Tbf, all the Fringe Festivals I have seen/been to in Aus (Adelaide being the second largest in the world. I think Perth might be the third), have been like this, too…
It’s kind of the way these things are, now, unfortunately…
It’s like during the Trump years how people were the “resistance,” despite perfectly aligning with the media, corporations, and most politicians of prominence. But since it wasn’t ALL politicians of prominence (what did Trump do that was so anti-LGBT, anyway?) they considered themselves the downtrodden minority. So here, again, these festivals totally align with the world around them but they still think they’re “fringe.”
Kind of like how everyone with a tattoo is totally a rebel.
I was still in left wing activist circles when Trump got elected. Then I dared to express “wrongthink” (unrelated to Trump), got #MeToo’d (sort of) and eventually cottoned on to the exact facts you just outlined…
It only really dawned on me that this was the case when I was booted out of one of these activist groups for suggesting that we should challenge the University we all studied at on its funding connections to the corporation they were protesting, instead of actively targeting the workers of said (coal) company, who were entirely powerless to change anything…
I was told in no uncertain terms that we do not bite the hand that feeds/funds us, and instead I should “re-educate myself” on the necessity of graffitiing roads and hectoring coal workers, to “create change”…
All while the fucking Uni was hosting a coal industry conference, at the same time. Which we weren’t even allowed to talk about.
That activist group later collapsed into factional infighting and race politics. And the chief grifters got themselves cushy non-profit gigs in “identified positions”. One was later voted “Commonwealth Young Person of the Year”…
Tbf, all the Fringe Festivals I have seen/been to in Aus (Adelaide being the second largest in the world. I think Perth might be the third), have been like this, too…
It’s kind of the way these things are, now, unfortunately…
It’s like during the Trump years how people were the “resistance,” despite perfectly aligning with the media, corporations, and most politicians of prominence. But since it wasn’t ALL politicians of prominence (what did Trump do that was so anti-LGBT, anyway?) they considered themselves the downtrodden minority. So here, again, these festivals totally align with the world around them but they still think they’re “fringe.” Kind of like how everyone with a tattoo is totally a rebel.
I was still in left wing activist circles when Trump got elected. Then I dared to express “wrongthink” (unrelated to Trump), got #MeToo’d (sort of) and eventually cottoned on to the exact facts you just outlined…
It only really dawned on me that this was the case when I was booted out of one of these activist groups for suggesting that we should challenge the University we all studied at on its funding connections to the corporation they were protesting, instead of actively targeting the workers of said (coal) company, who were entirely powerless to change anything…
I was told in no uncertain terms that we do not bite the hand that feeds/funds us, and instead I should “re-educate myself” on the necessity of graffitiing roads and hectoring coal workers, to “create change”…
All while the fucking Uni was hosting a coal industry conference, at the same time. Which we weren’t even allowed to talk about.
That activist group later collapsed into factional infighting and race politics. And the chief grifters got themselves cushy non-profit gigs in “identified positions”. One was later voted “Commonwealth Young Person of the Year”…
The “resistance” is a joke, man. A fucking joke…