Julie Szego
@JulieSzego
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Freelance journalist and writer. Professional ruminator. Old school feminist.
Melbourne, Australia
Joined June 2012
Below is a photo of me at the infamous Let Women Speak rally taking notes as reporters do. (I was wearing a mask because I was recovering from Covid.) My mere attendance at the rally that day saw me branded an extremist in The Age newsroom. My column about the rally was spiked
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As one of the names on the “zio600”list, I’m proud to be counted among my people.
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Me in today’s Oz. No longer proud to be union. “In keeping with the current vogue of grand pronouncements, I hereby renounce my membership of the journalists’ union, the MEAA, because whatever it’s about these days, it’s no longer journalism.”.
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I don't take any of this personally because it's not personal. It's happening in newsrooms everywhere.
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Wondering what it’s like to be a Jew in Melbourne these days? At my tram stop last week in my Jewish neighbourhood; a call to destroy the world’s only Jewish state.
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For years @Bernard_Lane was the ONLY Australian journalist brave enough to report critically on puberty blockers. Shame on the media. "England is ahead of Australia in gender clinic reform partly because its . media have been more intellectually robust.".
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Sobering piece from @megangoldin .“Australia has gone from being the easy-going land Down Under to experiencing a surge of antisemitism that most Jews thought was relegated to the dark annals of Jewish history.” .
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3/ But there are problems. @PatrickElligett described my piece as "good." He said he couldn't publish it under my name because I'd taken "a position" in op-eds. To say that sex is real and it matters, makes you "biased," apparently. Or, acccording to Daniel Andrews, a bigot.
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The Health Minister must answer for this $7 million "front hole" abomination. Let's see this "independent research" the department refers to, which supposedly found ACON's campaign "the most popular" among its "target audiences." Breathtaking contempt for the nation's women.
The Government took $7 MILLION in public funding for a cervical cancer awareness campaign targeting Aboriginal and culturally diverse women and awarded it to the gender ideology lobby group ACON. ACON then gave a “Gold Employer” award to the Health Department. Documents I’ve
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Over and over Albo says anti-Semitism "has no place" in Australia. Over and over the facts on the ground blatantly contradict his statement.
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4/ Gender identity politics is the left's version of Trumpian post-fact, post-truth. Journos have to come to grips with this.
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To repeat; this is a government body, it is funded by us taxpayers. In what universe does a government body feel empowered to block a private citizen who dares subject them to reasonable scrutiny? I’d like Labor ministers to answer this question.
Here’s a reminder that @AusHumanRights the Australian Government body that determines if a person has experienced discrimination or has had their human rights violated, who supports Roxy Tickle against @salltweets and the Pride Centre against @ActiveLesbians are restricting
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You could write a thesis on this incident alone. Holocaust inversion, the Jews denied a voice and evicted from their own story, anti-Semitism masquerading as antiracism. All the big themes of our time are here.
Holocaust Education Ireland refused to respect the wishes of the Irish Jewish community and stood by their decision or asking President Michael D. Higgins to give the keynote speech at our national Holocaust Memorial Day commemoration. Therefore, just one request was asked of
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Not sure this headline (from Australia’s public broadcaster) citing “a football match clash” is entirely accurate….
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That’s right. Now if our politicians genuinely believe this is right and fair they should argue the case in the court of public opinion. Instead they legislate by stealth.
Tickle vs Giggle decided in favour of Tickle. Ergo biological women have no identity. #TickleVGiggle.
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Amnesty’s zombie-like incantations reveal how a once admirable human rights sector has descended into madness and nihilism.
Peaceful protest is NOT a crime. Peaceful protest is NOT a crime. Peaceful protest is NOT a crime. Peaceful protest is NOT a crime.
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Bravo @mbachelard for giving voice to parents who can't access exploratory therapy for their gender-distressed kids because this area of medicine has become disgracefully politicised. 1/.
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2/ The Age has done and is doing some great reporting on gender identity politics. It's not The Guardian, and certainly not the ABC, which has become a national joke on trans issues.
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The Age commissioned me to write a story about youth gender transition and then refused to publish it. You can read the piece here:
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The media can no longer claim ignorance about the impact of calling women with perfectly rational views "anti-trans." The label exposes these women to all kinds of abuse. What does "anti-trans" even mean?.
Interesting how @ABCaustralia journalist @EliasClure mentions @SouthwickMP as a “Jewish politician” but fails to mention that I too am Jewish, despite this information being on the public record. He also incorrectly describes me as an “anti-trans activist” rather than a feminist
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@clairlemon It is extraordinary that we’ve arrived at a point in history where there’s virtually nothing you can’t say about Jews. And she’s still published by mainstream publishers, still interviewed in the mainstream media. No social or institutional censure.
