Australian News

551 readers

51 users here now

A place to share and discuss news relating to Australia and Australians.

Rules

Follow the aussie.zone rules
Keep discussions civil and respectful
Exclude profanity from post titles
Exclude excessive profanity from comments
Satire is allowed, however post titles must be prefixed with [satire]

Recommended and Related Communities

Be sure to check out and subscribe to our related communities on aussie.zone:

Plus other communities for sport and major cities.

https://aussie.zone/communities

Banner: ABC

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

'You're not my king': [Senator] Lidia Thorpe escorted away after outburst [at Charles III in Parliament House] (www.abc.net.au)

submitted 4 weeks ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

46 comments fedilink hide all child comments

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

While America is certainly a dumpster fire I would argue getting rid of all monarchist influence was one of the few good things it did. Of course over time it went from a progressive country to a regressive country and today a country of reactionaries.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

I would argue getting rid of all monarchist influence was one of the few good things it did.

What is the problem with the monarchy? That they're unelected? Well, neither are the Billionaires who fill that same niche in US politics. Except Billionaires have a strong agenda and really drive the popular and political narrative. Even here, we're not entirely immune to the influence of the Billionaire class. Only, I find myself at odds with just about everything the Billionaires say. By contrast, the royals rarely engage with politics. When they do, I find myself in agreement with the things they champion more often than not.

I do understand that the royals have a lot of influence on our government. And that when they speak, we're all but obligated to give them at least an audience. But that brings me back to the previous sentence: I can't think of anything they've said that I took substantive issue with. I say this also as someone who never much liked Charlie. I liked his mum and first wife, though.

This is coming across as me being pro-royal. I'm not really black-or-white on them like that. My own stance is more that I don't have anything strongly against them - rather than being particularly pro-royal. I won't cry myself to sleep if Australia cuts ties with the monarchy. But, I'm not marching in the streets seeking that outcome, either.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Im a Anarcho-Syndicalist, I hate government and capitalism

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (2 children)

The only place I have seen that work was the Internet in the 90's. Nowhere in the real world.

Humanity just isn't spiritually evolved for anarchy. It may never be.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago

It worked for a time in Catalonia until the Fascists destroyed them, in Ukraine it worked very well but the soviets destroyed them as well. Its not that it doesn't work but rather that the right conditions haven't been met yet.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

The only place I have seen that work was the Internet in the 90’s. Nowhere in the real world.

There are real world success stories of anarcho-socialist societies (although perhaps not syndicalist) even in the present day. I'm not saying this to claim whether it's viable or not in our industrialized conditions with imperialist empires at play, just pointing out relevant info.

The largest scale anarchist-style societies I know of are:

FEJUVE in Bolivia, population >100,000, ongoing for 45 years
Chiapas autonomous areas (formerly MAREZ) in Mexico, population >300,000, ongoing for 30 years, although reorganised structurally last year

And while I'm aware they don't technically qualify as anarchist, they are certainly evidence of autonomous modes of social organisation at a scale larger than many existing states.

Tagging @[email protected] for relevance.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Thanks. Despite my scepticism I have sought out such communities and had not heard of those two.

There is also Mondragon in Spain..

I know of only one community in my country of Australia: Tuntable Falls. I can only find pages related to the school or real estate. It is 20 minutes drive from Nimbin which in turn is 40 minutes from Byron Bay, NSW.

I suppose there is Kibbutzim in Israel.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

Oh, I didnt know about Tuntable Falls. Thanks.

If we include smaller communes, then Wikipedia has a sizable list of intentional communities which is fun to explore. I found Cheran interesting, they had problems with organised crime coming into town and logging, disappearing people who tried to stop them, and the police and politicians were complicit, so the town kicked them all out. Now if you try to drive in with a political sticker on your car, it will get torn off at the checkpoint. A short Vice video on the place had some interesting interviews, including a local patroller who said crime plummeted and is now basically as simple as pub fights that locals can split up, and an interview with a political representative who was voted in, despite them not really wanting the job as they would get paid more in their previous job at the university. Reminds me of a Douglas Adams quote:

[...] To summarize: it is a well-known fact that those people who must want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it. [...]

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago

A close friend in a long term relationship told me his partner wanted kids but he wasn't sure he would make a good father. My advice was along the lines of Douglas Adams.

Both kids are now in their 20's and doing fine.