Zagorath
@Zagorath@aussie.zone
- Comment on Happy American import day 2 hours ago:
It’s probably a little overly simplistic to think of it as being “established” like that. Instead, multiple different elements of the holiday, which might originate in different places at different times and radiate out in different ways.
- Comment on Happy American import day 4 hours ago:
That might be the scariest thing I see all year.
- Comment on Happy American import day 4 hours ago:
and before that came from Ireland and Scotland
The American version of Hallowe’en (which is what supermarkets are trying to import into Australia) has only the most passing resemblance to its origins in Celtic tradition. And it’s certainly not being important because of its Celtic connections.
- Submitted 6 hours ago to ausmemes@aussie.zone | 23 comments
- Comment on Ministerial Direction – Treatment of gender dysphoria in children and adolescents with hormone therapy [is banned again, already. Still with no consultation] 2 days ago:
At least NZ’s unicam is proportional instead of single-winner.
- Comment on Supreme Court overturns Queensland's controversial puberty blocker ban - ABC News (Australia) 2 days ago:
Yeah. Anti-science, anti-expertise, aimed specifically at causing harm and spreading hate towards vulnerable groups.
- Comment on Ministerial Direction – Treatment of gender dysphoria in children and adolescents with hormone therapy [is banned again, already. Still with no consultation] 2 days ago:
Queensland’s a funny state. Labor has been in Government most of my life, but the brief periods of LNP governance have been some of the most outwardly destructive. And weirdly, outside of the last two federal elections, we’ve had a strong lean towards LNP federally.
- Comment on Ministerial Direction – Treatment of gender dysphoria in children and adolescents with hormone therapy [is banned again, already. Still with no consultation] 2 days ago:
Hey, they’re also moving fast on other issues, like putting children in gaol and ensuring that taking drugs is as dangerous as possible!
- Comment on Ministerial Direction – Treatment of gender dysphoria in children and adolescents with hormone therapy [is banned again, already. Still with no consultation] 3 days ago:
Nah they just used a different process. Original process was a “health directive”, which requires consultation. New ban is a “ministerial directive” which has no such oversight. It’s them literally declaring out loud “we don’t care about medical experts or the best health outcomes.”
- Ministerial Direction – Treatment of gender dysphoria in children and adolescents with hormone therapy [is banned again, already. Still with no consultation]www.health.qld.gov.au ↗Submitted 3 days ago to news@aussie.zone | 8 comments
- Comment on Supreme Court overturns Queensland's controversial puberty blocker ban - ABC News (Australia) 3 days ago:
Unfortunately, yes, there’s a good chance they do that. It’s also possible that they’ll take the L and quit while they’re (relatively) ahead. Recognise that their Trumpian culture-war bullshit doesn’t work as much as they thought it did.
- Comment on Supreme Court overturns Queensland's controversial puberty blocker ban - ABC News (Australia) 3 days ago:
To people from other countries, but especially Americans, this part is important:
The mother of a trans teenager mounted a legal challenge which was heard in the Supreme Court in Brisbane – arguing the directive was unlawful because the correct processes had not been followed.
In his written decision, Justice Callaghan said the proceedings were not concerned with the merits of the directive.
“They are concerned solely with the legal requirements that attend any decision of this nature, irrespective of the subject matter,” he said.
Courts in Australia are almost never political activists in the way they are in America. They apply the law as it is actually written. In this case, the Health Minister has the power to give directives like this, but is legally required to consult first. I don’t believe the Minister would need to side with the preponderance of evidence in such a consultation, but the process must be followed. This is a big win for now, but if he’s determined, it’s very possible for him to undergo that consultation and reinstate the ban.
IANAL, but I suspect that if consultation was undertaken, even a small vocal minority would be enough weight for the Minister to be permitted to make this directive, and it would probably require near-unanimity against the decision for the directive to be unlawful.
- Supreme Court overturns Queensland's controversial puberty blocker ban - ABC News (Australia)www.abc.net.au ↗Submitted 3 days ago to news@aussie.zone | 9 comments
- [satire] Trump Now On Borrowed Time After Making An Enemy Out Of The Most Vindictive And Cunning Operator In Global Politicswww.betootaadvocate.com ↗Submitted 1 week ago to australianpolitics@aussie.zone | 6 comments
- Comment on Pauline offers to let Barnaby pick out the next batch of female interns 1 week ago:
Indeed I did, good catch
- Comment on Pauline offers to let Barnaby pick out the next batch of female interns 1 week ago:
It’s not a particularly clever satire and even if it weren’t from a well-known satire site it would be immediately clear that this isn’t serious.
