I don't know why so many people call him a leftist. The more I read by him as well as about him, the more and more I know that he's some sort of Australian version of a wingnut. Maybe, to some degree, some Down Under version of Justin Raimondo, or a non-New Agey version of the conspirituality angle, but that's as charitable as I'll be to him.
Take his book on COVID and Australia. It's not good that he and his wife were separated for some time. That said, first, as the only continent-sized nation-state, the Australian government knew that strict controls of sea and air routes were smart. Second, Helmer should have known something like this would be the case given Australia's traditional high level of antipathy in action toward immigrants, using the same tools for the same reasons.
But, claiming nothing like this had happened since the Holocaust? First, laughable, hysterical and over the top. Second, given his past history of playing footsies with antisemitism, bigly hypocritical. (But, not alone in that. Plenty of wingnuts in the world love to say either "We had it worse than Jews" or "We had it worse than Blacks." Wingnut Irish-Americans are great at that second one, claiming they "really were" so-called "white slaves." And, people like so-called "War Nerd" John Dolan abetting that is disgusting.) He's even more laughable when he combines general shit with the antisemitism.
His book on Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 isn't even getting a link. The biggie, which he won't tell you, but the Wiki page does, is that Russia's story has changed repeatedly over time. That doesn't mean that the Dutch legal process has been perfect. But, it means that one should have big chunks of skepticism about Helmer's claims.
Helmer otherwise has a good track record of ignoring information inconvenient to his narratives. Or of being worse than the worst of Counterpunch of olden days in his knee-jerk anti-Western nuttery. (Tis this that makes me wonder if the oligarchs he claims backed Putin to replace Yeltsin line his pockets, or if the Russian state does.
Oh, and off that link? Other than being an apparent antisemite, he's also a bigot in other ways.
Welcome back from your August holidays, which in Europe, aren't unique to Russia, John.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Your comments are appreciated, as is at least a modicum of politeness.
Comments are moderated, so yours may not appear immediately.
Due to various forms of spamming, comments with professional websites, not your personal website or blog, may be rejected.