Gee, I thought we were alone

[dan_bgblue]

The Aussie leadership is as dumb as ours.

[CitizenBBN]

FWIW Australia makes the US and UK look conservative, by miles. That's surprising, but the dynamic is the same as in the US. Urban areas are very liberal, the rest is conservative. You know, people who work for a living and know about things like growing stuff and fixing stuff themselves.

The thing in that country is that the ratio of urban to rural is even higher so they drag the country that direction.

[KentuckyWildcat]

I always thought Australia was fairly conservative until Covid hit. Wasn't sure if Covid exposed their crazy or if I was just wrong.

[suncat05]

I have 2 brothers-in-law in Sydney. I have been there once, and we're going back this Christmas (I'm growing my white beard out so that the little ones actually get to meet Santa Claus this year........HO HO HO!)
My oldest B-I-L is a shooter, has a couple of bolt action rifles (it's all they can have due to the anti-gun crowd there), and who is fairly conservative. My other B-I-L is sort of conservative. He's a defense contractor for a French based company. They both believe that the government is good, and has their best interests at heart. They are slightly amazed and amused at how much I distrust anything government, so I try not to talk politics too much with them because they both are a lot more liberal than they want to admit.
I really like Australia. Actually, aside from the fact that they drive on the wrong side of the road, and the steering wheel on the cars are on the wrong side of the car, it's pretty much like being here in the U.S. Their grocery stores and shopping malls and almost everything else about life there is pretty much like life here. But I would never, ever live in Australia for one simple fact: you cannot own a handgun there. You have to rely on the government to protect you. If you get accosted there, you're just supposed to let the bad guys do whatever they want and then report it to the po-lice afterwards. As with most of us here, I just ain't with that nonsense. Heck, the regular beat cops don't even take their duty handguns home with them, they hand them off to the department armorer who then hands it off to the next shift officer. What kind of chuckwagon bullyang is that? And as a consequence, a few officers get waylaid going to or from work because they aren't armed and allowed to defend themselves. And it happens all the time. So, Australia is a little bit on the confused side in how they handle criminals, and how they police the general population, and how they look at an individual's right to protect themselves and their families and their properties.
And their politicians? Just like any politicians anywhere else, most of them don't know which way is up, and don't care. They're in it for their own selfish interests, nothing more. They don't care about anything but staying in office and feeding from the public trough.

[Catonahottinroof]

The vax issues in Australia were nothing short of communist/authoritarian.

[CitizenBBN]

Very quick story.

Had a class at WashU from a prof in the summer who was a devout socialist. Visiting prof from Canada, a labor professor. Nice guy. Wrong about everything except the time of day, but super nice guy. Went out and had beers with him.

He told story of doing a year in Australia as a visiting prof, and in fact he got a permanent position and was leaving at the end of summer to go there semi-permanently. He said his first week there he was in his office working on some papers, etc., getting organized, and another prof knocked on his door and said it was break time and they were going outside. He said OK, didn't move.

Prof came back by and said "you don't understand, you are doing work during your union break. You need to stop and go outside with us. "

This guy is a socialist, and a prof at a school, but the professors have a union and labor laws and per the Aussie labor laws they got not just an hour lunch but I think 2 or 3 like 30 minute breaks, etc. and even being in your office just organizing your own stuff was seen as a problem.

Even American professors don't think anything of sitting in their office in the afternoon catching up on something.

Their labor laws make us look like China. He gave a bunch of other examples.

This guy was a devout socialist and was in love with how Australia did things b/c they were way more socialist on labor issues in his mind even than Canada. I haven't been there but he had been, and he was a smart guy. Just wrong, but smart. lol

[dan_bgblue]

I worked on a Union construction job as an apprentice for a month one summer and it was similar to that. I think I recall this correctly, and the workers got 1 our for lunch and 1 30 min break in the morning and 1 30 min break in the afternoon. I was a farm boy and thought getting paid to do nothing for 15 mins for a water break in August was plumb crazy but those union guys on the work site were plumb serious about their down times.

[KentuckyWildcat]

I was a farm boy and thought getting paid to do nothing for 15 mins for a water break in August was plumb crazy but those union guys on the work site were plumb serious about their down times.

I never wanted a break when farming or doing construction. Not even claiming to be a hard worker. I just never wanted to get started again