gonna do a short timeline of relevant framing, as a kind of blanket response to white people replies and convos I’m seeing, about Liberal Party politician (description matters later) and prime minister John Howard ratcheting up white nationalism in the years before he was sacked.

Dec 2005: gangs of drunk whites hold racist brawl at Cronulla (in the seat of Cook).
26 Jan 2006: gangs of drunk white racists attack POC across BDO Sydney.
Jan 2007: BDO asks everyone to leave Oz flags at home.
Jan 2007: elites use BDO request to ratchet up white nationalism.

the request by BDO organisers to leave Oz flags at home was reported as a ban by the rabid murdoch mastheads because of course it was. Every politician in spitting distance was asked to opine on this fictional ban - in reality, a request prompted by targeted, racist violence.

[my first BDO was 2010, the bits here about 2006-07 are not an eye-witness account. I remember the increasingly overt white nationalism, like Howard sending the army to control Northern Territory Aboriginal people, trying (and failing) to save his leadership/seat/government]

anyway so the Cronulla “riot” - targeted racist violence - was noisily promoted by racist radio fixture Alan Jones. He and 2GB are notorious for stoking racism, misogyny, and bullying politicians, especially women, into submission eg to put gambling ads on the opera house sails.

I mention 2GB inciting racist violence in the seat of Cook in 2005 because a major plank of Morrison’s constant campaign comms is to go on 2GB for a matey sycophancy session knowing the “serious” outlets will “report” verbatim whatever he says eg the slavery lie last year.

anyway January 2006. Political elites - Liberal and National Party politicians and murdoch staffers and the rest - were ramping up white nationalist violence so in 2007 BDO organisers *changed the date* and moved Sydney away from 26 January. Because of targeted racist violence.

in this 2005-07 period of John Howard and murdoch mastheads and racist Sydney radio figures etc etc deliberately inciting white nationalism, including the targeted racist attacks in the seat of Cook, Scott Morrison was running for pre-selection in the seat of Cook.

John Howard lost the seat of Bennelong the same year Scott Morrison won the seat of Cook.

Look. At. Our. Naming. Practices.

It is well-documented that both have career-long records of not only dishonesty, incompetence and profligacy but also of saying and doing lots of racism.

[just on the seats of Bennelong and Cook in the 2005-2007 period, something I emphasise often to students is time and place. Time and place. Always strive to anchor the essay/analysis/narrative as accurately and relevantly as possible in time and place eg here: 1770, 1788, 1901]

as with almost every other politician here from the first NSW legislature through federation and into the 21st century, the political career of Scott Morrison is bolstered by racist violence and in fact relies on racism in more general terms.

this is my abridged offering of context to white people replies and convos I am seeing along these lines:

•why does 26 Jan look like this every year? This ugly mess?
•the “jingoism” - white nationalism on 26 Jan and 25 April - started/was ramped up by John Howard.

it is very Sydney-centric, like almost all the white 26 Jan convos, for the obvious reasons. It is also neocon voters in wealthy Sydney seats who choose racists like John Howard and Scott Morrison to represent them and thereby enable their white nationalism to do more harm.

the Liberal Party is the most powerful organisation in the country bar none. It is also the most powerful white nationalist organisation in the country.

more detail here, from being at BDO 2010-14 and media coverage. The analysis is organised around proliferation of southern cross tattoos after 2005 racist brawling in the seat of Cook and 2007 request by BDO organisers to leave the Oz flag at home. https://imatthewsblog.com/2015/12/12/southern-cross-ink-on-patriotism-and-violence/

correction sorry the notorious targeted racist violence at BDO was 2006, the BDO organisers’ request to leave Oz flags at home was 2007, THEN the decision to change the date due to racist violence. Again, this is Sydney BDOs, mine is a Sydneysider perspective I admit it https://twitter.com/imusing/status/1353570047118045185