker:About Joe Biden and, uh, how he's sort of apparently slipping into the dotage.
Speaker:Is that the word you used?
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So, he has been investigated in relation to mishandling some classified documents.
Speaker:And the good news is that they've decided that criminal charges
Speaker:are not warranted in this matter.
Speaker:So that's the good news for Joe Biden fans.
Speaker:The bad news, for Joe Biden fans, is the reason given, and basically, that
Speaker:he's such a forgetful old man, and that's the way that he would come across
Speaker:in a trial, that, um, um, uh, it'll likely convince some jurors that he
Speaker:made an innocent mistake, rather than acted willfully, um, so, essentially,
Speaker:the reasons given for not proceeding were, uh, his mental, you Memory is
Speaker:so poor, no one could be convinced that he really knew what he was doing.
Speaker:Not the best way of getting off something, if you're the President of
Speaker:the United States, but, uh, there you go.
Speaker:Um, yeah.
Speaker:Yeah, I mean, um, I remember Neil deGrasse Tyson being interviewed and, yeah, what
Speaker:would you do if you were President?
Speaker:Or what would you do, who would you make President?
Speaker:I can't remember.
Speaker:Something along those lines.
Speaker:And he said the problem isn't who's President, the problem is
Speaker:who's voting for the President.
Speaker:Hmm.
Speaker:Uh, until, until you can change the infrastructure behind it, uh, who
Speaker:is president really doesn't matter.
Speaker:Right, well, who, who's running the empire in the, in the system?
Speaker:Is that what you mean, rather than who's voting?
Speaker:Because until, the voters don't get to change that either.
Speaker:No, but I mean, even, even the voters, um, I think are disengaged.
Speaker:Hmm.
Speaker:They don't care.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So just going on with this article, she says, uh, the U.
Speaker:S.
Speaker:empire has been marching along in exactly the same way it was before Biden took
Speaker:office, completely unhindered by the fact that the person who's supposedly
Speaker:calling the shots is in a state of degenerative neurological free fall.
Speaker:Literally anyone could hold that office and it would make no meaningful difference
Speaker:in the way the US Empire is run.
Speaker:The globe spanning power structure that is centralised around the United States is
Speaker:run not by the official elected government of that nation, but by unelected
Speaker:empire managers who filter in and out of each administration and maintain a
Speaker:steady presence in government agencies and government adjacent institutions.
Speaker:These empire managers form alliances with corporate powers and
Speaker:working relationships with them.
Speaker:The many nations, assets and partners who function as members
Speaker:of the undeclared US empire.
Speaker:Which means there's really not any way for Americans to vote
Speaker:their way out of this mess.
Speaker:Voting in Western democracies is done to give us the illusion of control.
Speaker:I like this bit here coming up, uh, Voting in Western democracies is done
Speaker:to give us the illusion of control.
Speaker:Like letting a toddler play with a toy steering wheel.
Speaker:Well, you drive so they can feel like they're participating.
Speaker:Well, I, um, the fact that Trump was in power for four years and didn't
Speaker:completely fuck the American economy.
Speaker:Hmm.
Speaker:Um, people talked about childminding him.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:That, that they basically didn't carry out his orders because they
Speaker:knew he'd forget them in half an hour.
Speaker:And we spoke in previous episodes recently about, I think, Victoria
Speaker:Newland, who was the one involved with the, uh, the coup in the Ukraine.
Speaker:Oh yeah.
Speaker:Basically, it didn't matter whether it was a Republican or
Speaker:Democrat, um, administration.
Speaker:She got a job, with all of them, except when Trump was in power.
Speaker:That was the only time that she wasn't in some high powered job.
Speaker:So, um, that was one of the dangers and one of the reasons why.
Speaker:Um, a lot of these people don't like Trump was because for the first time in
Speaker:their careers, they would be on the outer.
Speaker:So, yeah, there we go.
Speaker:Unlike Kennedy, who completely fucked up the CIA's plan with the Bay of Pigs.
Speaker:Um, so Kennedy?
Speaker:Yeah, so, uh, yeah, they had a, they had a whole plan about the
Speaker:US re invading or invading Cuba to bring back a right wing government.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:And, and Kennedy basically pulled funding for it.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:He said no.
Speaker:And that's, that's the whole basis of the CIA killed Kennedy.
Speaker:Okay, so this was after the Bay of Pigs, this was another, another shot at it.