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“The fact young Australians can look with admiration at . jihadists dragging young women by their hair to be raped . and feel they can express their support with pride and impunity speaks to the failure of leadership in our country and institutions." .
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If I was to protest Palestinian visitors whose loved ones had been killed in the Israeli assault on Gaza I'd be rightly denounced as morally repugnant. That's what these protestors are. Unfortunately it's becoming the new normal in Australia.
Caulfield MP David Southwick on pro-Palestinian demonstrators action at a Melbourne hotel where families of Hostages taken by Hamas were staying last night,. “This is instilling hate…you don’t treat your visitors this way,” .@SkyNewsAust .#springst
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Why have our politicians and bureaucrats acquiesced to the erasure of sex in the health system? Because they give ideologues free rein to everyone’s detriment.
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“Police said in a statement: “While the organisers had confirmed separate locations . for their events, protesters from one group moved to Spring Street, Melbourne East to counterprotest.”.Why not say which group moved? Of course, we all know the answer.
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An urgent and excellent piece from @clairlemon Unfortunately social democratic parties such as Labor are now defaulting to censorship as a form of ideological policing. It will lead nowhere good.
Claire Lehmann: “We must confront an uncomfortable truth. In Victoria the State appears to be enshrining a new belief system into law…This doctrine determines that certain groups have special moral status, with demands that are sacrosanct and beyond questioning.”
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Sometimes you run out of words; so vast is the craziness. No fair play in the land of the fair go.
Australian soccer team with 5 transgender players goes undefeated in women’s tournament: ‘Huge difference in ability’
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Late to this one but the media should be scrutinising the government for these sinister and manipulative ads. Women are angry because they’re being disenfranchised. Bigotry has nothing to do with it.
Fixed it for you @VicGovAu. ‘The Unsaid Says A Lot’. It sure does. cc: @JacintaAllanMP @VictorianLabor
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Me speaking to @RitaPanahi about the shocking wave of Jew hatred in Australia.
Journalist Julie Szego says the Jewish community is experiencing an incredible amount of shock and disbelief over anti-Israeli activists doxxing almost 600 people within a WhatsApp group chat.
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Hitchens is one prophet I can get behind. If only social democratic leaders could heed his warning.
This week in parliament, a Labour MP called for blasphemy laws in the UK. The Prime Minister didn’t challenge the point, but instead said that he was committed to tackling “Islamophobia”. Seems like a good time to remind ourselves of what Hitchens said about this 15 years ago…
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@LeeHatherell Abject hell. Primarily because their barbaric Islamofascist rulers use them as human shields and have utter contempt for their welfare.
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Despite the headline I still have no idea how many Australians are gay. The gays seem swamped by the “queer sexualities” “gender diverse” “asexual” “pansexual” “cishet” etc.
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This is a series issue for journalists. We need to remain at arm’s length from all lobby groups. GLAAD’s intimidatory tactics against the NY Times for its trans reporting should serve as a wake up call for the Oz media. @AusPressCouncil.
In 3 decades of journalism I had never had a complaint against me. Then I started writing about the safety of gender clinics. I had a complaint (partially) upheld against me. This surprised my editors because they knew I had done everything by the book. In their ruling, the press.
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Oh lovely. Protesting against the editor of one of only a handful of publications that gives voice to brave Gazans speaking out against their jihadi rulers.
Chaotic scenes outside a @bariweiss event in New York where aggressive pro-Palestinians are screaming “Bari Weiss murderer” and whipping themselves into a frenzy. One has been arrested already. They really are sinister antisemites.
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Fabulous reporting here from @Bernard_Lane. Who knew?.
“More than 1,400 girls & young women in Australia started taking taxpayer-subsidised testosterone last year supposedly to treat the male disorder of androgen deficiency typically caused by the testicles not doing their job.” #AusPol .
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My own dramas with The Age are a matter of public record, so I'll leave it there. Thanks to everyone who supported me then, and now. The "genie" here that can't be put back in the bottle is healthy scepticism. I hope Michael stays on the theme.
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This is the way a civilisation ends. When the media can't report basic truths about humanity. NOT A WOMAN!!!.
.@guardian how do you justify this shockingly bad and wholly inaccurate reporting?.
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If you want to know why this piece was rejected, you’ll have to ask the editor. I envisaged the piece as the first in a series; I’ll be rolling out more.
