There is only one way for Australians to show their contempt for the stifling political correctness and bullying left-wing activism that is tearing at the heart and soul of this once proud and confident nation: to party like crazy on Australia Day.

This Friday, rip into a slap-up brekky, take the kids to the park, hit the water, stack up the Esky, slap on the zinc, fire up the barbie, crank up the stereo, dig out the old albums, paint the kids’ faces, smash a cricket ball over the fence, ride a killer wave, ogle the fireworks and celebrate Australia Day like it’s, well, 1788.

Because to do any less is to play directly into the hands of the wowsers and the joy-killers, the history-revisers and the political agitators. Make no mistake, as with the recent same-sex marriage debate, the Safe Schools gender fluidity programs and the ‘diversity and inclusion’ anti-white male agenda, the tactics of the Left are clear and unequivocal: to intimidate, through violence or the threat of it where necessary, normal, everyday, well-meaning Australians into capitulation to hard-core neo-Marxist dogma dressed up as inevitable ‘progress’.

The political art of persuasion has been replaced on the far Left by the tactics of the schoolyard bully. On issue after issue, the approach is to make non-ideological, non-partisan Australians (the mums and dads of the suburbs, whose sole focus is – correctly – on earning a crust and bringing up the kids) feel that when it comes to these so-called divisive issues ‘it’s all too hard’ and yet ‘there must be something in it, otherwise why are they making such a fuss?’.

Drip, drip, drip. Inevitably, those who are either disinterested or confused will simply bend to the bullies on the basis of being ‘even-handed’.

Indeed, watch as some of your close family or friends, or workmates, equivocate about Australia Day this year, even though they never had a problem with it in the past. ‘Oh well, it’s not really our thing’, they will mutter, averting their eyes. Or: ‘I don’t know, it’s a bit insensitive.’ Or: ‘we thought we’d keep it a bit low key this year, out of respect.’

And in this way the bullies win.

Already, the aggression and bullying is on display, mimicking the tactics of the same-sex marriage debate. Jacinta Price, who wrote in these pages last year, is the (indigenous) face of Mark Latham’s Save Australia Day campaign. As she says in the TV ad: ‘Changing Australia Day doesn’t change the lives of Aboriginal people in remote communities. We have to come together as a nation to solve these critical issues, and do it proactively.’ Yet simply for appearing in the ad, and making such an uncontroversial statement, she has now been subject to the vilest abuse on social media. Ring any bells? During the same-sex marriage debate, those Asian and other women who similarly spoke up in ad campaigns were subject to the same relentless abuse and bullying. This is the blueprint now for how the Left deals with peaceful dissenting opinion, intimidating any who dare disagree with the PC activists.

Similarly – and again straight out of the SSM playbook – we have the Left talking up ‘threats of violence’ at Australia Day events. According to the Australian, a spokesperson for Melbourne’s left-wing Moreland City Council, in discussing citizenship ceremonies planned for Australia Day, ‘express(ed) fears the new citizens and their families would be forced to walk a gauntlet of police and right-wing protesters.’ And so confrontation becomes self-fulfilling and the intimidation increases.

But the real target is not, of course, the date. It is Australia Day itself, as certain militant groups have already boasted. It is what Australia Day represents: the joyful celebration of a nation born out of the British settlement of a continent populated by Stone Age tribes, bringing them and most of their offspring successfully into the modern era, and creating a prosperous nation that welcomes peace-loving immigrants from across the globe. This is not the narrative the Left will tolerate. For them, a Kumbaya-singing, peace-loving group of ‘First Nations’ (a term stolen from the American Left) is subject to ongoing genocide at the hands of white, male oppression. Thus, there can be no appeasement by switching dates; despite their protestations to the contrary, nothing will satisfy the Left short of the scrapping of Australia Day altogether and its replacement with some grand national smoking ceremony and Indigenous Day.

Yes, there is far more to be done for Aboriginal Australians, particularly in remote and unsustainable communities, and in areas plagued by poverty, welfarism, drugs and alcohol.

But one thing is crystal clear. It is not the Greens nor the hipster, latte-sipping, inner-city, politically-correct brigade who are the best hope for indigenous Australians. Quite the opposite. It is jobs and a proper, skills-based education. It is in belonging more and more to a successful, prosperous, proud, healthy, educated, hard-working and productive Australia.

And that’s worth celebrating.