The forbidden history of unpopular people

Excellent video. This man is good. The message is spot on.

This is an edgy fast paced narrative about why we owe the most to some of the most unpopular people in history. It’s about free speech: why it matters, why we may lose it. About the threat that Finkelstein poses.

“It’s about arrogance, it’s about powerful people here in Australia who believe that they are smarter than you, that their opinion is worth more than your opinion, and that their thinking is better than your thinking, and if you think they’re wrong, you should just shut up.”

There have been nutters in history who were reviled, derided, hated, and spat on. A few of these held the answers that saved countless lives — including quite possibly, yours and mine.

The home site is The Forbidden History –  it has a high resolution, larger screen display.  This was a crowd sourced project costing $27k. Money well spent. He is raising money for part II and III. Topher has his own site and other video’s here.

Share it with your friends.

On Free Speech:

“The first thing we know is that it’s very expensive

The second things we know is that it’s offensive

The third thing we know is that no matter what the price, it’s worth it.”

***

Them Smart, You Dumb, End of Story.”

Help stop the News Media Gestapo

 

9.5 out of 10 based on 112 ratings

110 comments to The forbidden history of unpopular people

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    Mark Hladik

    The free flow of information, and the free exchange of ideas, is now, and has always been, the bane of despots everywhere.

    Even if I disagree with your opinion, I embrace your ability to verbalize it, as you should embrace my ability. If you do not, then you are the one at fault, not me.

    My regards to all,

    Mark H.

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    If you think we have free speech in Australia, try running a productive business and publically questioning the entire theory of AGW.

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    Richard deSousa

    So very apt today in a world full of do gooders. NYC’s mayor, Bloomberg, wants to save the lives of the citizens of NYC by banning large portions of sugary drinks! You can’t make this up!!! Kick Gillard’s arse back to the Outback in 2013!

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    Jaymez

    The video is well written and well presented and given the importance of the topic, just the right length.

    No matter what political persuasion you are, it is in your interests to fight against restrictions on free speech because you can be sure that whatever party is in power in the future, they will want to appoint ‘friends’ to the council and will try to influence what they consider as ‘fair and reasonable’.

    Topher makes a very good point (a number of times), that free speech can be offensive on occasions. But we can’t afford to give away free speech in order to avoid offending anyone. I can think of any number of comments which may not be considered ‘Fair and Reasonable’ by an over politically correct News Media Council. For instance, “The Prime Minister is an idiot”, “God is a Myth”, “By today’s standards Mohammed was a paedophile”, “The Treasurer is an economic illiterate”, “Tim Flannery wouldn’t know if his arse was on fire”. Yes I know some of those comments would be considered controversial. But under the Finklestein proposals on the operation of a News Media Council, if I made any of those comments on Jo Nova’s Web Site, both myself and Jo Nova could be found to be in breach of the “fair and reasonable” standards and at risk of various penalties and a prohibition on discussing the topic in the future.

    I was proud to have provided some financial support for this crowd sourced video project. Topher plans to do a couple of more if he can get the funding. So support it if you can. Pass this video on to others to spread this worthwhile message.

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    David, UK

    Brilliantly put. Some things that the Intellectual Elite (read The Left) have made a crime to voice openly in once-free societies: racism, sexism, ageism – lots of “isms,” Holocaust denial, “xenophobia” – that’s a laugh, making an irrational fear a “hate crime”. And if you’re for free speech then by implication you must obviously support the views of racists, sexists, phobics, etc, etc. Control the speech and you control the thoughts. 1984 anyone?

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    David Davidovics

    Excellent video. I don’t think Canada has a media council comparable to what is being proposed in Australia, but we do have ‘human rights tribunals’ that already carry out many of the things this man is warning about.

    If you say something deemed to be offensive, you get dragged before the tribunal and have no access to legal representation,appeal, or judgment by peers.

    Political correctness used to be a joke, but maybe we should stop laughing.

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    Rereke Whakaaro

    Some things that the Intellectual Elite (read The Left) have made a crime …

    It is not just “the left” who see themselves as the intellectual elite. It occurs at both ends of the political spectrum, and no more so than in the UK, where the class structure still guarantees an idiot a job in government as long as he is from “a respectable family”, can physically survive the rigours of a Public School, and overcome the boredom of three years at the London School of Economics.

