Ilandar
@Ilandar@lemmy.today
- Comment on Australia, why are you still obsessed with freeways – when they’re driving us away from net zero? 4 hours ago:
Last time I checked nobody in the office abused someone for riding or catching public transport to work.
It is common knowledge that many Australian motorists are overtly and irrationally hostile towards cyclists. So much so, that there is a running satirical joke in dashcam communities where people jokingly blame cyclists for accidents that didn’t even involve one. Anyone who rides regularly, or knows people who ride regularly, is aware of this hostility.
- Comment on Legendary film critic David Stratton dies peacefully aged 85 1 day ago:
It sort of feels like he’s died a second time to me, the first coming when he retired fully (he was still doing some regular review stuff even after leaving the ABC). He was not really a reviewer for the casual cinemagoer, he was a reviewer for people who loved film like he did. Even if you didn’t agree with his opinions, you could always understand and respect the level of thought he put into his analysis of a film (though he did have some funny quirks, my favourite being his hatred for “shaky cam”). I was fortunate to meet him and Margaret Pomeranz at The Mercury cinema in Adelaide when they did a Q&A after a screening of something. Seeing them in person surrounded by all these other film lovers in a small, independent cinema sort of reaffirmed to me how much I loved the art. I have a couple of his books, ‘Australia at the Movies’ which was published last year is really good and I’d strongly recommend it to anyone who wants to watch more Australian feature films or just read his opinions on basically every single one released in the last 30 years.
- Comment on Australia to recognise Palestinians' right 'to a state of their own', PM says 4 days ago:
Perhaps I should redefine what I mean by “relevant” then, because it’s obviously the case that Australians have far less control over the situation in Gaza than they do over the rights of people suffering under their own democratically elected government. Whilst pushing our politicians to recognise Palestinian statehood or end the shipment of military equipment to Israel is not a complete waste of time and is certainly a good thing to do, the reality is that it will not even go close to solving that problem or ending the pain for Palestinian people. Australia can only offer moderate influence here, it cannot actively change anything by itself. Domestically, we have all the power and can absolutely make meaningful change so what’s the excuse? We don’t stand up for these other things, that’s the point, so to frame this as a hypocritical position misses the point entirely.
- Comment on Australia to recognise Palestinians' right 'to a state of their own', PM says 4 days ago:
Its a shame that i feel that Australians aren’t willing to accept costs like those for what i still believe are broadly held convictions about how we want to live in the world.
Well I guess that depends a bit on the context, because in this case certainly it seems like most Australians are now quite united in their opinion and its really the politicians who have been dragging their feet. But more broadly I agree, it has been somewhat frustrating to see how willing Australians are to educate themselves on the situation in Gaza and advocate on behalf of Palestinians whilst issues that are actually relevant to the Australian context, like the rights of Indigenous people or asylum seekers, remain areas of widespread ignorance and disinterest. I suppose one of the key differences is that pro-Palestinian advocacy really costs Australians nothing, so for most the opportunity to take a selfish position doesn’t exist. It’s free moral high ground with zero trade-offs.
- Comment on Australia to recognise Palestinians' right 'to a state of their own', PM says 5 days ago:
Good points, it is easy forget that a lot of the big IR issues are associated with the US and can have significant knock-on effects as a result. I do find realpolitik quite sickening when applied to human rights issues, though.
- Comment on Fear of 'being cringe' blamed for lack of dancing on nightclub dance floors 5 days ago:
There is rarely piano but when there is then it is electric piano which has a very different sound you may not recognize(?)
Yes that’s probably true, I guess from the genres I am coming from I mentally associate the word “piano” with a specific sound emulating that of a non-electric/traditional piano with some added reverb and sometimes delay.
- Submitted 5 days ago to australia@aussie.zone | 31 comments
- Comment on Fear of 'being cringe' blamed for lack of dancing on nightclub dance floors 5 days ago:
I have never heard of this genre (Amapiano) before, what would you say are its distinct features that feed into that formula? The Wikipedia article was not particularly helpful, for example it mentioned piano melodies bur they were very rare in the mixes I listened to. The log drums were the main aspect that seemed consistent throughout most tracks.
