Untethered: Clementine's Friday Five

Let’s face it, we don’t always pay attention to the news. But just in case it comes up at pub trivia or knock off drinks with our friends, we still want to know what’s going on. Clementine's Friday Five provide's a quick cheat sheet of five of the week’s biggest news items, political gaffes or pop culture tidbits so YOU can bluff your way through whatever comes up. 

It's smart, irreverent, quickfire and to the point - just like that friend who everyone always says should have gone into politics, if only she didn’t hate authority figures and rules.

This week, we're talking about western hypocrisy on Israel, the Australian government attempting to silence protesters, climate change and Hurricane Helene, an accident involving a cable car and the body horror movie, The Substance.

For the week ending October 6, 2024...this is the Friday Five with Clementine Ford.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Israel's Role in Middle East Conflict
• 9:55 Global Issues and Social Commentary

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hello everyone, it is me, clementine Ford, and I am back with this week's episode of the Friday Five, your summary and rundown of what I think are five of the most interesting or important news stories of the week so that I can prepare you basically to go into the weekend informed and ready. I'm recording this on the lands of the Wurundjeri people Remember wherever you are, know whose land you're on. Let's get to it. So obviously the situation in Gaza and Lebanon now, and Syria and Yemen, continues to reflect a disgusting and grotesque genocidal land grabbing mentality of Israel and its Western supporters. But it's hard to see how I guess more hypocritical the West could possibly be in its handling of what has happened this week vis-a-vis Iran firing, basically firing across Israel's nose, like basically giving a warning strike. The response to that and Iran's missile strike targeted Israeli military targets, no civilian casualties by design, which weirdly people were mocking about, you know, like oh my God, they didn't even kill anyone. It's like, yeah, because actually it is possible to target military sites even in densely populated civilian areas and not aim for civilian life. The fact that Israel has spent now almost a year and obviously we're coming up to the year anniversary of October 7th next week. The fact that Israel has spent now almost a year and obviously we're coming up to the year anniversary of October 7th next week the fact that Israel has spent almost a year just engaged in the most psychopathic, violent, disgusting intentions of completely annihilating Palestinian people, obviously now expanding into Lebanon. And, by the way, this week Israel bombed four of its neighboring nations Palestine, syria, yemen and Lebanon. And yet still this narrative persists that Israel is somehow this beleaguered, bullied, poor little victim in the region and that all they're doing is defending themselves. Defending themselves from what? At this point, israel is responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths, and not like hundreds of thousands of deaths committed in the most brutal of ways. A year in we have seen so much death and destruction, experienced so much gaslighting by those who intend to continue perpetrating that death and destruction, and yet still we're being asked to consider poor little Israel.

Speaker 1: 2:59

Iran and listen, I am not going to sit here and defend Iran. Iran has horrific human rights abuses. Iran's treatment of women via its, you know, so-called morality police, obviously we know, is reprehensible, but we have all been dragged into those of us when I say we, I mean those of us in the West, and particularly those of us who are relied upon to uphold white supremacy, have been dragged into this narrative our whole lives. That positions certain players as being automatically bad and therefore certain players as being automatically good. And what I mean by that is we have all been completely conditioned our entire lives to codify the Arab world in a certain way that facilitates exactly these kinds of assaults against not just countries, but against people. The way in which we have been co-opted into dehumanizing Arab people, those of us in the West, is so deeply entrenched that it now facilitates exactly what we've seen for the last year, and it's the reason why we've had to endure so many reprehensible defenses of it.

Speaker 1: 4:24

So the escalation, as they've called it, the escalation this is entirely on Israel, this is entirely due to Israel, this is entirely supported by American tax dollars and American weapons provision, and I find it deeply enraging and offensive to see commentary that suggests that somehow, in the midst of all this that Israel is being targeted unfairly and unreasonably, perpetrated a genocide for the last year and prior to that, for 76 years, had perpetrated a sustained and intentional annihilation of Palestinian people in an attempt to steal more land, and that land grab has extended now beyond Palestine.

