Auspol Infinity: Front of the queue off a cliff

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Yeah Nah? This poll is closed.
Yeah Nah	122	53.51%
Nah Yeah	64	28.07%
Nah Yee	18	7.89%
No Yes	9	3.95%
Yes No	15	6.58%
Total:	228 votes

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ModernMajorGeneral: Jun 25, 2010

Not a big deal compared to all the other current toxicity in Auspol, but just some awful culture war bait journalism from the Age today.

quote:

At the same time, the Left has seemingly lost the ability to laugh at anything much at all. �There�s always been a very large humourless part of the Left,� says Elton. �Stalinism runs deep � the mindset, I mean, not the politics.�

But that doesn�t mean he�s about to jump on the anti-woke bandwagon. The hysteria over cancel culture and so-called attacks on freedom-of-speech is, he says matter-of-factly, �rubbish�.

�How strange that we have a world where apparently we�re not allowed to say anything, and some pernicious left-wing conspiracy is constraining the natural feelings of honest commonsense people,� he says, and I feel like I should get off the runway because he�s clearly taxiing for take-off.

�How strange then that the leaders of Britain, Australia and until recently America all turn out to be overly entitled self-interested, white middle-aged men motivated entirely by greed and grotesque entitlement. If the Left is constraining language, and constraining more commonsense right-wing people in their thinking, well, it�s doing a f---ing bad job.

�It�s a myth,� he continues, now in full flight. �There�s never been that constraint. Of course, there are people of goodwill trying to get people to think about the power of language. I�ve been doing that all my life; I stopped using the C-word because I felt using female genitalia as the ultimate brutal insult was wrong.

�Thinking about the effect of your language on others is not the same as censorship, and being encouraged to do that is not pernicious or censorious.� Yes there are some zealots who go a little far, he concedes, but �when you think how many people are scoring points claiming you can�t say anything, they massively outnumber the people who might possibly be pointing out �it would be nice if you didn�t say that�.�

I don't know enough about him to form an opinion on whether Ben Elton has 'good politics', and some leftists might take exception to the first line, but this seems largely reasonable.

Can you guess how the age chose to title the article?

�Stalinism runs deep�: Elton takes aim at large humourless part of the Left

# ¿ Mar 18, 2021 09:41

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# ¿ May 17, 2024 04:06

ModernMajorGeneral: Jun 25, 2010

TheMostFrench posted:

I'm sitting next to my parents (late 60s and 70s) as this story has come on SBS, Thorpe is being interviewed and they are almost yelling at the tv "she is an adult, why can't she tell them not to do it, how can she put on this sad face about people putting their arms around her or asking her out, just tell them 'im not interested"'

Mum adding she's had plenty of people put an arm around her and it's never meant anything. She's either been fortunate or ignorant. There doesn't seem to be a connection that the same people wanking onto desks and raping female staffers are the same party putting their arms around people. She doesn't realise that it's intimidating, and that women who make it an issue are losing their jobs.

I'm sure anyone in this thread knows this already, but this is why the Libs can't do anything about the sexual harrassment and why (in spite of the real problems other parties have) this is a partisan issue the Libs have a specific problem with. This attitude that putting your arms around people is fine and efforts to stop it are left-wing PC gone mad are core to the beliefs of the average LNP voter and the party ideology, and none of them can make that connection with this and rapists (or perhaps can but deliberately avoid doing so to avoid challenging their fellow conservatives)

# ¿ Mar 23, 2021 12:44

ModernMajorGeneral: Jun 25, 2010

Hahaha, as expected the most grovelling and heartfelt apology from Morrison comes after offending Newscorp.

# ¿ Mar 23, 2021 14:14

ModernMajorGeneral: Jun 25, 2010

Eediot Jedi posted:

long standing rumour/open canberra secret that tony and peta were loving.

Given the current political situation I can't tell whether that tweet is trying to say 'how can we not address how hosed it is that tony and peta were having an affair' or 'how can we not talk about how the affair rumours were an example of the disgusting misogyny women in Canberra face'

# ¿ Mar 26, 2021 10:08

ModernMajorGeneral: Jun 25, 2010

JBP posted:

Capitalist propaganda, comrade!