- Comment on Australia Completely Loses The Plot, Plans To Ban Kids From Watching YouTube 1 week ago:
Video playlists? You can export those outside of YouTube. I use Grayjay so exported all my subscriptions and playlists a long time ago (hence why I no longer watch through an account).
- Comment on Australia Completely Loses The Plot, Plans To Ban Kids From Watching YouTube 1 week ago:
I agree and I am concerned too, given that the Australian Government has a track record of encroaching on civil liberties under very vague “security” and “safety” justifications. I do think regulation in this area is very important, though, and that perhaps the only realistic way in which occurs is via some encroachment on our individual freedoms as netizens. I find a lot of people who claim to only be opposed to this specific implementation are actually just outright opposed to literally anything that even minutely affects them once you coax their ideology out a bit more, and I’m definitely not in that group. There is an important balancing act to make here between complete individual freedom and combating a widespread societal brain drain and mental health decline in young people, and my feeling is that many of the loudest opponents are only interested in the former, purely for selfish reasons.
- Comment on Australia Completely Loses The Plot, Plans To Ban Kids From Watching YouTube 1 week ago:
Will anonymous access still be allowed?
To YouTube? Yes. The legislation requires social media companies to ensure people under the age of 16 do not have accounts. It does not prevent people under the age of 16 from accessing these social media platforms whilst logged out. For something like Facebook or Instagram, which rarely work unless logged in, this will have a significant impact, but for YouTube it makes barely any difference. I haven’t used YouTube logged in for a very long time and there is very little that is off-limits, beyond highly graphic content, so this is a far cry from the “ban” it has been hysterically portrayed as in the media.
The search engine thing is a different piece of legislation I believe, but it also does not require you to be logged into an account to perform web searches. You will still be able to use Google and Bing with default safety settings enabled.
- Comment on Australia Completely Loses The Plot, Plans To Ban Kids From Watching YouTube 1 week ago:
You don’t have to hand over ID, YouTube (and all other services affected by these new laws) must provide an alternative for those who do not wish to use ID. If you’ve maintained an account for over 16 years, YouTube may also be able to use that data to pass an age assurance check.
- Comment on Australia Completely Loses The Plot, Plans To Ban Kids From Watching YouTube 1 week ago:
I’m not sure yet, but it sounds like Lemmy is within the scope of the legislation.
Key features of the SMMA include:
- Requires age‐restricted social media platforms to take reasonable steps to prevent Australians under 16 years old from having accounts (the minimum age obligation),
Under the SMMA, a platform is an ‘age‐restricted social media platform’ if (section 63C):
- the sole purpose, or a significant purpose, of the service is to enable online social interaction between 2 or more end‐users,
- the service allows end‐users to link to, or interact with, some or all of the other end‐users,
- the service allows end‐users to post material on the service, and
- it meets such other conditions (if any) as are set out in the legislative rules
- Comment on Australia Completely Loses The Plot, Plans To Ban Kids From Watching YouTube 1 week ago:
Alternative title: The Internet Completely Loses The Plot, Claims Australian Government Plans To “Ban Kids From Watching YouTube”
- Comment on Australian retailer Kmart faces court action as two of its suppliers have been linked to forced labour in China's Xinjiang region 1 week ago:
I’m not sure I’d call a Betoota Advocate article “coverage”.
- Comment on Should big tech be allowed to mine Australians’ text and data to train AI? The Productivity Commission is considering it 1 week ago:
Nice to see we are finally getting some regulatory movement here.
- Comment on Going to waste: two years after REDcycle’s collapse, Australia’s soft plastics are hitting the environment hard 1 week ago:
Does anyone else have a soft plastics recycling program run by their local council? We’ve had a trial for about a year, now in its second phase. Hopefully it can be successfully expanded to other households.
- Comment on Meta, YouTube, TikTok and Snapchat are running ads and events saying their services are safe for children 2 weeks ago:
Yes, the addictive qualities of these platforms is the major problem that legislation should be focused on. It universally affects every user, and is particularly harmful for children and young people whose brains are still developing. These drugs are free and can be accessed at any time, anywhere. I feel like I say this in every thread but it is just insane to me that the biggest harm is the one that barely seems to get a mention. The Conversation published one of their Yes/No style articles today in which they ask a panel of “experts” to argue Yes or No to a specific question, in this case whether YouTube should be included in the ban, and only one of the five commented on the intentionally addictive and manipulative design of social media.