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    pattoh

    With the Finkelstien Enquiry & now the AG Nicola Roxon announcing a move to put the affairs of parliamentarians beyond FOI, you get the impression that the formula is “beyond scrutiny is beyond reproach”.
    It does not work for me. I like to think I’ll know what value I get for my money.
    History has a lot of examples of ruling classes which have come unstuck in a very ugly way for losing touch with the people they rule.

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    Thank, that was very good. And thank you for your excellent work.

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    pat

    Summer isn’t very popular in Britain:

    4 June: UK Daily Mail: Freezing June! It’ll rain all week, feel chilly and we might even see snow on Britain’s highest peaks
    Up to an inch of rain fell across large parts of the country yesterday
    Unsettled weather expected to continue until next weekend
    Highest temperatures during the day forecast to drop to the mid-teens
    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2154340/Freezing-June-Itll-rain-week-snow.html

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    Siliggy

    Thankyou for posting this Jo. This video is brilliant. Loved every second of it!
    Our government has selected and rewarded advisors who will only say what they wish to hear. As emperors with no clothes they have become factually challenged truthaphobes. How can sanity ever prevail if reality becomes illegal due to the orthodoxy being in error and forced to stay that way?
    This is the choice between a stagnating educated delusion or a continuing intelligent evolution.

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    MadJak

    Thanks for that Jo – it’s really good. A well constructed argument with an extremely important message.

    It’s been the constant tinkering of do gooders and the political correctness brigade that has undermined capitalism. It is well on the way to undermining the very concept of a free society as well.

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    Stacey

    Absolutely brilliant.
    Just like a mini skirt; long enough to cover the subject and short enough to be interesting:-)

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    Kevin Moore

    “Free speech is being taken off you!” the speaker says. Things are really crook when people don’t already know and have to be told.

    How come it is that those who would remove freedom of speech are in control – who put them in that position of power?

    What is the ultimate agenda of those who would take away natural law and replace it with granted indulgences?

    What is the cause of the general populations apathetic mindset?

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    Pete

    Topher is good value. As one of the sponsors of this vid., I appreciated his effort. However, he didn’t address the need for limits to free speech… for instance, should we be ‘free’ to shout “Fire” in a crowded theatre, or to publish untrue statements about persons, or to inflame a riot? The analysis needed to be a bit more analytical and a bit less rhetorical.

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    timg56

    I love this guy.

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    brc

    An excellent presentation, one that is worthy of spreading far and wide.

    The beauty of the presentation is that it doesn’t fall down party lines. OK, so some parts of the Labor party pushed this report but I seriously doubt that all of their supporters agree with the report.

    There is no argument against any of the topics. None. If you disagree with what is presented, surely your only comeback is that people must be ruled over by a self-appointed and selected elite. As he says, if you’re too dumb to figure things out, then you must be too dumb to vote.

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    Dennis

    Control of the media, NBN Co internet filter and more are reminders of UN Agenda 21, new world government and the other Fabian Socialist new world order objectives that far too many Australians appear to be blissfully unaware of or are not interested in knowing about.

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    Philip Bradley

    I think this is one aspect of a wider phenomena that I’d call Aversion to Change. Societies don’t like their core ideas and principles to fail, because that would require changing them, and so endeavour to protect them. The same applies to individuals and businesses. I read today about large numbers of zombie companies in Europe, propped up by cheap money, and tying up capital and resources that need to fail in order for a recovery to occur.

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    J.H.

    Well said and nicely presented. I just had to laugh when he pinged Finklestein’s very first arrogant sentence. Classic.

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    First we get the Finkelstien Enquiry & now we get Attorney General Nicola Roxon’s attempts to put all parliamentarians beyond the Freedom of Information Act. Both Adolf Hitler and Josef Stalin would have approved. The politicians would then be above scrutiny although not beyond reproach, but beyond public reproach.
    The Labor Party now sees itself as an uncorrupted ruling class above any criticism, with its financial needs fed by the working lives of all of the Australian population.

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    John Brookes

    Of course free speech is non-existent. I’ve said things on this blog that have led (temporarily) to the removal of my right to comment. Personally, I’m happy that the owners of blogs engage in censorship. For me to enjoy a blog requires some degree of discipline from other participants, and when they fail to exercise that themselves, its up to the owner of the blog to make the tough decisions.

