I've missed my chance to board the Outrage Train. Maybe if I jump in my Magna, I can head it off at the next station, which I think is Resignation Now. If I make it in time, I'll get on board this train, and along with what seems to be just about everybody, scream for the resignation of Immigration Minister Dutton over his text that somehow ended up in the wrong hands. If you don't know what I'm talking about, he sent a nasty text ABOUT somebody to the wrong person, that person being the person about whom he was being nasty in the first place. All I could think was 'Ooops', when I heard about this, not 'This Foul Sexist Misogynistic-' mainly because I loathe the misuse of the word 'misogyny' and every possible derivation thereof '-Oaf Must Tender His Resignation Immediately And If Not Then Turnbull Must Sack Him!'. Hey, don't get me wrong. I'm no fan of Dutton and I find it offensive a politician should be given the power to remove someone's citizenship - that should be up to a judge after due judicial process. But having said that, I do think the overcrowding on the Outrage Train (seriously, there are people hanging out the windows and being dragged along at the caboose) is extremely bloody unnecessary. People should have stopped on the platform at Overreaction Station, and perhaps walked back down the steps to Think About It Street, and had a brewski at the Calm Down Inn.
He typed a text in which he referred to journalist Samantha Maiden as a 'mad fucking witch' and pressed send. Unfortunately, the text went to Ms Maiden herself, instead of his buddy Briggs. And oh my giddy aunt, hasn't everyone well and truly lost their shit?
I've just viewed footage of Senator Penny Wong stating this is a test for PM Turnbull, and that Dutton has not shown the 'high standards ministers are expected to demonstrate' (she might have a little point with that one), and that 'Australians don't think it's acceptable'. With respect, Senator Wong, I am Australian and whilst I don't think what Dutton said about Ms Maiden was pleasant, I also don't frigging CARE! Particularly in the context of what he believed would be a private text to a fellow minister.
To people complaining about 'gendered language', he called her a 'witch'. Was he meant to call her a 'warlock'? Next time Dutto might have to refer to a journalist as a 'non-compos mentis copulating being of non-specific gender with supernatural abilities of flight and telekinesis', although this might make his fingers tired when he's typing his text. When I look at it this way, I can see why he went with 'mad fucking witch'.
Also, if anybody thinks a politician is not going to use an occasional swear word in what he or she perceives to be a private communication, all I can say is this: How's the weather there is Fairyland?
Perhaps I'm missing the point, but I am really not understanding why everybody has gone troppo. He called someone a 'witch'. Get over it; there are far worse names to call someone. If he had a gripe with a male journalist, and typed then mistakenly sent a text in which that journalist was referred to as a 'fucking dick', would everybody be scrambling to board the Outrage Train? I somehow doubt it.
I'm just waiting for some stupid title for this, with the suffix '-gate'. 'Witch-gate', perhaps. 'Text-gate', maybe. Sigh.
Think it over peeps. Did he call for the invasion of a sovereign nation? No. Then let's all calm down, shall we?
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