this post was submitted on 11 Mar 2026
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Again, why does any country who is not Israel care at all about this? Does Australia have a military base there?
Exactly, half these people are bored with nothing better to do and should be working.
You can tell as they often are a collective with no common goal or objective other than 'protest'. And it's causing such division in our society with now a strong anti immigration movement cos people are getting sick of it.
And in the end everyone loses.
If you can get arrested and jailed for wearing a shirt saying "from the river to the sea", that means your government is suppressing your free speech in service to the genocidal regime of a different country. Even if you don't care about the genocide, the subversion of your democracy and your civil rights by a foreign power is something that any responsible citizen should be fighting against.
Again so quick to fire you assume that I disagree with you.
Something to consider though, we do have free speech in this country and its likely and this case (if challenged) will get thrown out. Update edit: she took a caution.
But also tell me how wearing a t shirt constructively convinces others to share our point of view? Quite the contrary I imagine others who don't share the same opinion will go 'avoid this person before they shout at me for having a different point of view'
And do you know a better way to make a movement in this country than if everyone is able to convince someone else to share (or perhaps just lean closer to) a common opinion/belief. So if instead of pissing off alternative points of view, have an open chat, you might change ppls minds. 1 million voices is better than 100,000 voices, and 25 million voices is better than 1 million. And an open chat is not wearing a tshirt.
But first people need to actually talk and listen to each other instead of shouting and hating each other.
You assume that I assume that you disagree with me.
Well, I am making a counterpoint to your comments about people having nothing better to do and not having a common goal as a collective. This woman achieved something extremely worthwhile, and she probably wasn't working in isolation. She brought attention to an absurd ban on free speech, and by calling the government's bluff on it, helped to reduce the chilling effect on dissent that such restrictions are intended to create. It takes courage, but the most effective way to oppose an unjust law is to break that law, openly and with as much publicity as possible. It draws attention to what is wrong in a way that an open chat simply fails to do. And how open can that chat be anyway? You say you have free speech, but when it gets you arrested with the threat of serious jail time, your freedom of speech is on very thin ice.
I'm not opposed to verbal persuasion, but it has limitations. Sure you might be able to convince one person of something in a face to face conversation. But that's small fry compared to the influence of internet forums, which have become overrun with bots, paid shills, foreign interference, partisan moderators and hidden algorithms designed to maximize engagement and distort your worldview.
Sure you can try to change people's minds and/or maintain a balanced worldview in that arena. But any large scale forum for talk tends to create delusion, division and outrage, by design. It keeps dissent in a form that is contained, monitored and manipulated. Keep talking by all means, but people like this woman are doing more to improve the world than mere talk ever could.
All I say to this is, if you witness these events you'll see it is often students around uni age, or retirees, both with too much time on thier hands. You wont see the 28 year old mum of two, or the 38 year old fella trying to make it in banking. Cos they are at work, contributing to society. This very event was a student group.
This girl achieved nothing except getting a permanent stamp on her criminal record, and costing the tax payer more dollars.
This is why I say a more persuasive approach is better, it's more effective and will change other points of view. Is it more difficult, I agree with you, but no one is gonna witness what happened here and go 'geez I've been wrong all this time and now I'm gonna change my point of view' so continuing it will always lead to a more isolated (but loud) group instead of a broader movement.
That's why I say instead of going to a protest chat with your social group and respectfully bring up the issue, listen and have a respectful sharing of ideas, you might walk away with 3 or 4 more people leave that have changed thier point of view, and another 2 that have had thiers challenged, and are now closer to yours. That is far more effective than this entire event, and if everyone did this, you'd be amazed at the change that would happen.
"Too much"? Having time to fight for a cause is "too much"? Or is it that the rest of us have too little?
For the students, it's their future on the line. What good does a clean record do under the boot? They have everything to win.
For retirees, it's the most selfless thing one could ask for: to put their own wellbeing on the line for a future that won't affect them as much any more.
The mom of two has more to lose than the retiree or the student. Her children's immediate need for survival and care trumps the political objective. The 38 year old probably also has a family, or maybe they're jaded and have given up on fighting for progress or simply don't care.
But either way, it boils down to: Students and retirees have the time for activism, less attachments and the cause to make a better future. If they succeed, we all benefit from it. We should be cheering them on!
And giving censorship the finger.
By "contributing to society" do you mean stuck at work all week, too busy, too exhausted and too tied up by your financial obligations to ever dare to rock the boat in any way? These students and retirees don't have too much time on their hands. They have ENOUGH time on their hands to get out there and make a difference, and I'm grateful for those that do. I would hate to live in a world where no person outside the ruling class is ever free enough to do such a thing, but that is the way things are going. I guess you'll be very happy to get there.