    So while I support free speech (don’t we all?), I do have a problem with powerfull media interests promoting their ideology. One only has to look at the UK where Tony Blair resented being forced to attend briefings with Murdoch editors, but knew that the price of not doing so would be to lose government. So should the Murdoch press be allowed to bring down governments they don’t like? And while Topher distinguishes between opinion and facts, in practice its very hard to stop people spouting wrong “facts”. Like the people who say the holocaust didn’t happen. They just make up stuff that isn’t true, and say that it supports their argument, and that they are being persecuted by the Jewish conspiracy for speaking the truth.

    Its not as simple as Topher makes out.

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      paul

      Sounds like your whole comment was a ruse to bring in Holocaust Denial then slap it down straw-man style. Sounds like there are some areas of free speech that you prefer not to see so free yourself.

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    I first saw some of Topher’s videos a couple of years back now when Andrew Bolt linked up one of his videos about Victoria Water, that being the infamous North South Pipeline for Melbourne’s water.

    He also has a few other videos, and they are at the following link

    Topher’s Videos

    The one I would direct you to is the bottom one on the list from 2009 I think, and titled Unpopular View #1.

    It deals with the Wonthaggi Desal Plant, specifically mentioning something that has happened yet again, the major flooding on the Mitchell River.

    That desal plant cost, and benefit (or lack thereof) aside, this plant is quite literally liquid electricity.

    A typical reverse osmosis desal process consumes 6KWH of electricity to produce 1 cubic metre of fresh water.

    Wonthaggi will produce 200 Gigalitres of water a year, (200 Million Cubic Metres) hence consuming 1200GWH of electricity, an absolutely monumentally huge chunk out of Victoria’s already dwindling power supplies.

    The incongruity of it all is that this amount of power is 10% of the total yearly output from that plant of dread, Hazelwood, and if Hazelwood generates 25% of all Victoria’s power then the desal plant will knock 2.5% of that power availability off that dwindling total.

    So, when some arty farty greenie says that they will construct renewable power to run Wonthaggi, huh, what absolute bovine waste product. The desal plant requires power on a 24/7/365 basis, so no renewable plant can cover that.

    What it effectively means that when the desal plant is up and running, then Hazelwood becomes a necessary part of Victoria’s power needs, if they want to have that availability of water.

    But hey, what would greenies know about that.

    Amazing, appease one set of greenies and then alienate them with the same single statement.

    And now, we have he Mitchell in major flood yet again, costing Victorians, (both individually and collectively) millions in losses.

    And the perfect place for the Dam on the Mitchell. Well Victorian Labor covered that base too. They made it a National Park.

    Topher explains it absolutely brilliantly. Just take the time and watch his video. The man’s very clever.

    Tony.

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    Mark

    Kevin,

    The vast majority of fluoridation is by way of soluble hexafluorosilicates such as sodium. Not exactly small molecules (Na2SiF6)

    I am, by the way, totally opposed to involuntary government decreed medication whatever the dental associations spruik.

    Won’t it be fun when the gastroenterologists succeed in getting the water supply dosed with Epsom salts in the interests of colorectal health!

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    agwnonsense

    I am just a nobody with a highschool education and I really envy Topher”s eloquence “outstanding” Climate Change is Natural and CO2 is Life.

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    […] The forbidden history of unpopular people […]

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    theRealUniverse

    Yes tell them to eat cake!!!

    OT Mann E. M. (Michael) the fibber! caught out..I just found this..
    2001. Looks like a certain Mann WAS in agreement with solar influence on climate.
    So whats his name doing on a paper like this?

