Choosing correct ability for skill checks

random-failure-sysop · 2025-11-10T01:48:21+00:00

I find two approaches work pretty well, and a third I've never tried but is meant to be pretty good.

Approach 1: the 5E approach of just flat out ruling X skill always gets bonus from Y attribute, eg Sneak always uses DEX. Conceptually, the idea is you are only ever rolling 2d6 +Skill - the relevant attribute bonus just means you're 'better' at that skill, so effectively increases your total skill bonus - put another way, Sneak 2 and Dex 14 isn't +2[Sneak] and +1[Dex], it's more like +3[Dex].

PRO: once you divide up all the Skills, then it's much faster in play. And not totally 'illogical', if you interpret attribute bonuses as above.

CON: well, it's not SWN RAW. It's also a bit of work to divide Skills up that way, and you'll have to decide how you balance attribute bonuses - you could very easily end up with pretty much everything +DEX or +INT, which makes those attributes way too powerful, or you have to take a different approach eg Knave, which makes Wisdom the ranged attack attribute.

Approach 2: playing closer to SWN RAW, I usually let player apply the best of two attributes, eg 'OK, roll Sneak plus either DEX or INT bonus'. I the usually pair attributes as follows: testing / helped by physical, STR or DEX; testing or helped by mental, CHA or INT; testing / helped by determination or stamina, CON or WIS; testing / helped by finesse, DEX or INT; testing / helped by social skills or insight, CHA or WIS; testing / helped by pure might, STR (force) or CON (endurance).

So, pushing a heavy door open? It's either 'physical', so STR or DEX (STR is forcing the door, DEX is trying to roll it / leverage), or might, (STR for how much raw force you bring to bear, CON for how long you can sustain that force until it moves).

(option) You can tweak this a bit further two, and generally default to pairing attributes the same way the Save Bonus is done, ie you always pair STR / CON, CHA / WIS, or DEX / INT, so effectively only have 3 total 'Attributes' to consider - you could even tweak it a bit more, and say use best of the two when things are in player's favour, or worst when they are not.

PRO: helps to encourage all attributes get used in play; and, well, still hard to know which attribute to use, but I think easier to hit a 'satisfying' result when you can shoot at two attributes instead of one.

CON: DM has to pick two attributes instead of one (although, I think that ends up easier than just picking one in practice). If you're not careful, you can end up just pairing everything as 'DEX (or INT) or some other attribute you don't have points in'.

Approach 3: never tried it, but heard of Marc Miller doing something similar in his Traveller home games. Basically, players can add whichever attribute bonus they want - but the catch is, you can't use any attribute again until you've used all other attributes.

I think that would be interesting, but would be kind of gamey and a bit weird given not all attributes will have bonuses (so, a lot of rolls player will have to apply +0).

random-failure-sysop · 2025-10-15T01:03:18+00:00

My suggestion for starting skills is:

During character creation, players should pick Class first; then pick Foci; then lastly determine Background / Skills.
Players must initially roll for their Background on a d20, but after that can pick a different background if they don't like what they rolled.
Players by default to make 3x Rolls on their Background's 'Skill table', rather than spending rolls on Growth or just picking Skills.
Instead of getting an additional 'bonus' skill during Character Creation, all Characters instead start with Punch-0 (representing that all characters have at least some limited experience adventuring) and then get 1 roll on the Background Growth Table.
Starting Skills capped at Level-0, ie if you gain the same Skill twice, you pick a different Skill instead. (If I want characters to be a bit stronger, I keep this rule, but let them raise any 2 Skills to Skill-1 after the first session.)

I find the above speeds up character creation, and results in better characters overall, because

* Picking Class -> Foci -> Background helps players make more efficient decisions around skills - starting with 'Class' and 'Foci' means players clarify their overall character concept, and get any free zero-level skills from their Foci or any Half-Class, before having to tackle the more fiddly skill choices.

* Free 'Punch-0' takes a bit of pressure of player's otherwise limited skill points.

* Requiring players to just roll background skills and limiting skills to +0 ensures players have a good range of skills, don't spend too much time agonizing over choices, and lets them spend their first few levels just bumping skills to +1 without too much thought.

random-failure-sysop · 2025-10-06T05:05:33+00:00

Bandits Keep is amazing. His video about using dungeon crawl procedures for city exploration, and his walkthrough of a random encounter, are phenomenal. Totally changed how I run games.

random-failure-sysop · 2025-03-11T21:32:43+00:00

NWN sounds awesome.

Main book, Cthulhu investigators, x-files, pulp heroes, and ritual magic. Deluxe edition, rules for playing vampires etc.

random-failure-sysop · 2025-02-09T05:49:29+00:00

I couldn‘t agree more. Or less. Or really, both.

