Josh Butler

One thing I would love to communicate to rich progressive donors is you have to fund ACTUAL JOURNALISM. All the progressive "content creators" rely on actual journalism done by journalists who are all getting laid off. Please fund journalism not just "our own kind of propaganda."

Amazed that the context succeeds in making him look even worse.

Search is full of ads and wrong answers. Every other email is an ad. Prime Video charges you and shows ads. Paramount? Ads. Peacock? YouTube? Hulu? Ads followed by more ads. Netflix full of ads. Meta and X, every other thing is an ad. Pinterest is nothing but ads. AI is in everything. AI finishes sentences incorrectly and won’t stop. AI reads your email and search history to target you with more ads. Every time you open an app or visit a site there’s an update making it worse. In a hurry? First, click here to agree to terms you don’t have time to read and must accept. You need an account to do that. Change your temporary password. Enter your 2FA code. Check your email and enter that code. Now use a passkey. Your password is too simple to remember. Change it. No, not like that. Now log on. Enter your 2FA code. Check your email for a code… Welcome back! We’ve updated our terms of service and privacy policy (you have none). Subscribe to the site. Subscribe to Netflix. Subscribe to toilet paper. Subscribe to these groceries. Pay a membership fee for the right to subscribe then tip your driver who delivers the subscriptions your membership lets you subscribe to. Time to work? We’ve got to update your laptop and will slow down everything you do until you agree to update. But first, click here to agree. Update installed — your laptop’s broken now. It doesn’t matter, since your boss just replaced you with AI. Go to your phone to complain on social media. Wait, your phone needs an update so we can add more AI. Click here. Oh sorry, your phone can’t handle this update. Now it’s useless. Go get the newest phone. Here’s a text from a friend, an email, a voice mail they left three days ago but you didn’t see until now because of sync problems with the cloud. It’s their GoFundMe. Their MLM. Their Patreon. Never mind, you didn’t respond to their text within 9 minutes and now you’re no longer friends. They blocked you. Make new friends. Download this app to find people in your area. In your neighborhood. On your street. Two doors down from you. Do you know this person yet, we think you’d get along. You need an account to use this app. That username is taken. Enter a password. Not that one, you used it on another site. You need to be connected to WiFi to download the app. Allow the app to connect to other devices on your network. Allow the app to access your contacts, know your precise location, store your credit card details. Oops, sorry, we got hacked now all that info is available on the web. There’s a class action suit. You can join. It’ll take a decade to get your $3.73 share of the ten billion settlement. We’ll send it via PayPal or deposit it to your bank, just tell us those details. Oh no, another hack. That info is circulating now, too. Here’s a spam call, a spam email, a spam text. Why are you angry? Why are you talking about getting rid of your phone? Why don’t you like AI, it lets us make all of this easier? Do you know how ridiculous that sounds? This is progress. You’ll be left behind. Do you want to be left behind? Do you???

@Totally4yeah This is so embarrassing.

Josh, your desperate little “AI-written” deflection is peak triggered. You sound genuinely upset that facts keep proving your bias and no amount of snarky eye-rolling changes that. I will admit I asked AI to check all Guardian coverage on One Nation vs Labor to confirm whether you lot actually hold both sides to the same scrutiny. Spoiler: you failed spectacularly. Clear left-wing bias dripping from every headline, every selective outrage, every polite pat on the head for Labor while you froth over Pauline’s plane. That’s not journalism, mate. That’s a failure. And maybe you can’t comprehend this either: I more wondered why the Guardian has zero proper story on Labor’s abject failure to help veterans hence Gina Rinehart having to step in with a $200 million donation because your precious government couldn’t be bothered. You swept the whole thing away in some throwaway blog like it never happened. Classic. Veterans suffering, families crushed, and you’re too busy running interference for the team in power. Maybe don’t be so upset by facts showing your bias and your journalism failure. Do better. Stop being Labor puppets, pandering to a failure government while people suffer veterans sleeping rough, cost-of-living crushing families, and you’re too busy running protection for the team in power. Thanks for the comedy, little Labor puppet taking orders. You really should be ashamed of yourself. People like you give actual journalists a bad name. The receipts are public. The double standard is glaring. Cope harder.

we need a private plane because I'm annoyed having to talk to members of the voting public abc.net.au/news/2026-04-2…

@Totally4yeah you WANT us to do a "dark money" expose on the housing donation? Sounds weird. Your replies are sounding more and more AI-written btw, so I'll say cya here

