Some titles write themselves.
There’s no need for anyone to write about this idiotic story, of course. The hapless Sussan Ley, desperate for some lock-step backing from her army of goons and Gomers, sought to make an issue of Albo’s Joy Division t-shirt. The Liberals have been looking to play the antisemitism card at any half-opportunity, but pretty much no one thought of this as more than a confected micro-opportunity, and Ley just ended up looking silly(er). One notable nitwit bought Ley’s shtick, however, which is enough reason to post on it here.
Last week, Melbourne’s ABC afternoon radio program had a “spin doctors” session, with two invited commentators arguing for their political “winners” and “losers” (92′). The host brought up Albo’s t-shirt, and the nitwit commentator went to work (103′):
Loser. So, sixty-two year old Prime Minister of Australia, wants to be cool guy wearing his cool punk band [t-shirt] from the 70s. Joy Division is a reference, and quite a grotesque reference, actually, to these groups that were formed in Nazi concentration camps during World War 2, during the holocaust. Joy Division were sex slaves. That was Jewish and other women impressed into sexual slavery in order to service the Nazi Party. …
Look, I don’t think [Ley’s charge of whatever] it is [a long bow]. You know, the guy’s gotta have other t-shirts. He had to have known that he was going to be photographed, filmed getting off the airplane, and apparently didn’t want to put on a suit. I don’t know, maybe this is his pajama shirt. But he could have turned it inside out. He did know, apparently. He was on a podcast back in 2022 and was informed to the origins of the band’s name. Whatever. It’s a punk band.
I think it sends, if not a bad signal, at least an insensitivity. I think that Sussan Ley’s got it right in saying it’s a time where issues of antisemitism, the Jewish community’s really heightened emotions. And why wear a t-shirt that could possibly be inflammatory? I think it’s just an absolute miss, and I think he should have come out really quickly and said “Oh, what a mistake. Sorry.”
Not that it should matter, but this snide and very stupid sermon was delivered in smug, born-to-be-listened-to American tones. It was excruciating.
So, who was this preachy American twit? It turned out to be Sarah Overton, the marketing and management guy for the Institute of Public Affairs. The I P fucking A. The don’t-tread-on-me zealots, who can’t see a bowl of muesli without chanting “woke” three times, are now sermonising about Albo’s t-shirt.
Now, to be fair, the IPA does have an article up, Way too much fuss over a simple t-shirt. That article, however, turns out to be from 2016, defending (correctly) a pink t-shirt for girls that got some lefty twats all hot and bothered. Hypocrites.
It’s bad enough having the sort-of Left, one’s sort-of natural allies, engage in this gotcha garbage. But now the libertarian Right is doing it? Is there anyone remaining who wants to argue in good faith, based upon substance and reason?
So it was not just me annoyed by her accent/spiel?
Her accent and tone really contributed to the awfulness.
An Unlikely Tribute: How Cult U.K. Band Joy Division Found Inspiration in Auschwitz – Haaretz News
Ian’s father had served in World War II, which may have led to his initial fascination, Deborah maintains. But it was his deep empathy for the suffering of others that allowed him to identify with Holocaust victims. It’s fair to say he was also morose, a quality underscored by his deep drone of a voice. But it was Curtis’ sense of compassion that enabled him to come up with the relentless lyrics of “No Love Lost,” about a sex slave’s forced sterilization or abortion:
“In the hand of one of the assistants, she saw the same instrument which they had that morning inserted deep into her body, She shuddered instinctively. No life at all in the house of dolls. No love lost. No love lost.”
The song also contains a spoken-word part entirely lifted from “House of Dolls.” In “So This Is Permanence,” Curtis’ handwritten notes for the song begin with the heading “House of Dolls.”
Other early tracks, like “Conditioned” and “Crimes Against the Innocent,” delve into similar themes — shame, guilt, frustration and pain, set to stark, mournful soundscapes that echo with pain. But as Savage explains, Curtis pushed music beyond punk’s sensationalist rebelliousness, its explosion of anger and pent-up emotions directed at an unspecified “you.” His lyrics were a first-person retelling of horrific situations in which he assumed both complicity and powerlessness. Like De-Nur, he pictured himself in the musical retelling of atrocities.
“The assassins all grouped in four lines / I did everything, everything I wanted to / I let them use you for their own sake.”
Was he drawing a parallel between World War II and the futility of England’s youth at the time? Or were those lines a betrayal of his own conflicting emotions — of feeling trapped, helpless, both violated and violator.
Thank you very much, Lost. That is a fascinating article.
Joy Division was never my thing, I didn’t know how Curtis and co came up with the name and I didn’t do the ground work for this post that I typically do. But I was damn sure Curtis and co weren’t nazis. It is amazing to read the back story.