How Nicky Minus Made Mike Baird’s Dreams Come True

By Joseph Earp

It’s a sad state of affairs when Mike Baird is right.

Yesterday, in response to the actions of Nicky Minus – AKA the protestor who charmingly gobbed into Inner West administrator Richard Pearson’s face – CasinoMike claimed the behaviour “was absolutely disgusting.”

Mike Baird is a lot of things. He’s a corrupt fascist willing to bend the law in order to implement his moral code on Sydneysiders. He’s a Christian extremist with an outdated set of values that do not represent the concerns of his own populace. He’s a puppet put in power to protect the interests of the rich and ignore the poor.

In fact, Minus wasn’t really spitting in Richard Pearson’s face – she was symbolically spitting in Baird the Zealot’s smug mug.

But as soon as she did – as soon as she hacked back that loogie and sprayed it over Pearson – she lost all of her moral credibility. By resorting to such behaviour, she decimated her own argument. And worse than that, she decimated the argument of every single person there who wanted to have their voice heard in a free and democratic fashion.

Predictably, the Murdoch press had a field day with Minus and her shitty, spitty story. She allowed every single right-wing media outlet to discredit her entire cause – to paint a reasonable, rational movement as a rowdy mob with zero respect for those around them.

In short, she made Mike Baird’s dreams come true. She helped him out enormously – allowed him to act like the concerned, committed, calm Premier he has never once been. She gave him a chance to paint people like Jenny Leong – a politician who has made a career out of defending those usually ignored by the mainstream political system – with the same brush.

Since she let loose with her spit, Minus has been the subject of the usual internet hatemongering that has defined the last ten years of contemporary culture. A lot of that hate has been gendered, because sometimes the Net is a disgusting cesspool of vitriolic filth.

Needless to say, Minus doesn’t deserve that kind of aggression or violence. No human being does. The Internet Hive Mind is singularly skilled when it comes to whipping itself up into a frenzy and falling apart into vicious, disgusting attacks.

But neither does Minus deserve those who have come out ‘in 100% support’ of her actions. She was wrong – unequivocally, inexcusably wrong.

You can dislike what Minus does without disliking her as a person. You can see her actions as damaging and denigrating without claiming that she herself deserves any kind of repercussions. But you can also support her cause while distancing yourself from her ‘methods’.

Minus doesn’t deserve to go to jail, or to be abused online, or to be turned into a martyr. She is a human being who made a mistake. One with widely felt repercussions, sure, but a mistake just the same.

Here’s what it boils down to:

Protest is important. More than that, protest is the single most powerful tool we have, particularly when faced with a Premier who has openly admitted he will find it hard to have his mind changed on a subject that effects every single Sydneysider with a pulse.

So protest. Protest frequently. Write open letters. Attend council meetings. Draw up signs, pen anthems, scream, and rage, and rave. Do whatever you can to get your voice heard, and when it is heard, do it all over again.

But keep your gob to yourself, yeah? Lest you want to help the very people you are trying to debate.