Political expression comes in a number of forms.
For some people it involves signing a petition, attending a rally, or simply casting an informed vote.
But for Sam Henderson, a 23-year-old University of Sydney science graduate, it meant writing a quiz.
Henderson works at a fresh faced start-up which aims to help political campaigns generate donations and sign-up volunteers directly from social media. Still in a “pre-revenue” stage, Henderson recently attempted to reach out to MPs in an unsuccessful attempt to hawk the product.
Frustrated by the outcome, the young graduate decided to turn his disappointment into something creative, a satirical project to help “disincentivise bigotry”. He chose to target his “least favourite” MP, the Member for Dickson, aka Immigration Minister Peter Dutton. Henderson was appalled by Dutton’s now infamous comments on ‘illiterate, job stealing, welfare bludging’ refugees, and wanted to do his bit to help steer the country away from re-electing a conservative government.
“I don’t like his language,” Henderson told New Matilda. “What the Brexit shows – and what the phenomenon in the US with Trump support shows – is that there is an incentive for extremely radical language that marginalises people who would have a different ethnicity to Peter Dutton, and it’s really harmful.”
As any modern activist knows, revenge is a dish best served with code, and after a few days of work Henderson launched DuttonOrDictator.com, an online quiz that tests whether you can pick the Trump line from the Ahmadinejad slur or the Peter Dutton original. He hopes the quiz reaches the good people of Dickson.
“The best way to stop [comments like Dutton’s] is to make it so that a person gets ridiculed or they lose credibility every time someone says something as horrible as that,” said Henderson.
With 8.5 thousand having already had a go at the quiz so far, Henderson is hoping that another little piece of Dutton’s credibility has been chipped away.
To put your skills to the test, you can play Dutton or Dictator here.