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Last updated on March 6th, 2018 at 12:30 am
“Fuck you,” writes a cheery UK reader. “You are utter scum in every way.” Well, I suppose I should apologise. In fact, everybody should apologise, all the time, for everything, according to English sorryista Amanda Woodard in the SMH:
So Jesse Kelly has been arrested on charges including manslaughter. His aunt was allegedly caught on tape suggesting a cover-up to her nephew. Police, according to local residents, have abused their powers in Macquarie Fields for some time, taunting, goading and beating up young men on the estate. And the Government has, for years, ignored the plight of the poor, dispossessed communities who live there.
Is it likely that any of these people will apologise for their role in this tragic story? Is it possible someone just might admit that they made a mistake? I think we all know the answer.
If they all apologise at once – the police, local residents, Jesse Kelly, his aunt, the government – it kind of cancels things out, doesn’t it? I demand that Woodard apologise for such a stupid idea.
- I’m sorry the plod stood around like stale bottles of piss for four nights instead of going in with water cannons, rubber bullets, no.4 birdshot and billyclubs upside the pointy heads of those arrogant deadshits- give ‘em a bit of real oppressions to whine about. Funny no-one has mentioned dear old grand-dad’s links with revolutionary communist groups through the rail union, and the apparent anomaly between his statements about rich vs. poor and the little urchins are in a Dickensian world where they steal to eat, yet are all in HSV, Von Dutch and Kappa gear (possibly shoplifted).Posted by Habib on 03/13 at 09:27 PM • permalink
- In every way? Are you still doing that thing with the lotion?Posted by richard mcenroe on 03/13 at 10:08 PM • permalink
- Tim, I’m sorry. You drove me to it. I love your website in every way, and you showed me the light. I’m now going to auto-erotically asphyxiate myself, because I just can’t stand the fact that this life is so gorgeous. Oh, Jeez, I don’t really want to do it (my colleagues will have a load of extra work to do), but it’s the principle of the thing. Still, at least I’ll die with a hard-on, which is the way my Mum would want me to go.Posted by David Gillies on 03/13 at 10:08 PM • permalink
- How about a National “I’m Sorry” holiday!! A day off and 20% loading to make sure we show the proper amount of guilt. For good measure we all buy a copy of the SMH that day. We will surely feel like shit after that.Posted by swassociates on 03/13 at 10:09 PM • permalink
- Does Amanda Woodward live in
MacQuarie Fields?Posted by Susan Norton on 03/13 at 10:39 PM • permalink
- folks, let’s not forget the compassionate head tilt as we apologize, or our sincerity will be in doubt.Posted by Mr. Bingley on 03/13 at 10:59 PM • permalink
- My point too, Murph – disposessed?? They live all their lives off the taxpayers tit and they are disposessed??Posted by Jack from Montreal on 03/13 at 11:58 PM • permalink
- Jack from Montreal — Send them more taxpayers, dammit! Have you no compassion?Posted by richard mcenroe on 03/14 at 12:36 AM • permalink
- Political correctness means always having to say your sorry.Posted by BattlestarGallactica on 03/14 at 01:05 AM • permalink
- I’m sorry that Amanda Woodard is an raving lefty idiot. Is that how it’s supposed to work?Posted by ArtVandelay on 03/14 at 01:29 AM • permalink
- My late mother worked for several years as a social worker helping mostly with elderly and disabled elderly people. That was fine, they were just what you would expect.
But were her eyes opened with the “poor, dispossessed”. She found out that about a third of then were people down on their luck who were trying to get back on their feet. They were no problem, and had usually waited until the end of their tether before asking for help. These people were NOT happy to have to ask for help – they had their pride and they’d dig ditches to support their families. No problem with people like that.
About a fifth were actually disabled (mostly intellectually) and were simply incapable of helping themselves very nuch. No problem with people like that, either.
But about half were professional dole-bludgers, spongers off the system. They knew every lurk, every angle, and how to play all the social welfare agencies off against each other. They earned a living, basically, through welfare, and were able to live a very distinctive ‘welfare lifestyle’. Some of these loosely-defined familes were 2nd generation unemployed, and were busy spawning the third. As this was the 1980s, doubtless they are right now spawning a fourth generation of professional welfare recipients.
Last time I was home (a few months back) I cruised through the largest enclave where these people live. Same old same old! The best moment was a drunken bellow from a verandah where four blokes (all smoking, all drinking, all wearing beanies) were queued up. The one at the front was yelling “Hurry up and come, you bastrd, it’s my turn to fuck her!”
My friend (a local social worker who is the most cynical person I know) said words to the effect that it was dole day, they get this woman drunk every dole day and go thru her all day. She has 4 kids by 4 different men. The taxpayer supports them all. He knew all the ‘men’ on the verandah. All in their 30s, none had ever held a job that Centrelink knew about.
We are supporting these bastards why?
MarkL
Canberra
We are supporting these bastards why?
I think I know: some self-appointed social experts recently posting on this site (one of whom unfortunately turned out to be real crybaby) told us that society will collapse into its natural state of… collectivism. Only massive welfare handouts is staving off this inevitability.
Some guy with a huge beard wrote a book about it, too.
Posted by Hamish McFootpath on 03/14 at 02:07 AM • permalink
Political correctness means always having to say your sorry.
Excellent maxim. To that end, I’d like to suggest we go in hard with a pre-emptive SORRY.
Posted by Hamish McFootpath on 03/14 at 02:13 AM • permalink
- Maybe the cops could break up the next riot with riot batons that have SORRY! printed on the batons in raised letters, backwards. That way you could tell which ones the cops were sorry about hitting upside the head. You could read it as soon as the bruising and swelling went down.Posted by JorgXMcKie on 03/14 at 02:23 AM • permalink
- The Sorry Stick. Brilliant. And as you suggest, they can ensure they’ve apologised to all.Posted by Hamish McFootpath on 03/14 at 02:34 AM • permalink
- *knock-knock*
Come in!
*Craaassh-bang-rattle-rattle*
Open the door and come in!!!
Sorry!
Posted by Spiny Norman on 03/14 at 03:11 AM • permalink
- The Gumbys do Sorry. I like it.Posted by Hamish McFootpath on 03/14 at 05:02 AM • permalink
- The idea is that everybody should change their attitudes. Saying you’re sorry is how you indicate that you now have the correct relation to things. That this involves everybody switching places is a secondary problem.
The leftist fallacy in fact is that there are no secondary problems. Direct action always works.
Erving Goffman on apology http://home.att.net/~rhhardind/goffman.apology.txt the relevant snippet.
- Fantastic post MarkL although you answer your own question to an extent.
“We are supporting these bastards why?”
Because of the people on welfare as you said “third of then were people down on their luck who were trying to get back on their feet…About a fifth were actually disabled (mostly intellectually) and were simply incapable of helping themselves very much…”
That’s why we have social welfare. To help these people, not the scabs on society you later talked about.
In the end we have two choices.
Either reform the system in such a way that the scabs are located and plucked off from the system. That’s the difficult costly time consuming way.
Or scrap the system entirely. The people down on their luck and the disabled would suffer but so would the scabs. Cheap easy and effective.
What we can’t continue to do is continue proppping up the bludgers, both at the lower end and in the middle class. I remember the horrible feeling I had back in school when I went to school hungry on half AusStudy and listened to a girl who was recieving full AusStudy boast about the Swatch Watch she had bought that week with the government’s money.
