boys roughhouse

Redefining Boys as Terrorists

Bettina Arndt, Quadrant, 19 Feb 2026

Worried about the boys in your life? Be warned. Our government is out to get them. In early January, when our country was still reeling from the Bondi Massacre, all the talk was about violent extremism. We watched the disgraceful Albanese government ducking and weaving to avoid naming Islamic extremism as the ideology which inspired that appalling event.

How convenient that on January 7, the day before our Prime Minister finally caved and agreed to the Royal Commission, our media was diverted by a news story reporting on a Melbourne University study into what they claimed was another driver of violent extremism. You guessed it – misogyny.