Hey guys ausfag here. I'm sure if you've ever browsed 4pol you may be aware that aussies are notorious shitposters and there is a board-wide respect for the shitposting quality that an aussie will bring to threads. I am here to provide an explanation for this and explain why in my opinion this is by far the biggest hurdles to overcome towards class-consciousness and organisation.
On the internet the Australian psyche manifests as shitposts but in real life auscunts manifest their behaviour with extreme levels of disingenuousness. I believe that the average Australian has been afflicted with post-modernism qualities that has bled into the way we relate in normal society. Australians will call this behaviour 'banter', 'bantz', 'cheekiness' or 'being a larrikin'. In my opinion this culture of anti-sincerity is a major issue. The young people in Australia are completely sarcastic, cynical and incapable of expressing real emotions or feelings. This is a big issue for me to personally overcome as a young man growing up with a father who literally was unable to talk without being cheeky or engaging in banter. In reality I believe that the majority of Australians use irony and sarcasm as a way to mask a society wide pain and suffering that touches all of us. People in aus try desperately to appear cool and nonchalant but it is simply a mask that we all wear. It is common that when you get to know a fellow Aussie on a deeper level you will almost certainly find that they are a sufferer of depression or anxiety. This is something I have encountered so frequently in so many walks of life that I believe that nearly all of Australia is sick.
The cause of this suffering is due to some antagonisms unique to Australia. Our recent memory is plagued with extreme colonialism, the indigenous australians were purged in a genocidal manner as recently as 60 years ago. This is all in our collective consciousness which I believe weighs heavily on the average person. The after-effects of colonialism are still in plain sight with our indigenous population having been completely destroyed and facing enormous inequality in life expectancy and wealth. On top of this there is a blind worship of western media and TV shows which since the 90s have been defined by post-modernism, you can see this in action because many aussies will literally talk as though they are a character in a 'hilarious' American sitcom. Finally there are the normal antagonisms of class struggle wreaking havoc on the aussie psyche. We as a society mask our sadness with larrikin behaviour and heavy drinking (nearly all australians drink like fucking fish).
This post-modernist approach to life itself means that aussies are extremely languid and uncaring. They are unable to express sincere emotions or any genuine thought. Sincerity is something rare here in Australia, when we let our guard down our emotions come out as drinking violence. It is near impossible to become class conscious or active in the left without some form of sincerity. A genuine acceptance that neoliberalism is a catastrophe requires passion, it requires sacrifice and it requires you to leave behind 'le epic irony' to form something greater than yourself.
So Holla Forums how can I start to crush irony and set the Australian people free? Any other countries have the same problem?
Interesting view. From what I know, materially the Australian proles are in a pretty good condition compared to the rest of the world, right? High minimum wage, not so much poverty etc. At least I've never heard horror stories on deprivation, ghettoes etc. that I see all the time about America (and increasingly Europe).
So, do you think that this is another factor towards alienation? Being bought off with concessions and not having as much of a struggle as e.g. Southern Europe to make ends meet?
For example, the black and gritty humour of the balkans can come attached with solidarity, due to its self-deprecating nature establishing some sort of connection.
Leo Reyes
I think a lot of what you're describing is happening to a lot of young people who are active on the internet. People are so afraid of being 'cringey' that they double down on irony and detachment because it's easier than sincerity.
Anyway I don't know how to fix Australia but I do notice that a lot of Australians on 4chan are weirdly hardened Nazis. Like, a very high proportion compared to other nationalities
Leo Perez
I fought in the great shitposting war
Grayson Barnes
australia is a nanny state
we need to smash the state and return the firearms to the people
Hudson Rodriguez
Yeah the current material condition of the aussie prole is pretty good which as you said means that there is little incentive to start class warfare. Unfortunately we may rank high on the HDI but some of that data is incorrectly reported. For example we do have low unemployment but literally any form of job is counted in the census, it is becoming more and more common for blokes I know to only work 10 hour a week jobs. From what I hear this is a common tactic in the western world to make it seem like unemployment is declining. Poverty itself is also under-reported. Our indigenous population for example suffer from such extreme poverty it would put the third world to shame, meanwhile the average auscunt lives better than most.
Australia is an extremely xenophobic country. We have had many politicians push racist narratives and more often than not any form of decline is immediately blamed on 'da immigrants' even though we accept a truly tiny amount. Our previous prime-minister had a huge hard-on for straight up murdering 'boat-people' and our off-shore refugee detention centres like Manus Island are considered by humanitarian groups to be modern day detention camps. Those people who break away from their ironic trappings to become passionate about politics usually end up becoming ultra-nationalists.
Jackson Murphy
I don't care.
Henry Anderson
What's the general attitude towards aborigines like?
Cooper Carter
Agreed. It's fucking unbelievable to me that the aussies can't have any guns yet our police force can. Fucking traffic coppers and bicycle coppers who wear short-shorts are strapped but the average person can't have a handgun 'for our own safety'.
James Bell
This. IMHO the effects that the internet has on a young person and the ideas, problems, viewpoints, concepts etc. that they come into contact with have a huge effect on them; an effect that transcends any national or cultural barrier. If you ask me, I don't think kids as young as five or even seven years old should be using the internet. Seeing all of these heavy concepts, dilemmas, and ideas, like how wealth inequality will continue to grow over the next few decades, really fucks your worldview and development up. There's a reason why suicide rates among adolescents are going up here in the States.
