~~final rant~~

When facism comes to America, it'll come wrapped up in an American flag - some former American state govenor.

Maybe it's the same in Australia.

I don't like being unsafe from terrorism. Osama bin Laden is evil. But then so are our Western governments. I don't like that our governments are increasing the hate and killing more people. Creating a climate of fear, hatred and xenophobia.

Instead of setting an example for peace and building community and making friends, they decide to bomb the f*ck out of countries.

I hate fundamentalists, of any variety. And you know what? Fundamentalist Christians are sometimes so much worse than fundamentalist Muslims.

The Right wing bothers me.

Sure, so does the Left. But in some ways, not quite so much.

Just we don't seem to get much of a middle-ground any more where anyone gets to have their say.

Where's true liberality? True progressiveness? True democracy???

Democracy has been hijacked. We no longer have true democracy, which saddens me. Particularly in Australia. Our government does whatever the f*ck it feels like, even though many of the Australian people don't want what they decide on.

The Federal government also blackmails the State governments in ways that are disgusting and quite simply evil! I mean, threatening States with no funding for drought relief because they won't support certain policies is wrong.

It'd be naive to think that politics has nothing to do with propaganda.

Our Australian Prime Minister has blatantly lied to the public about refugees, the war on terror, university funding, etc, etc, etc... Sure, politicians lie, but why the f*ck are we letting them get away with it without questioning them or writing to our representatives or NOT voting for the parties at elections???

Why can't we have someone stand up for the right thing? Why is it that only extremists make the noise? Why is it that people don't seem to care that our freedoms are being eroded?

I mean, here in Victoria, there are laws that restrict our freedom of speech. Federally, unions are having their rights to stand up for workers taken away.

*sigh*

There's such a difference between nationalism and patriotism. And I think patriotism has the ability to stand back, look at one's country and see when it has problems.

I love Australia. I love the world. It's a beautiful place, or at least has the potential to be. Guess we just have to make more of an effort.