Maybe someone else would be a better judge on what the source is. I know the UK had a period of more entrenched socialist policies prior to Thatcher that may affect the general population’s perceptions of the movement. The poisonous Murdoch newspaper/media ecosystem can’t help either.

The allegations are that outlaw bikie gang members were acting as delegates and were involved in government-funded projects. It comes off the back of the Victorian branch’s leader John Setka being expelled from the ALP due to some ugly allegations of domestic abuse.

The difference between my experiences in the UK and Australia were… interesting. Being upfront, my time in the UK was extremely radicalisng.

In the UK there was a general distain from the media and most people I met for the labour movement. While at the time there was some real bright spots like seeing crowds singing The Internationale, it was mostly an extremely depressing environment. I think the number of people who are a part of their union is similar to Australia but there seems to be a more aggressive negative sentiment from non-members. But my experience was that there was some really strong displays of solidarity despite the outside attacks. But the level of wealth inequality was sickening and probably not helped by a cultural obsession with the monarchy.

Back in Australia you’d think there would be strong culture of working class solidarity, with the Australian Labor Party (ALP) being the first Labor party to have ever formed government in the world in 1904, but its [solidarity has] been in steep decline here since the 80s with union membership down from nearly half of all workers to close to 10%. Despite that decline, the unions here still hold a lot of influence, being a key driver behind the general strike in 2005 where 1/2 million people marched against exploitative employment laws. The unions also control the majority of ‘superannuation’ funds which all employers make compulsory payments into on behalf of their workers, and the unions own some successful energy cooperatives, insurers and credit unions. However the movement is going through a particularly rough patch this last month with corruption allegations, and parliamentary interventions, some sketchy leadership issues and some sharp divisions appearing along gender lines, all while the ALP adopts increasingly neo-liberal policies.

June 2023, a picture of my daughter.

My mother scream crying in front of all of us during dinner when she received another rejection from her latest job interview. We were having baked potatoes. Which was a special treat to us as kids, but years later she told me it was what we ate when she couldn’t afford to put a full meal on the table.

Or on a pepper steak pie ⋎(❉_❉)⋎. Cutting off the top, putting the sauce in there and mixing it in with the gravy. Tasty.

I just earned my long service leave this year and I am fucking stoked.

Yeah sometimes things just have a natural shelf life.

Watched a lot of Binging With Babish and just got tired of his schtick I think. Same with the How To Drink guy.

Yep and in order for these companies to grow they must continue to increase the volume of ads being shown, which only makes them less effective, which they try and counter by making them ever more invasive.

Yeah it’s a good book. It’s a cycle that this issue surfaces every couple of years where someone does a study, finds that the numbers they’re given don’t match their own analysis and the ad tech platform does some PR to paper over the story.

Most people selling ads are just like the real estate agents in The Big Short. The media people make their money via rebate from the platforms by guaranteeing a certain volume of spend so they have no incentive to be putting hard questions to the platforms and the client is reliant on seeing the data which is provided by the platform with no third parties able to provide any level of transparency.

Money goes into Google, Amazon and Meta’s black boxes which spit out numbers. The agency people copy and paste the figures into a presentation and everyone congratulates each other for a job well done.

The cost of digital advertising cannot be justified by its effectiveness (or rather lack there of). We’ve collectively spent hundreds of billions of dollars creating the infrastructure for invasive hyper targeted ads that do not get better results than simple billboards and terrestrial TV ads even now. We’ve created a global economy of marketing, media, advertising and sales solely reliant on technofeudalist overlords who’ve provided very little actual improvement of anything.

Folding Ideas video essay on this topic was brilliant https://youtu.be/biYciU1uiUw?si=mjT91zP6Kkr9qHCD

My MY21 Hyundai Kona feels like a normal car without all those extra features. Lots of tactile buttons, there’s a headphone jack/USB. It’s really just a regular car with an EV engine.

Anarchism is nearly always extremely local by its nature.

Beyond theory I found practical examples were extremely helpful in understanding how anarchist politics relate to real life, so I’d recommend Revolution in Rojava: Democratic Autonomy and Women’s Liberation in Syrian Kurdistan.

I have four tyres in pretty good condition on my car, that’s $1000 right there.

I appreciate this doesn’t work for everyone and might not be a long term solution, but I dropped 20kg by fasting on a 20:4 schedule.

“Fraggles don’t have any bosses […] We each lead ourselves and we all lead each other.” - Wembley Fraggle, Fraggle Rock

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