Congrats to Waleed Aly for snaring the Gold Logie last night. My first thought: Excellent. He can melt it down and trade it for cold hard cash. Then he'll finally be able to buy that house!
Er, but then I remembered that of course it was made of fool's gold. So it's back to renting for poor Waleed -- unless some devoted fan starts a crowdfunding campaign on Pozible or something ...
In any case I was hardly surprised by his win. While the Logies purport to be a fair and democratic reflection of the viewers' collective opinion, I think they're quite a way from this in reality. That's because the various TV channels decide which of their personalities they'll push into contention.
Selecting the finest in Aussie TV Land is not unlike voting for a PM, really. On election day you do get to choose from a range of pollies. But you don't get to choose who to choose from, if you get my drift.
So the Logies are not truly rigged. But they're manipulated to some degree in that wins result from a combo of insider nudge tactics and genuine public opinion.
Needless to say, the fluffy wuffies on Twitter and elsewhere saw the choice of Aly as some sort of paradigm-busting cultural event. (And as usual they want it both ways: Australia is admirably egalitarian for awarding him, and deeply racist for criticizing the win ... WTF?)
Really, all it showed was that the sneering hipsters who dominate Aussie TV culture desperately wanted him to get the gong. (And that's not mainly because he's non-Anglo, BTW. It's because of his religion, Islam -- which as any sane adult knows, is not a race.) And the viewers were happy to support this goal when casting their votes.
And why wouldn't they be? To use the anodyne PC-speak favoured by social justice warriors Aussies have long been "tolerant of diversity" anyway.
True to form the crusading Aly himself framed his win in drearily right-on social justice terms:
Aly has taken out the top prize at Australian television's night of nights, dedicating his Gold Logie to "Dimitri, Mustafa, and all other people with unpronounceable names like Waleed".
"Waleed" unpronounceable? Eh?
Perhaps he was talking about the smug lefties that surround him in the studio. Wouldn't be surprised if they struggle, prolly 'cause they're so used to referring to that footy guy, Wally.
Anyhoo, "Aly" is even more of a doddle. Certainly less of a tongue-twister than "Aloysius" ...
And what was all that about a bloke called Mustafa who said he can't get a job if he uses that name? Well, all I can say is don't tell these guys. Doesn't seem to have done them any harm.
So, all in all some pretty meaningless PC cant from the Gold Logie winner.
Speaking of which: "Hall of Famer" Noni Hazlehurst actually managed to outdo him in that regard:
"For many decades Play School has been a safe haven for small children in an increasingly complex media landscape and world.
"I started to see a world through the preschoolers' eyes to see how free and unafraid they are to just be. They haven't yet been conditioned.
"But also how easily frightened and overwhelmed they are. How easily abused, and particularly how empathetic they are. No child is born a bigot."
And as that little gargle itself attests no leftie sleb ever becomes an adult, either.
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