Clive Palmer

My wife noted a tweet the other day that amused her.  It was a link to the story of a person suing Clive Palmer, mining magnate, because Clive had accused them of treason, with the apt conclusion 'Worst. Public Sphere. Ever.'

Australia's national discourse is pretty low-grade.  When you compare it to the life in Britain, it suffers terribly.  It's partly being less stratified by class, so that buffoons like Andrew Bolt, sensible people (can't think of any), and outright loonies (Janet Albrechtsen) all have to share the same paper.  A great many arguments degenerate into 'we (Australia) don't want X, do we?' about things that opinion polls clearly show are 50-50 propositions.  'We' is not Australia at all in these articles, just 'my social circle of right-thinking people'.  There was an article in The Age from Austhink Consulting who provide argument mapping software and services which made the case for gay marriage on the grounds that 'we' don't want to enshrine two-state sexual valence systems* as the law.  'We' (Austhink Consulting and Age readers) may not, but 'We' Australia were still, in fact, significantly divided.  It was disheartening to see an arguing consultancy assume the ground of their conclusion, apparently without realising it.

Clive Palmer has been in the public's face for a while:
1.  Arguing that his great wealth is good for Australia and is entirely merited by his sagacity and good character (and hence that everything should be ordered to benefit him as much as it now does, or preferably more.) and
2.  Throwing tantrums befitting a two-year old and throwing accusations in a way befitting a man descending into dementia.

Try as I might, I can't not imagine him as a morbidly obese tick that doesn't know when to let go, and thinks its blood mine is entirely of its own creating. A leading Australian.

Worst. Public Sphere. Ever.

Indeed**.

*my free translation.
** Well, having said that, ridiculous idiocy about your outside context and power are together more than they are apart.