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Yes! (In the antipodes we’re waiting for our Labor party to return to sensible policy making on sex vs gender identity. We may be waiting a long time.) .
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Every journalist needs to read this piece about ideological capture at Australia's Press Council. Their recent ruling against a columnist was based on a falsehood promoted by trans activists and contradicted by reality.
How Australia’s Press Council Has Been Used to Stifle the Gender Debate | @Bernard_Lane
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One Melbourne mother was denied a meeting with her local Labor MP because an ideologue in his office played gatekeeper. The fact NSW is considering conversion therapy laws just when Europe is backing away from affirmative care shows how much journos have dropped the ball. 3/.
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@HJoyceGender on censorship: .“Next came ABC, the Australian state broadcaster, which interviewed me. I was told there had been “technical glitches” with the recording, but they would “love to revisit this one in the future” .
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And now is the moment for a march against anti Semitism in Melbourne. In the CBD. On a weekend. It’s our turn, thanks.
My speech today at the March Against Antisemitism in Parliament Square in London. Thank you to @antisemitism for inviting me and thank you to the thousands who came out to protest in this horrific weather. It wasn’t any better on the stage! Next time I’m laminating my speech…
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Melbourne Uni today where fascist protestors targeted a Jewish academic, occupying his office and harassing him.
@UniMelb What are you going to do about these students taking over an academic’s office? He is Jewish. @Melbchief #auspol
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And another. Also in my Jewish neighbourhood; a neighbourhood where lots of Jews happen to live. Notice the people twisting that description to imply I’m colonising indigenous land. Tells you everything you need to know, really.
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These parents know their children better than any professional can. They know their kids have complex problems -- social isolation, trauma etc -- unlikely to be magically fixed through radical "affirming" treatments. But these loving parents been vilified as "transphobes." 2/.
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An inadequate response from @JacintaAllanMP who doesn't seem worried about the march's potential impact on Jewish and other students in an already febrile environment. And what about the placard from the weekend's march depicting Jews as rubbish? .
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Note the belittling sexist references to “Pamela” as if she’s a schoolgirl. (“Cisgender, heterosexual Pamela. ”) Won’t work. Her gravitas and courage speak for themselves.
🧵Today’s @nytopinion features a wildly biased column by Pamela Paul. You may remember cisgender heterosexual Pamela, who makes a living writing anti-trans content, from her widely criticized & ridiculed piece defending JK Rowling's incessant anti-trans diatribes.
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Wickedly good get-real piece. “A white woman at that whitest of pastimes – a writers’ festival – delivers that whitest of platitudes: Australia is a racist country.”.
My column: There is an authorial arrogance to writers’ festival anti-racism, in which whiteness is forever and always the protagonist. White people are the doers, other races the done unto. It’s an ironic erasure of multiethnic and multicultural Australia.
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Yes. Hard to overstate the significance of this attack. It’s a blatant expression of Jew hatred and a serious attempt to stifle our democracy.
One week after my grandparents wedding, the Nazis took my grandfather where he spent 3 1/2 years in Dachau. This is what they faced in Germany. They came to Australia to get away from it. I'm just glad my grandparents aren't alive to see this. #antisemitism #jewhate #auspol.
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Beautifully sums up a good chunk of people on this platform.
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There are legitimate arguments to be had about Israel’s military response to October 7. But there are no legitimate arguments to be had about the morality of its cause and Hamas’ unspeakable evil. A devastating piece, unflinching in its clarity.
We are in a critical moment in time. Me in the weekend @australian. #Israel #auspol . Crisis of courage in the face of unspeakable Hamas barbarism
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@angijones The short answer: the fallout from the rally. Being effectively branded a Nazi by no less than the Premier. And no journo on the left calls him out or asks him to justify his government's policies.
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This is shocking.
Israelis who lost loved ones on Oct 7 were forced to flee a Melbourne hotel tonight @3AWNeilMitchell @sunriseon7 @TheTodayShow @RitaPanahi Reach out to email in my profile if you want to interview a witness
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And I’ll be writing about gender identity politics more broadly— without the copy being rendered unreadable by a committee of woke journalists redacting words they deem incendiary, such as “male”.
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@Bernard_Lane @angijones @theage This I didn’t know. Oh dear. It’s no consolation to point out the ABC’s story was infinitely worse. Which it was, of course: .
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@LeeForWomen Lee, thank you. Personally I couldn’t care less (I’m even proud.) But for the people losing their livelihoods it’s all too real.
