Matt Taibbi or the Boy who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest.

Last month Matt Taibbi (author, journalist, and podcaster) sent the hornets into a fit of fury with “Marcuse-Anon: Cult of The Pseudo-Intellectual” an angry piece on Herbert Marcuse, a (or the) sacred cow of the identitarian Left.

And no one was more evidently furious than Jonathan Feldman (docent at the Department of Economic History, Stockholm University), who replied with “Matt Taibbi, Herbert Marcuse and the Journalistic Appropriation of Philosophy”.

Although I sympathise with Taibbi (yes, I ain’t no fan of Marcuse and I’m even less favorably disposed to educated, relatively affluent, upwardly mobile identitarian Leftists – which Feldman seems to champion) I am sorry to say neither side covered itself in glory in this brouhaha.

By coincidence, however, current Australian affairs offer a good opportunity to illustrate where Marcuse has valuable things to say and to start my comment on that controversy.

IR Omnibus Bill goes to the Senate.

Unless something unexpected happens, the IR Omnibus Bill should be discussed in the Senate this week. This is the official ACTU ad explaining why the Bill should be stopped. 

There are good reasons to expect the bill will not be passed, at least in its current form (see here) and, indeed, the crossbench has already proposed a number of amendments to the bill.

This optimism, however, must be qualified. Amendments are a double-edged sword: parliamentarians frequently trade their vote for some concession for their constituencies -- so-called "horse trading". That way they get the bill passed, while pretending that they did their best to defeat it (only succeeding in improving it).

Ideally, therefore, the bill should be defeated outright. Readers can also send the senators an email. 

Beware of Duttons Bearing Gifts.

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Last week ABC reported on federal Minister for Home Affairs Peter Dutton’s intention to officially declare the neo-Nazi Sonnenkrieg Division a terrorist organisation. Currently, the official list of terrorist organisations contains 27 groups, all of them apparently fundamentalist Islamic in ideological orientation.

Bits and Pieces (xi)

Joe Biden just couldn’t wait. Barely 37 days after his inauguration, he’s already got brown, foreign blood in his Democratic hands.

His very woke supporters – rainbow flags and all – are duly impressed. In particular, they loved the professionalism with which his Defence Secretary, Steve Austin, announced the deed:

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A glorious victory in the fight for racial equality.