Josh, the deflection is pathetic. You didn’t “just post a tweet” you’re the Guardian’s political reporter and COS, and you deliberately amplified the ABC story with snarky framing to paint a $1.5M+ private plane + $2M donations as some sinister scandal. Meanwhile, the exact same donor just dropped $200 million the largest private injection into veteran housing in Australian history to buy and convert buildings for 6,000+ homeless vets, and your paper gave it one polite line in a budget-day live blog with RSL praise, then moved on. No deep dive, no “dark money” exposé, no Labor/Greens quotes demanding scrutiny. That’s not journalism. That’s agenda-driven hypocrisy so blatant it’s embarrassing. Labor’s been in power for years, veterans are still sleeping rough, and you’d rather clutch pearls over Pauline’s Cirrus than ask why the government needs a mining magnate to do its job. Keep wondering why people notice the double standard. The receipts are public.

@rbowr17 One Nation HAD balance of power in the Senate for a term of conservative government. What did they do with it then?

@JoshButler why are you against rapid transit for touring politicians who will soon hold the balance of power in the senate? let a thousand doorstops bloom

@Totally4yeah what "five alarm scandal"? I posted a tweet. You've clearly been spending your day combing X for mentions of planes. Seems you're far more wound up about it than anyone. Wonder why

Straight reporting”? Pull the other one, Josh. Gina Rinehart drops $200 million of her own cash to house veterans the single biggest private injection into veteran welfare in Australian history and The Guardian gives it a polite little pat on the head in a live blog, then moves on. No deep dive, no “dark money” exposé, no Greens/Labor quotes demanding it be scrutinised. Meanwhile Pauline gets a plane and it’s a five-alarm scandal with your full outrage machinery deployed. Here’s the real question your “journalism” never asks: why the hell is Labor the party in power so utterly indifferent to veterans that a mining magnate has to step in and do their job for them? Because that $200 million is a screaming indictment of their failure, and you lot would rather die than report it. Classic Guardian: attack the donor, protect the government. Hypocrisy so thick you could spread it on toast.

@Totally4yeah "straight reporting" is journalism. Thanks

Thanks for your time and the links, Josh appreciate you engaging. I’ll check out the articles and get back to you. That said, the contrast is pretty stark: your full, detailed Guardian article on Pauline Hanson’s plane gift from Gina Rinehart was framed as a major scandal with heavy scrutiny, loaded language, and Labor/Greens quotes front and centre. Meanwhile, Gina’s $200 million donation to veterans’ housing only got a brief, positive mention buried in a live blog no dedicated story, no critical framing, just straight reporting with RSL praise. From these two reports, it’s hard not to see The Guardian pushing a preferred agenda rather than applying the same level of scrutiny across the board. Happy to discuss once I’ve read them all.

@Totally4yeah If you want some about Labor use of allowances and flights, here's some more theguardian.com/australia-news… theguardian.com/australia-news… theguardian.com/australia-news… theguardian.com/australia-news…

@Totally4yeah here's just a few stories from me/us about donations to Labor. It might be difficult to comprehend, but we actually scrutinise all parties, not just barrack for a team. Cheers! theguardian.com/australia-news… theguardian.com/australia-news… theguardian.com/australia-news… theguardian.com/australia-news…

@MorryCrypto that's still not the argument I'm talking about

@MorryCrypto yeah that's not the argument I'm talking about, small brain

royal commission report, key points: - some parts remain confidential - no "urgent" changes, PM says - some states too "leisurely" on gun law reforms - RC won't publicly discuss Bondi shooters' motives - focus on whether ASIO terror warnings were heeded theguardian.com/australia-news…

Bondi royal commission won't make findings about the motivations behind the shooting at the Jewish Hanukah festival, Commissioner Virginia Bell writes in the interim report:

the interim report of the Bondi royal commission has been released - 14 recommendations, 6 kept to a confidential report Calls to prioritise efforts on gun buyback, and consider whether PM and cabinet "should participate in a counter-terrorism exercise" aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_…

Not really sure on the direction of this post, but beginning to wonder what can possibly be done about bogus, AI-generated posts on fake social media pages. Some of the invented, completely fake content, can be harmful or even horrible. And somehow, it all gets engagement - and people are duped into believing it. And the social media platforms do nothing about it, no matter how many reports are made.

the zoom in is brutal

Gina Rinehart has gifted Pauline Hanson a new private plane, worth more than $1.5m, as a group of her associates donate another $2 million to One Nation theguardian.com/australia-news…

It was not a false flag you people are losing your minds.