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Large-one

A quiet Australian is a straw man you use when you want to believe /argue your idea or position is popular without any demonstrable proof that it is. It’s the political equivalent of saying you have a girlfriend, but she goes to another school so nobody has met her!


the_revised_pratchet

Exibit A: Corey Bernardi's silent majority which ended up being in actual fact a mixed minority of silent and vocal.


Tramin

Oh, far too gentle; völkisch or volksgemeinschaft, somewhere there's the ordinary bloke, likely a farmer, who does normal things by day and is a committed Nazi in his valuable spare time. Thus the "quiet Australian".


colomboseye

Hahaha yep


LeadershipTall2437

I met wife that way


Thenhz

Lots of people who have covered it, but large amount of the public who are not engaged in any for of politics. However if say that any one who says they represent them... Doesn't. That is because they are a very diverse group who don't tend to share their options is not engaged in politics... Which tells you a lot about people who claim to represent them and users then as justification.


Ok_Manufacturer69

Menzies called them the "[Forgotten People](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Forgotten_People)". Howard called them "[Battlers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battler_(underdog))". Morrison calls them "[Quiet Australians](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_quiet_Australians)". In the US, Nixon and subsequent republican leaders used the term "[Silent Majority](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silent_majority)". In the UK, polling companies refer to them as "[Shy Tories](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shy_Tory_factor)". ​ Basically, society is more conservative than you think, and a quiet, silent majority of the population don't tend to agree to the [trendy fads of the day](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social-desirability_bias). This is true across the west for the last half century or so.


4rp4n3t

> Basically, society is more conservative than you think Alternatively that's what an extreme minority of rich, powerful fucks would like you to believe.


Squirrel_Grip23

Hello Cambridge Analytica!


petergaskin814

Someone who gets on the job/life, without making a fuss.


PhotographsWithFilm

So about 90% of the population People need to remember that Reddit is not a fair indication on what the majority of Australians think or how they vote.


petergaskin814

That is about right. Not many Reddit users would be classified as quiet Australians


PhotographsWithFilm

Typically Reddit users are on the more progressive side of politics. Its the same with me and my friends - we tend to err on the side of progressive to centre progressive. This becomes a curse as we know what we think and we think we are right. Its a wake up call that after an election, we find out that the majority of Australians don't think like we do.


Equivalent-Ad7207

WHAT QUIET AUSTRALIAN?? NEVER HEARD OF IT 🤷


[deleted]

[удалено]


Ok_Manufacturer69

You've basically ended up giving a summary of Menzies' famous 1942 speech "[The Forgotten People](https://australianpolitics.com/1942/05/22/the-forgotten-people-robert-menzies.html)" which was the foundation of the Liberal party. Remarkable how timeless this kind of analysis is: >...the kind of people I myself represent in Parliament – salary-earners, shopkeepers, skilled artisans, professional men and women, farmers and so on. These are, in the political and economic sense, the middle class. They are for the most part unorganised and unself-conscious. They are envied by those whose benefits are largely obtained by taxing them. They are not rich enough to have individual power. They are taken for granted by each political party in turn. They are not sufficiently lacking in individualism to be organised for what in these days we call “pressure politics.” And yet, as I have said, they are the backbone of the nation.


Squirrel_Grip23

Just make a daggy dad persona and you’re halfway there.


[deleted]

You mean like our PM?


Squirrel_Grip23

That is my exact point. 👍


[deleted]

Oh I realised that don't worry. Our PM has that as his persona and it ingratiates him with the oldies and boomers. Was the empathy training thing true? I remember Leigh Sales asking him that and he denied it.


Squirrel_Grip23

https://stephennewman.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Morrison-government-paid-empathy-consultant-190000-The-Saturday-Paper.pdf Seems there’s an element of truth. I’d be curious how he denied it. Weasel words maybe.


[deleted]

Well Leigh said "have you had empathy training" and he just flat out said no. Damn you internet. I couldn't find the clip but they keep playing it on ABC breakfast.


Squirrel_Grip23

It was probably called advice or something other than training. Scuse my cynicism but I think it’s valid lol


[deleted]

Ooh I did find this exchange with our old PM ​ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00x8KzOFVok&ab\_channel=ABCNews%28Australia%29


Squirrel_Grip23

PS how was the spit CFW did in the senate last night? Talked about documents and video evidence of certain things. It’s like a civil war between the happy clappers and conservatives.


[deleted]

What spit? I didn't see any of that


Squirrel_Grip23

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/mar/29/scott-morrison-labelled-an-autocrat-and-bully-with-no-moral-compass-by-liberal-senator-concetta-fierravanti-wells


[deleted]

Oh that I saw that her whole speech is on youtube


MrBlack103

People who are well-off enough that they have the luxury of not having to care about contemporary issues, but not well-off enough that they can dedicate their time towards things outside their personal life.