US state department lawyers; infamous communists

https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/02/19/china-uighurs-genocide-us-pompeo-blinken/

quote:

The U.S. State Department�s Office of the Legal Advisor concluded earlier this year that China�s mass imprisonment and forced labor of ethnic Uighurs in Xinjiang amounts to crimes against humanity�but there was insufficient evidence to prove genocide, placing the United States� top diplomatic lawyers at odds with both the Trump and Biden administrations, according to three former and current U.S. officials.

I expect the immediate response will be 'oh so you think crimes against humanity are ok then? :smug:

' but it's both plausible and an important distinction that China can be committing crimes against humanity that are then exaggerated for the purposes of Western foreign policy interests.

# ¿ Apr 29, 2021 14:40

ModernMajorGeneral: Jun 25, 2010

Konomex posted:

poo poo man, it didn't start with me saying that. And it's not propaganda. They are actively committing genocide. They should be held to account by neighbouring countries and trade partners. I don't want a war with them, but neither do I want to trade with them or condone their shittery. Much in the same way I don't condone the shittery of my own government or have been professing the shittery of the American Empire to anyone who would listen for 20 years now.

Do you think Australia should stop trading with the USA?

# ¿ Apr 30, 2021 10:02

ModernMajorGeneral: Jun 25, 2010

freebooter posted:

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/may/30/victoria-takes-aim-at-disgraceful-lack-of-federal-financial-support-during-lockdown
This is a veiled threat, right? Not "have to close itself," just "close itself." Like it was something we did for kicks. This is Morrison saying don't lock down, just cop the COVID cases and keep your economy open, because we're not giving you any support anymore.

I've supported the federal Libs more than I would've been naturally inclined in the past year, but at the moment I reckon they think either

a) Victoria's health system should be able to match NSW's contact tracing and hold cases at around 10 per day, despite all historical evidence to the contrary;

or,

b) they've looked at how things have gone internationally around the world, and the vocal libertarian/Qanon/small business owner lobby at home, and regret the decisions they made in March last year because it turns out they could have actually just let 'er rip without any political blowback if they hadn't let the Australian public get a taste of COVID zero in the first place

c) Why would the federal libs not undermine state government lockdowns? This has no downside for the federal Libs now the public have demonstrated they will largely credit the federal Libs if covid cases are kept under control regardless of whether they helped or not.

Assuming the lockdown successfully eliminates transmission, the public will continue to support them and forget about the fact that they constantly undermined the lockdown immediately after it ends, and they can blame state Labor for all the negative consequences of the lockdown to hold onto the libertarian/Qanon/small business vote along the way. The only way this would backfire on them if if Victoria called their bluff and ended restrictions leading to a massive outbreak, but that would hurt Vic Labor even more than the federal government (... and would also be a terrible thing to do) so it won't happen.

# ¿ May 30, 2021 15:09

ModernMajorGeneral: Jun 25, 2010

kirbysuperstar posted:

Oh hey we got some mail from CLIEV today

I don't even have the words anymore.

Well I do but I think we have rules about bloodlust in D&D now.

The Australian antivax movement in 2021 seems unique in history in saying 'the government is plotting to kill you with covid vaccines, which you don't need because of the great job the government has been doing in protecting you from covid'

# ¿ Jun 23, 2021 10:02

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# ¿ May 17, 2024 04:06

ModernMajorGeneral: Jun 25, 2010

Goffer posted:

Someone crunched the numbers, and by the time you could get the 2nd dose of AZ to get fully vaccinated, you could have waited an extra 3 weeks and got one of the new Moderna/Pfizer shots that are coming without the risk.

Expecting the Pfizer vaccinations to arrive and be accessible on time is probably where this begins to break down.

I think it's fair to avoid AZ for young people due to the expert advice, but I wouldn't blame anyone for getting it anyway just purely based on not expecting the government to offer you anything better any time soon.

# ¿ Jul 1, 2021 00:05

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