bwgood77 wrote:lilfishi22 wrote:grumpysaddle wrote:Yeah, San Diego is okay. Just super expensive and there's a big military population, so it's not AS progressive as I wish, but it still votes the lesser of two evils every election. I think I'm just tired of American culture at this point though.
I do empathise. It could just be the media (Aus and American) perpetuating the extreme division we're seeing but is that division really as public and invasive in real life? Everyone has their own experiences but I have to say, in Australia that division is more prevalent on social media than ever before but if I wasn't so tuned into it, I'm not sure I would've felt a significant change in my everyday life.
I've watched a ton of videos on social media about karen outbursts, racial abuse and anti-vaxxers creating a scene but I can't say I've witnessed anything. And I'm not just talking about since the pandemic, like over the past few years, outside of the media/social media, I really can't say there's significant change. On the rare occasion, I've seen a poster or a letter from crazy anti-vaxxers in my mailbox about how it's all about a vitamin deficiency but aside from that...nothing really. Maybe I've just been lucky.
Why is Australia like this? Are they just following the American's lead? Are their Trump fans there?
Good question. The two big parties in Australia still represents the left and right of the political spectrum but they are significantly closer to the middle than the Dems and Republicans of America. I probably follow American politics a little closer than Aussie politics, mostly for the entertainment but also because Australians does take the US lead in many aspects of politics. We followed America into wars, we've followed the American tougher stance on China and we've suddenly made a policy chance to our rather relaxed climate change policy after we did that submarine deal with the US recently ie we're now taking climate change a little more seriously.
It's hard to ignore American politics and it's harder when your economic and political ties to America are so strong. But in terms of the division, I think there's a significant influence from the American psyche although a lot could also be organic. However given so much of the anti-vax, conservatism and freedumb narrative/policy/material is from America, people of those leanings naturally look to America where I think there is more division than ever before. So when Aussies see that and there's already natural political division, it just goes to create even more division. As for the Trump question, there's no doubt that his ideas, the anti-intellectualism push and populism has crept into our political field.
One of the politicians is a billionaire named Clive Palmer who is really trying to become the Trump of Australia. It hasn't quite gotten the traction that Trump did and it's still a fringe party but it's definitely grown from sort of a joke to actually adding a member parliament to our lower house.
The Uniting Australia Party (UAP) policies are, as at 11 October 2021:
Lockdowns. It is against lockdowns and for the re-opening of borders, stating that the country's Constitution provides for the "absolutely free" movement of people within Australia.
Domestic vaccine passports. The UAP is against vaccine passports.
The doctor-patient relationship. The UAP "believes in the sanctity of the doctor-patient relationship" and medical privacy. It says that alternative treatments which have shown success overseas "must be included in the treatment options and available for all Australians."
National Cabinet. The UAP states that this has no legal basis and should be abolished quickly.
Energy. The UAP supports the use of and further research into the generation of electricity through the use of nuclear power plants.
Defence. It is in favour of matching of other regional countries' nuclear fleet with Australia's own. It stresses the use of the defence budget for defence purposes only.
Free speech and "foreign tech giants". The UAP says that companies such as Facebook and Twitter "should not be able to censor Australian political debate" and seeks to legislate to prevent this.
"Australian values". The party stresses that "the most basic freedoms of parliamentary democracy - freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom from fear, and freedom of association" must be protected.
Zonal taxation. It advocates a "20% tax concession incentive" in rural areas to stimulate economic growth there and reduce the impact of congestion and overcrowding in cities.
Resource industry. The UAP says that there should be more onshore minerals processing, that more stages of the mining process should happen in Australia.
I mean.....talk about following America's lead
