What often gets described as ‘racism’ in Australia is often based on plain old ignorance. People lacking the interest or curiosity to enquire more deeply, and totally incapable of ‘joining the dots’ to extrapolate the bigger picture and deeper understanding.
This is an intractable problem which goes beyond education or information, because ignorant people don’t even know they are ignorant – they are just simple folk getting on with their lives. They have no interest in things that aren’t relevant to them. The extreme ‘right’ populists exploit this ignorance. Ignorant people also tend to be very gullible, because they don’t have the reference points for critical thinking. So it’s easy for populists to blame migrants, blackfellas, progressives, woke lefties, transexuals… anyone they want to vilify and denigrate.
It would be easy to stereotype ignorant people. But many are good-hearted and well meaning, and in their ignorance they just get swept along with the mob and align themselves with dominant personalities. This is the shadow-side of compulsory voting. Uninformed votes carry the same weight as well informed.
This isn’t just happening here in Oz, it’s a worldwide movement and it scares the hell out of many people who dread the consequences of redneck populist governments being elected by a majority of uninformed people.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
