Don Bradman's letter to Malcolm

[Osho]

Here it is. Took a while to find it.
As a then die-hard ALP supporter, familiar with the political arguments of the time, there is nothing headturning or jowlshaking as far as I can see in the letter. Bradmen's sentiments were de rigueur for many Lib supporters, and may still be. It was definitely a time of debate and each side's positions were well known ... it seems surprising that they are not so shocking as current reactions suggest. My father's younger brother was a Lib, he never got tossed out of the house despite infamous yelling matches with my father over Sunday roasts. The kids actually looked forward to his visits, strangely.

I also knew plenty of Labor folk who switched sides for the dismissal election. It was a volatile time. But Bradman's letter strikes me as much ado about nothing.

I'm more than happy for the outrageous parts to be pointed out in case I missed them.

Don Bradman is slammed over 50-year-old letter

Donald Bradman has been dragged into a social media firestorm 21 years after his death, with critics slamming him for being a 'right-wing nutter' following the release of a letter he penned in 1975.

www.dailymail.co.uk

 

[Schneebly11]

First off no one on the left is calling to “cancel” Bradman, as they are just criticising his words, they aren’t calling for statues of his to be demolished.

Secondly it’s not accurate to compare him to the likes of Margaret Court. She’s been incredibly vocal on her views and ardently pushed them for decades. At worst Bradman wrote one quiet letter to one Prime Minister but then for the most part chose to not make public political statements.

Three, there’s some pretty f**ked up sh*t in the letter, calling to “re educate people”! Right wingers would blow a gasket if any leftie used the words “re educate”.

Fourthly it doesn’t change too much regarding Bradman, sure he may want an economic policy that even Ayn Rand would think is too extreme but for the most part he kept his opinions to himself and apart from the letter never tried to influence public opinion unlike Margaret Court. So he’ll be remembered for his sports achievements unlike Court who’ll mostly be remembered for being a religious nutter.

 

[Gough]

First off no one on the left is calling to “cancel” Bradman, as they are just criticising his words, they aren’t calling for statues of his to be demolished.

Secondly it’s not accurate to compare him to the likes of Margaret Court. She’s been incredibly vocal on her views and ardently pushed them for decades. At worst Bradman wrote one quiet letter to one Prime Minister but then for the most part chose to not make public political statements.

Three, there’s some pretty f**ked up sh*t in the letter, calling to “re educate people”! Right wingers would blow a gasket if any leftie used the words “re educate”.

Fourthly it doesn’t change too much regarding Bradman, sure he may want an economic policy that even Ayn Rand would think is too extreme but for the most part he kept his opinions to himself and apart from the letter never tried to influence public opinion unlike Margaret Court. So he’ll be remembered for his sports achievements unlike Court who’ll mostly be remembered for being a religious nutter.

He's hardly representative of of the egalitarian values we Aussies love to tell ourselvers our society represents. If we want to start cancelling though the Don Award, Howard's little folly would be a good place to start. His values hardly represent an idyll for Australian sport's people.

 

[Osho]

First off no one on the left is calling to “cancel” Bradman, as they are just criticising his words, they aren’t calling for statues of his to be demolished.

Secondly it’s not accurate to compare him to the likes of Margaret Court. She’s been incredibly vocal on her views and ardently pushed them for decades. At worst Bradman wrote one quiet letter to one Prime Minister but then for the most part chose to not make public political statements.

Three, there’s some pretty f**ked up sh*t in the letter, calling to “re educate people”! Right wingers would blow a gasket if any leftie used the words “re educate”.

Fourthly it doesn’t change too much regarding Bradman, sure he may want an economic policy that even Ayn Rand would think is too extreme but for the most part he kept his opinions to himself and apart from the letter never tried to influence public opinion unlike Margaret Court. So he’ll be remembered for his sports achievements unlike Court who’ll mostly be remembered for being a religious nutter.

Re educate, yep, I get the connotations of that word.

What else in the letter is offensive?

 

[Brad Goodman]

I haven’t read it, but wasn’t it already known that he was a campaigner of a bloke, to be revered for his cricketing ability and that ability only?

 

[Osho]

I haven’t read it, but wasn’t it already known that he was a campaigner of a bloke, to be revered for his cricketing ability and that ability only?

