#FreeKaren - Australia Labels Outsiders as Radicals, Internet Rages
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Tonight, we are all Karen. (No, seriously - I think we actually are all Karen.) #freekaren pic.twitter.com/dZ136Fr4at
— Rock Hibernia (@Hippopeteamus) September 24, 2015
Karen, in the context of the story, leaves home, starts listening to what the booklet describes as 'alternative music' (which could be literally anything from Godspeed You! Black Emperor to Mos Def to the Bananarama soundtrack) and ends up getting arrested for sabotaging a forestry machine. Whatever way you spin it, it comes out looking as if they're suggesting that straying too far from established conformity turns you into some kind of dangerous extremist. Backlash? Backlash.
Karen started listening to The Clash, and was subsequently caught by Coalition forces trying to Rock The Kasbah. #freekaren
— Rock Hibernia (@Hippopeteamus) September 24, 2015
Just say no. #freekaren pic.twitter.com/0Xx2ssP6Tj
— Michael Mazengarb (@kincuri) September 25, 2015
As if the merry-go-round that Australian politics has become wasn't rife enough for criticism already, a pretty big contingent of the Twitter-verse have jumped on this like an Italian union worker on a Goomba. Mostly they've made a point of the fact that this kind of thing, rather than stamping out radicalisation (a blanket statement in and of itself), it's just perpetuating it. More people still have been wondering aloud if this was a parting gift from recently ousted and almost universally despised PM Tony Abbott.
I was radicalised by the Goodies #FreeKaren pic.twitter.com/fn7VbNtcLc
— Kingslayer (@squig_) September 25, 2015
Having spoken at shark rally & been environment campaigner for nearly 30 years do I turn myself in or will they come & get me? #FreeKaren
— Rachel Siewert (@SenatorSiewert) September 24, 2015
About to "Radicalise" 4000 kids today at slimefest wearing my Nirvana shirt and talking about Sea Shepherd. #freeKaren
— Jessica Veronica (@Jessicaveronica) September 24, 2015
It's actually, most directly, the work of Minister for Justice Michael Keenan, who was appointed in that position by the Abbott administration, but he managed to keep his seat after the cabinet reshuffle which took place after Abbott was replaced by Malcolm Turnbull. Since the early responses, the #FreeKaren hashtag has started trending heavily across all of Australia, extending beyond the booklet to become a stick with which to mercilessly bludgeon basically the entire approach Keenan has taken to 'radicalisation'.
Pretty sure this sums up the Australian Government's knowledge on "Alternative Music" #FreeKaren pic.twitter.com/ZkNcV5qjNG
— Browny (@brownypaul) September 25, 2015
A few famous faces have even gotten in on the act, mostly politicians from opposing left-wing parties like the Greens, but Jessica Veronica (one of the two Veronicas, the ones that sing, anyway), posted about it, since their music could easily be classified as alternative. Many of the people involved in the sizeable lambasting even starting identifying as Karen, Spartacus style, but presumably with less risk of mass summary execution. The rest of the booklet was something of a goldmine for social media assault, as another section of it managed to misspell 'ideology'. This likely to carry on going round for a while, methinks.
Karen Radical installing an immobile chemical weapons facility #freekaren pic.twitter.com/ApCDxZQEKN
— michael halliday777 (@michaelhallida4) September 24, 2015
Callum is a film school graduate who is now making a name for himself as a journalist and content writer. His vices include flat whites and 90s hip-hop. Follow him @CallumAtSMF
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#FreeKaren - Australia Labels Outsiders as Radicals, Internet Rages
Reviewed by Unknown
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Monday, September 28, 2015
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Reviewed by Unknown
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Monday, September 28, 2015
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Unknown
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