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And about our disgracefully inequitable education system, politics, more identity politics, sexual politics, Brutalist architecture, and me, a wondering Jew.
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Shani Louk wasn’t even named… not even in the post about the award. She’s just a trophy for everyone concerned. This is the dead give away, if you pardon the expression. The Hamas’ing of the international press.
Shani Louk was not even named in the caption or post about this macabre “award”. Apparently Jewish women victims of rape at the hands of Hamas terrorists don’t count even after they have been so brazenly assaulted and murdered.
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@aytchellesse Quite apart from the irrationality of Anna Brown’s position, the thing that leaps out at you is her spiteful tone. None of the quotes from the lesbians are disrespectful of trans people and their right to organise. But “sad stunt” just oozes contempt.
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" . I regard the brazen celebration of Jew killing the lesser of two evils, the larger one being the brazen erasure of Jew killing, and therefore of Jew hatred . "
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This article should disclose that its author signed a 2021 petition calling on the media to abandon "both sides" reporting on Israel-Palestine. He's also written a pro BDS op-ed: OK. Yet The Age says it has a strict divide between op-eds and reporting.
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Please subscribe if that takes your fancy. Sorry for any clumsiness here. Am a Twitter virgin.
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Anti-Israel protesters at the University of Melbourne trespassed in a Jewish physics professor’s office, accusing him of being a “war criminal” during a sit-in protest that ended only when police were called.
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Pretty much covers it.
🧵 . The mistake I made prior to 7 October was believing that the majority of the world were decent people who were not antisemitic. Since then, my eyes have been opened. /1.
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@angijones I think you’re right. Labor’s backflips on the census and amending the anti discrimination act may indicate they’re sensing a shifting of the tide and see value in distancing themselves from gender activists, many of whom are ALP and parliamentary staffers.
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“On gender issues, CBC news coverage became a catalogue of self-parody, featuring articles such as . Cutting through the binary: Photographer documents transgender and gender nonconforming people’s experiences with haircuts.”.Reminds me of another public broadcaster’s coverage.
"Watching Trudeau casually trash this incredible country—the one we elected him to run, on the apparently false assumption that he actually liked or even respected it—has been a painful spectacle." -- @jonkay .
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I usually ignore the haters screaming into the ether, but sometimes their thinking is revealing. There is a tiny, unobtrusive Jewish minority in Ireland. But as far as she's concerned it's a takover. I thank her for outdoing me in making the case for a Jewish homeland.
@joshrfeldman @JulieSzego @RachelMoiselle @IrishTimes You’re worried about the Jewish population in IRELAND? How many countries do you need, actually?.
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This is also a strange choice of words. Why the need to condemn "unequivocally"? Might some people expect Australia's foreign minister to equivocate on the subject?.
I condemn unequivocally the Melbourne synagogue attack. The targeting of a place of worship is an act of hate. Violence and antisemitism have no place in Australia.
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And now this: .A social-justice activist who helped disseminate the doxxed details of hundreds of Jewish Australians across the internet has a contract to provide anti-racism resources with the country’s peak human rights body.
The end game of ‘anti-racism’ is ‘decolonisation’, which is a euphemism for the literal dismantling of Western society, which seeks to be egalitarian & liberal, and replacing it with a race-hierarchical society, where the social standing of people is measured by their skin.
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Fantastic, brave and very telling piece from @NomiKal. There will be more such declarations to come. Like her, many Jews have had a seismic shift in perspective. In our darkest hour the silence from our so-called comrades was deafening.
My piece in @crikey_news today:. “This week, however, I resigned from the Faith Community Council Victoria. Despite the organisation having addressed various political and sensitive issues, it has remained silent on the events in Israel on October 7.”.
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"For some on the intellectual left demonising Israeli Jews has become the measure of moral virtue. The more depraved the crimes against Israelis, the more that’s seen as proof the victims were monstrous all along."
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Thank you @billshortenmp for calling last night’s anti Israel protesters in Sydney what they are: Jew haters. Not all his Labor colleagues are as clear-eyed or as brave.
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Which is more trustworthy the BBC or The Daily Mail? Unfortunately the answer is obvious and a complete disgrace. Little wonder the public has lost trust in key institutions.
A male individual, who identifies as female, has been charged with the murder of their husband. The BBC obscures male violence when it falsely reports that women have been charged with crimes that are overwhelmingly perpetrated by men in society.
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Under Australia’s “human rights” regime gay men can have gay bars, trans people can basically hold trans-only events but lesbians can’t have lesbian-only events. “Right side of history” equals same-old misogyny.
