I am one of those who think not. My girlfriend, for instance is a fierce antisemite but I just see her as a basically good woman and ignore it. And she copes with my Zionism
In a surprising move, former US First Lady Melania Trump recently declared her support for abortion rights, breaking rank with her husband’s staunchly pro-life views and policies. Confused observers were left wondering how the Trumps can maintain opposing political beliefs.
Navigating political differences in personal relationships can be challenging, especially during key events such as elections and holiday celebrations. While all relationships require compromise, should our political views be up for negotiation?
Are different political opinions a deal-breaker?
The dynamics of politically cross-cutting relationships were part of a study released earlier this year by Dr Emily Van Duyn, associate professor of political communication at the University of Illinois.
Van Duyn found evidence that political ideology is related to morals and values, with different ideologies emphasising certain morals over others.
“This divide in values prompted many differences that were insurmountable, like concerns over whether their partner was a ‘good’ person,” Van Duyn says. “Political incompatibility could also be insurmountable when it caused conflict that was persistent, unhealthy, or unresolved.”
It’s not all bad news. When conflicts and disagreements arose, so did an opportunity for recognition and discussion of those differences.
Van Duyn calls this process “negotiated exposure”, and, in some cases she observed, it strengthened a relationship. In others, it caused individuals to become more insular and engage in less conversation with their partner, triggering anxiety and bolstering the strength of their own political beliefs.
Lucy Banks has been with her partner for two years and says that navigating their opposing political opinions has been a challenge. She is progressive and a fierce feminist, while her partner is much more conservative and has expressed support for Donald Trump.
Early in their relationship Banks struggled to reconcile that their values aligned, while their politics didn’t. It challenged many of her assumptions about romantic relationships.
“There were times conversations got so heated that one of us would have to walk away or leave the room,” Banks says. “I think it initially brought up red flags for each of us.”
Since establishing ground rules for navigating conflict, their differences have provided opportunities to set a positive example of healthy communication for Banks’ teenage son.
“We don’t avoid discussing our differences, and if it comes up, we talk about it. He’s got a heart of gold and wants the best for people, and that’s why he takes an interest in politics. He just sees things differently because he’s walked a different path, but we both have the same values.”
Banks’ experience is indicative of a wider trend in Australia. According to a study by Flinders University, more people are willing to date outside their political alignments than they were 25 years ago.
The study found that Australian women have been steadily shifting to the political left for some time, with the Coalition in the 2022 federal election receiving the lowest share of the women’s vote in history. While women shift to the left, men’s political views remain stagnant.
The growing political divide
Politically mismatched relationships could become more common if political views continue down divergent gendered paths. In the US, 30 per cent of people are in romantic relationships with people who do not share their political views.
While this dynamic can work, a partner’s political views can have real-life implications on gender role expectations, the division of domestic labour, child-rearing responsibilities, and financial decision-making.
Hannah*, a 24-year-old psychology graduate from Sydney, has experienced friendship and relationship breakdowns because of political differences.
“I had a slow falling-out with multiple male friends because they tended to be a little bit more right leaning or socially conservative,” she says.
She broke up with her ex-boyfriend for similar reasons, with his remarks about her queer friends driving a wedge between them.
“If you’re constantly a little bit uncomfortable walking away from hanging out with your partner or close friends, it just grinds on the relationship over time, and that’s been my experience.”
To avoid these scenarios, psychotherapist and marriage counsellor Dr Melissa Ferrari encourages conversations about expectations early in a relationship. This will reveal whether a potential partner sees you as their equal.
Ferrari says we need to remember we aren’t friends or partners with people because of their politics, but because we love who they are. Keeping this at the fore of conflicts – instead of leading with pride or your ego – is the most important step.
“Something people don’t realise is that the need to be right can compete with a relationship.”
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Extremist influencer Candace Owens’ Australian visa cancelled by immigration minister
Antisemitic views like hers are widely heard. Why are hers not tolerated
Extremist US provocateur Candace Owens’ Australian visa has been cancelled, as the Labor government warns that her attacks on Jewish, Muslim and trans people have the capacity to incite discord.
Immigration Minister Tony Burke confirmed that the Donald Trump-aligned influencer – who has claimed that Israel was founded by a “cult” and that “secret Jewish gangs” operate in Hollywood – would not be allowed in Australia as federal Labor attempts to lower the temperature on domestic protests about the war in the Middle East.
