Well, Zoo magazine wasn’t where I expected to find neo-fascist propaganda, but in hindsight maybe I shouldn’t have been surprised.

When asked if his role was elected or appointed, he said “none of your business so bugger off”.

Democracy in action, folks.

I’m pretty deep in redneck Queensland so that might have a bit to do with it.

Maybe so. I also know a couple of likely-suspects (Faux/Sky News fans) who are open, paying members, insisting they’re trying to preserve for their grandchildren the world that allowed them to live well and make millions.

An area near me has a huge Lib/Lab council facing intense scrutiny for developer corruption. If we don’t work year-round to build a viable, trustworthy support network, these people will be vulnerable to PHON selective messaging to seize upon anti-establishment sentiment (remember folks, billionaires and private media don’t count!)

To all the people reading this - they have money and media infrastructure. We have numbers and neighbours. And without you and your friends, we have less numbers and less neighbours. If you care enough to click, you care enough to get involved.

The “but they’re working on curing children’s cancer!!!1!” is just an emotional hook to generate moral outrage. There are plenty of PhDs getting 18 an hour researching weapons systems, but they don’t make the news.

The first of those jobs is constructive and beneficial to both Australia and to humankind as a whole. The second is destructive and literally helps kill people. It’s invalid to trivialise that difference down to “moral outrage” - in fact morality need not be involved at all - health research is a vital job I’d like to see rewarded better.

Detained by the IDF and QPS! Ridiculous speech restriction…

and ferry

Keelhaul the kiddos!

Some of our trains have quiet carriages, which are nice. I haven’t been on many but I haven’t seen them noisy either.

Tom Tanuki made a video about this, in particular about the e-celeb grifters patting themselves on the back for this “genius” idea.

But the sad thing is, I think political consciousness right now is so low that a significant amount of people could conceivably give votes to parties just based on their ballot name.

Oh, that’s Michael J. Nelson (child sex advocate and weird neo-Nazi)

[content warning on that video: nazism and associated grooming]

Great to hear, thanks for sharing. I always love some good CSIRO news.

Yep, well said.

The (comical) British understatement is absolutely dripping off the translations. “Leave whenever you like”, oh my.

Speaking of McDonalds, I seriously don’t understand those still eating in in this day and age. It’s overpriced pseudo-food. There is no benefit. I’d rather eat a decade-old military ration, or a plain block of tofu.

The only times I’ve even considered it in the past ten years are in a group of inebriated friends leaving a club/party who all want to eat, plus every other shop in walking distance is closed because it’s midnight

Thanks for that. Now this is fascinating, I’d just expect for a commitee like that, and one claiming to be around since 1916 at that, not to overlook (or diverge from) that part of the government protocol.

Have you not yet had the pleasure of seeing our Discount Donald, billionaire Clive ‘charismatic as a carpet’ Palmer?

https://youtube.com/watch?v=lW38omsGnw0

Joel Jammal, the head of Turning Point Australia and a sponsor for the tour, said he believed it sold 15,000 tickets, which started at $95 and ranged up to $1,500 for VIP tickets, suggesting Rocksman sold at least $1.4m worth of tickets.

Conservatives always lie

The truth is even more damning than the slogan: they lie so blatantly and constantly that no-one can trust when they ever tell a truth.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Boy_Who_Cried_Wolf

Not technically, but yes. I believe it’s inherited from US politics (regardless of if the protocol started there or not). Australian government protocols prohibit inverting the flag, even as a signal of distress.

See also, the use of the red ensign by the Australian sovereign citizen cookers - these “freedom”/“patriot” activists are largely derivative of international far-right influences.

To fly a flag upside down is a signal of distress. The Australian National Flag should not, therefore, be displayed with the Union Jack down on any occasion except as a signal of distress.

Please cite claims such as this. It is contradicted by the government.

“Do not fly the flag upside down, even as a signal of distress.”

https://www.pmc.gov.au/honours-and-symbols/australian-national-symbols/australian-national-flag/australian-national-flag-protocols

If we make it a prerequisite to vote that ones need to be able to answer some extremely basic questions about the election they’re voting in, all of those questions being given months ahead of time, along with all the answers, then (barring profound mental conditions) not qualifying to vote is a choice. If you’re informed enough to know where the polling booth is, you’re probably capable of passing that bar. Based on your reply, you’d pass with flying colours.

If someone is so apathetic that they don’t know the absolute basic premise of a given election, what is the benefit of allowing them to vote in it?

Of course, and I didn’t emphasise this enough, the system I’m proposing relies heavily on the ability for the election organisers, through tools such as the government and law, to empower every possible voter to understand the basic premise of the election. And in a sea of corporate-owned media (both traditional and online), this is easier said than done, but far from impossible.

I think everyone deserves to be given the tools they need to have real political power. That’s demo-cracy.

A 3 question civics test before you can vote would destroy whole blocs of voters in Australia. Just get them to identify how a progressive income tax works, which country is the biggest greenhouse gas emitter in the OECD, and which parts of the Miranda Rights apply to them, boom PHON gets a dozen votes across the whole country.

Having some kind of extremely-low barrier, pre-declared multiple-choice test questions in order to gain ballot access is an idea I’ve played around with. Literally mail out a pamphlet with the questions and answers, drafted by the AEC and approved by as many candidates/parties as possible to prevent it being unneutral or propagandised. Objective things like “Which of these services does the federal government handle?” and “Which of these is the typical income of an average Australian?”. And if, for whatever reason, you can’t answer these simple questions, you aren’t informed enough to help decide who represents us in our democratic system.

Relevant, but not quite the same: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epistemic_democracy

There’s about 40 years of solid examples from them you can listen too, if you want to know the answer.

Some examples from outside their discography:

• One minute interview clip re: censorship of Censored Due To Legal Advice
• Acceptance speech at the 1995 ARIA awards [Accepted by Les Murray, in reference to their song What Nationality is Les Murray?. Translation, from reddit]
• Radio interview with Tony Martin and Mick Molloy
• Wikipedia section on their style. Note the quote about pop songs