Speaker:No, this was the Bay of, Bay of Pigs, basically, um, Kennedy
Speaker:pulled all the support out.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:And said, we can't have American assets, it has to be Cubans only.
Speaker:Gave a whole bunch of, you can't do this, you can't do that, laid down the
Speaker:law, and apparently that was because, that's why it was such a, a screw up.
Speaker:Ah, see I'd heard a different story.
Speaker:I'd heard he was really pissed with them, that he'd allowed him, that
Speaker:he'd allowed them to talk him into it.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:That was the version I heard.
Speaker:Certainly there was a big fallout with the CIA over Bay of Pigs.
Speaker:Yeah, the version I heard was he was so pissed with them for getting it so wrong.
Speaker:It was like, what sort of fucking advice is this from these guys?
Speaker:That was a disaster.
Speaker:So, yeah.
Speaker:The other one I read, the other thing about him was, you know, when
Speaker:they were deciding what to do when, because Russia was sending the nuclear
Speaker:weapons over, and the Americans were deciding on their response.
Speaker:And Robert Kennedy, I think, said to Joe Kennedy, we're having all
Speaker:these meetings, but there's a danger here that everybody is agreeing with
Speaker:you because you're the president.
Speaker:And they don't feel in this group situation that they can
Speaker:give a contrary point of view.
Speaker:And so they allowed the others to have meetings without Kennedy present.
Speaker:So people felt freer to give an honest opinion about what they should
Speaker:do and not allow the group think to All the sort of, the fear of going
Speaker:against the President stopped them from saying what they wanted to say.
Speaker:I believe that's what happened in the lead up to that.
Speaker:Right, um, The right to disconnect, Joe, seems like lots of people
Speaker:have a problem where their bosses expect them to be available for,
Speaker:uh, being contacted after hours.
Speaker:Either by phone calls or emails.
Speaker:And the Centre for Future Work found that 71 percent of surveyed employees
Speaker:worked outside their scheduled hours, largely to meet employer expectations.
Speaker:Most of this time, most of this overtime was unpaid.
Speaker:That could be just working late in the office, I guess, as
Speaker:well as phone calls and emails.
Speaker:Ever have a problem, Joe, with some boss expecting you to answer emails at
Speaker:seven o'clock at night and saying, why didn't you get back to me about that?
Speaker:Um, no, I mean, I've been in jobs where I've had on call and I've been in jobs
Speaker:where, um, there was a, an expectation that out of hours work was done.
Speaker:Um, and yes, it was unpaid, but it was time in lieu.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:So it was paid then, in that sense.
Speaker:If you worked an hour at night, then it was considered.
Speaker:Yeah, I mean, yes, um, I've always been in a, a skilled industry and therefore not,
Speaker:not as subject to the vagaries of a boss.
Speaker:But I certainly had, um, colleagues who were, um, told that they were not
Speaker:allowed to take leave for two weeks out of the month because that was month
Speaker:end and that they weren't allowed any leave at year end, financial year end.
Speaker:And we're expected to work long hours and we're told not to put in overtime
Speaker:claims for the hours that they worked.
Speaker:Um, so I think it's very much down to, um, your employer's belief
Speaker:on how easy you are to replace.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Is there a power imbalance or not?
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:Mm.
Speaker:And that's why I gave up on the union a long time ago, um, not so much
Speaker:because I don't believe in unions but because, um, I wasn't really in
Speaker:a position to be assisted by them but I have told everybody in a, um, more
Speaker:easily replaced job to join a union.
Speaker:I've always, you know, payroll, people like that who are deemed
Speaker:replaceable by, uh, management.
Speaker:I've always said join a union and get the best representation you can.
Speaker:And um, my daughter's peers, again, I've pushed towards, um,
Speaker:fair work and, um, the unions.
Speaker:Okay, did she take your advice?
Speaker:Uh, so, uh, Join a union?
Speaker:Yes, and my daughter isn't a member of a union, but Oh,
Speaker:she's not a member of a union?
Speaker:So she hasn't taken your advice?
Speaker:Well, um, she's not yet employed.
Speaker:Oh, okay, right.
Speaker:But her friends, yeah, yeah, my friends, uh, one of her friends
Speaker:is an apprentice electrician.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:And, uh, I was saying, you know, if, if you feel you're being underpaid,
Speaker:you're not getting your, um, Shea used to work for, I forget who it was.
