Lid posted:

My tiny violin shares are soaring.

racing identity posted:

It's actually bad for people to have their lives destroyed because they received bad financial advice, regardless of who they voted for

CrazyTolradi posted:

Normally I'd agree, but in general boomers have the biggest sense of gently caress You, Got Mine it's some good schadenfreude.

Also, when boomers whine about how "Young people have it so easy." what exactly are they referring to? How exactly do millennials have it easy?

Bogan King posted:

Labor are attacking the Greens for dealing with the Libs to cut private school funding [SMH]

You Am I posted:

lol Turnbull is wanting to send troops back to Afghanistan

Bogan King posted:

Greens aren't the ones locking kids up in concentration camps. How's that change from within working out for you VBH?

Bogan King posted:

Greens aren't the ones locking kids up in concentration camps. How's that change from within working out for you VBH?

Box of Bunnies posted:

The only moral voting with the coalition is Labor's voting with the coalition.

Kafka Syrup posted:

Turns out the Imgur app autopublishes uploads and I just got a bunch of abusive comments. Good stuff, imgur.

racing identity posted:

Permanent financial ruin seems a tall price to pay for having bad opinions

CrazyTolradi posted:

Also, when boomers whine about how "Young people have it so easy." what exactly are they referring to? How exactly do millennials have it easy?

ewe2 posted:

Counterpoint: as a demographic they're the biggest drain on the economy so let's see some balance.

G-Spot Run posted:

But I thought all boomers worked hard, spent within their means, and bought an inexpensive property that they only added modern conveniences to when it was fiscally responsible!

G-Spot Run posted:

Maybe I'm too naive but I thought that woman surely meant new carpets and curtains. Right? Nobody really expects to live off the concrete with newspaper on the windows...

[90%ofpoorshaveafridge.jpg]

Osman posted:

Men’s rights activists, anti-racism campaigners, the Israel-Palestine crisis and Mark Latham. Despite the lack of obvious commonality between these issues, they all cropped up last night when the University of Sydney became the latest battleground over a documentary accused of promoting “misogynstic propaganda”.

The university’s student union had refused to endorse a screening of The Red Pill, a documentary produced by filmmaker Cassie Jaye on the rise of the men’s rights movement, but a trio of student societies including Students for Liberty, the Conservative Club and BROSoc went ahead with their own privately-funded event.

Protests and petitions have led to screenings of the film being cancelled around the country, and last night’s screening at Sydney Uni was itself targeted by student activists, including members of a group known as Fascist Free USyd.

Supporters and opponents of the film clashed before the event kicked off, leading to one arrest. But were the tensions on display really just about one film or are they part of a broader cultural battle playing out between progressives and the far-right?

The Protests

About 50 protesters had gathered on Sydney Uni’s Eastern Avenue walkway, around the corner from where the The Red Pill was about to be screened. Opponents of the film had already succeeded in ensuring that the event wouldn’t be supported by the student union, arguing that “there is the distinct possibility that the planned screening of this documentary would be discriminatory against women, and has the capacity to intimidate and physically threaten women on campus.”

Even though the screening was entirely independently organised, left-wing students had mobilised to demonstrate their opposition to the ideas articulated in the film.

One of the organisers of the protest, Eleanor Morley, told me that “the film argues that struggles for women’s liberations have gone so far that women are now structurally oppressing men around the world. I think it’s quite laughable when you look at the serious disadvantages and discrimination face that women still face in society, such as the gender pay gap.

“It features a whole bunch of disgusting figures of the alt-right who hold deeply racist, homophobic and Islamophobic views as well,” Morley said. “We’re holding the protest because we want to make sure the film’s misogynistic, right-wing views are countered with a left-wing, anti-racist message.”

But Morley said the protest wasn’t about shutting the screening down, just articulating a different perspective.

According to the protest organisers, a film crew from Mark Latham’s Outsiders, Latham’s self-funded Facebook Live “show”, was there to record the action. When I asked Latham’s alleged cameraman whether he had been sent by the former Labor leader he said “I have no idea why I’m here” and backed away from me quickly, nearly tripping over a bench in the process.