    Solar Forcing of Regional Climate Change During the Maunder Minimum
    Drew T. Shindell1, Gavin A. Schmidt1, Michael E. Mann2, David Rind1 and Anne Waple3
    + Author Affiliations

    1 NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies and Center for Climate Systems Research, Columbia University, New York, NY 10025, USA.
    2 Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22902, USA.
    3 Department of Geosciences, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003, USA
    ABSTRACT

    We examine the climate response to solar irradiance changes between the late 17th-century Maunder Minimum and the late 18th century. Global average temperature changes are small (about 0.3° to 0.4°C) in both a climate model and empirical reconstructions. However, regional temperature changes are quite large. In the model, these occur primarily through a forced shift toward the low index state of the Arctic Oscillation/North Atlantic Oscillation as solar irradiance decreases. This leads to colder temperatures over the Northern Hemisphere continents, especially in winter (1° to 2°C), in agreement with historical records and proxy data for surface temperatures.

    http://www.sciencemag.org/content/294/5549/2149.abstract

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    PaddikJ

    I’d love to post the video to my FaceBook wall here in Denver, CO, but when I go to the actual YouTube page I’m informed that the video is “unlisted” & I can’t see it.

    Suggestions?

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    […] Joanne Nova writes: This is an edgy fast paced narrative about why we owe the most to some of the most unpopular people in history. It’s about free speech: why it matters, why we may lose it. About the threat that Finkelstein poses. […]

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    Joe's World

    Jo,

    Currently I am in an interesting discussion on experimentation of atmospheric gases in laboratory testing to the actual planet physical mechanisms.
    Many assumptions and following the laws at all costs currently is the mentality.
    What is being missed by all sides currently is the volume differences of the atmosphere to an actual container.
    Because of our planets shape, the container would have to be pie wedge shape in order to contain the same volume as to what laboratories use. The velocity difference from on our planet surface to the outer atmosphere has much less gases due to compression differences and volume space.

    Hope we don’t loose our free speech as science is currently REALLY screwed up!

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    Mark Hladik

    The only famous quote Topher could (should?) add to the video (maybe he has it planned for the future) is:

    “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”

    Regards,

    Mark H.

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    Bob Kutz

    This is why I love your website Jo!

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    […] Australia “It’s about arrogance, it’s about powerful people here in Australia who believe that they are smarter than you, that their opinion is worth more than your opinion, and that their thinking is better than your thinking, and if you think they’re wrong, you should just shut up.” –Excellent video.

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    Alexander K

    Excellent stuff, Jo, but just one quibble – who the heck is John Mills? I suspect Topher was actually quoting John Stewart Mill, not the father of Hayley!

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    great video Jo, thanks for posting… as Topher wanted it shared, I’ve obliged

    cheers from a happy-about-Wisconsin American living in Auckland 😉

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    Sorry, the site will be down today for some hours. Hopefully we can restore those lost comments. — Jo

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    jaytee

    Great. I was looking for a Tips place ( not the Tip Jar: Sorry Jo ) to post a link to this, and here it is. I’m happy and proud to be a contributor to Chris Fields’ work: his Unpopular View work is well worth a look.

    It’s a pity he’s reduced to begging for funding, when the Arts Council ( Australian, means Money for Nothing, As Long As You’re A Leftie ) can fund people painting trees blue. The man is brilliant. This vid should go viral; whether it will is up to us.

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    Steve Meikle

    It is the essence of bigotry to think that truth, real or presumed, is a license to compel.

    They don’t want honesty of speech or of thought.

    They are tyrants and fools.

    I have shared this excellent video on my facebook page

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    crosspatch

    While I absolutely love the message, “raising money” to produce YouTube videos? What a novel idea. I should get my young daughter right on that! She has produced several and not even dented her allowance.

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    […] The forbidden history of unpopular people (video) […]

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    amabo

    You should move your ratings thingy, I just hit a 3 or 4 rating because I was trying to click on the keep reading link.

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    […] is better than your thinking, and if you think they’re wrong, you should just shut up.”  The forbidden history of unpopular people  (JoAnn […]

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    Thomas

    Well I tried to place a comment here a few days ago, 400,403 and finally internet web browser dies freezes??? I wonder if this is something the ISP is doing?? Probably as Telstra and 2 other (As far as I know) ISP have been using new hardware and software to monitor and folter our browsing? The other day I tried to make a Congrats comment regarding this video and I got a bit carried away as I just saw an article on bigpond news that google has had an sharp increase by world Governements and not Socialist dictators or communist but democratic free world governments to remove political web sites and blog sites. Over 40% increase in requests, Google must have a big legal team.. http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2012/06/19/tech-google-content-removal.html?cmp=rss

    Google getting more government requests to delete content, pass on user data
    CBC News
    This nwas found on CBC News as Telstra only has these articles for a short time and thenm they are replaced and we can no longer make comments about news on the web site.