“From downplaying the impact of the Holocaust with comments about [German SS officer Josef] Mengele through to claims that Muslims started slavery, Candace Owens has the capacity to incite discord in almost every direction,” he said.
“Australia’s national interest is best served when Candace Owens is somewhere else.”
Owens rose to fame for her conservative activism. She was a communications director for Turning Point USA from 2017 to 2019 and in 2021 joined conservative media company The Daily Wire to host her own political talk show. However, in March this year she was dismissed following a series of antisemitic comments.
She now hosts her own YouTube channel and has 18 million online followers. Owens’ comments have included describing Mengele’s experiments on Auschwitz prisoners as “bizarre propaganda”.
Jewish groups called for Owens’ visa to be cancelled in August as Burke indicated he would block it, telling this masthead: “Tickets to these events are selling for $100. I hope she has a good refunds policy.”
Coalition immigration spokesman Dan Tehan also said in August that Labor should block Owens’ visa to avoid the spread of “hateful messages”.
Owens vowed to push on with her Australian tour in defiance of the calls to reject her visa.
Speaking on Sydney radio station 2GB in August, the far-right influencer – who thinks Trump has become too moderate – said she was excited about travelling to Australia for her November tour.
“It’s kind of incredible to think people could be so fearful of just speech and conversation,” she told 2GB’s Ben Fordham.
“I was quite surprised to see that: they were like ‘Don’t give her a visa, she’s a bad person’. But I promise you it is not going to harm you to hear different ideas.”
The event website describes Owens’ tour as a delivery of “raw and unfiltered commentary on politics, culture and everyday life” as ticket costs range from $95 to $1500.
Shows are scheduled in November in Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Brisbane and Adelaide.
Entertainment company Rocksman is listed as the host for Owens’ tour, which describes itself as an organisation that specialises in “helping businesses and individuals develop strong personal and corporate brands”.
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Australian Jewish leaders take radical cleric Wissam Haddad to court amid government inaction
The country’s peak Jewish body has taken a radical cleric to the Federal Court after a slew of sermons referring to the Jewish community as “vile and treacherous people” and peddled anti-Semitic tropes.
The legal action is an example of the escalation of testing how, and whether, hate speech can be prosecuted in Australia.
The action comes after state and federal police recently laid charges against people who waved the flag of listed terror group Hezbollah, and high-profile restaurateur Alan Yazbek for displaying the Nazi swastika symbol.
On Friday, the Executive Council of Australian Jewry instigated proceedings in the Federal Court against extremist preacher Wissam Haddad, also known as Abu Ousayd, and his Bankstown-based Al Madina Dawah Centre.
The Australian in January revealed how the ECAJ had lodged a vilification complaint with the country’s human rights body against the preacher and the Bankstown centre, given perceived police inaction and an inability to lay charges, partly due to NSW’s “toothless” hate-speech criminal provisions.
The proceedings are made under part IIA of the Racial Discrimination Act – which outlaws offensive behaviour based on racial hatred – and brought to the court by the ECAJ’s co-chief executive, Peter Wertheim AM, and deputy president Robert Goot AO SC.
Mr Wertheim said attempts at mediation between the parties at the Australian Human Rights Commission had failed and that the court move was a last resort forced upon the Jewish community and its leaders.
“We have commenced proceedings to defend the honour of our community, and as a warning to deter others seeking to mobilise racism in order to promote their political views,” he said.
Among other things, the ECAJ is seeking declarations that Mr Haddad and his centre contravened section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act, injunctions to remove the sermons from the internet, and an order that the cleric refrain from publishing similar speeches in future.
Mr Wertheim and Mr Goot are also seeking publication of a “corrective notice” on the centre’s social media pages and costs, although no order for damages or monetary compensation is sought by the ECAJ.
Among other things, Mr Haddad, or speakers at his Al Madina Dawah Centre, have called Jewish people “descendants of pigs and monkeys”, recited parables about their killing, described them as “treacherous people” with their “hands” in media and business, encouraged jihad, and urged people to “spit” on Israel so Israelis “would drown”.
In most cases, he has claimed that he was referring to or reciting Islamic scripture.
The ECAJ separately filed a vilification complaint at the AHRC against Sheik Ahmed Zoud, who said Jewish people “ran like rats” from Hamas in the October 7, 2023 attacks.
That conciliation process remains ongoing but could be exhausted soon, and The Australian understands the ECAJ could file separate proceedings at the same court against Mr Zoud and his As-Sunnah mosque in Lakemba.
