As the controversy surrounding Eddie McGuire and his comments continue, and Holden reconsiders its Collingwood sponsorship, Strohfeldt Consulting founder Robert Strohfeldt, weighs in on the debate.
Holden is considering its sponsorship of Collingwood because of comments made by Eddie McGuire. If Eddie made the same comments about a white, Anglo-Saxon male, there would not have been a peep out of the Chattering Classes.
The absurdity of it all is not just that he said it on Melbourne morning radio to an audience of five-eighths, of one-third of FA, but that what he said could be correlated to violence against women. (Mathematically sound statistical analysis has no place in a debate based on emotion.)
Political correctness really has taken hold and a small minority of self- appointed crusaders use social media to impose censorship on the majority.
Of those who are highly offended, I wonder how many actually heard the banter and the context in which McGuire’s statement was made? Context is everything, but nothing to these people. One of my closest friends, who sadly passed away suddenly, was gay. My two daughters called him Uncle Charles, as he was also a neighbour and spent so much time with them. We were all devastated by his death. But his legacy was my daughters grew up with the understanding that a person’s worth is not judged by their sexual preference.
The Chattering Classes would have been aghast though as I would sometimes greet him with, “How is my poofter mate?” He would describe me to his circle of gay friends as “my knuckle dragging, ex-footballer mate from Queensland.” Taken out of context, both statements would be seen as derogatory and inflammatory.
We had a monthly dinner “date”. Charles was an architect, highly intelligent, educated and great company. I am sure that some people must have thought I was gay when they saw the two of us out having dinner together. Charles once asked me if I felt uncomfortable about this. “I don’t give a f…k what people think” was my response.
But the Chattering Classes are all about being seen to be correct in all things political. Borrowing a line from Paul Keating “They are all tip and no ice-berg.”. Being “seen” is much more important that “doing”.
George Orwell was right, but it was not 1984. It took until 2016 before the Thought Police ruled.
Whilst Eddie is coping a barrage, Islamists are openly saying that homosexuality is punishable by death under Sharia Law. Also, under these medieval laws, women are treated as second class citizens, yet the same people wanting Eddie’s head on a stick are silent about these very open and broadly reported beliefs.
Social media, whilst having many positives, also has an insidious side. Facebook, Instagram etc. have not only done a great job in conning advertisers about their commercial worth, they are the medium of choice for bullies:
- Teenagers who harass peers for trite reasons, but with huge and sometimes tragic consequences.
- Loud mouthed, self-appointed guardians of a new social order in which freedom of speech (and they hope thought) is crushed. Though small in number, they are amplified exponentially so that major advertisers such as Holden think they represent the majority.
I am no great fan of Eddie McGuire. But the impact of his antics are negligible in comparison to effect the social media loud mouths are having on freedom of speech and democracy. Maybe that is why they get on so well with the Islamists.
Self- appointed political correct police are not a recent phenomenon. Back in 1979 at university I used to laugh at the academic elitists who would only drink French red wine and smoke Cuban cigars, whilst they sat around and discussed the plight of the working masses.
They gravitated to Russia, some even visiting Moscow and returning full of praise for a system that machine gunned whole families who dared to try and escape from their Utopia. (The Berlin wall sure as hell wasn’t erected to stop people trying to break into the East German paradise).
Anyone who disagreed with them was called a Nazi. Yet Stalin made Hitler look like a pacifist, murdering over 50 million of his own people. Both were killers who embraced “ethnic cleansing” with a passion, but one gained respectability in the eyes of the Chattering Classes.
In 1994, these same style of activists wanted nothing to do with the movie The Lion King. It promoted sexism, homophobia and racial stereotyping. How many millions of children have grown up with a warped sense of social justice after seeing this hideous movie that is a blight on any civilised society?
Maybe it is a major reason for all of the mass shootings in the USA? Forget tougher gun control, stamp out The Lion King, Finding Nemo and all other Disney propaganda movies. He was widely known as being anti-sematic. Hang on, that is ok.
So back to good old Holden. A brand that once was an embodiment of the quintessential Aussie personality. But no longer. The Chattering Classes say there is now no such thing as an Australian culture and way of life. And they are doing their best to ensure we join their international peers to become one big mono-culture.
“Football, meat pies, kangaroos and Holden cars”, was purely a male pitch and didn’t consider the large percentage of female buyers. The “boofy bloke” image never was representative of all buyers. It was a man’s world back then and there is no argument that societal attitudes have changed for the better.
But equality does not have to come at the expense of the recognition of differences between men and women. “Ice-skating, truffles, fairy penguins and Fiat Bambinos” is the way we are headed though.
An adversarial approach to guys like McGuire and his mates will not achieve anything but resentment. Though he apologised, I very much doubt he meant it.
Rather than embarrass and berate him, maybe someone should have taken him to a refuge for women and children who are victims of domestic violence. That would get the message through far more effectively.
The way it has been handled, he is more than likely pointing out the hypocrisy I mentioned and feeling bitter. It could have been a lost opportunity to turn him into an advocate.
