The Toilet Wall

 

Pic courtesy Fairfax media.

As we watch the soap opera that is contemporary US politics and the rapid trend on the local scene towards the same phenomenon, it's timely to reflect on the role of social media.

Two politicians, both members of the Coalition parties, have bought time on my Facebook platform, and as a consequence I get posts from them daily on my feed.

Reading and analysing these posts is a fascinating exercise. Fact checking them is a pastime.

To provide an example, the member for my federal electorate of Groom has been posting statements such as "Crime rates have soared under Labor" and " the Liberal Party has a very proud record of driving Australia's economic and social progress"

The first statement about the crime rate is simply wrong, or to use the current jargon, an example of misinformation, as this report from Policing Insight of a graph of crime youth statistics from the ABS website illustrates.

The trend is down, not up, and it doesn't take much of an intellect to note this. 

Either Hamilton is telling porkies, or he can't read a graph. This is just one example. He's addicted to misinformation, usually expressed as three or four word slogans. He also believes that his audience is too thick to know that crime is a state issue and that he has no jurisdiction. He obviously has a low opinion of his constituents.

The second example is not so cut and dried, but is best characterised as an opinion based on historical mythology. Historical mythology can hang around like barnacles, as I discovered recently when researching a thesis on national service.

In connection with this opinion about the Menzies legacy, I beg to differ. As a national serviceman conscripted to fight in a civil war on foreign soil in peacetime I would not call selective conscription for political advantage (which is what it was) part of a "very proud record".

It's amazing how some features of Coalition policy under Menzies and his successors are airbrushed out of history.

It does illustrate why Hamilton and his colleagues in the Coalition are opposing the proposed misinformation legislation. Misinformation is their bread and butter.

 They're not the only ones who post lies on social media, of course, but my taxes pay his salary, and I'd appreciate him not telling lies on the taxpayers payroll. All politicians do it, and unfortunately social media has become a sewer. Leunig's cartoon above is apposite.

That is starkly obvious when you examine his statement about crime, but not so when you look at Coalition history. The first example is a simple denial of fact and an example of using a lie to advance a political position.

The second example is an expression of opinion. The proposed legislation is no threat to the holding and expression of an honest opinion. It is, however a threat to the deliberate posting of lies on social media.