In your view, what part of the media coverage of those allegations were fair?

I think the Guardian piece that had broken some of the main information about him, the initial information came with The Spectator.

I think that's part of the controversy there, because as we know, it is a conservative, if not, you know, right wing media outlet.

And a lot of the allegations about him had been uncovered by a person who can be charitably described as a white supremacist, you know.

So I think part of the problem is that the source of the information was of questionable provenance, but that did not negate the information itself.

And the information itself very much did point to someone who it seemed more and more as more and more came out was a serial fabulist.

The Guardian one is what I first saw.

But does the fact of social media mean, though, that there is an obligation, a new obligation on journalists to constantly police that and to make sure that their reporting isn't being distorted by correcting it? Well, that's the interesting question,

Tell me about how, um, religion looks for the rest of your family.

Um, well, yeah, my partner is Jewish, um, and so she w- list- will, has listed herself as Jewish and, and our two kids together, um, were raised Jewish, are, are being raised Jewish, and so they're, you know, they're being listed the same way.

My oldest daughter, um, who's from my former partner, um, you know, she's, like her father and very much like her mother, is, uh, non-religious.

So for her, we've, you know, listed her as that and, and, and so there is that variety there, but they, what, you know, what the caller just said raises a really important point.

I remember in, after the Christchurch attack in 2019, um, and the mosque over there, and the Muslim community in Australia kind of felt a bit under siege at the time.

Um, the 2021 census, I believe it was, there's a lot of, you know, community messaging going around saying, um, you know, "Even if you're not a practicing Muslim or you're, or you're, you're not very aggressively Muslim, please make sure you list yourself as Muslim so the community, so the country sees our presence." And I know for a fact that the Jewish communities are trying to kind of have a similar, um, message out right now because it's very important for them to be seen, to have their numbers recorded, and so even if you're not a practicing Jew or, or, or, you know, let's say you're, you're someone who's maybe lapsed or whatever, you still list yourself as such so that the numbers reflect the size of the community overall.

Um, and the Muslim community is very much probably saying the very same thing right now as well.

Sami, for people who might have distanced themsel- themselves from a religion that they were previously affiliated with, what do you think is going through their minds as they're answering this question?

Tell me about how, um, religion looks for the rest of your family.

Um, well, yeah, my partner is Jewish.

Um, and so she w- list- will, has listed herself as Jewish and, and our two kids together, um, were raised Jewish, are, are being raised Jewish, and so they're, you know, they're being listed the same way.

My oldest daughter, um, who is from my former partner, um, you know, she's, uh, like her father and very much like her mother, is, uh, non-religious.

So for her, we've, you know, listed her as that and, and, and so there is that variety there.

But they... you know, what the caller just said raises a really important point.

I remember in, after the Christchurch attack in 2019, um, in the mosque over there, and the Muslim community in Australia kind of felt a bit under siege at the time, um, the 2021 census, I believe it was, there was a lot of real community messaging going around saying, um, you know, "Even if you're not a practicing Muslim or you're, or you're, you're not very aggressively Muslim, please make sure you list yourself as Muslim so the community, so the country sees our presence." And I know for a fact that the Jewish communities are trying to kind of have a similar, um, message out right now because it's very important for them to be seen, to have their numbers recorded.

Mm.

Definitely.

Word of the year for you, Sammy? It was the alternatives to rage bait, which I felt were in contention, or should have been in contention, were engagement wank, which is the act of furiously posting opinions you don't believe in, but just as strangers can argue with you.

So, for example, I don't care about this issue, but I got an engagement wank out of it.

Algorithmic blue balls, which is a noun meaning the emotional state produced when a platform teases outrage but never delivers resolution context or consequences.

I watched 47 clips about the collapse of Western civilization, learn nothing, classic algorithmic blue balls.

And finally, of course, moral hard-on, which means the brief intoxicating feeling of righteousness experienced immediately before posting something unbelievably stupid.

Example.

where the teams before the olympics people just get a letter saying right you are you're doing the pole vault so well there's so there's so many improvements i'd make to olympic sports archery very dull would you agree shooting at a target surely 1v1 opposite ends of a stadium let's get it back to basics Sammy,