Speaker 1: 5:22

So, as we go into next week and as we have to be bombarded by a really revisionist understanding and a revisionist history of what has occurred, not just this year but for, as I said, the last 76 years, just remember that every time you years, just remember that every time you as a citizen is presented with a argument or presented with a narrative that serves Western interests and serves the interests of weapons manufacturers and the interests of imperialism and colonialism, that that is being done intentionally and that you have a responsibility, not just to yourself but also to the people who suffer because of that.

Speaker 1: 6:07

You have a responsibility to question it and to protest it. Now that takes us to the second of this week's friday five topics, which is the australian government is, in its absolute, fucking disgusting complicity with Israel and with genocide, participating in the most obnoxious of charades. That says that pro-Palestinian protests have now entered such a dangerous environment and reflect such a dangerous intention from those protesters and reflect such a dangerous intention from those protesters they need to be banned. They need to be banned and they need to be banned now. And here is our dickhead, prime Minister, anthony Albanese, talking about it on Raphael Epstein's show on the ABC this week.

Speaker 2: 7:01

Well, there certainly shouldn't be any protests on October 7. Why not? Because it would be seen, I think, as incredibly provocative. It would not advance any cause. It would cause a great deal of distress. I'm told it's going to be a vigil and a silent procession. Surely people are allowed to do that. Look, in a democracy we allow for people. Indeed, it's important that people be able to express themselves peacefully. But October 7, it will be one year since the largest number of deaths and murders call it for what it is of Jewish people since the Holocaust of Jewish people since the Holocaust.

Speaker 1: 7:49

But the thing is, it's not just protests on October 7th, or even vigils, that the government is proposing be banned, and the government and conservative players as well. New South Wales Police is trying to ban a protest on Sunday, which is October 6th. That will mark a year of genocide in Gaza, and this is just yet more intentional curbing of freedom of speech and a clamping down on the left and on progressive citizens who can see what is happening, who can see what is being done and who will not have it anymore. It is really concerning that one of the things we pretend to pride ourselves on is freedom of speech and yet we are seeing being rolled out the very deliberate iron fist of the law and of peacekeeping and order, public order, social cohesion Anthony Albanese called it. That really is just aiming to strong arm and suffocate any dissent.

Speaker 1: 9:02

What has happened over the last year has been horrific in terms of what we've seen, but it's also been incredibly eye-opening because the majority of people, I would say, who live in the West have not really had this narrative about Israel, have not seen what Israel has been doing for the last 76 years, have not been privy to every scrap of colonialist violence that is necessary and that has been necessary to prop up this ethno-state. That is all out in the open now, and I think one of the things that terrifies people is that Israel will never again be able to launder its crimes under concealment and the guise of the quote-unquote only democracy in the Middle East. Everyone sees Israel for what it is and everyone sees Israel for what it does and for how it exists, and that is why we are seeing such intense attempts to crush dissent and to crush protests because it is necessary for Western governments to maintain the mythology of Israel in order to maintain their own power. It's exactly why Joe Biden, 40 years ago, said that if there were no Israel, america would have to invent an Israel. Israel because it's all about their own imperialist interests, it's all about their own stronghold on the region. It's nothing to do with what we've always been told, which is that it's about dignity and freedom and safety for Jewish people.

Speaker 1: 10:40

There are a few things that have made life more dangerous for Jewish people than the actions of the state of Israel and the pretense that people at the Australian newspaper, classic right-wing fucking rag, that people at Sky News, that known racist players in Australian politics somehow are the champions against antisemitism is just laughable. They don't fucking care about Jewish people. They don't care about Jewish people. They don't fucking care about Jewish people. They don't care about Jewish people. They don't care about Jewish people's safety and they certainly don't care about Jewish people's freedom to speak.

Speaker 1: 11:16

Because, as we know, so many people involved at the forefront of the pro-Palestinian liberation movement are anti-Zionist Jewish people. They're not included in the government and in the rights vision of what a safe and liberating place for Jewish people looks like, because they don't care about Jewish people. They care about upholding Zionism. So if you are hearing this and you've never been to a protest before, please go to your city's national protest on Sunday. Stand in solidarity with Palestinian people and with our brothers and sisters who are organising these rallies and these protests, and let the government know that they cannot stamp down free speech. They cannot suffocate the voices of the people, because we must be, and always must be, for the people. Fuck Albanese. What a fucking joke. I can't wait for Labour to lose the next election. They are a pack of fucking dickheads.