- Comment on The secret deal behind the teenage social media ban 3 weeks ago:
That quote you pulled is exactly what I’m talking about. Lots of pearl clutching about low-hanging fruit like violent imagery and drugs, no mention of the longer-term impacts of being exposed to services that are literally designed to be addictive or the way our privacy has been eroded by companies like Meta and Google monopolising our lives. No one wants to go beyond the most absolutely basic, surface level examination. Of course these people fucked the solution when they never fully understood the problem in the first place.
- Comment on The secret deal behind the teenage social media ban 3 weeks ago:
Just that they went and decided on this nebulous age verification instead of actual privacy protection we’re sorely lacking in this country (online)
As much as I do support the basic premise of a social media ban for children, this was always my big concern about the way the debate unfolded in Australia. Everyone was so preoccupied with these hysterical child safety arguments around sex predators and violent imagery. The much larger and more important issues around privacy and childhood development (i.e. influence of addictive technology on developing brains and broader impacts on society of these problems becoming normalised and resolved within our culture) were often just background noise.
- Comment on Australian anti-porn group claims responsibility for Steam's new censorship rules in victory against 'porn sick brain rotted pedo gamer fetishists', and things only get weirder from there 3 weeks ago:
Of course it will have an effect. My point was that they have straight up admitted it won’t affect the “porn sick brain rotted pedo gamer fetishists” they are trying to claim this is a win over, because this group can just access the games elsewhere.
- Comment on Australian anti-porn group claims responsibility for Steam's new censorship rules in victory against 'porn sick brain rotted pedo gamer fetishists', and things only get weirder from there 3 weeks ago:
“All these porn sick brain rotted pedo gamer fetishists so desperate to get their hands on rape-my-little-sister incest games they’re now exchanging clues on how to find them so that they don’t all die overnight,” Collective Shout co-founder Melinda Tankard Reist tweeted on July 18th.
…so you admit your strategy was completely ineffectual?
- Comment on Carolina Wilga search triggers uncomfortable questions for families of missing Indigenous men 4 weeks ago:
I’m not sure the comparison with a missing tourist is the right one to make in this case. The German backpacker scenario appeals more to us because we feel like we have a responsibility as locals to look after this person who has come to our country as a guest and has run into trouble. I hope that people in other countries feel similarly about Australians in their countries too.
But I definitely agree that there is obvious negative bias against Indigenous and non-white men if we are comparing the way their cases are handled and covered (or not) compared to those of other missing Australians here.
- Comment on Misogyny is thriving in our schools. Why aren’t we doing more? 4 weeks ago:
Victim blaming? What are you, a misogynist?
- Submitted 4 weeks ago to australia@aussie.zone | 3 comments
- Comment on Misogyny is thriving in our schools. Why aren’t we doing more? 4 weeks ago:
Err, these boys aren’t being taught Misogyny 101 in the classroom…the female teachers are often the victims here. Asking them to solve this problem is delusional.
- Comment on Misogyny is thriving in our schools. Why aren’t we doing more? 4 weeks ago:
a school teacher needs 4-6 years worth of higher education to be eligible to teach meaning a school teacher is more likely to come from a wealthier, more conservative background
Most Australian university students have their study 100% funded upfront by the Australian government and only pay it back over time if they earn above a minimum threshold, so the connection between socioeconomic background and university education isn’t as strong as in the US (though it definitely still exists).
- Comment on Australians, especially men, are reading less than ever before 4 weeks ago:
I know it’s almost exclusively negative experiences here, but I do think it depends heavily on the student and their teachers as to whether that type of coursework is appealing. Personally I devoured English throughout high school, it was my favourite subject by far and the only one in Year 12 where I felt empowered, confident and challenged myself. It really established my ability to think deeply about complex issues and articulate my arguments with more clarity (and listen to and engage with those of others), which are some of the most widely applicable and useful life skills I learned in school.
- Comment on Australians, especially men, are reading less than ever before 4 weeks ago:
What happened to Gen X men? That gap is massive, their numbers are nearly as low Gen Z men.
- Comment on The mane attraction: how many lions are in Australia and how well are they regulated? 4 weeks ago:
I know there’s definitely no lions at Adelaide Zoo, because it chose to kill its last one after his mate died.