Contrary Woke Propaganda on Our ABC’s Q+A

This week on our taxpayer-funded ABC’s Q+A program, they were in fine form dismissing people’s legitimate concerns. The two panellists we’ll be focusing on in this video are Nyadol Nyuon, a lawyer and human rights advocate, who was a refugee born in Ethiopia, and Maria Thattil, an author and advocate, whose parents migrated from India. According to her ABC bio, she was only the 3rd woman of colour to represent Australia in the Miss Universe Pageant. Identity is everything over at our ABC. I wonder what number you have to get to before they stop referring to you in this way.

This audience member, Janak Gorana, asked a really good question, but got a pretty crappy answer. He asked, “As an immigrant who’s spent 60% of my life in Australia, built a family, owned a home, and contributed to society, I’m deeply concerned about the far-left shift in this country. With public schools pushing a ‘woke mindset’, a surge in immigration, wokeness in climate policies with the skyrocketing prices, how long before Australia becomes unrecognisable from the one that attracted immigrants like me for its fairness and opportunities based on merit alone?”

Ms Thattil replied (in summary) “Whenever we talk about woke agendas and the far-left movement, we are effectively talking about people who advocate for the LGBTQIA+ community, who advocate for gender diversity, who advocate for these marginalised communities… We need these progressive movements to progress people who have started on the back foot and face significant inequity so that they can play catch-up, because we all deserve to be seen and represented.”

So basically her point is that we need quotas and affirmative action to level the playing field, so to speak.

At this point, Mr Gorana retorted with another great reply saying, “I haven’t really faced any disadvantage. I would very much like to think that what I’m doing is because I’m good at what I’m doing. I wouldn’t take pride in thinking that I was just given something. I just wouldn’t want that.”

Ms Nyuon then replied. “I’m going to start by saying I am woke.”, at which point Ms Thattil says, “Me too, girl! Me too!”. Ms Nyuon continued, “But even having said that I’m woke, I do accept that there are some problems with wokeness… Like any social movement, it has its problems. However, I also didn’t come to Australia on a merit basis. I came as a refugee. Despite the fact that I came to this country as a refugee, I went to school, I did a law degree, I did a BA, I did practice, I worked hard, yet every time I walk in the room, people think that I’m a diversity thing… That’s also destructive, because people like myself who have also really worked hard, get trashed, get undermined, get diminished because we’re women and because we look like this. Because somebody thinks that we don’t deserve what we’ve done. That, too, is a problem.”

So basically her point is that it’s insulting that people see her as a diversity hire, or whatever, when actually she worked really hard to get where she is, which brings us to the main contradiction of wokeness that they’ve perfectly demonstrated, perhaps inadvertently. On the one hand, Ms Thattil concludes that we need quotas and affirmative action to help marginalised groups overcome systemic barriers and disadvantages, while on the other hand, Ms Nyuon concludes that being treated like a diversity hire is insulting! Well, I’m sorry ladies, if you have one, you have the other! If you wish to have diversity targets in society, you’re guaranteed that people will treat all minority groups as diversity hires, because there’s no way we can know whether you earnt the position through your hard work, or whether you’re just there to meet some predefined targets.

The solution is simple, get rid of diversity targets. They don’t benefit anybody. If you want to get a good job, work hard like both these ladies did, as well as the audience member. Don’t play the victim and pretend that society is to blame. You’re in control of your life.

Anyway, I don’t really think they addressed this guy’s question. He said he hasn’t experienced disadvantage as an immigrant, and they don’t seem to want to accept that. I think they like people feeling like they are hard done by because of their identity, and they ain’t going to let you try to prove them otherwise.

ABC Q+A SEGMENT IN QUESTION (2 SEPTEMBER 2024)
https://youtu.be/gvckNWzgmi0

ABC Q+A SEGMENT TRANSCRIPT
https://www.abc.net.au/qanda/ep16-02092024/104274200

MUSIC
Allégro by Emmit Fenn