Other than being a shark net for the chum of content that gets thrown at the internet on a minute-to-minute basis, Reddit‘s AMA function provides some genuinely interesting insight into the minds and opinions of notable figures. With regards to politics, it’s now becoming seen as a vital tool to interact with a younger skewing, more connected and engaged political audience.
So when everyone’s favourite Greens senator from Western Australia in Scott Ludlam steps up to the plate, we definitely learn an interesting thing or two about the upper house’s Cool Hand Luke.
Here’s five of the more interesting things we learned about DJ S-Ludz from the AMA he conducted overnight.
1. Straight up, the dude’s a master troll.
With Reddit being a predominantly text-based platform, you’d be right to assume that, if it were left unchecked, people posing as notable personalities could simply assume an identity and run an online Q&A where they spout some truly outrageous shit for the sake of stirring the pot a little bit. But fortunately AMAs require at least some sort of verification, and that verification process is pretty simple: Just post a photo of yourself with the AMA details in it and you’re good to go.
But why be simply content to follow the rules? You’re being gifted a little blank canvas to have some fun with around those parameters after all. Senator Ludlam, never one to pass up an opportunity to get in a casual rib here and there, did exactly that. It’s subtle, but it’s a good’un.
The deft deployment of Comic Sans is a sure fire way to get people’s backs up, and people’s backs were indeed well and truly up.
When questioned – practically immediately – about it, his response was devilishly plain.
“I wanted to see how mad it would make people. Was hoping for a backlash and was not disappointed.“
2. He believes Attorney General George Brandis thinks he’s a lot smarter than what he actually is.
You’ve gotta believe in your heart of hearts that being a Senator in the current Federal Upper House would have to be a trying proposition at the best of times. You’ve got a ragtag bunch of crossbench rookies running roughshod over the whole room, headed up a party whose leader will sell his own political ideals for a dime if it means staying in the media headlines for one more day. Couple that with a decidedly unpleasant Liberal majority and a Senatorial speaker who legitimately believes legislating same-sex marriage is the slippery slope towards acceptance of bestiality, and the tension headaches must surely flow.
But in particular it’s Attorney-General George Brandis who Senator Ludlam is puzzled by. Brandis, being at the forefront of metadata retention and anti-piracy laws, is a favourite topic amongst Australian Redditors, and thus his name was raised on multiple occasions during the AMA, and Ludz wasn’t shy about offering his personal opinion on the man.
“Brandis is in a bit of a separate category even to his colleagues, because he believes himself to be so vastly more intelligent and learned than the mere humans he finds himself surrounded with.“
But his solution to this, at times, maddening mental hubris is, again, fairly straightforward.
“We should just make him watch his metadata interview again. And again. I certainly have, and it cheers me up every time.“
And he continues to encourage this kind of public humiliation of the Attorney General by stating we should never stop putting up videos that expose the Attorney General’s flagrant disregard for Parliamentary process, particularly when refusing to answer questions during question time.
It’s enough to turn you grey, I tell you.
3. His ideas on how the Liberal Party could foreseeably be voted out are articulate and rather sensible.
Far from being the alarmist, reactionary party they once were – particularly within Tasmanian state politics where their slice of the pie is a lot bigger, for example – the Greens in recent years have softened to provide something of a fulcrum between the two major parties. They’re still not exactly the third hat in the ring that they’d like to be, but thanks to a series of erudite representatives, like Senator Ludlam, they’ve displayed a solid ability to articulate ideas free of the muckraking that dominates ordinary partisan discourse.
So when it comes to ideas on how the tide of public opinion could be turned to the point where the incumbent Abbott Government could conceivably be voted out, his explanation is kind of beautiful.
“Whoever is Prime Minister in 2016, whether it’s abbott or some less overtly offensive stand-in, it is the ideas that need to be challenged and discarded. We have to work on the fact that it is still electorally possible to win votes in climate denial, aboriginal dispossession, institutional child abuse (as long as the children are from war zones or military dictatorships) and out-and-out class warfare. If we can seriously attack the ideas and render them less electorally appealing, then there’s hope.“
Just don’t hold your breath for a double dissolution, no matter how many triggers for it appear.
“It would a require a Prime Minister with courage, and we don’t have one.“
4. He’s really interested in how new technologies can be applied to old-style political campaigning.
This is particularly relevant this week, given the looming Victorian State Election on Saturday. If you think about it, it’s still kind of remarkable that in 2014 the primary method for political parties to spread awareness of policy is via front line advertising; physical handouts of printed pamphlets handed out by party volunteers or via mailbox dropping, large scale door-knocking in residential electoral areas by the candidates themselves, and via election day how to vote cards. To make the individual voice heard, Town Hall-style meetings and conventions still take place – only relatively recently with a national upgrade via the ABC’s Q&A.
So with the wealth of technology available to people, either via smartphone app or digital video link and the like, it’s kind of remarkable that some sort of tree-graph app isn’t available that collates party policies and lets people wade through what’s important to them, ultimately coming out with the right political candidate for them.
Ludlam has been paying attention to the developments, along with fellow Green MP Adam Bandt – whose electorate, the seat of Melbourne, is statistically the youngest on average in the country, and therefore theoretically has the highest technological literacy – and is highly interested in the potential that new technologies have of revolutionising the political process; getting candidate’s faces in front of more people in a faster and more cost-effective manner, but without sacrificing the personability of individual encounters.
“We’ve already found that digital tools are helping us do seriously old-school things like large-scale doorknocking and phonebanking. The stuff that seems to be working best is around enabling conversations – peer-to-peer politics rather than broadcast. I’m intrigued by what happens when we really start seeing town-hall style stuff adapted online – as yet, my AMA catchment is too small to be heard over the noise, but maybe it’s not so far away that we start seeing genuine distributed democracy making an impact on mainstream debates.”
5. All in all, he just comes across as a really cool guy.
If he could hang out it any TV universe, he’d blast off to go chill on the decks of Serenity.
“Firefly. The one, and only Firefly. Because it’s perfect.“
He’s pretty clued in to indie music from around the country.
“Favourite band? I’m still adoring ‘Paper Kites‘, gorgeous lil Melbourne outfit.“
Biscuits have a much larger role in determining Australian politics than you may think.
“Tim Tams – when we have them i believe in god. And when we don’t, we vote against whatever is being debated.“
But despite the insanely busy schedule that a Senator has, he still knows how to relax and take a load off. Be it in Canberra, or at home in WA.
“Unwinding time is a precious and rare commodity – if it’s a sitting day, it’s likely no more than brief sci-fi and perhaps a brief dram from (Greens staffer David Paris’) unusually top-shelf whisky selection. On non-sitting days if i’m at home I try to get to the ocean and away from tiny distracting screens as much as possible.“
You mightn’t agree with his politics, and you mightn’t agree with much of what he wrote here. But I feel pretty strongly that you’d have to agree that if more Australian politicians were as calm, articulate, and relatable as this, we’d all be in a much better place.
Photo: Stefan Postles via Getty Images.
