I think the UK is more oppressive in some ways, and Sweden is perhaps more "Kafkaesque" (annoying, petty bureaucracy, essentially), having lived there for a bit, but part of the trouble with Aus is how isolated we are here, and how damn hard it is to get out (if you can even afford to, given CoL at the moment)...
Which the government obviously took advantage of during Covid. They know this, which is why and how they get away with what they do.
I mean, fuck, even Singapore is 5 hours from Perth, which is ~4 hours from the East Coast itself, so...
I think that plays into our psyche more than people perhaps realize.
Plus all the immigration from autocratic Asian countries (and lately, Africa) in the last few decades. That has definitely fed into it...
Honestly, living here (again), I'm continually astounded by how apathetic most people here are, about shit like this. I hardly know anyone IRL who gives a shit, and certainly don't know anyone who will change their vote because of this issue...
As long as people have their reality TV slop, the cricket team is doing ok, and the media tells them that anyone who disagrees is "like those Trump voters in Yankee-land", then people will just lap this and pretty much applaud it, as their rights are taken away...
Not that Germany, NZ or Sweden would be any better. But nonetheless...
Absolutely right - I regularly try to gently nudge normies in my sphere awake and theybjust aren't interested. It's almost like they just don't want to be inconvenienced by reality. Australia is lost because it's citizens are asleep while they are being replaced with compliant third worlders.
Australia has an interesting cultural psyche, our history is short but quite unstable.
Essentially we've been barely above the line for ceasing to function as a country, simultaneously isolated but under imminent perceived threat which has created this ruthlessly authoritarian streak.
Always remember we were a convict colony, and also a nation of jailers.
There's an alternate history that in the 1920's and 30's we became a vassal state of Japan and theoretically would have found ourselves on the axis side in WW2.
Which is always interesting to me since your government used up your best men in Europe, Crete, North Africa, & the Middle East and just assumed Japan would just take you over if they got serious about it.
They showed that to us in "Defensive Driver Training" in high school. It unironically scarred me for life.
To this day my biggest fucking fear is becoming paralyzed and dependent like the girl in that video. Yeesh.
So, did it "work" in scaring me? Yes (though it hasn't exactly changed my behaviour, subsequently. I still take lifts with randos, lol). Was it necessary, as something to beat schoolkids over the head about? I'm not so sure...
It's hard to imagine a more oppressive states to live in than the UK or Sweden, but then Canada and Australia keeps wanting to do worse.
I think the UK is more oppressive in some ways, and Sweden is perhaps more "Kafkaesque" (annoying, petty bureaucracy, essentially), having lived there for a bit, but part of the trouble with Aus is how isolated we are here, and how damn hard it is to get out (if you can even afford to, given CoL at the moment)...
Which the government obviously took advantage of during Covid. They know this, which is why and how they get away with what they do.
I mean, fuck, even Singapore is 5 hours from Perth, which is ~4 hours from the East Coast itself, so...
I think that plays into our psyche more than people perhaps realize.
Plus all the immigration from autocratic Asian countries (and lately, Africa) in the last few decades. That has definitely fed into it...
Honestly, living here (again), I'm continually astounded by how apathetic most people here are, about shit like this. I hardly know anyone IRL who gives a shit, and certainly don't know anyone who will change their vote because of this issue...
As long as people have their reality TV slop, the cricket team is doing ok, and the media tells them that anyone who disagrees is "like those Trump voters in Yankee-land", then people will just lap this and pretty much applaud it, as their rights are taken away...
Not that Germany, NZ or Sweden would be any better. But nonetheless...
Absolutely right - I regularly try to gently nudge normies in my sphere awake and theybjust aren't interested. It's almost like they just don't want to be inconvenienced by reality. Australia is lost because it's citizens are asleep while they are being replaced with compliant third worlders.
Never forget that Democrats (and their establishment overlords) absolutely wanted the same for the US
You have the wrong tense there, they still want this and will keep pushing for it however possible.
Australia has an interesting cultural psyche, our history is short but quite unstable. Essentially we've been barely above the line for ceasing to function as a country, simultaneously isolated but under imminent perceived threat which has created this ruthlessly authoritarian streak. Always remember we were a convict colony, and also a nation of jailers. There's an alternate history that in the 1920's and 30's we became a vassal state of Japan and theoretically would have found ourselves on the axis side in WW2.
Which is always interesting to me since your government used up your best men in Europe, Crete, North Africa, & the Middle East and just assumed Japan would just take you over if they got serious about it.
On the topic of Australian government (or in this case, government agency) fearmongering, this fucking ad (disturbing, but SFW):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6NEn4NHxoY
They showed that to us in "Defensive Driver Training" in high school. It unironically scarred me for life.
To this day my biggest fucking fear is becoming paralyzed and dependent like the girl in that video. Yeesh.
So, did it "work" in scaring me? Yes (though it hasn't exactly changed my behaviour, subsequently. I still take lifts with randos, lol). Was it necessary, as something to beat schoolkids over the head about? I'm not so sure...