Tragedy, blame and the cowardice of easy narratives
In the wake of mass violence, grief arrives first. Confusion follows. Then, almost inevitably, comes the scramble to assign blame to whoever fits a pre selected political story. This time the target is the Prime Minister. Or anyone who voted for him. Or “the left”. Or anyone who dares to hold two thoughts at once, that anti Semitism is real and dangerous, and that watching children being blown to pieces in their thousands is morally intolerable.
This is not analysis. It is opportunism.
The suggestion that a single act of terror can be laid at the feet of Anthony Albanese, or voters who supported him, or some amorphous progressive cabal, is intellectually lazy and morally corrosive. It collapses under the most basic questions. Did the victims vote Labor? Did the man who intervened vote Liberal? Did the murderer consult a ballot paper before acting? Who fucking cares.
Violence is not a referendum.
Collective guilt is not justice, it is propaganda
We are drifting into a world where outrage is simplified into binary moral traps. Disagree with Israeli government policy and you are branded a Jew hater. Defend Palestinian children and you are accused of enabling terror. Demand accountability from media narratives and you are told you are excusing violence.
This is how serious conversations are strangled.
Anti Semitism must be confronted wherever it exists. So must Islamophobia. So must the deliberate blurring of criticism of states with hatred of people. None of this is advanced by smearing millions of Australians with collective guilt because of how they voted, or because they refuse to cheer while civilians are butchered.
That kind of framing does not protect Jewish Australians. It puts them in greater danger by making them symbols in a political war they did not choose.
Facts matter, even when grief is loud
One fact matters more than most and it should not be controversial. Australia’s gun laws saved lives.
The father and son responsible for this atrocity did not have access to automatic weapons. The scale of the horror could have been far worse. That is not ideology, it is history. We have seen what happens elsewhere when access is easy and regulation is weak.
Another fact matters too. Courage did not come from political leaders, commentators or headlines. It came from an immigrant named Ahmed who ran towards danger while thousands ran away. While children and elderly people were being attacked, he acted.
Ask yourself why that story is not the headline.
The media’s role, and its failure
The most disturbing element of the coverage is not the reporting of the attack itself. It is the eagerness to convert shock into accusation, and grief into culture war fuel.
Headlines that imply causation without evidence. Commentators who speak of “breeding grounds” as though hatred emerges neatly from one side of politics. Photographs arranged to visually convict before facts are established. This is not journalism serving the public interest. It is narrative enforcement.
Our biggest enemy is not each other. It is a media ecosystem that profits from fear, polarisation and moral simplification.
When tragedy becomes a tool, the next tragedy becomes more likely.
What actually matters now
What matters is solidarity without conditions. Protection of Jewish communities without exploiting their pain. Condemnation of terror without laundering state violence. Policy grounded in evidence, not panic. Media that informs rather than inflames.
And yes, gratitude. Gratitude that our gun laws held. Gratitude that someone brave enough intervened. Gratitude that most Australians, despite being frightened, still want to live in a country where blame is not sprayed indiscriminately across political lines.
If we are serious about preventing the next atrocity, we will stop asking who to scapegoat and start asking who benefits from keeping us divided.
Because it is not the victims.
And it never is.
By Leo Hagan
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