There are a couple of global trends colliding with each other at the moment.

On one hand, we have, as discussed in this column eons ago, the discussion about energy security being national security.

The rolling catastrophe that is the Trump administration and its never ending appetite for war has shown what staying tied to fossil fuels means for nations, speeding up the energy transition.

Now that it has hit commuter wallets through the petrol pump, we have seen electric vehicle take up, once again – according to the IEA – renewables will overtake coal as the world’s top power source this year.

Not that you would know that from much of the Australian discussion, even as RBA Governor Michele Bullock made note of a key difference between this round of inflation and what we saw in the 1970s stagflation crisis – that we are “less dependent on oil”.

In Australia, we are still linking caring for the climate with progressive politics – as if an ideology can stop the planet cooking.

We still like to pretend that the gas industry ‘holds up the economy’ as if multinationals making profit automatically means benefits for every day Australians.

Chris Bowen’s press club speech on Wednesday, which was just to set the scene before next week’s parliament sitting where the government will argue for more of the status quo, walked the line between pretending the bare minimum was going above and beyond, and warning against getting too crazy.

So we don’t hear that gas has lost power generation share globally for the past five years and counting. Just that Labor’s way is the right way – despite warnings, facts and barely contained rage that a 43 per cent emissions reduction target is nowhere near enough to do our part and keep global warming to something resembling what we consider normal.

No, instead Australia is lining up for another culture war, racing to embrace the other trend sweeping the west.

You could see the foundations for that being laid during Bowen’s speech when the Murdoch cable channel put aside its war on renewables for a moment to continue it’s war on the left in general (with its war on the ABC an added bonus).

Bowen was asked about the furore surrounding the broadcast of a recent section of the show ABC’s Race Around the World.

In case you’ve been lucky enough to miss it, Australian artist Kate McGuinness did a satirical bit about impaling Gina Rinehart.

It was eat the rich but with a face, and Rinehart’s company, Hancock Prospecting, has given notice of legal action around the broadcast.

The entire political spectrum, including Bowen and the Greens’ Sarah Hanson-Young, have declared the bit “not appropriate” and nationally, there is a lot of hand wringing over what we can say about people who wish to have influence over our democracy.

We must be civil at all times, even in satire, because of standards.

New red scare

Now we have that clear, we can continue the growing culture war whirring around ‘radical far left activists’ which we are importing from the United States.

For months now, there have been warnings of ‘socialist’ policies and a ‘socialist’ government Australia needs to be saved from.

Now, we have warnings of attacks “potentially orchestrated by far-left extremists with anarchist and revolutionary ideologies” popping up in investigations.

This echoes what we heard from Trump, who is now reaching back into the red scare supply cabinet to try and create some sort of mutual enemy his fraying MAGA-base can unite around: communists.

As he said in July:

“There is now a resurgence of the communist menace in our land, including from newcomers to our country who embrace ideas totally opposed to our way of life and our great success. You can be a communist, or you can be a patriot. You cannot be both.”

That was followed up by his security lapdog Marco Rubio urging global attention on this ‘old evil’.

“Today, we face a new wave of this old evil. Here in the United States, the share of left-wing terrorist attacks and plots has risen to levels not seen in decades,” Rubio said.

Which for the US, amounts to anyone who disagrees with Trump.

As Ette Media has already identified, Australia is being primed for its own 2026 red scare. And we will see the same groups who have screamed freedom of speech for years continue to crack down on any and all dissent, or challenges to status quo power.

Helped along no doubt by a government happy to keep pretending we are having a fight over renewables (a culture battlefield it is very comfortable finding on) and vacating the space on holding any other progressive or challenging lines.

Like every other culture war, we will forget that Australians has already been led down this path and when faced – in the middle of the hysteria – on the question of whether or not communists should be banned, voted no.

Menzies asked Australians in a referendum for the power to outlaw the Communist party at the height of the Red Scare, and Australians refused.

But then, there were politicians and leaders willing to stand up for uncomfortable positions and rights. And pushback against power – not just in ways that made power comfortable – was part of the national fabric.

Not sure you can say the same today.