Breaking news: society is crumbling! Andrew Bolt today hashes over a series of gruesome crimes — a child prostitution ring in Sydney, the Snowtown murders, the Anita Cobby murder, the Bega Schoolgirl Murders, the Macquarie Fields riots — and lays the blame squarely at the feet of the moral decay that comes when we trash traditions like marriage and vilify religions. And listen to grunge music.
The strangest part of the article is his slandering of the band Live, whose society-corrupting days surely must be long past. Bolt writes of the Snowtown murders: “Some of these men, and eight of their victims, lived on pensions. At least two killings were done as a CD played a grunge hit: ‘I kill you in my dreams, I’ll turn the other cheek during the day, I’ll kill you all.'”
Fans of heavier alternative rock (not grunge) will recognise these lyrics as belonging to song HeroPsychoDreamer from 1997 album Secret Samadhi. Murder fans will also recognise it was not HPD played on repeat during some Snowtown murders, but Selling The Drama, from 1994’s Throwing Copper. An odd mistake. In fact, only one journalist has ever previously made it …
It’s June 9, 2006, and society is crumbling. Just look at these gruesome crimes: a child abuse case in Morwell, riots in Wadeye and Macquarie Fields, the Snowtown murders, Jaidyn Leskie, the Anita Cobby murder, the Bega Schoolgirl Murders. And what binds these crimes together? Could it be, Bolt asks, that “we ask for trouble when we let traditions crumble, marriage weaken, culture coarsen and responsibility slide”? That “the freedoms loved by the strong can make monsters of the weak”?
Sound familiar? Indeed, a huge chunk of today’s article is lifted wholesale from his 2006 effort. Observe:
Take the Snowtown bodies-in-the-barrels murders. What on earth — or in hell — could have produced the killers who tortured and murdered 11 friends, lovers and relatives, even snacking on their bodies?
Lift another rock. We hear the main killer, John Bunting, say he was abused as a child. He later got married before moving in with another woman, who had six children by several men.
His accomplice, Robert Wagner, was also abused as a child, and left to drift through school without ever learning to read or write. At 14 he was taken off the streets by a pedophile.
Helping them was James Vlassakis, who’d been abused by his late father and raped by his half-brother, before taking to heroin.
Some of these men, and eight of their victims, lived on pensions. At least two of the killings were done as a CD played of the grunge band
Live: “I kill you in my dreams, I’ll turn the other cheek during the day, I’ll kill you all.”
And today:
Take the Snowtown bodies-in-the-barrels murders.
It wasn’t just an evil gene that produced monsters who tortured and killed 11 friends, lovers and relatives, even feeding on their flesh.
The lead killer, John Bunting, claims he was abused as a child. He left his wife and moved in with another woman, who had six children by various men.
Accomplice Robert Wagner was also abused as a child, and was never taught to read. At 14 a paedophile took him home.
Helping them was James Vlassakis, who’d been abused by his father and raped by his half-brother, before taking to heroin.
Some of these men, and eight of their victims, lived on pensions. At least two killings were done as a CD played a grunge hit: “I kill you in my dreams, I’ll turn the other cheek during the day, I’ll kill you all.”
But how did he come up with the wrong song six years ago? I don’t know. Perhaps, as a number of courts have decided, he’s just not that great at journalism. — Cam Smith
A forlorn hope, then, that once Bolt’s regular Hun column went behind the pay-wall we’d never have to read about it again. Oh well.
Anyway, for Andrew Bolt, every day is Judgement Day. He lives on anxieties. It can’t be easy – so much to hate, so little time. No easier than being able to put out regular amounts of this “commentary” or whatever it is. Hardly surprising he falls back to previous efforts.
Still, he knows his audience – people paying to read Bolt’s views are not likely to know, and less likely to care, if it’s simple repetition or not. More likely it benefits them. The essence of propaganda is simplicity and repetition after all, and as his hungry consumers get what they pay for and his employees get what they pay for, it’s all “win-win”, as they say. Apart from the stress on poor Bolt.
You could point that out on his blog. Oh wait….
Which is why I pay for Crikey. Thanks for that…
Earth to Bolt- hideous crimes have been happening before and after the introduction of the Pension.
But why no mention of the Backpacker Murders?. Is it because the killer was a council worker?
“it was not HPD played on repeat during some Snowtown murders, but Selling The Drama, from 1994’s Throwing Copper”
And a good thing too. That was a much, much better album. Still not as good as their first, though. I’ve never been at all tempted to do anyone any harm while listening to either, though.