Speaker:But I pointed them towards that group, passed all the details on,
Speaker:and said, if you've got concerns about not being paid fairly, then
Speaker:these are the people to talk to.
Speaker:Hmm.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Um, so, Labor Government, supposedly happening today, don't know if it
Speaker:happened, introducing legislation, basically, uh, to empower people
Speaker:to be able to disconnect from work.
Speaker:Of course,
Speaker:if your employer is expecting you to answer emails and phone calls after
Speaker:work and you say I don't have to and start waving the legislation in their
Speaker:face, uh, will you find yourself shunted off to the side down the track?
Speaker:Um, how powerful are you?
Speaker:And can you be blocked?
Speaker:Um, yeah, as a casual, if you turn down shifts, then you don't get offered shifts.
Speaker:Find yourself missing from the Time table, next time.
Speaker:Yeah, so anyway, Labor attempting to do that and also casual workers who have
Speaker:regular work arrangements being able to say, well I've been casual this long,
Speaker:you've had me working for example, every Thursday and Friday from 10 till 3, you
Speaker:now have to offer me a permanent position.
Speaker:Rather than just casual, so, that's good.
Speaker:See, um, how that pans out.
Speaker:I think the most interesting part of that is Peter Dutton came out and said
Speaker:he's going to repeal the laws about, um, out of hours communications.
Speaker:How are these guys going to win an election?
Speaker:So does that mean we can ring Peter Dutton out of his work hours?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:If Ring him on his home line and say, hey, I want to talk to you
Speaker:about this problem I'm having?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So yeah, this sort of right to disconnect, Dutton has said
Speaker:they're going to repeal that.
Speaker:And, um, he said that this law is damaging to relations between employers
Speaker:and employees and it hurts productivity.
Speaker:I, I, I agree with him.
Speaker:I think since he's my MP, he should be available to me on call 24 hours a day
Speaker:to deal with any problems that I have.
Speaker:Yeah, try that.
Speaker:And I, I want his personal phone number, as his employer.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I just think, how are these people expecting to win young voters, um?
Speaker:Next week, well you sent me that article, we'll talk about it next week, yeah,
Speaker:about the UK and young voters deserting the Conservative Party in the UK.
Speaker:Dramatically.
Speaker:And scarily not over here.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Not to the same extent, yeah.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Um, so, next week, Joe, for that article, because it was quite lengthy
Speaker:and there were a lot of charts.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Um, but, um, but, if Dutton keeps making statements like this, He will
Speaker:be heading in the same direction as the UK Conservatives in terms of his
Speaker:relationship with young people, I think.
Speaker:One can only hope.
Speaker:Joe, we've spoken a lot about our problems with submarines over the years.
Speaker:What a debacle the whole thing is.
Speaker:There is, it seems, a debacle of the same type, frigates, and
Speaker:I'll get my head around that.
Speaker:Um, but I saw this thing that, um, I'll just read it, I think it was a tweet.
Speaker:The Japanese make some peculiar television shows and movies, with however
Speaker:commendable attention to strategy and detail, and there's a series out called
Speaker:The Silent Service, in which a Japanese crew steals a US Navy nuclear submarine
Speaker:during their familiarisation exercise.
Speaker:Recommended viewing for our Royal Australian Navy Submariners.
Speaker:During the early stages of their training exercises, might shave a few decades
Speaker:off our acquisition of those submarines.
Speaker:It's about the only way we're gonna get a nuclear sub out of the Yanks,
Speaker:is to follow this model and steal one during a familiarization exercise.
Speaker:Yeah, I mean, call me a cynic, but I don't think it was ever
Speaker:about getting subs out of the U.
Speaker:S.
Speaker:Yeah, we mentioned the other day, last week, about single sex education.
Speaker:Because there was that, um, Newington College becoming co ed, and some
Speaker:of the parents, Joe, were crying, I guess, some of the old boys.
Speaker:Yes, yeah, because he was going to have a grandchild and now he can't have a
Speaker:grandchild Yeah, he wasn't gonna send his grandchild to that school now.
Speaker:Yeah, not gonna have that There's an article here, which says that Just looking
Speaker:at the debate of whether single sex schools perform better than co educational
Speaker:schools and this is a tricky one.
Speaker:So if you've got E.
Speaker:g.
Speaker:a girl, um, who might have an interest in maths and physics, there's been
Speaker:an argument that girls perform better in all girl schools than they
Speaker:do in co ed schools, for example, particularly for those subjects.