Indeed, unflattering parts of his character have been revealed by many, for a long time now.

This particular letter seems to have initiated a new backlash, I am wondering what in the letter specifically upset people.

 

[WA ROO]

Indeed, unflattering parts of his character have been revealed by many, for a long time now.

This particular letter seems to have initiated a new backlash, I am wondering what in the letter specifically upset people.

He didn't list his pronouns

 

[Father Jack]

Probably the fact that he wanted Fraser to undo all the work Gough had done to drag Australia into the modern age after 20 odd years of LNP lethargy. Anyway, people seem more upset about people being upset than the people that were upset in the first place, so I don't know.

 

[Osho]

Probably the fact that he wanted Fraser to undo all the work Gough had done to drag Australia into the modern age after 20 odd years of LNP lethargy. Anyway, people seem more upset about people being upset than the people that were upset in the first place, so I don't know.

That is just established party platforms, is it not?
I suppose there were enough ALP voters who switched sides to be upset about if one is so inclined.
And there was indeed an election that was there to be won and lost. Lib Coalition +30, ALP -30 seats. Pretty comprehensive. Perhaps a certain undoing of policies and management styles was ... voted for by a comprehensive majority of 2 party preferred votes and seats (if only a plurality of the vote)?

Bradman's political position was so normal at the time for a broad sweep of the electorate, it seems shrill for it now to be called nut-job?

 

[Evolved1]

Calling someone a nutjob for sharing their political views is offensive towards the mentally ill. Why are leftists so insensitive?

 

[Power Raid]

what those speaking ill of the dead fail to remember is the people of Australia voted and agreed with Kerr. which means by statistics that don's view was shared by the majority.

it is strange for a journalist to get so emotional that they fail to accurately remember the facts

 

[Osho]

what those speaking ill of the dead fail to remember is the people of Australia voted and agreed with Kerr. which means by statistics that don's view was shared by the majority.

it is strange for a journalist to get so emotional that they fail to accurately remember the facts

Majority of seats, plurality of votes.

 

[Power Raid]

Majority of seats, plurality of votes.

yep 91 seats to 36

55% to 45% of the vote


whitlam gets a lot of credit for things like universal health care but many fail to know the states introduced universal health care prior to this (in a similar time to UK, nordic nations and even in limited form in the US). One can argue the centralisation and now duplication of responsibility of health is part of the reason we have the challenges we have today.

whitlam was the prime minister we had to have after the menzie's reign, similar to the recession we had to have under keating. both necessary for the nation but we should be grateful the pain was short lived.

 

[Freo Big Fella]

For something that's being reported as a bit of a historical curiosity, the hysterical reaction from elements of the right is pretty amazing.

Just wait until the guys on Sky After Dark find out about the Don's opinions re Catholics!

 

[Nuggs Bunny]

Probably the fact that he wanted Fraser to undo all the work Gough had done to drag Australia into the modern age after 20 odd years of LNP lethargy. Anyway, people seem more upset about people being upset than the people that were upset in the first place, so I don't know.

All the articles in the news I could find on this have been from tabloids reporting on the outrage. Does anybody actually care about this or has the media found another success in antagonising people for clicks?

 

[Ross]

Anyway, people seem more upset about people being upset than the people that were upset in the first place, so I don't know.

Yeah, almost nobody actually cares about this. But news sites, particularly right-wing ones like the Daily Mail linked in the OP, get their readers rock hard by publishing incendiary 'stories' that feed into the confirmation biases that they so badly want to believe in.

Bradman wrote a private letter to Malcolm Fraser praising him? He's Australia's greatest ever sportsman and generally revered for what he did in cricket, so it's easy to make a story out of this that the LWNJs are totally seething and desperately want to see Bradman 'cancelled' (whatever that means), so just get a hack to search on Twitter for 'Bradman', and since Twitter is a worldwide town square where every idiot pretty much can have an equal voice if you search for it then it's dead easy to find a few tweets that 'confirm' the story, get a known right-wing figure to comment and denounce the LWNJs as crazy loons and the job is done.

 

[JackFlash]

Bradman was many things, yes he was obstinate and he butted heads with many cricketing greats of the past, particularly Ian Chappell. His own teammates found him to be aloof and Idiocentric. So what, he was one of the world's greatest sportsmen, an icon of Australia, but he was certainly no nutjob. What madness is all of this?