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"We need to revisit the sorry past to fully understand “gender affirming care today. In large part, it’s a treatment model conceived as a response to the historical wrongs perpetrated in the name of medicine."
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Brilliant critique by @JulianLeeser of the Australian Human Rights Commission’s cowardly silence on Jew hatred post October 7. One of many problems with the once admirable AHRC… .
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@clairlemon knocks it out of the park. Social justice warriors such as Ford loudly interrogate themselves for every unconscious prejudice- except for the world’s oldest one.
In December, Clementine Ford told The Australian she was not an antisemite, describing the suggestion as “ludicrous”. But since the doxxing of 600 Jewish creatives on her social media accounts, it is worth re-examining the charge and the evidence that supports it. The.
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@StassjaF @theage @Melbchief Yes, I knew about the UK ruling. Yes, The Age censored (and sacked) me on trans issues. And maybe, maybe male journos have more room to move. Still, all power to Chip and his terrific reporting. Though I'm sure he needs my endorsement like he needs a hole in the head!.
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A rather shell-shocked me in conversation with the mighty British feminist and journalist, Julie Bindel. @bindelj .
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@australianwoma1 I am Farrah. Thank you so much for your solidarity. It doesn’t go unnoticed, believe me.
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Wow. Imagine writing an entire book on Israel-Palestine and the word "Hamas" doesn't appear, not even once. Many writers post Oct 7 have outdone themselves erasing any trace of Islamofascists from the story of this conflict. But this effort knocks it out of the park.
🧵Te-Nehisi Coates The Message is an anti-Israel, antisemitic screed filled with lies, misrepresentations & omissions (especially). He calls Israel the most evil nation on earth. His academic fraudulence is only exceeded by his vicious hate for Israel. Detailed analysis: 1/
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Indeed. And this is how governments, predominantly Labor governments, lose public trust.
The Victorian “Change and Suppression” act that mandates “affirmation only” discussions around gender was due for review earlier this year. I’ve asked about it numerous times in Parliament. I’ve requested that it be open for public submissions and the Cass Review be taken into.
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The Age and me: a late divorce. My new Substack post has some commentary and a version of my tell-all piece originally published on unHerd.
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Lawyers, judges and of course journalists need to read this.
Gender clinics in Australia are side-stepping a federal Family Court ruling that makes it difficult for them to start medical treatments for minors without consulting both parents and potentially exposes them to more informed scrutiny. #GenderClinics #Law #Parents. Read the
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“Both sides” - right?.
An Israeli woman responsible for identifying female victims of the Hamas massacre confirms that Hamas terrorists raped children and elderly women.
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Compulsory reading for anyone who thinks there’s no problem with journalists signing manifestos.
“The @nytimes’ problem has metastasised from liberal bias to illiberal bias, from an inclination to favour one side of the national debate to an impulse to shut debate down altogether.”
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Does this mean we must respect the accused she-rapist and “her penis.”?.
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It was fun chatting to Sall Grover about journalism, gender and how we find a path back to sanity and justice for all.
Julie Szego was a journalist at The Age, an Australian newspaper & was asked to write about "gender affirming care". She no longer works at The Age. While her experience entirely undeserving, her insight into media is one of hope 💗. Subscribe & listen @.
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Amen.
I don't want the far left, or the new left, I want the old left. Working people paid properly for their time, their housing secure, their kids educated to the highest standard, their food nutritious, their communities maintained. A left that values & respects the working class.
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Must-read piece on Gaza and the crisis in journalism. "The line between the ethics of the social justice warriors on social media and the ethics of journalists in the mainstream media is becoming blurred.".
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It's occured to me that I'd inadvertently stolen the phrase "self-appointed queer caucus" from @Bernard_Lane Full credit to him! His piece here tackles the newsroom trends that skew coverage on trans issues:
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Well done to this Glen Eira College parent for calling out @theage for its amateurish reporting that denigrated our school at a time when students were the innocent victims of random violent attacks, with one boy in hospital with serious injuries.
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Hmmm. "There are some strong benefits of social media, particularly for non-binary young people, according to ANU Professor Ben Edwards, who recently undertook a social media use study of 20,000 15 and 16-year-olds.".
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Absolutely.
This is your take on the summary execution of six civilian hostages taken and held for 11 months?.Get. In. The. BIN.
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Yes indeed. Let it sink in.
This is a reference to @SatPaper owner Morry Schwartz, who is Jewish and the son of Holocaust survivors. Let the unmistakable meaning of “owned by Zionists” sink in.
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