The Oldest Trick in the Book: Panic-Driven Scapegoating in History and Recurring Patterns of Persecution (Springer 2020)

About this book This book investigates the normalisation of blame-shifting within ideological discourse as a broad feature of history, working from Churchill’s truism that history is written by the victors. To that end, it explores historical episodes of political persecution carried out under cover of moral panic, highlighting the process of ‘Othering’ common to each

Letter to Australian senators re. proposed lifetime ban on asylum seekers entering Australia

(The proposed lifetime ban on asylum seekers entering Australia has passed the lower house. You too can email cross-bench senators without even getting out of bed! * senator.hinch[at]aph.gov.au … (03) 9820 2222 * senator.lambie[at]aph.gov.au … (03) 6431 2233 * senator.xenophon[at]aph.gov.au … (08) 8232 1144 * senator.kakoschke-moore[at]aph.gov.au … (08) 8232 0220 * senator.leyonhjelm[at]aph.gov.au … (02) 9719

The Trickle Down Myth

Supply side economics are driven by policies favouring the privileged and wealthy as a purported way of stimulating investment and production. As such, they have long been a favourite strategy of those most dedicated to fulfilling the vision of ‘father of the US Constitution’ James Madison that capitalist democracy should ‘protect the minority of the

Negative Impacts on Tourism

The badly-misnamed Department of Environment has campaigned to have every reference to Australia removed from a UNESCO report entitled, “World Heritage and Tourism in a Changing Climate,” on the grounds that reporting on the bleaching of the Great Barrier Reef could ‘harm tourism.’ Unusually warm water indicative of warming globally has lead to bleaching on

Panic Hiding in Plain Sight: The Terror Scare

“The basic tool for the manipulation of reality is the manipulation of words. If you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use them.” – Philip K. Dick The use of the term ‘War on Terror’ to describe the West’s campaign of military aggression in and around Iraq over