71–80 of 168 posts
This could be the start of the next war, antiprivacy from Australia and antidoxing laws from elsewhere.
We're already in Eurovision, surely we're halfway there? Just sign a few forms and we're part of the EU?
....please?
So there will be lots of political stuff coming out of Australian in the next 3-5 months (until an election is called).
This I'd simply take as an announcement with little chance of it getting through.
>The online world should not be a wild west where bots and bigots and trolls and others are anonymously going around and can harm people I can't express how much I hate this. The online world SHOULD be a wild west, away from government reach, in my opinion.
It's like coming to a MacDonalds and demanding that all the personnel gets their asses out for a walk while we have a party there with other 5y-olds.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Your first two paragraphs are spot on, your last one demonstrates clearly that Facebook posts are not a reliable source of information. There are no concentration camps, no military round ups, and no forced medication* in Australia. * There is no vaccine mandate per se, but some types of businesses face fines for admitting non-vaccinated people onto the premises. You might call this a de facto mandate, others have ce…
> There are no concentration camps, no military round ups Yes there are, not a troll, straight from the horse's mouth so to speak. https://youtu.be/vQok3GMMSAI > and no forced medication* in Australia. That part is true but I never said there were yet. I said clueless information walled gardens were constantly advocating for them with very little push back exactly because they're in walled gardens where that is the n…
> forcibly injecting people against their will, and that is what I was seeing many posts advocating for
I believe you. Seeing the viciousness, tribalism, and callousness that other Australians have treated each other with during covid has been nothing short of disgusting.
One part of the Australian psyche that is not often discussed, is that in times of disaster, we are expected to engage in collectivism. Australia is besieged by more than its fair share of natural disasters (bushfires, floods, cyclones and droughts are all commonplace) and in those times, the community pulls together and supports one another. Covid was largely viewed through the same lens, where those who don't pull their weight are shunned. Given the amplification of toxicity that the internet can provide, you get posts like the ones you've seen. Not excusing it, just explaining it.
[0] - https://www.defence.gov.au/operations/opcovid19-assist
>The online world should not be a wild west where bots and bigots and trolls and others are anonymously going around and can harm people I can't express how much I hate this. The online world SHOULD be a wild west, away from government reach, in my opinion.
this might have been a popular idea among some libertarian hackers in the 90s but I'm not sure how many people you're going to get on board with the notion that the internet should be ungovernable and out of the reach of law enforcement. I'm in favor of having robust freedoms both online and offline don't get me wrong but I don't see the internet as some sort of mystical realm and I don't want anarchy on the internet…
Australians need an internet freedom party. While the "Keep Sydney Open Party" did not win any seats, it got so close that lockout laws (can't go into a bar or club after 1:30am, can't buy shots after midnight) finally got repealled.
Australians need an internet freedom party. While the "Keep Sydney Open Party" did not win any seats, it got so close that lockout laws (can't go into a bar or club after 1:30am, can't buy shots after midnight) finally got repealled.
Any party with "freedom" in it will just turn into yet another libertarian cess pool. The reason so much stupid policy comes out of Australia is because we keep voting for conservative politicians because our entire economy is based on real estate and mining. It's just a backwater parochial shithole.
> The reason so much stupid policy comes out of Australia
Here we go, the real reason.
No-one tell Scott Morrison that the bots and trolls are all promoting the cause of his side of politics :S Own goal anyone? Also his stupid religious discrimination act is worse (or at least as bad) as this stupid law. This is like the stupid movement from conservatives in the US against "big tech" despite the fact that social media manipulation is a core part of their political strategy, and they're against governme…
> muddied with libertarianism
Right.
The Australian system is certainly not without its issues, but it is far better than most other countries in the world, especially the madness of the US federal FPP system.
I suspect that this is why Australians are seen to be complaint/obedient. It’s because we know that half of us explicitly voted for this government - either directly or indirectly through preferences - and if it fucks up too much they will change their minds and this mob will be gone (and good riddance if you ask me).
I believe that this is also why Australian politics is quite centrist relative to many other counties.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Australia is a highly compliant/obedient society. It’s also highly litigious, lots of fines for anything and anything. It’s the defamation capital of the world. Yes this will be enforced, it’ll be enforced selectively against critics of the current government. There is a video of the announcement with the current PM grinning and smirking in the background like a little kid when this is discussed https://www.reddit.co…
Yeah that's a pretty fair assessment of the state of play here in Oz, and I'll add the point that most Australians have no idea this stuff is occurring. The media landscape in Australia is extremely consolidated, to the degree that there are only a few major media players, and they are almost completely aligned in their agenda and messaging. There is an incestuous relationship between the media and the politicians -…
this is indeed correct, but then you say
>hat party is almost always the conservative LNP, if you're ever wondering why Australia has such a prominent right-wing authoritarian streak, know that the Murdoch media has a dominant print market share, a monopoly on cable TV, and a large majority of the free to air TV market is ideologically aligned.
The fact that people make statements and believe things like this should make it clear just exactly who is in control of the Australian media, and what the propaganda is pushing.
First let's look at the facts. Murdoch owns 25% of the Australian print media and 1 cable news network. They own zero, (yes zero) of the 5 major TV networks. Yes that is all! The remaining 75% of the Australian print, and almost all the free to air channels are controlled by mostly ideologically left wing groups and they try desperately to push their views on the Australian people, yet the Australian people refuse to listen, and continue buying Murdoch papers, then switching off the free to air channels, and paying their own money to watch the Murdoch owned sky news.
It is a good thing too because the only news media putting any effort into resisting the Authoritarian lockdowns and other authoritarian measures being taken by the state governments are the Murdoch owned media (yes you wouldn't know all the authoritarian measures have been taken by the left wing state governments and not the right wing federal government from listening to the media would you, why is that?).
The Authoritarian streak is being pushed almost entirely by the left wing media, and I have personally seen people who consume this media become radicalized by it. They push, non stop, the idea that freedom of speech is bad, that working class people are stupid and don't know what is good for them, and the country needs people from the professional classes to take control (and therefore systems like China's would be better). They have been pushing for and, in the left wing controlled Melbourne succeed in, instigating the harshest lockdowns in the entire world. Melbourne is Australia's version of San Francisco - that is where the video of the police beating up and pepper spraying the 70 year old lady came from. They also try to inflame a lot of racial hatred and get people to fight among themselves.
Thankfully, Australian is a very down to earth, working class culture, and most people don't fall for it. Despite the endless propaganda being pushed on most channels and media, they switch it off. Unfortunately, as the parent commenter does correctly point out, it comes with a downside, that people don't really know what is going on. They don't care because life is good. Most people don't watch news at all and that is how the government can get away with a lot of the things it does.