If you listen to those who defend the protesters milling around outside Parliament House this week,you’d believe this was nothing but a movement of everyday Victorians driven to the edge by months of lockdowns who oppose legislation giving Dan Andrews further emergency powers,bolstered by those hostile to vaccination and those against mandatory vaccination.
What then,were those “everyday Victorians” - including a clutch of state Liberal politicians and conservative commentators - to make of the Trump flags in their crowd,the appearance of nooses,or the adoring reception granted to singer Claire Woodley,who dedicated her performance ofI Am Australianto the “brave victims of satanic ritual abuse”?
This was the language of the bonkers US-bred conspiracy cult QAnon,which holds that numerous political leaders are Satanists who murder and torture children.
Off-stage,out in the cybersphere,were the ranters. Consider a fellow named Riccardo Bosi,a former special forces soldier. He presents himself as leader of the AustraliaOne Party,an outfit deep into conspiracy theories,whose followers handed out pamphlets at the protests.
Vaccines,Bosi propounds,will kill your children with the willing complicity of depraved and corrupt political leaders. Oh,and the vaccine comes with a barcode that can be scanned at the injection site,apparently by “globalists”.
Declaring himself dedicated to peace,he nevertheless predicts a festival of hanging after a coming judgment by his people. Here he is on one of his recent videos:“I’m warning everybody now,we’re going to hang former prime ministers,former justices of the High Court of Australia,we are going to hang billionaires ... we’re going to be hanging an example from every piece of the Australian machinery,the polity,the bureaucracy,the judiciary,the military,the media,everybody is up for the high jump. If they do deserve to hang,they will hang.”
What also might we make of a group of young men chatting on a Telegram “freedom” activist channel in the lead-up to the protests,a recording of which was obtained byThe Age?
It includes one man speaking of his visit to Dan Andrews’ private home,where he was told by a neighbour the Premier “wasn’t in”;a lament about lack of access to guns (gun ownership,not vaccination,should be mandated,one of the voices says);an assertion that “they’ve got the military holed up in the Crown Casino”;and much scorn for “NPCs”.
“NPC” is a term imported from extremist America and online gaming to describe everyday people as automatons,or Non-Player Characters,“who don’t know what’s going on”.
The conversation concludes with a discussion about storming the parliament if Andrews managed to pass the pandemic legislation.
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“Don’t worry Sampson,bring your steel caps mate,I’ll see you on the 16th. We will be able to tap those doors down,” says one voice.
“Something’s gonna happen;something’s gonna happen,” adds another.
“Oh yeah. A hundred per cent,a hundred per cent. Something’s gonna kick off that day. One hundred f---in’ per cent.”
It didn’t,as it happened. The pandemic legislation hadn’t been concluded by November 16,and protest numbers had dwindled to a hard core under the eyes of police. Perhaps the Telegram chat group amounted to nothing more than a bunch of blowhards.
And yet,other extremists were circulating the home addresses of Labor politicians,and families of elected representatives have been living in increasing terror.
Meanwhile,anti-terrorist police quietly charged a number of people associated with the protests,including one man who allegedly encouraged others to bring guns and execute the Premier.
Should there be surprise that Trump came to some minds when Prime Minister Scott Morrison chose,after days of demonstrations,to declare in one breath that violence could not be tolerated,and in the next that it was time for governments to stop telling people what to do and for Australians to “take their lives back”?