 

[Pistol Night]

Bradman was many things, yes he was obstinate and he butted heads with many cricketing greats of the past, particularly Ian Chappell. His own teammates found him to be aloof and Idiocentric. So what, he was one of the world's greatest sportsmen, an icon of Australia, but he was certainly no nutjob. What madness is all of this?

Weve established evryone alive is a campaigner so retrospective confirming everyone else in history is too

 

[Osho]

Weve established evryone alive is a campaigner so retrospective confirming everyone else in history is too

That's pretty much it!

 

[Osho]

This is a much better write up than what I linked earlier, with a response from Malcolm. And if you have the appetite, 600 odd comments for your erudition (sic).

‘Dear Mr Fraser’: Don Bradman’s extraordinary letter to new PM

Sir Donald Bradman personally intervened at the most explosive juncture of Australian political history, writing to Malcolm Fraser two days after the 1975 “dismissal”.

www.smh.com.au

 

[Chief]

First off no one on the left is calling to “cancel” Bradman, as they are just criticising his words, they aren’t calling for statues of his to be demolished.

It's the Daily Mail. Their journos have a quota - ironically - of mentions of "cancelled" and "pile-on".

 

[Jascave]

yep 91 seats to 36

55% to 45% of the vote


whitlam gets a lot of credit for things like universal health care but many fail to know the states introduced universal health care prior to this (in a similar time to UK, nordic nations and even in limited form in the US). One can argue the centralisation and now duplication of responsibility of health is part of the reason we have the challenges we have today.

whitlam was the prime minister we had to have after the menzie's reign, similar to the recession we had to have under keating. both necessary for the nation but we should be grateful the pain was short lived.

It would've been probably the easiest night of Antony Green's career at the ABC if he was doing the 1975 federal election. Reckon Green would've had called the result at 6:30pm that night, then it was just a matter of time before Gough Whitlam contacted Malcolm Fraser to concede defeat.

 

[FredLeDeux]

Yeah, almost nobody actually cares about this. But news sites, particularly right-wing ones like the Daily Mail linked in the OP, get their readers rock hard by publishing incendiary 'stories' that feed into the confirmation biases that they so badly want to believe in.

Bradman wrote a private letter to Malcolm Fraser praising him? He's Australia's greatest ever sportsman and generally revered for what he did in cricket, so it's easy to make a story out of this that the LWNJs are totally seething and desperately want to see Bradman 'cancelled' (whatever that means), so just get a hack to search on Twitter for 'Bradman', and since Twitter is a worldwide town square where every idiot pretty much can have an equal voice if you search for it then it's dead easy to find a few tweets that 'confirm' the story, get a known right-wing figure to comment and denounce the LWNJs as crazy loons and the job is done.

It's funny to see the RWNJ media co-opting the term "RWNJ"

 

[Schneebly11]

It's the Daily Mail. Their journos have a quota - ironically - of mentions of "cancelled" and "pile-on".

All the articles in the news I could find on this have been from tabloids reporting on the outrage. Does anybody actually care about this or has the media found another success in antagonising people for clicks?

Lefties: “hmmm looks like Bradman was a bit of a right winger, didn’t know that, probably good for him to have stuck with cricket rather than enter politics I guess”.

Right Wingers: “LEFTIES TRIGGERED BY THE DON! WOKE LWNJs WANT TO CANCEL BRADMAN AND TEAR DOWN HIS STATUES! POLITICAL CORRECTNESS GONE MAD! CANCEL CULTURE! CULTURAL MARXISM!”

 

[Gough]

Lefties: “hmmm looks like Bradman was a bit of a right winger, didn’t know that, probably good for him to have stuck with cricket rather than enter politics I guess”.

Right Wingers: “LEFTIES TRIGGERED BY THE DON! WOKE LWNJs WANT TO CANCEL BRADMAN AND TEAR DOWN HIS STATUES! POLITICAL CORRECTNESS GONE MAD! CANCEL CULTURE! CULTURAL MARXISM!”

I wonder how the right would look at Bradman's service in WWII? Coward is a word that's been used by people unkinder than I.