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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   31960 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of December 5, 2022

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It really does feel like there Parliament is there to serve the Australian public. Sorry to bash our American cousins, but in stark contrast when I visited Congress you had to book a tour, and had to be escorted around the entire time. I understand that security may be a bigger concern for you Americans, but the ability to more-or-less freely walk around the most important political body is the prime example of why I love and appreciate Australian democracy.

I do not think "ability to walk around the Parliament" is a good judge of the quality of any particular democracy. The best judge of that is what happens to people who attempt to peacefully disagree with government policy, a core element of democracy. Australia's rather recent history of state violence against political opposition to it's covid response, from using the police to violently attack protesters to arresting pregnant women for regime-critical facebook posts, puts to rest any idea that Australia is a high-quality democracy. For all it's flaws, America still managed to do better than Australia on this.

I'm not claiming Australian democracy is perfect, nor that there is nothing to criticise in the conduct of the Australian government in recent years (there is plenty to criticise in American democracy yet people still believe in the ideal). But I do think that Parliament House does reflect Australian political values that I value - including egalitarianism (in the general, not modern left sense), the 'fair go' for all.

Suspending basic freedom of assembly, bodily autonomy, and travel for 2 years is the biggest things western governments have all done since conscriptions, mass internments, and human experimentations (look up what they did to conscientious objectors) that characterized the world wars.

We SHOULD hate each other over this. This SHOULD poison our every attempt at discussion. This SHOULD divide us so thoroughly our grandkids look at each other as subhuman, the way the grandkids of the various factions in the 60s look at each other today.

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