Horse 2799 - A Moral Compass With No Needle Points Nowhere

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/morrison-ministers-slam-the-twitter-ban-on-donald-trump/news-story/50b2d232ec4a9dcc736d9b62fe814015

Senior Morrison government ministers have slammed the silencing of outgoing US president Donald Trump by social media giants after the pro-Trump siege of the Capitol. Josh Frydenberg and Acting Prime Minister Michael McCormack spoke out against Twitter’s decision to permanently ban Mr Trump days before he leaves ­office next week, as Labor welcomed the move to kick the ­Republican leader off most major social media channels.

Mr McCormack has also been attacked for comparing the US Capitol siege — which left five people dead and was the first time congress has been successfully stormed since 1814 — to last year’s Black Lives Matter protests.

- The Australian, 11th Jan 2021

It should be a pretty easy thing to condemn an armed uprising upon the nation's capital and the Congress of one of long standing military allies; especially one to whom we have been obedient servants and gone to wars for 70 years that don't even remotely concern us, right? However, as it stands there isn’t even one Liberal Party MP, let alone the acting PM , who has condemned the radical right insurrection in the US last week. Morrison’s modern Liberals & Nationals are clearly pandering to extremist & crazy views, by tacit silence and complicity.

On the surface it seems very odd that Australian politicians appear to be more vocal about Twitter banning Trump for inciting a coup than they are of Trump actually inciting a coup. Suddenly this became about an issue to do with free speech and that that same free speech should be absolute; including if it is an incitement to violence and destruction of property.

In the absence of the Prime Minister (Scott Morrison) who is on holiday (which is fair enough), the acting Prime Minister Michael McCormack has almost seemed to say that he would rather Twitter allow Trump to incite further violence because he feels “uncomfortable” about depriving him of his free speech; including when the exercise therein results in violence. There is a really obvious absurdity here when you consider that the frequently nicknamed "Leader of the free world", aka the President of the United States could call a press conference in an instant and the press would duly report what he had to say. I do not understand how you can claim a suppression of free speech in this case.

“I feel pretty uncomfortable with those measures which were announced. Freedom of speech is fundamental to our society,”

“As Voltaire said, ‘I might not agree with what you say, but I defend your right to say it’. Those decisions were taken by commercial companies but personally I felt uncomfortable with what they did.”

“I don’t believe in that sort of censorship. There have been a lot of people who have said and done a lot of things on Twitter previously who haven’t received that sort of condemnation or indeed censorship,”

- Acting Prime Minister Michael McCormack, 11th Jan 2021

I also find it absurd that the condemnation is being directed at Twitter, which is a private corporation and explicitly tells people in its terms of service that:

https://twitter.com/en/tos

We reserve the right to remove Content that violates the User Agreement, including for example,  copyright or trademark violations or other intellectual property misappropriation, impersonation, unlawful conduct, or harassment.

...

We may suspend or terminate your account or cease providing you with all or part of the Services at any time for any or no reason, including, but not limited to, if we reasonably believe:

i - you have violated these Terms or the Twitter Rules and Policies or Periscope Community Guidelines,

ii - you create risk or possible legal exposure for us;

iii - your account should be removed due to unlawful conduct,

It should be appallingly obvious that an incitement to violence and especially one which results in the storming of the Congress is a pretty egregious violation of law; and considering that Twitter as a private corporation would rather not be the carrier of possible future messages which might cause the same, then their reasons would be very easy to understand. Twitter isn't a common carrier and has at least some basic duty of care obligations to the general public. Furthermore, in their terms of service, they can both terminate an account and cease providing services for literally no reason at all.

All of this is a secondary issue anyway. All of this is a giant case of misdirection. The obvious question which should be shouted from the rooftops is: why do Liberals not condemn Trump personally for his conduct?

This isn't even a matter of hyperbole any more. The refusal of the LNP leaders to condemn fascist incitement to violence & right wing terrorism is a disturbing reminder that Australia has a serious problem. Whether that's because the leadership of the Liberal Party is so incredibly craven that they do not want to disturb America, or whether the leadership of the Liberal Party is so craven that they do not want to disturb News Corp is still unknown.

It shouldn't have been that hard.

See? This is the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Boris Johnson, doing something which any member of our Government should have done. That wasn't so hard was it? And yet how many members of either the Liberal Party or the National Party of Australia have done this? Zero.

As I write this, the President of the United States has less than a fortnight left in his tenure of the office. I really do not think that an open statement of the truth is very likely to put the standing between our two nations in doubt. Admittedly I do not have a particularly good understanding of philos and how it relates to the nation state but I do know that what we saw last week was a strike against the very workings of democracy of the United States. If we fail to rebuke the current President and the actions which have been incited, then in this case we actually hide civic love, if rebuke is truly what is needed for the good of that person, or indeed a nation. 

For years this President has been spouting out racist remarks, refused to condemn white supremacists, and when his remarks incite the storming of the Capitol building, what's the reaction of the Australian Government? Silence. By saying nothing, we are saying that we are prepared to walk on by this. 

If your moral compass is so devoid of purpose that there's not even a needle that points in any direction at all, then what faith should I place in the government that they will do what is right?