<
https://www.crikey.com.au/2021/09/24/real-rukshan-live-stream-melbourne-protest/>
"Fernando is a Sri Lankan-Australia who went to school in Dandenong and studied
law at Victoria University, according to his LinkedIn profile. For the past
decade, he’s run a wedding photography business, Ferndara.
In a March interview about his career with another Australian creator, Fernando
says he’s always been political but didn’t show any interest in domestic
matters until Victoria’s second lockdown in July 2020: “When you have the
government interfere with your life, that really makes you arc up and be more
politically attuned to what’s happening around you.”
In posts on Ferndara’s Facebook page, Fernando says lockdowns had affected it
“immensely” and it had received little government support.
But tweets from his account from 2019 and early 2020 show a much more partisan
Fernando than he lets on in his videos. He’s a steadfast Donald Trump supporter
who believes the United States election was stolen. He’s an avid fan of Jack
Posobiec, Mike Cernovich, and Andy Ngo, right-wing American creators who have
peddled conspiracy theories and platformed white nationalists.
He doesn’t believe that climate change is real. He called Supreme Court Justice
Brett Cavanaugh accuser Christine Blasey Ford a “fake victim of nonexistent
events”. He promoted a conspiracy theory that US politician Ilhan Omar married
her brother. He called Alexander Downer a foreign spy for his involvement in a
meeting with George Papadopoulos that led to the US Russiagate investigation.
In short, he was fully immersed in the Trump media ecosystem.
Rukshan did not respond to an interview request from
Crikey."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
