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ellrob88 | 3 years ago

By 'journalist' are you referring to the recent firebombing of the house of YouTube personalty friendlyjordies?

Love the guy, but it sounds like you're implying this is an example of an attack on independent journalism, and think the government is involved?

Perhaps worth reviewing the reliability /agenda of your news sources?

discuss

Sholmesy|3 years ago

Given that his producer was arrested by what amounts to Australia's secret police, at the request of the then deputy premier, I'm not certain that it's easy to dismiss. There's been a pretty strong condemnation of the way that situation was handled, both in the political and legal sphere, that wrong-doing took place.

As for the firebombing, to me that feels much more like ClubsNSW/Bikey gang related hush tactics.

The whole thing is surreal

robswc|3 years ago

No, didn't mean the Gov did it... they just did a ton of shady stuff that lead up to that.

It does raise the question of _who_ would care enough to firebomb his house though...

I mean, just a few months ago a local gov official literally stabbed a reporter to death for a hell of a lot less.

https://cpj.org/2022/09/police-arrest-local-official-suspect...

So... stranger things have happened.

ellrob88|3 years ago

OK, but you did seem to be holding the firebombing incident up as an example of Australia's "ridiculous authoritarianism".

I'm just not quite seeing how it shows authoritarianism if you weren't suggesting government involvement?

Also your original comment sounds like you're saying Aus and UK are worse than the US on this front, but the worst case example you've just provided is from the US.

dylan604|3 years ago

Would it require it to have gov't involvement to be bad? Let's say that the leader of a country stood up on a stage during a speech (which was preceded by years of pro-violence rhetoric) that was very suggestive of committing acts of violence. Would that be gov't involvement even if it the violence was actually perpetrated by private citizens?

ellrob88|3 years ago

No, I don't think the government needs to be directly involved for it to be considered bad. The example you describe sounds very bad to me.

But my comment was questioning OP's suggestion that the incident was tied to authoritarianism.