No I mean going to work, paying your taxes, using your earnt money to buy things from other people is contributing to society.
Perhaps you work at a mechanic, and you fix cars for the removalist, who moves a banker, who manages finances for a fabricator, who buys a coffee from the cafe.
This is contributing to society and is what makes the economy work, without a strong economy australia will be a husk with no influence. So yes going to work is contributing.
And yes there is a whole discussion on financial obligations and people not owning stuff and being in debt to the hilt, but I'm not sure this is the right page for it.
They're not allowed to have a day off work?
See the problem I have with this take is that almost everyone I know understands that they have to work in order to maintain a standard of living. Some of them are also conciously aware that this contributes to an overarching societal progression.
The contribution our politicians should be making is to enact the will of the people they represent, this is where I see the breakdown occuring.
We have a federal government that is apparently far more beholden to lobbyists and corporate interests, we have state governments who are similar, we have local councils that seemingly represent their own interests.
Without people willing to put themselves on the line to highlight the failings of our governments and the supporting apparatus then when do we expect them to change? I'm sorry but no amount of contributing to the smooth operation of society is going to fix the problems we currently have, or the ones that are looming in front of us.
Once we regulate AI, tighten our tax code to make businesses and corporations pay their fair share, inhibit the influence of lobbyists, get serious on finding and punishing corruption then we can talk about if protesters should be doing something more "productive".
But if you think some older people marching against over reaching anti-public laws has more of a damaging effect on our society than all the problems we face I'm afraid you and I just exist in different worlds. A strong society should never fear its members protesting, we need to stop licking the boot and start standing up to the people wearing it.
Wearing a shirt doesn’t, but then why should the government care? The answer is they shouldn’t.
Punchinb nazis used to be cool. Now, when the forner victims of genocide pay that genocide forward, governments defend it, going so far as to prosecute their own for saying “I don’t like it”.
A normal government reply would be: cool, enjoy your angst. Instead, they spend money and energy on it which is not normal.
I agree with you they shouldn't care about a tshirt, and if the case was challenged it would likely get thrown out, forcing them to make new laws.
To be clear, punching anyone is not cool, and it's this kind of hateful thinking that makes wars. "Well it's okays to physically hurt this person cos they think/believe/are different".
It is this opinion that people on either side of the war effort use to justify thier actions, either it's right to physically harm palestinians cos they are different, or it is right to harm israelis again cos they are different. That's part of the problem not the solution, it will always make the situation of you punch them so they punch back and now your fighting.
If the citizens of the countries that can exert some pressure on other genocidal countries do nothing who will?
Your logic is no different to saying people involved in WW2 should have mind their own businesses unless directly attacked by the Nazis.
You also fail to recognise that, as history teaches, oppression somewhere in the world can quickly be exported to you country.
And most importantly, unless you are a soulless person with no sense of empathy, we should care about suffering anywhere in the world.
Before you get on your high horse that's not what I said.
I said that a lot of these people are protesting without having a common cause on what they are protesting for. And that it is creating deep fractures in our society.
But don't let a fact get in the way of your keyboard rage, grab your pitchfork, jump down the throat of anyone who you think is pro Israeli, and make sure to throw in a WW2 or Nazi reference.
Or perhaps consider that your response is exactly what I was talking about, and it's this kind of rant that is dividing us.
I encourage a good discussion, sharing of ideas/opinions, perhaps you'll change peoples minds but instead you resort to a "you're wrong and I'm gonna call you names"
And for the record, I still haven't said I'm pro war cos I'm not. What I've said is I am disappointed in the people in this country with how they have responded to it.
Wow, internet person... I never ever called you names or said you are pro-war.
I'd rather have a not-so-clear-about-the-issue protester than whatever excuse for doing nothing you are proposing.
Dont let perfect be the enemy of good.
You just tied my 'logic' to the thinking and people of 'WW2'
That's a form of name calling and not a constructive discussion point there. It was your way of suggesting that one of us is above or below the other.
And again I did not say 'do nothing' as you suggest. But again don't let a good fact get in the way of your ranting.
But that's fine, keep contributing to dividing society and in ten years time when half the country hates the other half, just remember you contributed to making it that way.
Half the country already hates the other half. Wake the fuck up!
You are suggesting that the half that has good intentions does nothing because they are not organised or clear about the motives.
Also, please stop fabricating ways to victimise yourself to win an argument.
Make your case instead.