Culture

Cory Bernardi Tried To Quote Voltaire On Twitter; Quoted A Convicted Neo-Nazi Instead

Accidentally, we assume.

by Alex McKinnon  27 November 2015

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Cory Bernardi’s once-ironclad position atop Australia’s Crazy Right-Wing Pyramid has been under threat lately. Jacqui Lambie, Mark Latham, a seemingly unsquashable Pauline Hanson, the Reclaim Australia movement and relatively new faces like Queensland MP George Christensen have all staked their claim to be 2015’s Worst Opinion-Haver, and Bernardi’s been a bit left behind in the rush.

Possibly to shore up his position, a few days ago Bernardi sent out a tweet supposedly quoting French Enlightenment philosopher Voltaire: “To know who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticise.” Bernardi presumably meant Islam or the Racial Discrimination Act or something, as opposed to the immensely powerful tabloid newspapers which largely dictate public discourse in Australia, viciously attack those they perceive as rivals and give people like Bernardi oxygen, but what are you gonna do.

Problem for Cory is, Voltaire never said that at all; it’s a phrase commonly misattributed to him, but really stems from the interesting mind of Kevin Alfred Strom, an American white nationalist, neo-Nazi, Holocaust denier and anti-semite who pleaded guilty and was convicted on child pornography possession charges in 2008. Strom used the phrase in his 1993 work All America Must Know The Terror That Is Upon Us. The “terror” of the title, unsurprisingly, is non-white people.

This has not gone unnoticed.

Considering that original tweet was sent five days ago, Bernardi seems set on riding this one out. Good luck with that, buddy.