Stephen Wright

He's a nazi. All their ideas are identical.

Cover of the Nazis guide to 'degenerate art'

Who robbed the Louvre? Right answers only.

Lol, exactly.

A display of issues of Quarterly Essay with the names of media intellectual elites emblazoned on the covers.

Incredible really. 'But this is the man who once took down Gerard Henderson!' Which is apparently equal to Hedges activism, radical politics/reporting. Opposite me in my local bookshop is this display of issues of Quarterly Essay. Cutting edge Australian intellectual life in one cosy image.

Feeling puffed up because an unhinged genocidal US President says you're great is the most Australian thing ever.

Marr has always been the absolute embodiment of Australia's self-congratulatory middlebrow colonial aristocracy. Amazing to see so many liberal journos falling over in astonishment at the Hedges interview.

David Marr. Surprise, surprise.

I think you've covered things very nicely & are definitely onto something. I don't think I have thinking as coherent.

And the Bissell paper is excellent too. Thanks for the link.

Really great piece, thank you. I'd had some brain-foggy wonderings about the very argument you're making about fog supplanting trauma etc. And quite moving to read of your writing & argument being rewritten by a Palestinian account of hunger.

The Australian in good company with The Epoch Times.

Crumbs this is depressing as well as being completely insane. It’s like a plan to exterminate imaginative thinking.

Phonics is attractive because it's a neoliberal solution. You don't have to consider race, gender, class, disability etc. So if you teach reading via phonics and kids struggle, it's their fault!

A tabby cat in a basket

A black cat in a basket

Attenborough voice: The usual habitat of these shy creatures, rarely filmed, is the basket or discarded box. Several may use the same one at different times, from which they emerge to stalk their preferred prey such as cheese, weetbix, shadows, invisible objects & well upholstered furniture.

Not me, comrade. The recent media cheerleading for phonics seems bizarre to me. I mean, it's obvs partly just clickbait....

Yep. 1000%.

If you are a landlord, airbnb owner RE agent or anyone profiting from 'the housing market' and are not waking up each day consumed with deadly shame, pleading with your chosen deity to give you a little more time to redeem yourself before you are shunted to Hell, you are not fit for human company.

Companion animals can become entwined in your life in ways you don't notice. It's not just the usuals - affection, intelligence - but their intense unhuman aliveness, and when you lose them, you can feel bereft in odd ways that don't fit with other experiences of loss.

We have a winner in the 'unhinged literary opinion' thread doing the rounds, one I completely endorse, and which could profitably generate a new field of literary studies.

Well, yes. Only annoying cos they're right. 😏

Philip K Dick is grossly overrated and In Search of Lost Time is too short.

The autistic part might be not knowing if it's good or bad. The 'insight' part is feeling like you need a break to do other interesting things. Doesn't have the feeling of burnout or depression (former counsellor for autistic adults speaking).

Alternative reading, kids are very smart.

Shame, as that means you'll have to write your own.

Looking good to knock em dead for the ballroom or the house party.
Enjoy your steroid-free weekend.

So, dunno. Have a beer, try again?

Fellow citizens, and those occasionally watching, meet the Australian media class. So utterly unaware of the politics of 'reporting', so cocooned in their privileged bubble, so unalterably hilariously smug they may as well be Tories.

It's the palace of colonial power. A First Nations person wishing it would burn down seems perfectly reasonable to me.