Speaker:But, as the article explains, it's really hard to sort through the data because
Speaker:so much of educational Uh, success relates to socio economic factors.
Speaker:And the people who end up in single sex private schools are
Speaker:at a higher socioeconomic level.
Speaker:So it's really difficult to look at the data and compare girls of a
Speaker:semi socioeconomic status in single sex schools with girls, for example,
Speaker:of a similar socioeconomic status in co ed schools, because there's
Speaker:just not enough single sex schools.
Speaker:With that lower socio economic background.
Speaker:The other question is, are exam results the sole measure of success?
Speaker:Or do you want a well rounded person?
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Because if you have someone who's got great exam scores, but is
Speaker:totally inappropriate dealing with members of the opposite sex, Hmm.
Speaker:Are they employable?
Speaker:Indeed.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Because I was hinting at that, uh, last week when I was saying how some of the
Speaker:kids who ended up in university and, uh, operated under a disadvantage for
Speaker:a few years till I figured things out.
Speaker:I was one of them.
Speaker:Um, but anyway.
Speaker:For example, in Australia, 14 out of the 20 top performing schools in the
Speaker:latest HSC round were single sex.
Speaker:That was 8 all girls and 6 all boys.
Speaker:And, um, uh, as we're top, uh, as we're 12 of the top performing schools
Speaker:in the VCE, that must be Victoria.
Speaker:So, um, but, um, here's the interesting part, Joe, is in Ireland.
Speaker:Where is it in this?
Speaker:I haven't highlighted it in this thing.
Speaker:But apparently in Ireland, there's a lot of single sex schools and, um, which
Speaker:are government run and do not have a, sort of, a selective enrolment bias.
Speaker:Government funded?
Speaker:Yes, government funded.
Speaker:So don't have a A socio economic slant that's different so
Speaker:much with the co ed schools.
Speaker:And there's a link to a study which was done and it was by the British Educational
Speaker:Research Journal that basically said they couldn't find Um, significant differences
Speaker:in results when looking at the performance of kids in the different schools.
Speaker:So it was more or less saying, when you've accounted for socioeconomic factors and
Speaker:other issues, then there was no evidence that single sex schools led to greater
Speaker:academic achievement as determined by objective scoring systems, Joe.
Speaker:Hadn't heard that before, but that was, that was, um, that was interesting.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So, um, so that's a rundown of the topics and let me, Joe, try and find,
Speaker:I want to look at this chat now.
Speaker:So, dear listener, uh, let me find, how do I get to the chat?
Speaker:I want to scroll through, yeah, captions, chat.
Speaker:There it is.
Speaker:Sorry.
Speaker:Thank you.
Speaker:Um, so yeah, that's it dear listener in terms of.
Speaker:The, uh, topics.
Speaker:I thought we'd just quickly run through the chat and see what people had to say.
Speaker:Watley and John saying hello.
Speaker:Same with Joel, thank you.
Speaker:Um, so John says that the Chaser podcast did a good wind up of Barnaby today.
Speaker:Um, and John also says not to worry about Sky News and its propaganda because it
Speaker:only has three people and a dog watching.
Speaker:Yeah, the problem is, Joe, goddamn ABC takes its cues from From the Murdoch.
Speaker:What's the news window, isn't it?
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:So yeah, nobody watches the bloody thing, but it does seem to set the agenda for
Speaker:these people, including the A, B, C.
Speaker:Um, uh, John says, my children have been discussing how casually racist
Speaker:their grandmother has been lately.
Speaker:I just pointed out the generation gap to them.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Yeah, I mean, I had a chat with dad about, um, he made some
Speaker:comments that were possibly.
Speaker:Not great about gay people and he said you have to remember that when I
Speaker:was growing up being gay was illegal.
Speaker:Yes You know Society has changed and sometimes it's very difficult to get
Speaker:rid of your entrenched biases Um, Joel says ABC is very right wing.
Speaker:It's their entertainment that is left leaning.
Speaker:That would be true.
Speaker:So someone like, um, Sean McAuliffe, um, he would say He was curing,
Speaker:um, Scott Morrison and his group.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:The government of the day, yes.
Speaker:He took, no doubt, great delight in that.
Speaker:So, uh, yeah, that would be true.
Speaker:It's their entertainment that is left leaning.
Speaker:Good point, Joel.
