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Australia is becoming a surveillance state

ia.acs.org.au

271–280 of 437 posts

Re: Australia is becoming a surveillance state

#271
post #263
post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OP's way of life has been made possible by cheap energy. Wishing it away before renewables are able to provide baseload power in an advanced economy (and the storage problem is, at best, decades away from being solved) is unwise.

Australia has the most abundant uranium reserves in the world. We have exactly 1 nuclear reactor we don't use for making power (yet is actually regionally vital for supplying medical isotopes to hospitals in SE-asia as well). Every side of politics has acted like complete cowards on this issue, with the Liberals the worst offenders - they pay it lip service every election then do nothing while handing out cash to the…

Agree 100%. Nuclear power will likely never happen in Australia now though, too many Karens terrified of it.

Re: Australia is becoming a surveillance state

#272
post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't be surprised if that takes, er, a while to happen

So do you people who keep telling everyone dictatorship is next whenever anything happens get tired of being wrong literally every time?

I missed the bit where I told anyone that dictatorship was next.

Re: Australia is becoming a surveillance state

#273
post #66

Since leaving Australia (and started living in Europe) I have come to the conclusion that Australia is not a "real" country - it is just a continent owned by corporate interests that happens to also have people living on it. Corporate interests own the media, politicians, food production, education etc. and no one cares, because Life Is Good. Why expect anything to change, or people to care about strong democratic in…

> it is just a continent owned by corporate interests that happens to also have people living on it.

An Australian Youtuber who focuses on topics related to macro economy actually touched this subject. Here is the video.

"Why Australia is Actually an American Company" by Economics Explained (2020)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xq8H0GHU8AQ

Re: Australia is becoming a surveillance state

#274

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this is nicely said. I grew up in a Western European country where I was used to most people caring about big societal issues such as health, environment, civil rights and privacy. In most European countries there is real competition between newspapers and an, at least in some places, a tradition of democratic participation. Meanwhile, in Australia, the “free press” is effectively owned by Rupert Murdoch, the…

> the government needs to make voting for federal elections compulsory in order to get people to take a stance / have an opinion (yes, you will get a fine if you don’t vote!) This seems like such a bad idea. Ideally, the democratic process taps ‘the wisdom of crowds’ and allows a society to make reasonable decisions. But all human beings are not capable of contributing to good decision making. Roughly the 15% of peop…

>Roughly the 15% of people have IQs below 85, making them effectively mentally retarded. And beyond that, a huge number of people are grossly uninformed about contemporary political issues, history, science, etc. The best contribution that some folks can make to the democratic process is not participating in the democratic process.

You're thinking of the role of democracy as a way to solve problems, but it also plays a role in fairly allocating resources between sectors of society. The IQ 115 demographic, but in fact that is why they need to vote, to counterbalance the self-interest of the IQ > 115 demographic. Likewise, PhDs in political science might be prone to think that highschool dropouts are not valuable contributors, but that is exactly why highschool dropouts need to vote - to counterbalance the will of the political science PhDs to support policies that only help PhDs.

Re: Australia is becoming a surveillance state

#275
post #261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That statistic alone doesn’t say very much. How does the number of killed per worker compare to other countries? The fact that 50-60 die doesn’t necessarily contradict others’ claims that they are overly focused on safety.

It's a bloody roof mate, it's not worth dying for period.

> It's a bloody roof mate, it's not worth dying for period.

It’s quite clear we actually do consider a roof worth dying for. We build them knowing that some people will die after all.

Re: Australia is becoming a surveillance state

#276
post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its not their particular name. It's their inconsistency in using it. I think previous iterations of existence use names to transfer karmic information for individuals, but we're now at the point that the system is understood well enough by the systemised to game the system itself. I often wonder about the importance of naming things. Its also a key problem in Computer Science. Namespacing is useful up to a point. Val…

There is no inconsistency. William Rees-Mogg, the co-author of the suggested book, was the father of Jacob Rees-Mogg.

Ah, thanks for clearing that up - I didn't research/clarify enough before posting. My apologies to you and them.

I'm so worried about them shuffling names around to suit circumstances I err'd on the wrong side. As an outcast (Australian) trying to look in from far away its frightfully confusing. I mean there's that Saxe-Coburg thing for a start...

'Boris' still annoys the crap out of me though. Does the UK also have an 'actor' as its prime minister? Is he intentionally mishandling umbrella's or not? At least Ronald Reagan was already 'out' as an actor.

I deserved the downvotes, but I have learned.

My point about naming things is still completely valid though. It's hard to have the 'right amount of name' without causing confusion.

