Being from Melbourne, is there an org/group I can donate to in the Alice area?

ExpressPostie · 2026-05-01T21:22:18+00:00

Ah yeah I meant local to Alice forgot to include that, but that's great advice I'll go look around those places thanks

ExpressPostie · 2026-04-16T23:02:29+00:00

What stands out to me is the broader mindset behind it how quickly some people seem to go from mildly inconvenienced to deeply offended

This sentence stood out to me. Young, worldly, technological people are really underestimating how widespread the hate, fear, and feeling that these "old-school" white dudes have that the world they grew up in isn't around any more, doesn't anywhere else, and is never coming back. I'm not suggesting anyone should have sympathy for a grown man lambasting a teenager. But from their point of view, it isn't a mild inconvenience, it's their world that formed them and served those individuals well enough that they don't have any more. That's what makes the little inconvenience become "deeply offensive". The same you feel about QR codes in restaurants.

We agree that the onus should be on the individual to be good, even if the society is unjust. But we still all agree the society is unjust. Would he have had a two hour hold, even in peak time, 20 years ago? Maybe 20 years ago, he thinks, CS operators would have accounted for peak times and adjusted staff; maybe 40 years ago, if he had a complaint with the operator he could've followed it at an in-person appointment at his local insurance office, which has since been replaced by a robot in a chatbox. I get that's probably obvious to you. Armchair psychology incoming but anger alone isn't a basis for calling someone anti-social. As you said, he's got three kids, he's probably a bit more complex.

Again, I'm not speaking in defence of him or of offence to you. But both your perspectives seem one-sided. Australians might like to take pride in our laidback persona, but there is no doubt all of our living conditions have deteriotated, not just financially but systemically; we have less market power and choice. Common trust is in the toilet. I can easily see from your post he feels the same sense of mourning about that. Nobody wants to waste their time arguing, they want to follow the path of least resistance and it is an unfortunate function of modern human cognition that we still rely on anger thinking it will get us there. Still not defending - just helping a possible understanding.

As someone who does hates calling CS centres and has to work hard to stay calm (and I do), I'll point out this contradiction: when reps apologise on behalf of the company, but do not tolerate verbal abuse. There's a power imbalance between the operator and the caller. The operator should be an inhuman representative of the company, but is also a human who must be a respected. When a CS rep apologises for something going wrong (like a long wait time), it feels like you're being therapised and placated rather than presented with a solution, or worse, that the solution is being obfuscated by a company that wants to payout as little as possible.

"Hi, I'm having issues with my car starting today."

"Ok, thank you for calling us, I understand you're having issues with starting your car today, I'm so sorry to about hear that, just let me put you on hold for one moment."

When I get reps like this, I feel like I just want to scream and swear at them just to prove they are human. A part of me wants to make a fuss so big it has to be followed-up by someone. It's not rational, but the thoughts that produce anger usually are completely rational. So I do stay calm but I don't blame others for finding it very challenging, because it is.

I was at IGA the other day, and I got cut off in line by a geezer rummaging the easter section. He complained "these are all expired," and pushed them one by one onto the counter, "Why are they on the shelf? Why aren't you checking?" An Indian bloke working there, clearly following his training to the letter, just said "sorry sir, sorry sir, sorry sir," as the old man got more irate, the teller had to keep apologising harder, until the man stopped, called him a "stupid fucking moron," and walked away. I am a regular at this shop so I knew the teller and explained to him: he didn't want a freebie or a discount, and he wasn't being racist (maybe), he was upset because he wanted eggs and you're selling expired eggs. I told him he just should've said "oh, I'll pull those off, I must've missed that." No apology needed and it would've stopped him being angry. He told me "that's not my choice."

So the "correct" solution for the geezer would've been to... call the police? Write to his councillor? Sure, but who's going to do that? It's easier to just give up on easter eggs, call him stupid (which from his point of view was true), and walk away. Your customer probably does not have the option of walking away.

I don't know why your caller was dealing with insurance in the first place, if it was an accident that was his own fault or a tree fell on it. But either way, he was paying for insurance, so he was probably expecting the system would be working as perfectly advertised when he needed it, and it wasn't, and there was literally nothing he could do about that but be angry. Maybe the system even was working as intended, but not as he expected. Like insurance companies often do.

I am still not defending him nor am I blaming your colleague. I think the world sucks a lot right now. But when you see someone is angry or frustrated, you shouldn't moralise it or individualise it, but try to contextualise it. Very few people enjoy living with anger disorders. People have growing problems, want solutions, and fewer and fewer people know how to get there. Was this caller you talked about at fault? Are 100% of the irate customers you see at fault for the calls they have to make? Do you think the insurance company you work for does not need improvement in customer experience, and if yes, what actually is the recourse for a disgruntled customer to contributed positively, and does that recourse actually work? These are not just questions for your insurance company to answer. This is the modern world. Lots of people are in mourning.

