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Australia is becoming a surveillance state

ia.acs.org.au

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Re: Australia is becoming a surveillance state

#301

Post by nanis »

goatlover wrote: post #285
nanis wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> anyone think that a US civilian militia has more than a snowball's chance in hell against any committed government-deployed force? I am not taking sides in the underlying argument. I am simply astonished that you can make this statement in the face of U.S. forces running away from Afghanistan.

You mean where the US is no longer interested in nation building and occupying another country years after the military victory?

Right. There might be three people in the world that believe that the stated goal of the mission was to kill a bunch of people and return power to the group whose members we killed while in the process arming them to the teeth with U.S. equipment so they have free reign once again[1].

[1]: https://www.the-sun.com/news/3448281/taliban-grabbing-girls-...

Re: Australia is becoming a surveillance state

#302

Post by nxmnxm99 »

dkdbejwi383 wrote: post #267
nxmnxm99 wrote: post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't imagine living in a place where everyone is constantly moralizing about things like "media diversity". How exhausting.

I don't think I'd class "being concerned that the overwhelming majority of the media is owned and controlled by a single individual" as "moralising"

I'd point out the extreme irony of this comment, but I suspect it'll fall on deaf ears.

Re: Australia is becoming a surveillance state

#304

Post by nxmnxm99 »

wombatmobile wrote: post #260
nxmnxm99 wrote: post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't imagine living in a place where everyone is constantly moralizing about things like "media diversity". How exhausting.

What do you mean by "moralizing"? To me, "moralizing" is when I tell you to not do something that I don't like but which doesn't directly affect me. Like, don't drink alcohol to excess, or don't cheat at cards, or don't swear in front of kids, or always tell the truth. I have an opinion that media diversity benefits society, and I don't consider that "moralizing". I consider it caring about my community, and I consid…

That's not the definition of "moralizing".

> Moralize definition, to reflect on or express opinions about something in terms of right and wrong, especially in a self-righteous or tiresome way

Which is roughly what you (and the rest of the social justice crowd and, apparently, western Europe) just did.

Re: Australia is becoming a surveillance state

#305

Post by IG_Semmelweiss »

marcusverus wrote: post #186
hestefisk wrote: post #159

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…

Correct.

There is a natural experiment on this. See which countries have compulsory voting and see how they have fared since. The results are not pretty.

On the flipside, the strongest "free" countries, switzerland and USA, have had voluntary parricipation since time immemorial...

Re: Australia is becoming a surveillance state

#306

Post by rospaya »

shell0x wrote: post #240
ostenning wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I did the opposite, moved to Germany from Australia. Now I look at my home country and im shocked about how things are degrading there

As a German living in Australia, I’m shocked what happened to Germany. Politics turned to Left-wing/Green party vs AFD and there is no middle ground anymore. The FDP basically disappeared and there’s a cliff in society over things like the refugee crisis and Merkel’s “everyone is welcome here” politics. If I’d ever come back to Europe, I’d settle in Switzerland. It just is the better Germany(at least to me).

> there is no middle ground anymore

Isn't there a grand coalition in Germany for most of the last 15 years between the center-left and center-right which did very well?

Re: Australia is becoming a surveillance state

#307

Post by kwere »

alvah wrote: post #150
trissylegs wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Australia's economy is pretty dependent on Coal, Aluminum and Gas. Two of these a hopefully going away soon but the Government is so In bed with mining and they throw more money at elections than every other sector put together that nothing will done about it until it collapses.

Do you understand what you're actually wishing for when you cheer on the destruction of a large percentage of the economy? What comes after will not be so comfortable.

that wealth enable chronism, it could be better long term for the australian people (or most resource-based countries) if it dissipated tomorrow

Re: Australia is becoming a surveillance state

#308

Post by dkdbejwi383 »

nxmnxm99 wrote: post #302
dkdbejwi383 wrote: post #267

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think I'd class "being concerned that the overwhelming majority of the media is owned and controlled by a single individual" as "moralising"

I'd point out the extreme irony of this comment, but I suspect it'll fall on deaf ears.

Nah go on

Re: Australia is becoming a surveillance state

#309

Post by titzer »

chiefalchemist wrote: post #251
L_226 wrote: 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…

> "Decades of bull markets, house price increases, a decline in public education, torpedoed communication infrastructure and complicit "independent" media has resulted in a wealthy, ignorant and complacent society who allow their representatives full control over their lives. It is not that they don't care about these issues, they are not even aware they are issues at all." This bit - as well as the overall comment i…

This is the role of the attention economy. To fill up your face with screens and ads and make you into a good little consumer, fat and happy, an atrophied mind sitting on your duff like a Wall-E passenger, constantly distracted by fads and sucking down liquid shittrition.

Re: Australia is becoming a surveillance state

#310

Post by scohesc »

II2II wrote: post #179
wormseed wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Australia's covid policy of indefinitely banning citizens from leaving was the last straw for me. I won't be back.

Most rights end at a nation's border and most rights are a balance of conflicting interests. The former may be wrong, but it is the way of the world. The latter means that one person's rights may have to be restricted to protect the rights of another. Failing to recognize this by painting everything as contrasts is your choice, but it most certainly does not mean you are right. Police investigative powers are an exam…

Balance of rights means nobody has rights.

If you need to "balance" the rights (read: take them away) of somebody to equal the scale, then rights don't exist in the first place.

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