Speaker 2: 12:22

Next tonight, hurricane Helene, now the deadliest hurricane since Katrina. More than 200 people now confirmed dead, hundreds still unaccounted for.

Speaker 1: 12:31

Some level of irony that I'm recording this while a thunderstorm has begun and is raging behind me. Yeah, the second deadliest hurricane to hit US shores since Katrina has torn through Florida and neighbouring states this week. 200 people now amongst the dead. Obviously, that death toll is expected to rise.

Speaker 1: 12:55

There's horrendous stories that have been coming out. For example, police blocking desperate, hungry, thirsty survivors of the flood. Police blocking them from entering supermarkets to prevent quote unquote looting while people are starving and dehydrated. This is America today and this is America regardless of whether it's under the Republicans or under the Democrats. This is America today, which is the protection of corporate interests.

Speaker 1: 13:26

There is another story that's coming out with Hurricane Helene of a factory impact plastics that prevented its employees from leaving. This is insane that we are so beholden to corporations and to fossil fuel companies. There are climate activists this week who are also saying that Hurricane Helene is an unprecedented hurricane in terms of the damage that it's, in terms of how far inland it was able to go, and that this is all directly linked to fossil fuel companies and the impact that fossil fuel companies are having on climate change. We are fucked. We are fucked. Fossil fuel companies are having on climate change. We are fucked. We are fucked. Sorry to be harsh about it, but we've always had the predictive date of 2050 and what climate change will look like by 2050. That is 25 years from now. That is not very far away. We are fucked. Unless we start to do something now about it, hurricane Helene and its offshoots will keep happening. We are going to see the impact of massive climate disaster and still our governments will let the world burn and will let the world flood and will, most importantly, let the plebs, all of us, die and drown and suffocate, because they can't curb corporations, because they won't stop funding fossil fuel companies, because, when it comes down to it, the only thing that matters in this world, apparently, is money and is satisfying billionaires.

Speaker 1: 15:07

Everything that we are seeing happen right now is all connected the stamping down of protesters, the refusal to hold fossil fuel companies to account. Two young women in Britain this week were just sentenced to two years in prison for throwing soup on a glass-covered Vincent van Gogh painting at an art gallery because they were trying to raise awareness for climate change. And they were sentenced to two years in jail. And Benjamin Netanyahu fucking delivers a speech at the UN. This is insanity. We all need to rise up along with the oceans, because otherwise we're all going to fucking die, and I don't want to give you anxiety to go into the weekend, but this is serious shit. This is very fucking serious, and we're all just being expected to walk around in a daze while the world burns around us.

Speaker 1: 16:06

How many states in America need to flood? How much infrastructure needs to be washed away? Because the American government would rather send billions of dollars to Israel to drop bombs on Gaza than take care of its own people? There is an election coming up in a month and the Democrats are begging people to vote for them because they're the only ones who can save America, are begging people to vote for them because they're the only ones who can save America. America is fucked. America is fucked and it has been fucked by billionaires and by people with corporate interests.

Speaker 1: 16:39

I read something the other day about how the percentage of American senators and legislators who have investments in weapons manufacturers. They earn money every time Israel drops a bomb on Gaza. They make money. We cannot allow these people to be governing us. We cannot look to them for solutions either, and we definitely definitely can't look to them to save any of us. So again, do not listen to any kind of law and order bullshit. Keeping the peace, social cohesion crap. We are not in a socially cohesive landscape by design and it's up to us, the people, to actually stand up and fight for each other.

Speaker 1: 17:25

And this is a spot of terrifying news for the week, which is, I guess, slightly related to climate change as well. Strong gusts of wind in a province in China caused a 34-year-old tourist to plummet 10 metres from a cable car after the winds forced the doors to spring open Nightmare. This is why I will not go on roller coasters anymore or on anything that basically suspends people upside down. I just don't think that we can trust anything that is hanging midair, and there are too many horror stories of awful things going wrong. Luckily, this woman was okay. She was taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, but fuck me man, too terrifying for words. And finally, I thought this was actually really interesting news.