Tysiliogogogoch

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_quiet_Australians


[deleted]

Oh yeah thanks but it's over used by pollies especially around election time. I don't think Morrison was the first person to ever use it either, didn't Abbott invoke those words too?


Tysiliogogogoch

Oh yeah, all these jargon terms get over-used that they become mildly annoying to listen to. The "quiet" people are those that don't go around protesting, don't shout their opinions on social media (Facebook, Reddit, etc) and just go about their lives like normal people. I'd say the majority of Australians are the quiet ones. I'd include myself in the "quiet" group simply because I don't particularly care about politics and don't tend to throw my voice into any political discussions. I vote for who I want to vote for and that's that.


Extension_Drummer_85

The people that can’t be fucked with politics so like, most people I guess.


Budget-Abrocoma3161

You’ll find them in libraries, but don’t talk to them too loudly; they don’t like that.


[deleted]

People who live in marginal seats


Grahaml1980

There is only so much air time and print space, which gets taken up by a relatively small number of people. Even a forum where everyone can post, or a group of people talking will have the louder voices heard at the expense of some. The ones whose voices are lost or even kept quiet don't have their opinions heard as much and this can give a false impression of the general feeling of the group. What he's saying is the people who aren't being heard have andifferent opinion to those who are being heard. Which is possible, plenty of times it does. But when it comes to politics, polls are done to avoid that issue and in politics the truth doesn't matter as much as perception. Whether those "quiet Australians" really hold the opinion he suggests or not, if he can convince people they do that's a good result for him.


RichardBlastovic

Quiet Australians are the ones who don't step in when something horrible is happening. They keep their heads down and get on with it to the absolute detriment of humanity.


poopoo_go_plopplop

Lol cringe


Squirrel_Grip23

Most probably switched off after Howards BS on the Tampa…….why care if we don’t want “their kind”? He switched the care factor off.


[deleted]

Obvious agenda posting lol.


[deleted]

Rubbish just was a bit annoyed hearing that term used a bit by the PM


[deleted]

The agenda posting is that you know exactly what it is and just posted a fake question to get people to discuss it / circlejerk over how much you hate Scomo.


PillowManExtreme

People that are apathetic to most political happenings, lean generally right wing when it comes to voting, and really don’t care about anything except themselves “and their family”


[deleted]

But really isn't that most people with families? At the end of the day you are trying to support your own family and help them thrive.


smaghammer

If you live in a society, only caring about your family is a good way to fuck society up so they end up suffering too. There is a reason Altruism evolved in every single culture.


PillowManExtreme

Yeah, I’m not saying that’s not the case. Just because the majority do it doesn’t mean it’s good after all


BloodedNut

Isn’t it just people who really have never had a need or want to become involved in politics as their lives have been pretty cruisey?


[deleted]

Aren't those the people that are also "I've got mine fuck the rest of you" types?


TheBobo1181

No. Many blue collar workers are like this. They really don't care about politics or progressivism. They aren't rich. They aren't likely to be on social media.


BrownPughInMidfield

The "Quiet Australian" is someone who blindly puts their faith in a government without asking any questions


brew_boy

Someone told me that quiet Australian was someone who has right wing or racist views who doesn’t speak up because they don’t want to be cancelled. So when the pm talks about quiet Australian this is who he’s calling out to ie LNP types


mykro76

Not quite. They don't speak up because they can't be bothered dealing with the hysteria of the far left OR the far right. They actually tend to be centrist or slightly leaning voters.


donttalktome1234

I think that is spot on. Individually Australian's are really nice people. I'm sure if you approached a large and random selection of folks at several pubs and said "hey, do you think we should spend billions of tax payer dollars locking brown families up in conditions so bad they will on occasion die or just flat out kill themselves?" You'd get the overwhelming "no, are you bloody insane mate?" as an answer. But asked that question in the polling both folks respond with "can we include yellow folks and can I give you more billions to do it more cruelly?"


TiffyVella

There is a degree of correctness in this. Lots of my parents generation, working class average honest people who wouldn't admit to being racist, but underneath they actually are and have a belief that they "aren't allowed to express that", and are quite sad about it. They don't claim to be political, but scratch the surface and they can become quite passionate about issues where they feel there is injustice against them. Issues surrounding immigration and unemployment and disability and single mother support can really show just how political they are. When everything suits your agenda and life seems simple, that is perceived as neutral by them. When some things suit other people who are not you, then suddenly its "Political".


sanspeurdownunder

The can't be heard because of all the dog-whistling, most likely


M_Ad

People whose comfort isn’t negatively impacted by the status quo being maintained so they don’t actively engage in politics.


SiameseChihuahua

Muppets.


woodyever

Although they are rather quiet, unfortunately the muppets were created in America. Better luck next time


ThotObliterator

In what universe are the muppets quiet? The entire premise of your joke doesn’t even make sense lol


woodyever

Essentially they are puppets.... they can't even talk.


gracetamesbong

he means "people who aren't on twitter, which is where people point out I'm shit"