Mr Wertheim said Australia was a “multicultural success story” with different faith and ethnic communities living in “harmony and mutual respect”, and that the court move against Mr Haddad was to protect the Jewish community, but also the country’s social harmony.
“We are all free to observe our faith and traditions within the bounds of Australian law, and that should mean we do not bring the hatreds, prejudices and bigotry of overseas conflicts and societies into Australia,” he said, adding that the ECAJ had “no alternative” than to pursue court action.
“Maintaining and strengthening social cohesion is the role of governments and government agencies, but lately they have failed us. It should not fall on our community, or any other community, to take private legal action to remedy a public wrong, and to stand up to those who sow hatred.”
Federal and state political leaders criticised that “policing” had fallen on the shoulders of Jewish leaders, with opposition home affairs spokesman James Paterson calling it “profoundly unjust”, saying the Albanese government had “vacated the field”.
“Incitement to violence against another community is a crime and it should be enforced through criminal proceedings,” Senator Paterson said.
“If we had strong leadership from our Prime Minister, and if police enforced the law, the Jewish community never would have been left to fend for themselves like this amid an unprecedented anti-Semitism crisis.”
NSW senator Dave Sharma said he was “appalled” that a community organisation had been forced to bring private legal action, “not only to protect its own members but to uphold values and norms we all cherish”.
“That the ECAJ has been forced to take matters into its own hands demonstrates just how weak and conflicted this government is,” he said, adding that Australian values and social cohesion must be “fought for”.
NSW Upper House deputy president Rod Roberts said no religious or ethnic community should be having to do “their own policing”.
“Regardless of which community, it should not be their role and they shouldn’t have to do it,” the former police officer said, adding that Mr Haddad’s “inflammatory” comments harmed society as a whole.
Since the onset of the Israel-Hamas war on October 7 2023, debate has raged as to whether law enforcement agencies have the legislative tools to clamp down on hate speech.
In the past few weeks, police have successfully charged people under legislation outlawing support for terrorist groups and Nazi symbols, and Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke has cancelled the visas of American speakers Khaled Beydoun – for calling October 7 a “good day” – and extremist influencer Candace Owens.
“Non-direct” hate speech, however, has been harder to prosecute, given the narrow and high thresholds of both state and commonwealth legislation that outlaw very specific calls to violence, failing to capture hatred or broad incitement against an ethnic or religious community.
NSW’s hate-speech provisions, enclosed in Section 93Z of the state crime code, are subject of a Law Reform Commission review, given operability concerns.
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Texas AG suing doctor for giving trans treatment to kids; are you kidding me?
Texas Attorney General’s office: “Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued a North Texas doctor [May Chi Lau] for blatantly violating Texas law by providing prohibited ‘gender transition’ treatments to nearly two dozen minors.”
“…Growing scientific evidence strongly suggests that ‘gender transition’ interventions prescribed to or performed on children in an attempt to anatomically or hormonally alter their biological sex characteristics have damaging, long-term consequences. Additionally, the prohibited treatments are experimental, and no scientific evidence supports their supposed benefits.”
“Evidence obtained by the Office of the Attorney General revealed that a Dallas-area doctor illegally provided high-dose cross-sex hormones to twenty-one minor patients for the direct purpose of ‘transitioning’ the child’s biological sex.” (link in footnote)
A lawsuit. But what else?
THE DOCTOR BROKE THE LAW.
No criminal charges? What the hell is going on?
The doctor gives overtly damaging treatments to kids, to “transition” them. The kids don’t know what they’re agreeing to. How could they?
And the doctor isn’t arrested and charged? Why? Because she’s a doctor? Whereas, if she were a bricklayer or a truck driver, she’d be sitting in a jail cell right now? Is that it?
“Well, you see, it would be undignified to drag a medical doctor into court. The jury would be forced to hear how she dosed kids with destructive hormones, and that’s just too much. And the press might hear echoes of Nuremberg. Medical treatment that’s actually torture.”
Well, these hormones ARE torture. They rip into the natural processes of the body and try to turn them in a different direction.
What doctor would do that?...
https://jonrappoport.substack.com/p/texas-ag-suing-doctor-for-giving-trans-treatment-to-kids
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http://snorphty.blogspot.com (TONGUE-TIED)
https://immigwatch.blogspot.com (IMMIGRATION WATCH)
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http://jonjayray.com/short/short.html (Subject index to my blog posts)
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