Dutton, easy targets, and low hanging fruits.

If you have a bare interest in the politics of our country, you have some idea who the swinging dicks are. A couple days ago, the opposition leader, peter dutton in a podcast interview set his sights on men, mentioning that ‘they have had enough’ of being viewed as inherently bad (questionable), and being overlooked at work due to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies (eye-brow raise). 

Over the last (insert any number) years, men have been sold the story that they have been handed the short straw by society. That the sun is setting on their golden age. They are over the discrimination. They are over the hate. 

Throughout 2024 –and I suppose longer than that if you’re a fan of history, politics, and political movements– we’ve come to find, yet again, that the majority, or ingroup, when confronted with misgivings, flinches, recoils, argues, and tries to find a scapegoat. A particularly interesting moment of 2024 was the online discourse surrounding the hypothetical situation posed to women of being alone in the woods with a man or a bear. 

The consensus was strongly pro-bear. 

Crazy? Not at all. 

In fact, very understandable. 

In Australia, we are experiencing a femicide. Since 2020 there has been an increasing trend of women being killed in acts of gender-based violence, peaking last year (!) in 2024 with a total of 101 deaths– a genuine national crisis. 

Hashtag not all men right?

Well, sure, but saying it doesn’t help. If anything, it shifts the conversation from the actual issue of violence (physical and/or emotional) against women to how men feel – alleviating the negative attribution and derailing the conversation completely. It takes away from the central issue. Sure, it’s not all men, but it is USUALLY men. 

A great analogy that I have heard is to imagine that you’re relaxing by the pool. Someone is running, and the lifeguard tells them to stop. What do you do? Do you go about your time because you know it wasn’t directed at you, or do you argue with the lifeguard that you weren’t running?  

Normally, I wouldn’t pay peter dutton any mind–there’s already a wide range of his people that despise him. However, considering that we are ahead of a federal election, this exercise is, if anything, is a poor mission to find support. 

Unfortunately, he has lunged for the lowest hanging fruit, and that is concerning. 

As a man, it’s embarrassing. 

As the citizen of a nation experiencing a femicide, it’s sickening. 

It’s unfortunate to know and hear that men are so easily baited by the idea that they may lose their social station, that (collectively) we would vote for someone who doesn’t have our best interests (as individuals), or the interests of the nation in mind. As the saying goes: ‘When you're accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression’. Men are the allegorical only child who now has a sibling with whom parental affection is split between, and we(as a group) don’t like it. It feels like a subversion because you’re told it’s a subversion. 

For those at home playing spot the difference with what we have seen in the US, it is almost, and quite arguable scary to see the same populist rhetoric, and United States style campaigning become even more engrained in our society. 

I’d say it is even more so considering the way much of our LOCAL news–(let’s say it together) Thank You RuPeRT mUrDoCH!– aids in importing this narrative. From the recent QLD LNP’s *supposed* support for abortion bans, or the way the unsuccessful Voice to Parliament referendum was portrayed. 

It also doesn’t help that swathes of men have been radicalised and look up to people like joe rogan or andrew tate or elon musk (to name a few). dutton taps into this ingrained (or perhaps learnt) misogyny, because why run a fair, and beneficial campaign for all when it’s easier to just rile up an indoctrinated demographic against a collective foe? If toxic masculinity isn’t a thing, why do we always have these discussions of toxic men? peter dutton preys on disillusioned men to fuel his journey to Canberra. 

For those keeping score at home, we’ve seen this before. 

This isn’t the first time he has used this populist tactic. 

Last year with the Voice to Parliament referendum he made claim after claim to confuse and cloud the discussion before delivering one of the more memorable quotes from the national debate, noting that there weren’t enough details, and that ‘if you don’t know, vote no’. 

Spread by Murdoch's media empire, these words helped fuel the dissent for the Indigenous Voice to Parliament, which ultimately saw it being unsuccessful. 

Ironically enough, this frame of questioning was then brought up against dutton and the LNP when they announced their nuclear policy that was surprisingly light on details. Why would we vote for something that is widely purported to be more costly than shown. If anything, if we’re not shown the the details we can rightfully adopt the ‘if we don’t know, we should vote no’ stance that Dutton was preaching. That’s how it works right?

The LNP has been emboldened by the scenes of a MAGA United States. But perhaps instead of fuelling hatred and division, the opposition should spend their time considering how best to serve the people? 

A great resource I have recently come across for understanding the people we vote to represent us is They Vote for You , a website that shows you where and how your MP votes, and whether the issues they run on are congruent with how they vote in parliament. 

Now this is a bit of a side note, but when I’ve had conversations about politics with people, viral sound bites are often the main talking points that are discussed. I think it’s healthy to talk about these things but also realise that politics is also wider and more convoluted than the agendas that make the news. So, when we look at and consider politicians, we should be looking at their stances holistically rather than focusing on and cherry picking ideologies. For instance, in the US, while donald trump runs on the undeniably catchy ‘Make America Great Again’ slogan, his policies and stances run the risk of ironically not fulfilling the phrase. Consider the already confronting deportation raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Besides being horrific for those impacted, the wider implication is that migrant workers are not showing up to work on farms out of fear, which leaves produce unpicked, allowing them to go bad, which can lead to food shortages and thus increased prices. 

Reaching out to men in the way trump exclaims MAGA, dutton is looking for easy votes. We have a duty to each other, and our nation to brush away his outstretched arm, and look at the bigger picture. If ‘the honourable’ Peter Dutton and much of the LNP tell you that they’re for you and the nation, but consistently vote against protections and equitability, how disillusioned with society and your fellow citizens must you be to vote against our collective best interest?

You’d believe that someone who truly cared for you would want things like more worker protections, or more equitable entrances to the property market, or greater protections on an increasingly warming planet right? 

The actions of politicians show that the same division that is slowly tearing the US apart is also seeping into our political scene. The slow slow descent to fascism and hate does not entice me. 

Perhaps empathy has radicalised me, but there’s something to say caring about your fellow man. It is increasingly apparent that people no longer see themselves as parts of a wider community with a duty of care, but as individuals trying to get by. The scene is what’s good for me, is good for everyone, and unfortunately, we’ve been left in an odd position that appears to be the fragile cusp of irreversible change, and class consciousness. Perhaps what is happening to the US is a sign for what could happen here if we allow a lack of critical thinking and political apathy to continue. The feelings of dissatisfaction and disappointment you probably feel can easily be alleviated. In fact a solution I have found is to wake the fuck up, and get political before you look around one day and realise that the world is broken beyond repair and that your individual rights were a thing of the past.