this post was submitted on 15 Nov 2023
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Who are these political forces?
And people still vote for them. Pathetic.
Do you honestly believe labor governments both at state and federal levels have clean hands? They claim to be a friend of the people then meanwhile enact and support the same kinds policies and tactics.
It is an unfortunate fact in politics that all parties regardless of what they "say" they claim to represent often do the exact opposite. One could argue it's a matter of degree but nonetheless, all parties must be examined with a critical eye.
I appreciate the fact you weren't rude to me in your response, and just this alone is breathtakingly refreshing.
No one has "clean hands" but that doesn't mean all parties are equal.
Well, yes, here in Australia it's the Liberals and Nationals, but also people like Pauline Hanson and Clive Palmer. Especially Palmer, who has been using massive amounts of money on ad campaigns to distort debates and deceive the public.
But it's not just in Australia, and this is going back decades now. You could say it started with Reagan and Thatcher. Reagan was very open about his distrust in government, and used his presidency to hollow it out and turn the country towards neoliberalism. Thatcher's brutal austerity can be said to have set the country on the path that eventually culminated in the Brexit shitshow. Here in Australia the downward spiral arguably started with John Howard. In Germany, some of the decisions made through the reunification process caused an inequality between East and West that is still present today.
But it's not just politicians. Everywhere in the world there are wealthy businessmen who use their wealth to influence politics. I'd have to spend the next hour typing if I wanted to give you a reasonably exhaustive list. Then the fall of the Eastern Bloc and the 2001 attacks accelerated the process. There are businesspeople who are very apt at profiting from crises, and some of them made an absolute killing from 9/11. Every major crisis in at least the last 50 years, from 9/11 through to Covid, has been an exercise in upwards wealth redistribution.