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- Date published:
12:00 pm, December 22nd, 2025 - 13 comments
Categories: australian politics, terrorism -
Tags: Bondi, Ethan Marrell, Ozzy Man
Some of the best video media coverage of a terrorism event I’ve seen, from the human side. That ‘big, bloody, beautiful bastard’, Australian social media comedian Ethan Marrell aka Ozzy Man, pays tribute to the victims and heroes in the wake of the Bondi terrorism attack that targeted Jews. Marrell is a master at social media editing, the clips interspersed with his narrative are sensitive, potent, and moving.
Most of the 28 minute video is about who the victims are as people, and what the heroes and first responders did. There’s politics here too, sprinkled throughout at the appropriate times. Marrell strikes a potent balance between that and the people. He is telling a story here, of the politics and the compassion and honouring needed, and what Australia is.
It’s not a comprehensive leftist take down of the colonialist, capitalist state. This is the humanised politics that we need most at this time, that helps people make sense of the senseless and uplifts us at the same time. Most needed because we are inundated with how bad things are. Humans are hardwired by evolution to pay attention to the negative so we can survive, but it doesn’t serve us to have only that. Especially at this point in human history.
As such the video sits well alongside in depth political analysis and leftist anger pol, and offers a buffer from the worst of the social media shouting.
I’m going to pull out some of the politics (videos are timestamped), but the whole 28 minutes is worth watching for its connection to Australian culture, and the willingness to see the people killed and injured as real rather than names on a victim list of the latest terrorist atrocity. Big ups to Ozzy Man for making the time to do this.
We have to have the tough conversations
And yeah, there’s a lot of complex and sensitive issues to discuss around these stories and this tragedy. I’m not oblivious to that. My overarching opinion is that there needs to be a genuine effort to have these discussions without broad discrimination, further hate, racism, and anger.
We shouldn’t fear talking about the killers, their access to weapons, the six guns they got, the Israel Palestine war, Islamic terrorism, our government, our laws, our security agency, ASIO. These are all valid, tough as fuck discussions to be having right now if you want to have them, and into the future. And yeah, hopefully without too much deflecting, constant whataboutisms, broad discrimination, hate, racism, and anger.
If we can all please curb those entrenched dodgy habits from the conversations, fuckin’ wouldn’t that be sweet? Humanity solved.
Two things were particularly potent for me. One of the people shot dead was a Holocause survivor. Marrell names it: at this point in history we have to stop and think about what that means.
The other is the inclusion of calling in Muslim culture to address Islamic radicalisation within their own communities. It’s a short minute that strikes the right tone without blame.
That came after a solid paying homage to Ahmed al Ahmed, aka Legend al Legend, who disarmed one of the terrorists, undoubtedly saving countless lives. This framing from Marrell is the antithesis of polarisation. It’s the conversation the left in New Zealand doesn’t know how to have yet.
I will add that in New Zealand, when a man racist fuckwit of a human walked into two mosques in Christchurch and murdered and injured so many people, Muslim communities here had already been trying to get the government to take rising aggression towards Muslims seriously.
Likewise, I want to note the increase in anti-Semitism. By which I mean not the support for Palestine (I’m pro-Palestine liberation), but the outright anti-Semites. Do we honestly believe that only Muslims hate Jewish people? I’m sure we don’t believe that, but there is pushback on the left from talking about this. There’s also a tendency on the left to not push back against anti-Semitism because ‘what about Palestine?’, as if we cant do both. Jewish people can look at their own communities where radicalism and polarisation is flourishing. We all can.
My point here is it’s on all of us. We can support Palestine and Jewish people to be free from violence along with everyone else, and real support means integrating that both/and actively into our politics.
Brilliant Weka. Thank you. I've been struggling with the pushback from people who criticise and/or blame those who protest about the genocide in Gaza. Two wrongs don't make a right. Netanyahu has been quick to blame Australia, for his own political ends, while meanwhile more settlements in occupied land are built. And the bombs continue to rain down. And in our own backyard, yesterday, we had a disgusting and aggressive display by Tamaki's mob against a peaceful celebration of our Sikh community.
