Have you ever read The Death Ship by B. Traven? It’s pretty much about that.
1 Like
I wonder what the chasers have to say about this.
2 Likes
To be fair, most those other countries talk funny and their people appear dirty. /s
2 Likes
Yeah - this is why some people are willing to live with Nazis having some free speech, because if you give the government the power to only allow “genuine” speech of some sort, you open yourself up to shit like this. And this is Australia, not some dictatorship or fascist state in the far dystopian future.
2 Likes
-
See @anon50609448’s post upthread. This is a law about impersonating a government agency, which includes an exception for satire (which is being legitimately criticised for being inadequately broad). It is not a law prohibiting satire.
-
The decision as to what material is allowed or not will be decided by the courts, not the government, and the Australian courts are relatively apolitical. Based upon Australian jurisprudence, the custodial penalties would likely only be applied in the case of large-scale fraud of ordinary criminal intent (e.g. someone who set up a fake Tax Department website in order to steal financial information).
-
You are currently living in an accelerating fascist dystopia.
4 Likes
So Cory is once again doing that alarmist thing? Still, Juice seems to feel targeted, so it isn’t just him. So - is there not already a similar law already on the books about you can’t pretend to be the police or what ever the Australian equivalent of the IRS is, etc?
Eh we aren’t there yet. Some people are pushing that way - but others are pumping the brakes.
There are specific laws against impersonating police etc. I don’t think that there was a pre-existing law covering all government entities.
It’s badly-drafted law at best, and was quite possibly introduced with nefarious intent. But the courts are likely to squash any overt abuse, and it will probably be revised as soon as the government falls. Which may happen any day, given how much of a mess they are.
Tell that to Puerto Rico and St Louis.
6 Likes
Speaking of which…
https://www.humanrights.gov.au/news/stories/uluru-statement-calls-first-nations-voice-constitution
5 Likes
I was just at St Louis - even stayed at a Motel 6 which I think literally had the exact towels I used in middle school gym class - and wasn’t murdered.
As bad as things seem, and as messed up as things are in areas, we are overall doing better than previously. Though we have a way to go.
Ironically I went by a power plant in Nebraska today with a literal mountain of coal by it, to come home to read this:
Right. Many are, unfortunately.
1 Like
4 Likes
Bertrand Russell made the same observation… how was the world becoming more free, when he needed more and more government documents to travel between and within countries?
I have my great-grandmother’s passport somewhere… she needed it for a journal through Tsarist Russia to Imperial Japan. It is a large single sheet of paper, covered with splendidly ornate calligraphy, instructing all officialdom to allow the bearer to travel without hindrance IN THE NAME OF HER BRITANNIC MAJESTY.
3 Likes
I’m pretty sure that Canberra was designed to be the setting of an unwritten J.G. Ballard novel.
4 Likes
That’s not fair. Turkey doesn’t have concentration camps.
4 Likes
[Citation needed.]
1 Like
Thanks for the research prompt! Here, have a backpack (not suitcase, alas) nuke.
Mk-54 SADM. 51lbs package weight, max yield of 1kT. Dirty as hell, with 600rem of exposure within a 400m radius.
1 Like
Capitalism and militarism have always worked in concert. 
5 Likes
More than half of us are from a non English-speaking background, you know…
And anyway, that sort of comment has always been offensive, given that most of the ‘crimes’ people were sent here for were merely measures to survive poverty before the welfare state was a thing.
I’m not ashamed in the slightest of any of that heritage I may have; rather, I’m ashamed of any upper-class heritage.
8 Likes