Speaker:Um, uh, Watley says, Seems legit.
Speaker:Batboy will one day be president of the USA.
Speaker:Who's Batboy?
Speaker:This is about the Weekly Word News.
Speaker:This is Don's comment.
Speaker:It was the Men in Black.
Speaker:Ah, OK.
Speaker:So it was the newspaper in Men in Black.
Speaker:You read to find out the truth because it was the one that was
Speaker:telling you all about aliens abducting Elvis, or whatever it was.
Speaker:Oh, okay.
Speaker:Right, okay.
Speaker:Um, John says Putin gives a history lesson from his point of view,
Speaker:doesn't sound very convincing.
Speaker:Whatley tells him to be objective.
Speaker:Um, and, uh, Whatley says torture is better than murder, then, Joe.
Speaker:I don't know what that means.
Speaker:So that was talking about Julian Assange and the Russian journalists.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:And the answer is, neither are great, but one person being tortured
Speaker:is probably better than a hundred people being pushed out of windows.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:I think that neither side are great.
Speaker:It's just a level of shittiness.
Speaker:How many people were in Guantanamo, again?
Speaker:Yeah, probably a hundred, but they weren't journalists, were they?
Speaker:We're talking, okay, we're just talking people killed.
Speaker:Okay, the American way isn't to push people out of windows, it's
Speaker:just to bomb them, if they're brown and they're in a desert, you know.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:Uh, and John says, please see who the report was done by, a
Speaker:Republican endorsed official.
Speaker:That was to do with Biden being senile.
Speaker:Well this was the um, well I think this was the people looking at the
Speaker:indictment, I think these were the lawyers looking at the indictment, John.
Speaker:Yeah, apparently he's a Republican.
Speaker:Right, okay.
Speaker:Don't know.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:And that was the chat.
Speaker:We'll try and do that every week, so if you do make a comment, you will be heard.
Speaker:And, uh, there we go.
Speaker:Scott was with us.
Speaker:comment about our country was founded on the criminal element, justifying
Speaker:we should steal the submarine.
Speaker:But I'm thinking that maybe that's a good argument back to the, this nation
Speaker:was founded on Christian values, was this nation was founded on criminals.
Speaker:So does that justify us all being criminals now?
Speaker:Are you reading that in the main chat on the, on the right?
Speaker:Where did you read that?
Speaker:Yes, scroll all the way down.
Speaker:I still keep going and The last one I've got is by John saying,
Speaker:please see who the report was done by, a Republican endorsed official.
Speaker:There's another, there's another three under that.
Speaker:Why haven't I, why can't I see them?
Speaker:They're up on the screen, on the chat.
Speaker:Maybe because they're on the screen that they don't appear in that right chat.
Speaker:They do.
Speaker:Okay, mine's not scrolling, but anyway.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Uh Uhhhh Don't forget, our country was founded on the criminal element,
Speaker:so it's their patriotic duty to flog anything that isn't bolted to the floor.
Speaker:Good one, Don.
Speaker:Uh Monster Dutton or Voldemort, um, Chris says, why isn't there an option
Speaker:other than Biden in the next election?
Speaker:And, uh Because democracy is failing, Chris.
Speaker:And um, uh, yeah, okay.
Speaker:Those didn't appear in my right inside.
Speaker:Anyway.
Speaker:All right, dear listener, that is a wrap on this podcast, episode 417.
Speaker:Scott wasn't with us.
Speaker:He had other commitments.
Speaker:He should be back next week.
Speaker:And uh, yeah, I'll be back next week.
Speaker:Joe will be my last podcast, hopefully wearing glasses.
Speaker:So you're going to be blind the week after, are you?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So, in the, after next week's podcast, I'm getting new intraocular lenses.
Speaker:Well, synthetic ones put in.
Speaker:Because I had cataracts appearing and they said, well, need to fix
Speaker:that up and while we're at it Would you like some new lenses?
Speaker:And you won't need glasses.
Speaker:And I thought, wow, I've worn glasses since I was 16.
Speaker:So that will be an interesting, life changing event for me.
Speaker:So, yeah.
Speaker:So next week, glasses, but then in the days following that, um, Don says he's
Speaker:getting bionic eyes, Steve Austin style.
Speaker:John and Chris say goodnight.
Speaker:Goodnight to everybody.
Speaker:We'll talk to you next week.
Speaker:Bye for now.
Speaker:And it's a good night from here, mate.
