It’s a line you’ve either overheard at a bar spewed by a drunken nationalist or immortalised on a sticker on the back of a ute. It’s a line you’ve either unequivocally agreed with or awkwardly shifted away from. Theantibogan is a website that does neither. It aggressively challenges the very origins of the catch phrase that has divided a nation.
Referring to itself as an anonymous entity playing Internet watchdog, it republishes the diatribes of people making publicly racist and other forms of bigoted comments under the guise of patriotism, the protection of a so-called constitution of Freedom of Speech and a defence of a so far undefined Australian ‘culture’.
The hypocrisy of the ‘love it or leave’ line is that the very people who are touting it are usually the ones who are so outwardly fed up with the state of the nation. They exhibit no love for the culturally diverse, progressive and educated Australian society that has been built on the backs of migrants. Australia truly is a multicultural country with one out of every two people either born overseas or having a relative born overseas. It would seem that if you’re the kind of person who believes in the ‘love it or leave’ mantra, you must either learn to love or put up with multiculturalism – or pack your bags.
It seems that racism has always been a subtext in Australian society from the invasion of Australia and the declaration of Terra Nullius (the idea that Aborigines were not really people, but vexatious fauna) to the White Australia Policy and the subsequent decades of discrimination towards Asians, Italians, Greeks, Indians and other scary, slightly different looking lifeforms.
Successive Australian governments have continued to disadvantage Aboriginal Australia, giving with the one hand and taking with the other. Meanwhile the rest of society watches on, unwilling to challenge the frequently presented negative generalisation that Aboriginal people are all drunken criminals.
Last week, the Australian Football League (AFL) promoted ‘Indigenous Round’ which was supposed to slide us harmoniously into National Reconciliation Week. Tens of thousands of true blue Aussies cracked the shits at Adam Goodes who pointed out a girl in the crowd who aggressively screamed at him, calling him an ‘ape’. Later on she claimed she didn’t know that the term was racist or offensive in any way, much to the soothing tuts and nods of those defending freedom of speech.
Many have been quick to denounce her actions but a similar amount of people have been quick to defend her. Perhaps she should have taken a ‘love it or leave’ approach to Aboriginals who can play football, vote and be counted in the National census. Security asked her to leave.
In 2011, one in seven people was racially discriminated against, which is nearly 3 million people. Nearly half of our population hailing from a culturally diverse background has experienced racism and three out of every four Indigenous Australians regularly experience racism. Nearly 30% of people living in NSW and Queensland harbour negative views about Muslims and it can be argued that such irrational resentment can contribute to a shift towards extremism for some misguided young men.
Islamaphobia is rife in Australia with sensationalist media outlets like Today Tonight, A Current Affair and various Murdoch rags fanning the flames whenever there is a slow news day. So desperate are these aspiring journalists to hit a nerve and attract publicity to a sensitive story that they rarely bother to illustrate the thoughts and feelings of mainstream Muslims in Australia, instead choosing to interview underground garage-preaching shady sheikhs ad nauseum about how stoning women who have been raped should be part of an Australia that Islam apparently wants shifted away from democracy and equality.
So where does the ‘love it or leave it’ mantra fit in here? In 2010, Australia welcomed fewer than 2% of refugees worldwide, yet after reading an issue of The Daily Telegraph or the Herald Sun on any given day, one would be forgiven for thinking that there were hordes of faux asylum-seekers literally docking their cruiseliners at Bondi and hacking through the beach-goers with machetes and Qurans. Yet when one takes a closer look at where refugees are actually coming from around the world, we can see that out of the top refugee contributing countries, Burma (Myanmar), Bhutan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Ethiopia are all healthily represented – all with Muslim minorities.
The ‘love it or leave’ and the ‘f— off we’re full’ approaches are divisive and destructive to the cause of cultural diversity and societal harmony. It can be argued that people caught up in image and identity inferiority are more inclined to become extremist and isolationist. If there’s one way to radicalise a person risking their life by escaping from a country full of war and terror, it’s to label them as being the very scum they’ve run away from.
Why risk a self-fulfilling prophecy by trying on the notion that all human beings can find commonality and share a sense of community with one another, regardless of background or religion? These guys wouldn’t.
www.theantibogan.wordpress.com
@theantibogan
‘Love it or Leave’ – The Irrationality of Racial Bigotry in Australia. | Vibewire.
you said it... 
“love it or leave it” strikes me as the least patriotic thing to say..
if you love your country – or the country you chose or maybe just happen to live in – you should actively, and constantly be part of the discussions aimed to make it BETTER.
in the same way that you are only truly a friend when you are not only able to see but also point out when they are acting like a total dick, in my eyes, it is our civic duty to point out what is not to love in Australia – and help find solutions to improve it.
Well Said, czerni and great article MMU. Agree 100%
Since when does Australia have freedom of speech? We don’t even have a Bill of Rights.
Good article, something decent to read on the way home. ABC has a similar article at the moment, just try and avoid the frustrating comments section http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-06-06/green—racism/4734886.
+1
“Successive Australian governments have continued to disadvantage Aboriginal Australia, giving with the one hand and taking with the other. Meanwhile the rest of society watches on, unwilling to challenge the frequently presented negative generalisation that Aboriginal people are all drunken criminals”
Unfortunately it isn’t a generalisation is it boys?
The government gives? Oh yes it does boys. But all to no avail. Billions in fact. But according to the court jester Dunn the gubmint isn’t doing enough, LOL.
“Nearly 30% of people living in NSW and Queensland harbour negative views about Muslims and it can be argued that such irrational resentment can contribute to a shift towards extremism for some misguided young men.”
They harbour negative views boys? Noooo! Wow this Professor Dunn has such insights doesn’t he boys? Is this oxygen thief being paid with taxpayer dollars?
They harbour negative views after seeing Muslim knuckle draggers in Sydney CBD calling for beheadings.- And other such things as : Jihadi wars all over the world. Drive by shootings, 20K terrorist attacks since 9/11.
What drug is this fuckwit on?
I gather while venting your spleen you refer to sociologist and UWS academic Dr Kevin Dunn?
Like other respected researchers Professor Dunn bases his findings on evidence gathered by a number of universally accepted protocols.
His research was published and is available to other researchers for peer review. Other researchers can then use his findings for their own research in which they may or may not have different findings. That is the nature of scientific research.
The bogot brain on the other hand conducts its “research” thus. Someone sees people from a different country or of a different culture and the primitive part of the brain kicks in. They then anecdotally transfer their “evidence” to their mates in the pub or at the barbie.
Their “research” is then reinforced by shock jocks, the gutter tabloid press and any number of dodgy websites. Fired up and pumping, the bogot goes out and joins a “Defence League” where in the company of like-minded testosterone junkies he (almost always a “he”: women are there merely for decoration and to give the appearance that the bogot believes in gender equality) then has his fantasies reinforced by group think.
No research, no methodology, no science.
And most importantly no facts, see above -that’s how your brain works Paul.
References please!