No debate allowed

and if you dare to disagree...

I am so tired of "woke" culture. It is not fit for purpose.  It is no longer possible to debate any issue of importance or question any stance which is not the "accepted norm" without being accused of being "wrong", "racist", "homophobic", "anti-trans" or a "climate denier". 

We are also bringing up a generation of children who are not even able to think there might be legitimate alternative views because they are not being informed about them.  They are simply being told "people who think like that are wrong".

There  is a need to debate some issues. I know I will want to comment on the proposed "indigenous Voice to parliament". A same-sex couple I know (who read this blog) would like me to raise some issues of concern to them - issues which might surprise some people. Yes, I do have serious concerns about the current "transgender issue" - and they are shared by other people I know. I also believe climate change needs to be debated - because we have to live on this planet.

Tomorrow I will be back, after two years of no-show, working at the state's Showground. I will be back with a wonderful group of people I know will have missed this as much as I have. For two consecutive years we did not have the state's annual agricultural and horticultural Show. The pandemic put a stop to it. Even this year numbers will be limited but it can go ahead unless there is a last minute disaster of some sort. 

I can prowl off to the big hall where the handicrafts and cookery are displayed. I can marvel at the entries as they come in - and there always are things to wonder at - and I can help with all the work that goes towards judging and displaying the entries. Later in September we will dismantle all this and pass entries back to their owners. It is hard work but it can also be good fun. Most of working there know one another. We don't necessarily know each other well as, for most of us, we only come together at Show time but we have a common interest in making and doing. 

I know we will talk about how something has been made, how well colours have been put together, where a pattern might have come from, whether that might be the work of someone who has entered before... and much more. It is all a refreshing change from the seemingly endless debate of depressing world issues.

We do need to debate the big issues though - really debate them. We need the many sides of some issues to be presented to us. Most important of all we need to think these through - and teach children  to think them through. Without doing that we cannot make informed decisions.

I had a brief letter in this morning's state newspaper. Unusually a sentence was edited out. I had asked a question the letters editor of the day obviously did not like. It is a question which needs to be asked though so I will ask it here, "Are journalists asleep at the wheel?" Come on, we need informed debate.