But still, I think it’s bad practice for posts in a serious Community to be serious posts, or if they’re not, to be labelled as such.
- Comment on D-d-d-d-drop the base! 3 weeks ago:
Qu’est-ce que c’est le problème ?
- Comment on D-d-d-d-drop the base! 3 weeks ago:
This reporter tracked down the original creator and had a brief interview with them.
- Submitted 3 weeks ago to ausmemes@aussie.zone | 10 comments
- Comment on Grattan on Friday: believe it or not, there would be a case for more federal politicians 3 weeks ago:
IMO we should switch from IRV to MMP, and do it by doubling the House of Representatives, keeping the same number of actual electorates but adding the top-up seats for a proportional end result.
- Comment on Daylight savings starts this weekend 4 weeks ago:
I like to call it “government-encouraged death time”, considering its main impact is an increase in traffic crashes, heart attacks, and suicides.
- Comment on Daylight savings starts this weekend 4 weeks ago:
My experience, talking online, has been that Europeans and North Americans largely agree with you, getting rid of DST would be a sensible thing to do.
Unfortunately in Australia, I see that viewpoint a lot less often. My only guess about the reason: it’s become a semi-politicised issue here. The states of Queensland and Western Australia don’t use it, while the more populous states of New South Wales and Victoria do use it. And there’s a strong cultural sense in those states of “looking down” on Qld & WA; if they do something this way, it must be the wrong way to do it. The joke is, “what’s the time difference between Sydney and Brisbane? About 1 hour and 30 years.” Whereas in Europe it’s universal, and in America it’s almost universal on the mainland, apart from a fraction of one state. So there isn’t as much of that comparison.
Which is all really frustrating, because all the data is so clear that it’s a bad thing. Car crashes, heart attacks, suicides, all go up because of it.
- Comment on Daylight savings starts this weekend 4 weeks ago:
It’s like the money in my bank account being called savings
I think that’s how most people think of it, so that’s why so many people get the name wrong.
But actually, it’s more like daylight-saving time. It’s (named as if it’s) the time for saving daylight.
- Comment on NSW government loses music festival strip search case as woman awarded $93,000 in damages 4 weeks ago:
The article mentions that the police have not apologised, and it’s a little vague on whether strip searches are still employed as a NSW police tactic (but seems to kinda imply the answer is yes). It’s completely silent on the matter of what happened to the specific officers involved in Meredith’s case, if anything.
- Comment on NSW government loses music festival strip search case as woman awarded $93,000 in damages 4 weeks ago:
More to the point, what was she being strip-searched for?[^1] I can’t see any case in which even a non-invasive search for drugs at a music festival is appropriate. If there was suspicion of someone carrying a gun or a knife, maybe some searches would be appropriate. But drugs should be supported with safe and private pill testing, not with aggressive police action.
[^1]: rhetorical. The answer is drugs.
- How the government is tightening its grip on reporting [by banning third-party comment on embargos] | Media Watchwww.youtube.com ↗Submitted 1 month ago to australianpolitics@aussie.zone | 0 comments
- Comment on If Albanese’s lost his bottle, he should retire 1 month ago:
Nothing about my definitions is subjective.
You know what is subjective? Relying on how parties choose to self-identify, regardless of the truth of their actual policies.
- Comment on If Albanese’s lost his bottle, he should retire 1 month ago:
You’re illustrating my point - that assertions about how Labor is really a conservative party, are subjective and unhelpful
I don’t know how, after everything I’ve said, that can possibly be anyone’s takeaway.
- Comment on If Albanese’s lost his bottle, he should retire 1 month ago:
Right, that’s why the term regressive. It’s the opposite side of conservative from progressive. For changes, but ones that make things worse. I accept that it’s not a term anyone would use to self describe and it’s not an accepted part of neutral political discourse, but it’s nonetheless a useful term.
Strictly showing, regressive should mean specifically undoing earlier progress. Which captures a lot of Trump’s actions. Rolling back rights on abortion, undoing advancements in LGBTQ+ rights, going back to a very 19th century style of treating non-white people.
But in other aspects, I’d say he’s being straight-up authoritarian, in a way that doesn’t really sit anywhere on this spectrum. Passing all these tariffs could be described as regressing to pre-WW2 economics, but going about it by ignoring the law—which actually requires congress to set tariffs—is not progressive, conservative, or regressive. That’s just authoritarian. Openly threatening companies & countries to extort them for bribes (see: Apple’s gold watch, Qatar’s jet) is just corrupt authoritarian behaviour.
- Comment on If Albanese’s lost his bottle, he should retire 1 month ago:
Umm, no? That’s what the words mean. Conservatives conserve the status quo. Progressives want society to progress.