The protesters used their chants to link The Red Pill to issues of racism and Islamophobia, which seemed kind of jarring given the film’s narrow focus on men’s rights activism and what it argues are the problems with contemporary feminism. But according to Morley, who is also an organiser with Fascist Free USyd, racism and men’s rights activism are both values embraced by emerging far-right groups on campus.

“It’s quite notable here at Sydney Uni,” Morley said. “Since the election of Donald Trump we’ve seen people walking around in ‘Make America Great Again’ hats, lots of racist graffiti and lots of Islamophobic signs posted around campus.”

The conflation of men’s rights issues and race wasn’t just confined to left-wing students, however.

At one stage the protest was interrupted (or hijacked?) by pro-Israel protestors. A group of students unfurled an Israeli Defence Force flag, for no clear reason, which led to some of The Red Pill protestors breaking out into spontaneous “Free Palestine” chants. One student attempted to grab the flag but was blocked by an organiser of the screening.

The scuffle ended pretty quickly and the protestors went back to chanting about the film. It was like the bizarre Israeli Defence Force interlude never happened.

The Battle

Up until this point the two groups — protestors and film attendees — had been kept seperate, but police were on standby in case there was a clash. And, of course, there was a clash.

A few minutes before the film was scheduled to begin the protestors marched to the entrance of the lecture theatre hosting the screening, chanting “racists, sexists, anti-queer bigots are not welcome here”.

Some film attendees started chanting back, and they seemed to be enjoying the fact that something as simple as their decision to attend watch a documentary had sparked such a furious response.

One man wearing a t-shirt with the phrase “feminism is cancer” started dancing in front of the protestors. The event’s organiser, Renee Gorman, posed for photos in front of the angry crowd.

Gorman told me the event was her idea and she decided to organise it after finding it had been banned in Melbourne. “I watched it and thought it was really interesting, and thought it would be interesting to put it on here on campus,” she said.

“I think if you watch the film it’s actually not that intense, and it’s not worth the slander they’re putting against it.”

Conservative commentator Daisy Cousens, who was promoting the event on Twitter all week (despite not being a student at the university) appeared to be deriving a lot of enjoyment out of egging the protestors on.

A fight broke out when a member of Students for Liberty accused a protestor of stealing tickets to the event, but police quickly intervened. It was the only incident of physical violence I witnessed.

Students on both sides seemed happy enough to yell chants at each other, rather than actually punch on.

Given the protestors had already explained that they weren’t trying to shut down the screening, why exactly were they there? Morley said they were trying to articulate a “left-wing, anti-racist message” but the sole audience, other than journalists and the police, was the film attendees themselves. And they were loving the attention.

[click the drat link if you want to read more]

MysticalMachineGun posted:

Quick Van, better jump off Labor since they'll be voting with the Coalition on the bank tax

JBP posted:

Voting for the greens is a pretty big dumb waste of time and energy. Hope this clarifies the mistakes the young people itt have made politically

ewe2 posted:

Lol Daisy reduced to an MRA cheerleader.

JBP posted:

Voting for the greens is a pretty big dumb waste of time and energy. Hope this clarifies the mistakes the young people itt have made politically

JBP posted:

Voting for the greens is a pretty big dumb waste of time and energy. Hope this clarifies the mistakes the young people itt have made politically

BBJoey posted:

Cory Bernardi's Australian Conservatives Party

the only way out is accelerationism

BBJoey posted:

Bullet Train For Australia

the only way out is accelerationism

JBP posted:

Voting for the greens is a pretty big dumb waste of time and energy. Hope this clarifies the mistakes the young people itt have made politically

Dude McAwesome posted:

Thanks for all the help re: explaining why drug testing welfare recipients is a shithouse idea.

And JBP who is the correct party to vote for then?

Senor Tron posted:

Yeah, it takes a lot of loving energy to write 1 Greens 2 Labor. It's a whole extra digit every few years, bloody draining on the wrist.

Birdstrike posted:

BBJoey posted:

i legitimately voted 1 Bullet Train for Australia last election because i've developed prodromal schizophrenia