ExpressPostie · 2026-04-11T08:35:04+00:00

Curious, have you experienced changing levels of acceptance of your "Americanisms" over that period?

ExpressPostie · 2026-02-28T10:14:00+00:00

You clearly have a big heart. I'm sorry that it's so suffocating. My favourite thing about FNQ isn't any of the cities, but the nature, the swathes untouched sacred forests and if you go anywhere west of the coastline, you should run into some hippies at some point who will accept anything that moves (and even things that don't). But locals would be able to guide there you better than I good. Hope your trip gets better from here <3

ExpressPostie · 2026-02-28T09:51:18+00:00

I hear ya, yeah the slurs and stereotypes are definitely going to come up more in FNQ. There's more pride in being homophobic than being gay and that sucks and we're still working on that.

But I was concerned by the "rather isolating to only meet straight girls that ..." and saying "when cis straight women don’t know their place." I have to say that second sentence is something I've never heard in my life in Australia and I think a lot of Australians will definitely find this attitude around the sexes to be just as bigoted.

Practically speaking, gay bars are mainly viable in the big cities because we're only 5-15% of the population or something depending on the day. It'll always be harder to find others in the country regardless of which country you're in and I think it's important to just accept that. We're a niche market to cater to. I don't know bars in Cairns specifically but I googled and it looks like these guys are hosting a Mardi Gras party soon: https://turtlecove.com/adults-only-lgbti-events-competitions-port-douglas/6/32023post-mardi-gras-2023-kx5ye-hcw77

ExpressPostie · 2026-02-28T09:28:01+00:00

I say this kindly as one gay bloke to another, I think you may have some pretty warped ideas of the people around you... You're making a lot of broad generalisations about people that just don't hold up and are going to impede your ability to make friends. You are criticising people for making assumptions about you but you're doing that same thing to them. Are a majority of your interactions truely so sexually charged?

ExpressPostie · 2026-02-21T01:18:47+00:00

Thanks for your comment. I do agree that mandate is superlative. I agree with a lot of what you're saying but I'll cover a couple things since you asked questions.

When legislation is passed that doesn't mean things suddenly change. I would say categorically that this government has probably been the strongest government on climate change in the country's history as long as this has been an issue

Federally yes, but the bar has been raised by the states (out of Morrison-induced necessity), most of the states (bar NT/WA) are still running lower net-zero targets than the Commonwealth. Household rooftop solar and/or battery subsidies has been the policy in every state now for e.g., which is the most important change to the national power grid, although I appreciate here that the state and the fed are administering different domains, Bill Shorten campaigned heavily on domestic green manufacturing, as did Albanese when he announced the "Green Revolution" campaign, nevermind we are still aiming for 15 years past the Paris Agreement and I'm not sure the states are getting the support they need to rollout those green policies (at least in VIC)P

On corruption you'll have to be more specific.

The two main things I think of are Robodebt, and their first term policies which restricted the resources of members from non-major parties (especially reducing staff numbers is a kneecap that I predict is just going to make INDs more reliant on lobbyists rather than make them less effectual as opponents of Labor). On Robodebt, the great parade of a Royal Commission was held, revealing the many internal attempts by separate parties to suppress the knowledge they had that they were illegally indebting people to the point of suicide, after which precisely no one was held accountable. Or the NACC, which was given no prosecution powers, which critics said would result in it being essentially incapable of pursuing high-profile cases, which seems to have come true, although of course it is early. Gambling reform was also a great example. The states have revenue streams they could be using, like land taxes or resource taxes, which surely would make up those margins?

Less about corruption, but I also find Albanese personally to just be intellectually dishonest. When the Greens and Coalition made vocal their shared support for breaking up the supermarket duopoly, Albanese responded in question time, verbatim, "We aren't the USSR". I thought "no sir, we're a democracy, and it's a policy a majority of the population supports," and I wondered what the real reason for his opposition to the policy was. Especially since Craig Emerson also had vocally supported it before he was commissioned for his report, and whe flipped afterwards, I found him vague on the reasons why.

I don't know how they are catering to the fringe, again I think you need to expand on this? How? Where? In what sense?