Re: Australia is becoming a surveillance state

#277

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Students are hardly the smartest people, unless you believe that growing up and acquiring decades of practical experience actually makes you dumber. Canada: A "filmmaker" claims that one of the police officers had a rock in their hand, why would I believe a "documentary filmmaker" without any actual evidence (you'd expect a video evidence from the guy) participating in a protest more than actual police officers? or t…

I just posted a video. You react with a lot of minimal information. Heed my earlier comment about all the pieces. (I am guilty of this behaviour too). If you dig deeper, there are(/were?) other video sources that had the union leader saying things along the lines of "this guys not with us, we don't know who he is, take of your mask and protest peacefully like the rest of us". The Canadian police got caught out trying…

> If you dig deeper, there are(/were?) other video sources that had the union leader saying things along the lines of "this guys not with us, we don't know who he is, take of your mask and protest peacefully like the rest of us".

It's actually in the video you posted so I've seen it. They were there with masks, they were not protesting, but they were standing peacefully: that is what I see in the video.

> The Canadian police got caught out trying to incite things

That's why I was talking about the "rock in their hands" part of the story because that's the only part that would be valuable at all to support the claim that they were there to "incite".

But actually you're probably wondering about the reason why they are dressed like other violent protesters (which we can see in an earlier part of the video in another street), there's a reason for that, and it's pretty simple: it makes it easier to catch them. And when you do you're burned so it's not like the costume is going to last forever.

Why did they then go to the peaceful street then? Because they were expecting the violent protesters from the other street to refuge there and take off their masks and blend in with the peaceful protesters. By being there first they could have caught them, but the "peaceful protestors" who "caught them" didn't let them do their job.

I don't believe one second that they did that to incite things, that they would be throwing rocks at their own colleagues, and have seen absolutely no reason let alone any evidence to think otherwise.

But even if their presence did incite you, then you would get caught extremely fast, and that would probably be a better ending for everybody including yourself, before you become a bigger danger.

Re: Australia is becoming a surveillance state

#278
post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think we're going too far to accomodate those who won't get vaccinated. If everyone gets it, this scanning wouldn't be necessary If every last man woman and child on the planet get vaccinated; if every mouse, cat, dog, ferret, pig, monkey and deer get vaccinated too, the potential for a breakout vaccine resistant infection is still there . Also, there is still virtually zero talk of implementing vaccine exemption…

> My country hasn't hired more nurses, built more ICU beds, legislated for or supported better air circulation indoors, or subsidised antigen testing - but they have implemented a vaccine passport for cafes and restaurants, against the advice of our council on civil liberties, our data privacy chief, and the WHO covid envoy. We're told it's a temporary measure, and I have no doubt that it will be as "temporary" as th…

[deleted]

Re: Australia is becoming a surveillance state

#279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this is nicely said. I grew up in a Western European country where I was used to most people caring about big societal issues such as health, environment, civil rights and privacy. In most European countries there is real competition between newspapers and an, at least in some places, a tradition of democratic participation. Meanwhile, in Australia, the “free press” is effectively owned by Rupert Murdoch, the…

> the government needs to make voting for federal elections compulsory in order to get people to take a stance / have an opinion (yes, you will get a fine if you don’t vote!) This seems like such a bad idea. Ideally, the democratic process taps ‘the wisdom of crowds’ and allows a society to make reasonable decisions. But all human beings are not capable of contributing to good decision making. Roughly the 15% of peop…

Wait till you hear about what the IQ > 130 demographic think of the IQ 140 demographic think of the IQ <= 140 demographic.

Re: Australia is becoming a surveillance state

#280

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Skilled immigration is neocolonialism. I truly can't believe how many (supposedly enlightened) people I've had try to tell me with a straight face how wonderful it is to have all these doctors/engineers/etc coming to their country, and how great it is for their economy and healthcare system etc. Like, you don't think all the people in India or The Philippines or Chad need doctors or economic advancement?? It's just i…

As an expat, I go there where I get treated best. Why wouldn’t I? Do I owe my country of birth anything?

Are these rhetorical questions? I'm not quite sure how they address my comment.

There is a difference between that and the systemic concerted efforts by wealthy countries to poach and take the most valuable, skilled, educated of the human capital from poorer countries who are in positions of weakness and far less bargaining power.

I understand that the narrative is that it's about "helping the unfortunates", but really it's not. If a country wanted to help people you wouldn't "help" mainly the ones who can give them something (they are actually helping you), leaving the many more less fortunate ones in an even worse state.

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