Brazen lies told to the public: Why do so many people suspend disbelief, and authorities do nothing?

In public debates, hoaxers regularly pop up and take their chances. What is troubling, however, is that in recent years institutions, governments and the media (who we would all expect to trust) often actually promote such deceivers in the first place. Worse still, these agencies often continue to promote mistruths after such chancers have been outed or after serious doubts have arisen about their assertions.

It all shows that some of those in positions of power want to believe and promote certain (mainly woke) ideas irrespective of their veracity. Made-up "facts" can only persist as long as key people say and do nothing

False claims of Aboriginality and revisionist Aboriginal history

By now most people will be familiar with the discredited but formerly acclaimed "Yuin, Bunurong and Tasmanian Aborigine", Bruce Pascoe. Pascoe's claims to Aboriginality have been publicly refuted by multiple investigators, including Andrew Bolt, Tony Thomas, professional genealogists, and some Aboriginal groups.

Bolt has stated that Pascoe is not of Aboriginal descent. "I've made clear for years that Professor Bruce Pascoe, the Dark Emu author, is a fake Aboriginal, no Aboriginal ancestors at all in his genealogy. "He refuses to show any proof." Tony Thomas found the same. Pascoe's family tree in its entirety has been traced back to Britain.

Pascoe's Dark Emu thesis is that, prior to European settlement, Aboriginal people were not just hunter-gatherers but engaged in agriculture, engineering, and built permanent structures. Dark Emu achieved sales of 400,000-plus and has been widely promoted by the "progressive" side of politics.

Pascoe's work was initially acclaimed and won numerous awards. These include the Prime Minister's Literary Award, the NSW Premier's Literary Award, the ASA Medal, and several for Young Dark Emu, which has even been a part of the NSW school curriculum. The ABC has promoted Pascoe intensively to schoolchildren.

Pascoe was also awarded a Melbourne University Enterprise Professorship in Indigenous Agriculture, and is listed as an "expert" on the university website.

Pascoe's thesis has found academic refutation in Sutton & Walshe's "Farmers or Hunter-gatherers? The Dark Emu Debate" and other studies. According to Tony Thomas, Pascoe's status at Melbourne University has changed recently from part-time to honorary professor. He was originally described as Indigenous, but the university later changed this to "writer and farmer". Pascoe, through his Aboriginal-controlled Black Duck Foods charity, raised at least $2.6mfrom government grants and other sources. The federal police in 2020 dismissed as groundlessa complaint by an Aboriginal political staffer about Pascoe wrongly receiving government funds as an Aboriginal.

Despite all that has been revealed about Pascoe and his work, there has hardly been a peep from his supporters in government, the progressive media or from Melbourne University (regarded by many as Australia's premier university). They have all said and done virtually nothing to help get the facts straight and correct the public record.

Australia deserves better!

Biological males claiming to be women

The issue of men claiming to be women has reached "emperor has no clothes" levels of farce, with politicians and others struggling to define what a woman is or ducking the issue entirely. Women have had to fight to exclude biological males from their change rooms, from women's prisons, and from competing in women's sports competitions.

I could write a whole book about various absurdities related to policies on sexual orientation, gender identification, use of pronouns etc. For brevity, I will deal only with the matter of biological males claiming to be women. I deliberately exclude the small minority of cases involving those with unusual genetic or hormonal conditions (such as hermaphrodites, those with Swyer syndrome, persons born without functional sex glands etc.) to avoid "hard case" distractions.