- The Guardian
- Issue #2198
‘Giant’
One Nation has called Robert Menzies “a giant of Australian history.” He wasn’t that big, but One Nation don’t have much time for actual history. One Nation was responding to Defence Procurement Minister Pat Conroy’s description of Menzies as a “Nazi appeaser.” Also upset, Liberal Senator James Paterson has demanded an apology and failed to censure Conroy in Parliament. Conroy has told him to go argue with the facts.
In Menzies’ case, “giant” means he was around for a long time, also that the Liberals don’t have many other leaders they can look up to.
Partisan
This is a real word, and means being guided by advantage to one’s own political party instead of living up to an ideal of public service and objectivity in public life. What makes ‘partisan’ weaselly is when it’s used as a slur by people who’ve never knowingly done anything non-partisan. Step forward Liberal Senator James Paterson who has bravely defended Menzies and accused Conroy of being partisan. Paterson is only partisan when he’s awake (see also politicians accusing other politicians of being political).
Appeasement
Stephen Conroy is the gift that keeps giving this week! Before any progressives become all pro-Conroy because he has (quite rightly) slagged off Liberal Party ‘giant’ Robert Menzies a bit, let’s not forget that Conroy described anyone who’s opposed to the AUKUS pact as “appeasers.” In Conroy-world, China is the new Axis powers, sweeping through Asia in a deranged war of conquest, only opposed by a pact whereby Australia spends about half a trillion dollars on submarines it doesn’t get.
No need to sell the house, stock up on canned goods and brush up your Mandarin – the similarity between China and the Japan-Germany pact only exists between Steven Conroy’s ears. If you oppose AUKUS, you are not Neville Chamberlain. You’re just an Australian who doesn’t want to be ripped off.
Communism
Wait, what? Isn’t this a communist newspaper? Shouldn’t ‘communism’ be one of your favourite words?
All good points, dear reader. In a rambling speech at the USA’s 250th birthday celebrations, Donald Trump denounced communism ten times, and described it as the complete opposite of the US way. Trump being Trump, it’s not clear if he was talking about actual communism or recent successes by Democratic Socialist candidates in the US Democrat party. Trump says a lot of things, your guess is as good as ours.
Goyslop
This is an unusual weasel word. Many readers won’t have heard of it. ‘Goy’ is a Hebrew word, sometimes negative, for a non-Jew. It came into English from Yiddish. In antisemitic discourse, many utterances are attributed (falsely) to a Jewish elite which the antisemites think controls everything. So this ‘elite’ creates ‘goyslop’ for us ‘goy cattle’ to consume. For antisemites it means low-quality food supposedly foisted on non-Jews by Jewish businesses or businesses that are assumed to be controlled by the imaginary Jewish elite.
Legitimate (criticism, protest)
Weaselly because vague, ‘legitimate’ is something everyone understands, but nobody gets to spell out. People who argue for adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Association (IHRA) definition of antisemitism are at pains to say that they don’t want to ban “legitimate” criticism of Israel.
That’s a relief, except that in practice, it means that the likes of Jillian Segal, the government’s special envoy against antisemitism get to say what’s not legitimate. Curiously, IHRA fans never give any examples of what a legitimate criticism of an apartheid state that’s carrying out a genocide would be. It’s almost as though they’re more interested in policing criticism of Israel.
This use of ‘legitimate’ will be familiar to protesters who would like Australia to take action on climate change. They’re used to being told to stick to legitimate protest that doesn’t inconvenience or get noticed by anyone.