    This is now becoming more prevalent, and one has to ask why? What are they afraid off? What are they up to? What are they hiding and why try to prevent the public from expressing. passing, and informing others off.
    How will these changes impact the future generations and our children?

    [Thomas, we have been going through a server change and that may be why you had problems] ED

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    Thomas

    Finally I bypassed the Bigpond and Google search engine using startpage to make a comment here, yey it worked. Now I wait and see if they shut me down again or send ASIO after me??

    This video is extremely well presented and dare I say bravely.

    Yesterday 20th 06 2012 I read and news article from a website that stated that google is being asked more frequently over 40% increase by Governments and their departments to take down content and web sites they find offensive not only that they are being asked to reveal the content creators or web site owners details??? January this year I find out from a friend that Google was ordered to shut down over 1000 Christian web sites by the US Congress. In GOD WE TRUST, huh what god?
    If Christian websites are being declared security threats (and I do admit some of them are radical). However, not all are Cults. What concerns me is that some of the conspiracy theories have too much evidence to be dismissed. Now we have to tread very carefully, as the people behind the push to silence and control us are the ones that hold the big sticks. When I was younger I thought that Australia becoming a Republic may be a good thing. Now I realise that I was so naive and ignorant as are a lot of people today. The Constitution was designed and in Common Law passed down by Biblical teachings in a lot of cases and by previous laws handed down by England. This was meant to prevent certain power hungry individuals and organisations from enslaving the common and middle class people and offers protection against Governments doing the same thing. However, these days more than ever (and it has been going on for a long time) the individuals God Given Rights protected by the Constitution have been taken away. We the silly whom are too busy running our daily lives and whom are kept ignorant were not even aware of what was and is going on.
    Simply putting it if you control the media, education, legal system and the ones that enforce it as well as the military. You have power over the masses.

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    Thomas

    Cont.
    We have not learned from history and our past, and if the younger generations are educated in a specific structured way they will be indoctrinated into accepting what they are thought as fact and reality and very few will awaken to what is really going on. One of the lessons the power brokers have learned from history is that divided masses are easier to control, Power is not enough to retain control by force, so what is the solution? Well the new age of communications and transport has made the world a lot smaller. Unite the world with a central governing body, and retain control through financial occupation.
    He whom controls the money controls the world. However, it is not a single person. If you have a vested interest and there may be risks that that interest will be attacked you organise more security. Currently, the security is often in the shape of military, Police and private security.
    The problem is huge and it has gone beyond the average persons capacity to have any influence.
    Now what I have done is left my self open as a target for those that wish to retain the power, as I can be seen as a person whom is enticing conflict. I do not agree with violence and it is something that we all would refrain from. However, the way things are going it may get to the stage where the people start to rebel as is the case in many western democracies where the people are hurting. The distribution of wealth is no longer 20% owning 80% of the wealth, it is said to be 1% owning 92% (Do not quote me as I am reading from some websites and can not verify these figures) The traditional belief of the lower,middle and upper class has changed drastically.
    Whom is considered to be rich? Any one with a few million dollars, in who’s opinion and by what measure? By the person that earns $50,000 to $100,00 a year and has his own home or a rental Investment property? This person is poor, but the ones below him are even more poor, people that have billions are middle class, the rest are just various degrees of lower class. Now lets say that some families are worth trillions of dollars or organisations. There is the real power..
    The power to influence, sponsor, buy peoples loyalty, opinions, religious persuasions, hell some have sold out their souls. Hmm, Interesting concept. Can we separate the religion from the financial and political?? Really, isn’t that what we are told, no politics, no religion to be discussed specially at the dinner table. Lets bury our heads in the sand and hope this is all a figment of some conspiracy nutters imagination and that it does not exist. Dangerous this may be, as this is where they want you to be. In an imagined utopia.

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    […] post here last month on The Forbidden History of Unpopular People garnered a very enthusiastic response. “It’s about arrogance, it’s about powerful people […]

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    […] Topher, with his excellent “Forbidden History” video? Well, his earlier videos were on the problems of water shortage in Melbourne, and the Labour […]

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