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02Mar2013
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Racism is nothing more than a lack of research
I have a distaste for a lot of things: bigotry, hiding behind religion, the music of One Direction and asparagus to name of few but nothing leaves a bad taste in my mouth like this shit:
This vile piece of racist propaganda has been floating around Facebook for the last few weeks serving as a nice flare gun that illuminates either the secretly racist among your friends and/or those who cannot do basic research. It is the latest in a long line of racist propaganda using incorrect Government financial assistance figures as fuel for the racism fire that burns brightly in Australia. Sadly this has been reposted by several of my friends, some of which are either professionals in the human services field, university students studying science degrees or lawyers. What the hell? To obtain a university degree, one must first be able to research, human services degrees involved learning about how the refugee system in Australia works and science degrees should teach you critical thinking.
-facepalm-
We live in the age of technology. The Age of Information, where Google is the brain 98% of the population will never have and the above picture is a testament to that. It astounds me that in the age of iPhone’s and Android smartphones, with Google literally at your fingertips, misinformation like this can continue to breed. I’m not surprised really, if people didn’t believe the first thing they are told without doing research – religion wouldn’t exist.
A quick Google search with the words “Robert Bretton Australian Government Assistance” brings up various blogs citing the photograph as a fraud who all link to this:
Australian Government assistance to refugees: fact v fiction
The photograph has done so much damage that the Australian Government has posted a rebuttal on their site for those who have an inability to do basic research .
I’m not going to replicate the entire thing here because I think it’s important that people learn to read and even though there isn’t a first grader around to assist you, at least give it a go! You can do it!
The one thing that jumped out at me with the photograph is the fact that we don’t have a Weekly Spouse Allowance in Australia and if you have a look on the Australian Government Centrelink website for the Aged Pension Payments – Aged Pensioners aren’t paid weekly, they are paid fortnightly (every two weeks) for a total of $712.00 (for a single person) which is $356 per fortnight. A couple are paid $536.70 each or $1073.40 combined per fortnight and a couple separated due to ill health is paid $712.00 each per fortnight. So the numbers don’t even match up.
Another article that was posted at theantibogan recently has debunked most myths around refugees and asylum seekers in Australia which I believe to be a very important read as well. Read the article here.
If you want to be a racist tool – at least do your research first before you look like an uneducated baboon.
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A ‘long lime’ huh?
I agree with people not being able to research – a lot of my friend group is non-uni-educated so I can understand why they don’t have tertiary research skills.
Lol. Lime.
For me the people who have been posting this claptrap *are* university educated, have jobs in helping professions and who I know have taken classes on refugee issues.
And xenophobia does not necessarily equal racism, although your moral indignation about baboons is kinda charming