Dominic Kelly
@dominickelly.bsky.social
700 followers 300 following 330 posts
Honorary Research Fellow, La Trobe University CH Currey Fellow, State Library of NSW Book: https://blackincbooks.com.au/books/political-troglodytes-and-economic-lunatics Short-form: https://medium.com/@dominickelly_ Next book: history of Quadrant magazine
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dominickelly.bsky.social
Being generous, the collapse in voting support today is obviously far worse, but the exact same dynamics are at play.
dominickelly.bsky.social
Um, didn’t you literally write the book on Australian politics in the 80s? This is very clearly what also happened to the Liberals then.
Reposted by Dominic Kelly
nickfeik.bsky.social
Royal children’s hospital Melbourne
Reposted by Dominic Kelly
dominickelly.bsky.social
I swear to god the Sat Paper regular op-ed line-up – Grant, Bongiorno, Hewson – is an elaborate practical joke.
dominickelly.bsky.social
“The one major European country that has nothing to be ashamed of in its 20th-century history is Britain.”
– Tony Abbott, serious historian and intellectual
dominickelly.bsky.social
Genuinely can’t tell if this is an error or a bad attempt at a pun.
dominickelly.bsky.social
The nerve of this bullshit artist.
Reposted by Dominic Kelly
slackbastard.bsky.social
'A former deputy head of the Ramsay Centre for Western Civilisation, McInerney has also argued the White Australia Policy did not go far enough and that white Australians may need to live in separate neighbourhoods as a form of “tactical retreat”.'

www.smh.com.au/national/nsw...
The far-right figures teaching students at a Sydney college
The dean of studies says the country will need political parties for white Australians. A senior lecturer wants an Anglo-Celtic club to inspire fear in “leftist thugs”.
www.smh.com.au
dominickelly.bsky.social
The Australian right will never give up on the idea that Tony is very smart.
dominickelly.bsky.social
Obviously we all consume too much in all sorts of ways, but no product combines enormous wastefulness and uselessness quite like AI (and crypto-currency).
Reposted by Dominic Kelly
melikhovo.bsky.social
Grateful to the editors of @nplusonemag.com for the clarity and force of this editorial.

www.nplusonemag.com/issue-51/the...
Black text on a sepia background: "As we train our sights on what we oppose, let’s recall the costs of surrender. When we use generative AI, we consent to the appropriation of our intellectual property by data scrapers. We stuff the pockets of oligarchs with even more money. We abet the acceleration of a social media gyre that everyone admits is making life worse. We accept the further degradation of an already degraded educational system. We agree that we would rather deplete our natural resources than make our own art or think our own thoughts. We dig ourselves deeper into crises that have been made worse by technology, from the erosion of electoral democracy to the intensification of climate change. We condone platforms that not only urge children to commit suicide, they instruct them on how to tie the noose. We hand over our autonomy, at the very moment of emerging American fascism."
dominickelly.bsky.social
Happy AFR power list day to all who celebrate sycophantic bullshit journalism.
dominickelly.bsky.social
Just a humble Harvard law professor who doesn't really know anything about Kissinger's career.
nycsouthpaw.bsky.social
Isaac Chotiner interviews Cass Sunstein. www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a...
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THE NEW YORKER ICO
In terms of human rights, I've always found it a little bit puzzling, given what you write, and given who your wife is, that you two were so close to Henry Kissinger. Of all the pre-Trump political figures in America, he is the one I think of as in some ways the opposite of liberal, given his behavior toward the rest of the world.
I'll tell you a story. I wrote a book a few years ago on Star Wars. We invited Dr.
Kissinger to my Star Wars book party, and he said, "You wrote a book about Star Wars? Why'd you write a book about Star Wars?" He was puzzled and courteous, but really confused. And then he came to the book party, which was quite generous. He was a busy person.
But, despite his busyness, he came to the book party.
Yeah, and then I gave a talk on Star Wars, and he came up to me afterward and he said, "Oh, I see why you wrote a book on Star Wars. There's a lot there.
It's, like, about families and it's about governments and freedom." The amount of curiosity and generosity that he showed was incomparable. I don't know anyone who showed that level of curiosity and generosity. And we really got into Star Wars. He just wanted to think about it. I know there are strong views about his career, and I'm hardly an expert on his career. But your wife is one of the great human-rights experts in the world. I asked you about him being anti-liberal, and your response was that he was very nice to you about your book.
About Star Wars.
It is certainly a touching story. But that's not totally an answer to the question.
Yeah. Well, I don't know. What he would think of this book I'd love to know.
But no second thoughts about being friends with him or anything?
I feel generally very grateful for friendship, and he was, when I knew him, a person of immense kindness.
Those who think of him as someone who was something horrible or worse, 1 don't know what to say about that. But you could have an opinion on it.
You have an opinion on all kinds of things, right?
Well, on him and his role in
government, that's not something I've particularly studied, so I don't know. I know some people who think he was a horrible historic figure. They would say,
"Would you be friends with Genghis Khan? Would you be friends with Stalin?" And I wouldn't be friends with Stalin, so I concede that.
Well, the next time someone brings up a terrible anecdote about Cambodia or Vietnam, I will definitely drop the Star Wars story to show that people have two sides.
Yeah. And I get those who think you shouldn't be friends with someone who did terrible things. I hear that. I can just say that he was, as a very large number of people would say, though many fewer would say it publicly, an extraordinarily generous friend.
Professor, thank you so much for doing this.
Great, thanks. If we go light on the Kissinger part, I wouldn't complain, because it could dwarf everything else. *
dominickelly.bsky.social
A non-fungible shared office space. How incredibly embarrassing.
dominickelly.bsky.social
I’d humbly suggest that if you’re this scared of them, you’re probably not up for the fight, and may as well give up now.