The Cheese Is Capitalist

08/08/2020

I am once more late to the party of outrage and debate on this topic, but recently there was social upheaval over the name of a cheese brand. With or without prior context, you can probably guess who took which side and what arguments were used for or against the pending change. But I just want to make a quick point, mostly to call out a frequently recurring criticism about the motives of corporations to instead smack them back down with an entirely separate criticism. Sorry to upset some people, but Coon cheese – the cheese of contention – is capitalist.

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Labor Has Mixed Approach to Unions

26/11/2019

The Labor party has, historically, been the party of the working class and the Union movement. This year, however, following their “surprise” election loss, they’ve opted for a more distanced approach from one of their greatest backers. Both on a State and a Federal level, there has been cause for praise and alarm, regarding policies that Labor has supported, from the Unions.

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Private Property: Housing

25/11/2019

One of the few things I’m currently in uncertain disagreement with regarding anarchism is the idea of private property. In many cases, it is quite simple, but in others, like housing, and data, there are some discrepancies that it would be wrong to not address. Seeing as I have probably written more about anarchism in the past few days than I have since I started the site, now seems to be a good time to discuss them.

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Coalition Still Campaigning

22/11/2019

Despite winning the election in May, the Coalition seems to still be stuck in a lot of their campaigning habits. The reason, in my opinion, is a relatively simple one, but it’s mind-boggling to think that a government can be so awful that, only six months into a third term, all they can think to do is self-promoting PR.

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Ok Boomer: A Class Struggle

10/11/2019

The phrase “ok Boomer” has taken the internet, and specifically social media, by storm. It has sparked a litany of sarcastic responses, offense, memes, and even a comeback to a heckle in New Zealand’s government. While I have enjoyed the jokes quite a bit, as jokes, and while there are obviously many Boomers to which it can be applied, it is worth noting that many of the assumptions and accusations made through the phrase are not definitive of, nor exclusive to, a single generation. Many of them are a class issue, or, dare I say, an intellectual one.

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Capitalism Hasn’t Changed

09/11/2019

I’ve recently started reading The ABC of Anarchism (originally Now and After and What Is Communist Anarchism) by Alexander Berkman, and while a lot of the references made do show the age of the book, published in 1929, there are still many relevant observations and similarities to the modern age. The main one, with its many facets, is that capitalism hasn’t really changed much over the years, other than finding more efficient methods of concentrating even more wealth into fewer hands.

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How Many Jobs, Adani?

19/10/2019

The Adani projects in Queensland have long been built atop a mountain of lies and indifference towards environmental and Indigenous concerns. One lie that really helps push the narrative in fossil fuels’ favour is the promise of job, jobs, and more jobs – seemingly the only metric Queenslanders care about. But they have been deceived, just as everyone is by the Coalition’s shallow promises.

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Political Public Relations is A Form of Propaganda

13/10/2019

My political communications lecturer was at pains to differentiate between propaganda and political public relations, but even using the definitions provided to us and the reasoning for it, I’m not sold on it. It’s the only unit I’ve actually done on a political topic, and I am already starting to see how universities frame this kind of content to fit the mould that the mainstream media and academics slowly adjust to. It actually makes me interested in doing further study into it just to observe how a course on these issues is carried out.

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Politics and Human Rights Are Not Markets

07/10/2019

I haven’t posted much recently (except for the 1-year piece) because I spent a week visiting a close friend interstate. While it wasn’t my intention to be inactive and not write, it was good to take a break, and it let me have time to read and actually finish reading a book and get back into another university reading, Introduction to Political Communication by Brian McNair. After reading the chapter on political advertising, my stance only consolidates – political advertising should not exist.

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The Lewis Powell Memorandum: How We Got Here

17/09/2019

It was only recently that I found out this document even existed. Almost half a century after it was written, it is certainly an interesting read – with the benefit of hindsight, it is obvious just how successful the ideas of this small memorandum have become. Much to the detriment of the average person, of course.

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