When people find themselves in stress, they will always vote conservative to ensure their own survival. Right now, many young people can’t afford housing, they have to spend more time working than living. This is not surprising.

Happy birthday. I turned 40 this week too. Yay us.

I will never stop saying “shiver me timbers”

Japan has pretty strict gun control, don’t they?

But all the lobbying has already happened - for decades - and nothing has changed. Fossil fuel companies have poured in billions over the course of decades, and still are, to counter lobby and spread misinformation to keep the status quo.

You’re only seeing the ‘performative’ protesting in the media and not the lobbying because it’s easy to report on, but in reality this movement is on its last legs. It is THAT level of desperation now.

Do you think they’d still be protesting if the government actually implemented the policies brought forward by climate scientists decades ago?

That’s right! They’re better off spending it on lobbying so they end up getting more money!

That’s where automation comes in to do the menial repetitive jobs and the remaining humans take on more complex tasks. Everything will work itself out.

Discord’s main purpose is to be a gamer focused chat program. Isn’t Instagram a selfie chat app?

And here, everyone, is exhibit A as to why critical thinking is going down the drain globally.

I thought it was more like 80%?

This is where the US is waves ahead of Australia. The indigenous population is small now (2%) but hasn’t always been, and we put them (and still do) through many, many atrocities… If you’re at all interested, check out indigenous deaths in custody. There’s also the constant destruction of their traditional heritage (birthing trees, rock art etc.). The stereotype here for an Aboriginal is that they’re drunkards and drug users. This is not reality but a huge majority think this.

As a country, we have deep seated institutionalised racism that has taken root and flourished over the last few decades. We have this national way of thinking where the indigenous population needs to comply to our laws, our way of life. If an indigenous family wants traditional education, nah - go to one of the ‘normal’ schools. Want to learn an indigenous language? Nah, learn German or French or Japanese.

We also have severe tall poppy syndrome where we can’t let anyone have it better than anyone else. Our Australia Day is also a huge issue since it’s on the day of the first colonists landing.

All in all, we don’t have an equivalent because we have a rotten attitude to our first nations.

Wow. I just looked at the front page and that’s actually amazing.

Short answer - no. Australia does not have such a thing, especially with that much support. We have some indigenous people in government but they represent their seat, not specifically indigenous affairs. There is currently no body that represents indigenous affairs as a whole.

It can be established by the government of the day, which it was back when Kevin Rudd was our PM (Labor Party). However, this body was then abolished by the next government, run by Tony Abbott and others since (Coalition).

Now, we have Labor in power again and this referendum was called to have a voice enshrined in our constitution so that it couldn’t be abolished by future governments. Since we nationally voted no, our current Labor government can establish something like the BIA, however there is a high risk that this will be yet again abolished like last time.

I remain hopeful. Even though a vast majority voted no to establish a body, I certainly hope that we have a government that can put something into action and that the Libs stay stuck in the weeds until they find what they stand for again.

I’ll have two of what this one is smoking, please.

The referendum isn’t about recognition of the indigenous population. That was 1967, which overwhelmingly passed.

This referendum was to add into the constitution that a body (a group of people) that represents the voice of indigenous and Torres strait Islander people must exist.

That’s it.

The obfuscation occurred when people expected more from it, which a constitution does not do. That’s a legislative power, which the current government of the time will then determine how the body is made up, how people will be chosen for the Voice etc. Additionally, there was a huge misinformation campaign and we have a media monopoly with an agenda here, so many, many people voted No as a result of the confusion.

The No vote was very, very largely done in good conscience. I firmly believe that these voters want what’s best for Australia and I’m glad for that. I wish it was a Yes, but hopefully this will spur more conversation on what we can do to bridge the gap.

Rain is no problem for me. It feels kind of liberating.

Snow… I’ve never ridden in snow. I propose dog sledding as a substitute.

The Mitchells vs the machines did it best. It was a great and entertaining story and I loved all the characters. Perhaps Disney should just make a story that’s worth telling?

There are also those who make bad decisions and are lazy but have a lot of money and power regardless. Being lazy/making terrible decisions does not equal poor; same as being hard working/making good decisions.

The system at this stage is just geared towards making the poor poorer and the rich richer. E.g. making people pay lots of money to stay healthy rather than give people equal opportunity, making good education only accessible to the rich by making it prohibitively expensive, the wage divide between an employee and a CEO, family trusts and associated taxes etc.

Spicy take: we need to curb our addiction to power sources.

In a single lifetime, we have moved into severe car dependency. Our cities are purposefully built so that only cars can be used. Don’t you see? This is a problem that we’ve created completely by ourselves. If we keep heading in that direction because it’s cheaper and easier, i.e. leaving the band-aid on, major investment into public transit simply will not happen because it’s ‘too expensive and too hard’.

I never said not do both, but I’m seeing time and time again that new roads are being invested rather than investment into other options. What usually happens in reality is one or the other. Look at Egypt, look at the US, look at Australia. Then look at places like the Netherlands.

Netherlands still have roads but in Metropolitan areas, there are a huge number of alternatives.

By the way, when you say you don’t have other means of transport, what locations are you referring to? What I was referring to was Metropolitan areas. Regional areas, where there is a lower density, should still be provided with roads as a means of travel. It’s ridiculous to think that Metropolitan cities don’t have pubic transit infrastructure in first world cities.