In which the onion muncher and Dame Slap offer case studies of negativity in action ...

Purely in the interests of anthropology and sociology, the pond would like to offer a couple of examples of what happens when pure, distilled essence of negativity faces the challenge of turning positive ...

Not every reptile offers this sort of opportunity. When a Miranda the Devine gets on a hobby horse, nothing will prevent the flow of vitriol ...

The Devine will be rabbiting on about SSM until the twelfth of never, never swerving and never changing ...

Bizarrely, Dame Slap has to label herself a libertarian conservative to leave the Devine bandwagon in relation to SSM ... yet even as she attempts to explain why she's voting 'yes', Dame Slap manages to spend most of her time explaining why voting 'no' is a fit and proper thing to do ...

In short, it's extraordinarily difficult for a reptile to just turn positive and leave it at that ...and that helps explain why Dame Slap has to drag in "libertarian" as an excuse.

If she were really a libertarian, she might well start off with a potent indictment of marriage in general, and the bizarre notion that the state and/or government, should mandate relationships and dictate the legality of affairs of the heart. 

In the case of SSM, a libertarian might argue that gays shouldn't want a pathetic hand-me-down heterosexual construct, but in the case of Dame Slap, the word is an attempt to snatch a little grace from the usual negativity ...

Mmm, that Mill quote sounds a tad strange, suggesting as it does that the individual is sovereign in matters of love and therefore has no need of the state-sanctioned institute of marriage, but never mind that or Dame Slap's odd snipe and barb, she's voting yes, time for a cartoon and that's the matter dealt with ...

More Wilcox at her shop here, but hang on, hang on ... did anyone really think that Dame Slap could leave it there? Vote yes and say no more?

You see, being seen as a 'yes' person is a shocking matter for Dame Slap, and it puts her in very unsavoury company ... so she has to do a Billy goat "butt" and butt butt away at the company she finds herself in ... why, there's the Labor party and the ABC, and Fran Kelly, and won't someone think of the Catholics, and so on and on, a plethora of buts and butts ...

She's literally incapable of being positive without producing a host of negatives, and what a fine anthropological study it makes ...

It's astonishing stuff, really, and the grudging nature of it and the carping and the carry-on a singular testament to the negativity deep in the heart of Dame Slap. There's something ineffable about the way that this butting works ...something creamy and soothing to the reptile mind ...

And that brings the pond to the second example, this time a man notorious for his nattering negativity, his neighsaying, or even his naysaying, his remorseless capacity to say no ...

The politics of envy? What about the politics of negativity?

Cartoons about the onion muncher's negativity, if laid end to end, could stretch to the moon, which is why it takes an inordinate, extraordinary amount of cheek to try to turn positive about life under a Malware government being better than life under Comrade Bill ...

As might be expected, the onion muncher can't even get to first base ...

Amazing ... this was the man of a billion leaks and much, much bile, blaming the Senate, when the art of the politician is to do the deal ...

Is it any wonder that Moir found this Popeye such a fruitful subject (with more Moir here)?

Bizarrely even as he attempts to make the case for Malware to stay in power, the onion muncher's determined to explain how the country's fucked ... 

Apparently it's all the fault of the Senate, and has nothing to do with the reality of a Liberal government having endured federally since September 2013 ... four long years ...

And the best the billy goat can offer isn't a vision for the future, but a big butt ... that things would be worse under Comrade Bill ...

Aye Jim lad, we're rooned, but we'd really be rooned ...

And thar she blows again. Just like Dame Slap, the onion muncher is incapable of saying anything positive ...

He's happiest delivering a dose of nattering negativity which explains how both broadband and climate science were comprehensively fucked on his watch, and how he now has worked his magic to produce a headless, gutless chook at the helm ... (with more Moir as before here).

And once he gets on a natteringly negative roll, the onion muncher just can't shut up ...

All this from a man who has done more to fuck Malware than even comrade Bill, or Malware's own singular incompetence ...

The real tragedy? 

Such is his negative naysaying nature, the onion muncher preferred staying in place, so that he could exact his revenge and deliver his bile and his bitterness on a regular basis, and not seize the chances that were on offer, and which, thanks to the Pope this day, we learn remain on offer ... (with more Pope here).

And there it is ... an anthropology of negativity. 

Vote 'yes' in a way that makes 'no' seem the honest response, and blather on in a negative way about the future and future government, somehow managing in the process to make Jeremy Corbyn sound like a visionary and Comrade Bill a reasonable alternative ...