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around the traps

I saw this: Twitter / vanbadham: I despaired about Tony Abbott ... then looked up a few more quotes from Abbott's book.

Conservatism starts with an appreciation of what is and what has been and tries to discern the good from patterns of conduct. Conservatism prefers facts to theory; practical demonstration to metaphysical abstraction, what works to what’s in the mind’s eye. To a conservative intuition is as important as reasoning; instinct as important as intellect…

- Tony Abbott, ‘Battlelines’ (2009)

...which is interesting as it captures the twisting of the words 'fact', 'theory' and 'good'. Facts to Abbott means solely 'what feels right to Abbott' (In the case of the Coalition v the ABC, 'feelpinions' have become evidence | World news | theguardian.com). If someone presents facts that contradict his comfort zone, he will dismiss them as 'theory' and anything he does is 'good'. This goes a long way to understanding how he can glibly dismiss leading global economists, the entire climate change scientific community or even his own sister's sexuality. I suppose people with the same comfort zone will applaud him for trusting his gut over science, economics, human rights and diplomacy.

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