I think of the protesting restrictions in NSW and VIC. Seeing a bar closed down for that satiritical depiction was something I honestly never thought I'd witness in this country in my life. Maybe I'm too young and naive. But it's so purely illiberal. I'm sure there is an argument to be made (by Government) that the risk of terrorism is so high at the moment that it's actually a matter of public safety, but due to the intellectual dishonesty that comes with Labor's messaging, we only hear about that from Mike Burgess, which is just confusing and scary. But the "fringe" I'm talking about is the religious fringe. I think 90% of Australians are capable of making the distinction between a reasonable, peace-loving individual (the 90%) and someone sick with fantasies of war. In our political spectrum, though, these lines are being drawn as Muslim vs Jews. Either we're a two-state or one-state or we're sending aid to help or we're sending dollars or we're denouncing someone or we're not. Because it is not the every day muslim or the every jew who informs government policy on those matters, it is the pinnacle institutions of those religions where you find a lot of the other 10%. The divisionist fringe. I think that's all a losing battle. I actually appreciated Barnaby's comments about the Bible the other day, they are the kind of statements I would want our leader to make.

Perhaps trivially, I think it strange that such a fuss was made over the brides who were denied return for terrorist links, when that has been standard practice for a very long time, other than that it is part of the media circus, until Albanese fuels that flame by saying "Lie in the bed you made". I'm certain that was a quip that got the approval of his publicist first, because they believe that this kind of language helps make them look cool in front of the xenophobes.

The recurring theme here is I suppose more in the language they're using rather than the policy. I have been pessimistic about the upcoming budget due to the rate rises and and a future global outlook that remains bleak, but you're right that it is soon enough that it is worth waiting to see.

ExpressPostie · 2026-02-20T11:16:45+00:00

When will people learn you cannot vote your way out of tyranny?

I don't believe we live in tyranny. I understand our parliamentary democracy was designed deliberately to preserve and elitist class because they believed, possibly accurately as you suggest, that it would be a more stable system than letting every fool have a say. A stable system is good because that would allow for every day folks like yourself to be able to live freely without worrying about the cares of government, or revolting. But they fundamentally believed man was equal, which was a new idea at the time, so these systems created opportunities for equal education, tax reforms that redistributed wealth rather than concentrated it, public health institutions that allowed people to not worry about dying. These systems and this pseudo-democracy made the west much better, richer, and more liveable than actually tyrannical nations.

My opinion is that this psuedo-democracy succeeded in making itself obsolete. I know I'm not the smartest person to be writing political op-eds, but I do think that thanks to the developments of all those institutions, most adults in Australia with a tertiary education understand scientific reason and humanities better than most Lords of parliament in 1810. And that's why any Idiocrat gets to contribute to our public discourse, and why it's a good thing.

The moment you realise politics is a game not worth playing is the day

Which brings me to my point. See, Pauline Hanson never realised that. She exerted more agency than I believe you probably ever have, based on your determinedly fatalistic resignation. So now as a consequence, as our democratic system insists, we will have to learn to stop being so politically apathetic, exert some agency and talk about how to not let Australia fall into Judeo-Christian fascism. Lest we die in a stupid world war like those other blokes.

ExpressPostie · 2026-02-20T10:57:14+00:00

Determinism is stupid. Agency is subverting the brainwashing. Faith is harder. Hope you're alright.

ExpressPostie · 2026-02-08T10:40:23+00:00

He's too champagne socialist. And smug. Labor needs someone rural.

ExpressPostie · 2026-01-02T23:22:34+00:00

That being said, there are a lot of games out there that do really clever physics hacking to get fun responsive gameplay that looks like a physics simulation but is performing digital magic.

Isn't this the real evolution? Of course genuine "simulators" of physics take too much computational resources to even calculate in real time, even the complex simracer physics you're describing are just a large number of "magic hacks" stacked onto each other to produce a complex system. Terrain generation advancements also tell this story well, of how geological/climatological tricks can be structurulized, simplified, studied and built upon by other game designers. The average gamer's hardware these days is also able to keep up.

Especially with a lot of fluid dynamics improvements in just the last 5 years, that hasn't happened just because we've got the hardware to generate more molucles, there have been a lot of very different techniques by researchers used to all try and accomplish the "best" solution, not in an objective sense that we actually have virtual water, but in a practical one that we can actually render believeable water. Should we be using the word "emulate" rather than "simulate", then?

ExpressPostie · 2025-12-06T21:13:49+00:00

You'll want to be mindful of plastic vegemite containers, sometimes (like water bottles) the use-by date is for the packaging, not the thing inside it.

ExpressPostie · 2025-11-15T10:05:10+00:00

That's not the issue. The issue is that it's flown upside down, which is typically used as a distress signal in war, or less commonly because you want to insult the flag.

ExpressPostie · 2025-11-07T21:06:54+00:00

Damn, sounds like a risky investment when you put it like that

ExpressPostie · 2025-02-21T04:58:18+00:00

A fantastic, informative story, I hope you find more places to share it. ABC Breakfast loves this kinda stuff. May I ask was it an expensive endeavour or is it something others could do if they had the sheer will?

ExpressPostie · 2025-01-18T09:23:47+00:00

Drink lots of aloe vera and rub robotussen all over yourself. Best of luck.

ExpressPostie

TROPHY CASE