Weka, I don't have anything else to say except to thank you for your thoughtful post.
Thank you
It is regrettably a very hard policy road to slowly pull back firearm crime levels using both the gun buyback and nationwide gun registry instruments. In New Zealand it's taken until November this year to get to 50% nationally registered with 112,242 individual license holders now in the Registry.
So still another 112,000 still out there.
Australia has had state-wide gun registries for years, but their National Firearms Register won't be in place until mid-2028 and several years before all individual license holders are all on the database of their Registry.
It's only one policy lever, but it's a big one.
Good on AussieMan for suspending his usual larrakin ways for a moment.
Good post.
In regards yr final point about discussing anti semitism, social media would be a hindrance to this.
In the flesh it is far easier to tease out ideas and follow or rebut threads. On line, not so much.
The only other idea I would offer is that the Bondi incident is more accurately described as a hate crime as opposed to a terrorist event. I read a link authered by Pablo where he made a comprehensive argument.
I will try and find it.
Here you go.
https://www.kiwipolitico.com/2025/12/addressing-unspoken-truths/
"It remains to be seen whether the Bondi attacks were reflective or visceral in nature." he/she lost me there….
Calculated as a result of reflection or impulsive/emotional.
ie planned strategically with a specific expected outcome (terrorism)
or impulsive & motivated by unthinking anger/hate (hate crime)
Thanks for that, Stephen. ISTR it was you that posted the link originally.
agree
This report from 3 hours ago makes it look like a "reflective", planned attack. The shooters apparently explained their IS inspired reasons for the attack prior to carrying it out.
I meant this as a reply to thread 4.1.1
Thanks Karolyn_IS,
For you clear read of what I intended in distinguishing between reflective and impulsive acts of ideologically motivated violence. At the time that I wrote my corrective I had not seen the recently released videos of the perpetrators outlining their motivations, but I remain of the opinion that we must distinguish between "-inspired" versus "-directed" or "-organized" when attributing responsibility. Also remember the subject-object-target logic at play when distinguish terrorism from hate crimes. Here again, in my subjective side-line read of events, the killers overlapped targets and subjects without thinking of a broader object other than to kill as many of them as possible, making this a hate crime rather than a terrorist act. I could be wrong but in the early hours after the attack that is how I read things. Again, I am glad that you understood the difference between reflective and impulsive in this context. Cheers.
Well, yes. The principle should be that we do not tolerate hatred of Jewish people in general, for whatever reason. Reasons have shifted over time – from the ancient slur of 'Christ-killers', through the fascist hatred of the liberal and socialist, intellectual Jews who transformed Western thought away from fixed hierarchies and certainties into indeterminacy (think Marx, Freud, Einstein, Wittgenstein), to the contemporary outrage against the crimes of the state of Israel. The last one is a challenge though – if anyone had tried to tell my parents' generation who lived through WW2 that they shouldn't instinctively distrust Germans, they would have given it theoretical agreement but found it impossible in practice. This leaves the state in an impossible position: does it minimise the crimes of Israel to keep its domestic Jewish population safe from a small handful of extremists who might react? Albanese's best approach, I think, would have been to hit back at Netenyahu. Tell him that his governments actions were making J
Well, yes. The principle should be that we do not tolerate hatred of Jewish people in general, for whatever reason. Reasons have shifted over time – from the ancient slur of 'Christ-killers', through the fascist hatred of the liberal and socialist, intellectual Jews who transformed Western thought away from fixed hierarchies and certainties into indeterminacy (think Marx, Freud, Einstein, Wittgenstein), to the contemporary outrage against the crimes of the state of Israel. The last one is a challenge though – if anyone had tried to tell my parents' generation who lived through WW2 that they shouldn't instinctively distrust Germans, they would have given it theoretical agreement but found it impossible in practice. This leaves the state in an impossible position: does it minimise the crimes of Israel to possibly keep its domestic Jewish population somewhat safer from a small handful of extremists who might react? Albanese's best approach, I think, would have been to hit back at Netenyahu. Tell him that his government's actions were making Jews everywhere less safe, and that some of those Jews who are now less safe are cherished Australian citizens to whom he has a responsibility of care.