Speaker 1: 18:18

I haven't seen it yet, but the substance, uh. Demi moore's new body horror movie that's just come out, um, been released in cinemas this week. It has been named the most successful box office release for arthouse distributor and streamer Mubi. Mubi acquired it for multiple territories before it debuted in Cannes where it won the best screenplay, and it has been getting really amazing reviews. Everyone I know who's seen it has said that it's viscerally horrific and that it perfectly skewers our obsession with bodies and with beauty and with, you know, anti-aging. I haven't seen it yet. I'm really excited to see it, as someone who is, you know, has definitely dabbled in, uh, cosmetic play and who is at that kind of cusp, I guess, of really starting to like aging is becoming less theoretical for me and more kind of staring me there in the face.

Speaker 1: 19:17

I had an interesting conversation today with a new friend of mine about this kind of confronting that is done with what it means to age and how it's not just about appealing to the gaze that makes us want to kind of roll back the clock, but how dangerous all of these things are. You know, that's why I don't use filters, because I feel like they make me feel worse about myself and I don't know, I guess I'm this isn't. I don't have a conclusion on this, but I'd be really interested to hear from people who have seen the substance and what you thought about it, because there is something about demi more in particular starring in it that I find kind of fascinating, because she's obviously been such an enthusiastic uptaker of cosmetic interventions and I wonder if there's any regret in her about that. I'm not saying that there should be. I say that with absolutely zero judgment either way.

Speaker 1: 20:12

But we live in a world where it is so easy to make people feel like shit about themselves but where actually, no matter how much we pursue the so-called body beautiful, we'll never be enough for what the system wants from us, which is just endless fascination with it and to be constantly enthralled to it so that we keep throwing our money at it. Yeah, let me know if you've seen it. I will make sure to have watched it by this time next week so I can come back and give you my opinion, my view on it. But I mean, aside from anything great, to see women-helmed screenplays and directors creating and producing stories about women's lives and entering, you know, the horror genre as well. I'm a huge horror fan and I love a good satire and I love a good pillaring and escurring of social mores and values. So yeah, I'll go and see the substance and see what I think, if it has any substance.

Speaker 1: 21:16

But until then this has been the Friday Five with me, clementine Ford, and with any luck, hopefully it's not going to always every week be just such terrible torment, but there are a lot of fucking shit things going on in the world right now. Terrible torment, but there are a lot of fucking shit things going on in the world right now. And despite all that, I'd love to send you into your weekend with some love and some hope and just a reminder that, even when everything feels insurmountable and impossible, that we are actually always fighting, hopefully, to be better people and to live in a better world. And I can only assume, if you're listening to this, that you are someone who cares about creating a better world and being a part of that. So don't give up hope. Never give up, never surrender. Head along to the protests and the vigils this week and just remember that we will make it to a better, brighter future if we commit ourselves to being part of creating it. Okay, that's all from me.

Speaker 1: 22:19

Don't forget to subscribe so that you never miss an episode. Listen to my Wednesday episodes, which are my longer in conversations, if you are enjoying my podcast. If you're enjoying Untethered, please consider rating and reviewing it. It'd be wonderful. It was so amazing this week to see Untethered featured in Apple's New and Noteworthy, which is great. Thank you so much.

Speaker 1: 22:38

Tell your friends about it, get them to listen as well, and if you'd like to support the podcast, then you can do so on Substack. You can subscribe to me on Substack at Clementine F. You can also support my Patreon for as little as $2 a month and honestly, like $2 a month, may I mean it's not a lot to a lot of people, but a lot of people. Supporting me for $2 a month ends up allowing me to create more things like this and to be able to be my own boss and to speak in an unfiltered, uncensored way, so that I don't have to answer to corporate interests, I guess. So you can support me on Patreon, which is at Clementine Ford. You can also support the podcast directly on my Buzzsprout page. The links are all at the bottom of this episode. Yeah, thank you so much for being here. Until next time, stay untethered, stay cool and stay informed.