Since the recent election there's a lot of commentary saying the Liberal party needs to reconsider its policies and re-align with its core values which, when enumerated sound very centrist.

I just watched ABC's q&a, there was a few interesting points. There was a strong consensus that Trump style culture wars are toxic in Australian politics, and that it's unlikely future candidates would take that route.

I don't want to gloat infront of the seppos, but I think what's happening during this aftermath is very salient for all of those "both sides are bad" Americans.

In October last year there seemed to be a lot of users saying that they didn't want to reward the dems with their vote, and that the only way to communicate with the party was to withhold their vote.

I think what's happening right now in Australia demonstrates the importance of voting.

Labor might not be left enough for you personally, but each time the libs are defeated they need to move to the left to be viable, and Labor will have to move further left to differentiate themselves. That is to say, the spectrum of acceptable opinions is moving to the left in an observable manner, right now.

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[–] kudra@sh.itjust.works 8 points 1 day ago (22 children)

I think now would be an excellent time for the Overton window to be pushed even further to the left, given the results of the Federal Election, and to highlight exactly how far from the original "left" Labor has moved. The intent wouldn't be to form government or even have much chance of getting a seat: I'm talking left of Socialist Alliance. And I have some pleasantly controversial policies with which to begin this project. Things The Greens won't touch, and that the Socialist Alliance don't even really have on their radar as they are focussed generally Marxist theory and unions. I'm talking mainly about being honest and open about the need for radical change in economic policy to degrowth, things that the current left parties don't talk about because it's seen as "political suicide". Yup. Need someone in the far far left to tell the emperor they have no clothes.

Some specific fun policies:

Make advertising illegal (especially billboards, but also on social media, no money changing hands to force shit people don't want to see in front of their eyeballs. Bring back word of mouth!)
Instigate a compulsory National Service period for young adults (like a gap year between high school and university) for all genders, can choose between military & climate corps
Massively tax carbon costs for food transport. Those oranges from California should not cost the same as Australian in season oranges, sorry.

[–] dumblederp@aussie.zone 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

My hatred of advertising was probably a big part of why my small business failed.

People need to be able to inform the market of their product and services. Johnny graduates as an accountant can he not put an ad in the classifieds or a sign on his office? I think there should be places where advertising is acceptable where people can look for what they might need, rather than having companies competing for our attention while telling us that we're incomplete without their things.

[–] kudra@sh.itjust.works 2 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

Yes that's fair, but stricter controls on how and where that happens. Classifieds were always a reasonable thing, and without them the press has been destroyed, but the enshittification of online marketplaces has made the deal really unfair for everyone. The enshittification of socially media through advertising, especially political, has been catastrophic.

Cory Doctorow has had a lot of great things to say about this, and much stricter control is needed to stop platforms making everything awful for both individuals and businesses, but overall I did not get a lot of value when I used to advertise my small business and I just rely on word of mouth largely these days. Been in business over 20 years.

[–] dumblederp@aussie.zone 2 points 17 hours ago

For sure. The "fill every available space with advertising" model can get fucked.

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