WATCH: The First ‘Q&A’ Of 2017 Was A Cauldron Of Ignorant & Venomous Takes

For a brief while, we had a reprieve. The ludicrous, unconstructive arguments between Australia‘s politicians and media semi-celebrities were constrained to either Twitter or whatever secret murder clubs they all go to together on the weekends. But, dear reader, that time is over: ‘Q&A‘ is back.
Whether you watch it because you think there’s a chance you might glean something useful about current affairs or because you hate yourself, watching ‘Q&A‘ is a universally unpleasant experience. To make the show ‘interesting’ they pit staunch, vocal ideologues who are diametrically opposed to each other, in the hopes that they will leap past Tony Jones and engage each other in mutual combat. Often times, it gets very close.
Tonight’s panel was a particularly intense mix: Liberal MP Josh Frydenberg, Victorian premier Daniel Andrews, 16-year-old climate change activist Xiuhtezcatl Martinez, conservative writer Helen Andrews and conservative journalist Daisy Cousens – the latter two of which are both strong Trump supporters.
It went pretty much exactly how you’d expect: a lot of pointless arguing and empty soundbites, and the brief part of the show that wasn’t that was largely just super toxic bullshit.
Refugees – that’s a topic on which people would tend to show at least a degree of humanity right? Because they’re desperate people seeking refuge from violence and death? Haha, no, of course not. It’s a great opportunity for people to be huge assholes.
Take, for instance, Daily Cousens listening to the story of two Syrian refugees starting new lives in Australia and choosing to immediately follow that up with a patronising comment about how immigration tends to get “sentimentalised” – of course it gets fucking sentimentalised, it’s about people’s lives. Just because you personally have never experienced hardship in your life doesn’t mean other people are being dramatic when they’re talking about fleeing actual persecution.

But don’t worry, it gets even better: Helen Andrews listens to a man talk about fleeing Syria because he was short and tortured and then when asked how she feels about it says that there’s no cause for concern because the Trump immigration ban is just 90 days – which is actually only true of everywhere except Syria, for which it is indefinite.

We can only look forward to next episode, where they’ve slated Dr Karl against a swarm of 10,000 wasps.
Source and photo: ABC.

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