This is why "centrism" and the Labor Party chasing centrist voters is a scourge and the Labor party should be abandoned.

This just fits in to my view that the only way to fight Liberal and One Nation is to go further left and actually make peoples lives better by providing public services, nationalise natural resource extraction, increase company and wealth taxes, and, not capitulate to the right wing rhetoric.

Instead Labor go after competing unions (RAFFWU), put funding into and lend credence to the nonsense that is "tough on crime", don't fund our schools and hospitals properly even after relentless campaigning by the unions. They are demolishing our public housing and replacing it with community housing (often fewer units) and selling off the rest as private dwellings - literally selling of public land and assets...

And they have no counter to people complaining about the debt because a number of the projects are dumb, and frankly corrupt (Transurban no-bid contract). Big road projects really should be a thing of the past, we have enough roads, to make them work better we need more public transport, so that commercial and emergency vehicles and transport for disability don't have to compete with people who could take PT. No, Metro Tunnel, SRL, and especially the LXRP which is a project for road users, is not enough. The PTUA have a great list of things they ought to have done https://ptua.org.au/advocacy/)

They allow the dismantling of Cohealth, and don't bother stepping in to bring it back under community control when the board pilfer the rescue package https://archive.li/2026.10.06-193602/https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/cohealth-splurged-on-a-recruiter-then-it-chose-an-internal-applicant-20261007-p612gz.html, because the Labor party are not for public health, they think the current private subsidy system of Medicare is good.

The Labor party hasn't been the party of the working class for a long time, and are directly responsible for the death of membership in our unions via the Accords in the 80s.

We need to rebuild the left in this country, and the only party doing that is the Socialists (and to an extent, the Greens, but they're pro-capitalism, which is why we're in this mess to begin with)

In conclusion, this is the Labor Party's fault, but the UFU is still very silly for essentially endorsing the LNP and One Nation above the Labor Party by saying they should be last.

If any of what I've said is convincing to you, I encourage you to get involved:

• VIC: https://victoriansocialists.org.au/
• NSW: https://nswsocialists.org.au/
• QLD: https://queenslandsocialists.org.au/
• SA: https://sasocialists.org.au/
• WA: https://wa.socialists.org.au/
• ACT: https://canberrasocialists.org.au/
• TAS https://tas.socialists.org.au/
• NT: https://ntsocialists.org.au/

We don't have a productivity problem when viewed through a human lens, rather than the absurd idea there must always be "growth".

We have a problem that that excess productivity has been captured by those who already have amassed wealth, to grow it even further.

Our massive productivity gains have been eaten up by the billionaire/owner class.

Does no one seem to remember that you used to be able to support a family of 5 on one modest income?

Now people can barely support a couple of 2 with two fairly good incomes.

The problem is inequality and ever increasing wealth of the rich, who then use that outsized influence over legislation and regulation so that they can amass even more.

We have a capitalism problem where our excess value is being stolen.

This idea that we need to fix our productivity is a strawman in my opinion.

Privatised firefighting capability may be some of the worst examples of where privatisation is a scourge in society. Wow.

I shouldn't be surprised, but I am.

Ther a a lot to hate about AI datacentres, but as Nath also points out, they don't run always on diesel.

Don't let them strawman us.

Nothing about that requires it to be outsourced to private companies.

Well seemingly, sharing them across borders as far away as Australia (which is the context of this post), isn't working anyway.

And I disagree that bilateral agreements aren't possible.

The problem with privatisation is that we end up paying far more than if we'd just taken out a loan and done it ourselves.

The cost on society is the profits extracted.

Yes they tell you.

Yes you get as much snacks as you like afterwards, and a drink during if you like. (I don't recall last time if there were lollipops)

Seems to work just fine for Wikipedia, one of the most used sites on the internet.

I don't agree with your gut feeling on this. Even a much much larger instance like .world doesn't have ads.

The whole idea of Lemmy is to be unenshittified Reddit. The second we puts ads on here, what even is the point?

Donations is very sustainable for non-profit driven websites that aren't too bandwidth or storage heavy, in my view. We just need to prompt users a little more, and create ways to easily have automatic regular transactions.

@[email protected] mate, this community has been a godsend for me. Thank you so much for setting it up and keeping it running while you had the space for it in your life.

It's been such a joy to feel like I have an extra set of friends to shoot this shit with online, make jokes, make political arguments, nerd out with and generally have a gab.

Wishing you all the best mate, and thanks again.

It's kinda fucked you're having a laugh at someone losing both their legs.

With the traffic we get, ad revenue probably really wouldn't make a dent. I think we could very comfortably afford no ads, provided calls for donations go out more regularly so we don't forget.

This is such a braindead proposal I'm surprised they're just coming out and saying it.

I think you perhaps need to reflect on the general mood here bud. People clearly don't think ya did the right thing here.

Making glib jokes is a thing, sure, but you've completely failed in the execution. When Trump dies we will make jokes, because we fucking hate that guy. When the United HealthCare CEO was killed, people made all sorts of jokes, because again, people aren't sad it happened, he was a piece of shit who frankly deserved it (even if I personally am against the death penalty).

When a fairly uncontroversial politician has their life completely altered forever, your first instinct is to make a joke that barely even makes sense, and then when called out, double down?

It feels very unempathetic.

Take the L, ya done messed up. That's fine, but learn from your social misstep.

peacefully if possible

We'll vote, protest, strike, and argue our way to socialism, and when inevitably the ruling class uses violence against us to put a stop to it, violence will become necessary.

I agree, violence as the primary strategy to remove our overlords seems dubious and bound to backfire, in my opinion.

No probs :)

When playing Nation State Am I the Arsehole? The answer is always "Everyone Sucks Here".

It's very, very strange to me that there are "socialists" out there who simp for China.

Comrade (those simps, not you), the working class don't control society just by being considered by the ruling party, who you can't recall, or vote out.

They have to actually have democratic control over society, which they most certainly do not in China, and there's absolutely no plans to move toward that.

People there very much support the government when asked, but that doesn't necessarily mean that support is justified when accounting for control over the media and suppression of dissent, and even industrial action smh. Similarly, Americans think they have democracy, which to be honest, they pretty much don't, because there is no real democracy under capitalism where the wealthy will always have undue influence on the system, and especially not under their whacky-ass voting systems.

I dislike how people can't grasp the concept that all ruling classes are bad, and just because one slaps "socialist" on their branding, doesn't mean you need to support it...

He presents no reliable argument for why "trams [...] clog up the roads", nor why trams are a mistake to have kept.

He conflates the fact Melbourne didn't build more metro lines (which we absolutely should have, and should do now) with keeping the tram network.

It's pro-car nonsense.

Cars clog up the roads and slow down trams, not the other way around.

Thankfully Melbourne kept its tram network, sadly, it did not build enough trains.

The average speed is from being slowed down due to traffic and non-priority signalling.

You, and Alan, clearly have no idea what the tram system in Melbourne is like.

This is a stupid take. The problem is only parents who aren't teaching their kids properly.

A bit of noise from some slightly rowdy children is not a big deal.

Let's not further isolate our society. Parents should feel free to bring their kids along places so they can still socialise.

I say this as someone without children.

This is especially fucked because young people are disproportionately working as casuals and are routinely structurally dismissed by not being given shifts

Thanks for sharing