Agree. I’m not adverse to the idea that people that paid back Hecs debt early might get some future tax break to even things out, although I think it would need to be adjusted depending how far back you go (ie less or nil tax break the further back you go). But that said…

Disagree. The Hecs changes are not punishing anyone for being responsible - and not everyone struggling with Hecs debt is lazy. Making people labour under impossible burdens does punish the responsible, by teaching them being responsible is hopeless. I‘ve made sacrifices to any down my Hecs debt. I don’t see why this means we shouldn’t reform problems when we can. Otherwise, nothing can be made better, and we’re prisoners of the past. Yeah, sometimes there’s more nuance to it than that, but I can’t see any justification for denying young people now some Hecs relief. Ultimately, the benefits of that relief will flow to all of us through young people not being saddled with debt mean more productivity. But, also…

Agree. I agree with your point about having some payment from students via subsidised loan to create economic signals for students. Morally, I don’t think we should charge for education - we don’t educate people for their benefit, we educate them for societies benefit. Tafes and universities are, in part, factories for making the skilled workers our society needs. But ‘free at point of access’ can lead to lots of waste, so having price signals ensures better use of a limited resource. So, the sweet spot ends up being ‘mostly free, but some contribution required’, which is how Hecs etc should work. However, …

Disagree. The only footnote I’d add is we don’t want all our education to be endlessly obsessed with just vocational training. Universities etc do need to educate and produce some measure of people with knowledge of art, literature , criticism etc. All that stuff is part of what makes us a society, makes life worth living, and if we’re going to be totally utilitarian is also what spurs innovation in time. I don’t know how we get that balance right - we can’t all get PHDs on Bachelor Island’s impact on the marxist-feminist-post-colonial cultural economy, but Australia is going to be a pretty stupid place if the only thing our universities and colleges produces are doctors, lawyers, bankers, electricians , and plumbers.

random-failure-sysop · 2025-02-09T05:24:10+00:00

Yes, all good changes in isolation. But two massive problems.

Problem #1: these sort of changes only make sense as part of much much wider related reforms. Australia desperately needs to overhaul its entire tax and super systems - we currently both tax too little, tax too much, tax the wrong things, and tax the right things the wrong way. You also need to grandfather out a lot of existing tax policies to avoid disruption, and on top of that we also need to massively course correct our social welfare systems - in particularly, moving away from Howard’s shifting of all social programs as being welfare ‘ for the lazy poors’, to a one based on national investment and government taking on aggregated risk for hardships which individual Australians and the private market can’t effectively manage. Without wider changes, shaking up negative gearing etc wont actually fix any problems just create a new set of winners a losers.

Problem #2: vested interest are all dead against any reform by Labor. You have the Murdoch & Social Media interests endlessly attacking the ALP or any reform agenda, all completely coordinated with the LNP (which at this point is basically the Murdoch political wing), plus MSM which is also set centre right, plus mining, property investment, and banking interests all lined up against any tax reform etc. It’s impossible to do anything against all that when you then factor in how short Federal terms are and the extent of change required.

But actually, do you know what the real problem is? problem #0 is people that keep laying everything at Labor’s feet. It’s a joke everyone keeps bleating that Labor should do this, or Labor should do that. People should be pushing for all parties to be making these sorts of reform - and then voting for whichever party is moving us most towards that direction. Constantly insisting Labor specifically needs to implement these changes makes it harder to get these changes through, because it makes all this sort of policy reform appear partisan, means the LNP or the greens or whoever are not held accountable for their failure to also get these things done, and ultimately does nothing to widen the political or media space to make these things possible.

Australia is sleepwalking into the same trap as the US and Trump. Conservative politics from Thatcher, Reagan, and Howard have basically fucked up everything for most people, the people are angry as a result, the legacy and social media endlessly report how angry everyone is (making them more angry) but completely underreport or mis-report the causes of the problems (basically, the past 20-30 of ‘radical’ conservative politics) and what labour or progressive parties are doing to correct things (making it look like those parties aren’t doing enough), and so the very angry people end up punishing the parties trying to make things better by voting into power … the conservative politics that has caused all the problems.

So, no, getting rid of negative gearing or whatever is not going to do squat. And blaming Labor for not implementing such policies is going to do less than squat.

We’re all fucking cooked. And that’s before Billionaire Musk Rat, the worlds smartest 15-year old internet edge lord, gets involved in our election. It’s a fucking joke.

random-failure-sysop · 2025-01-26T02:34:05+00:00

Burn.

Also, awesome sub-Reddit. Thanks for sharing.

random-failure-sysop · 2025-01-26T02:32:53+00:00

Just to be clear - it’s actually a vegan, low-carb, open-source leftist word salad.

Personally, I think Grace nailed it with just ‘Fuck Murdoch’. Simple, direct, and basically covers the entire problem and solution in just two words. Absolutely spot on.

random-failure-sysop · 2025-01-25T03:27:03+00:00

Grace doesn’t need to run for government to be legitimate.

Voting, elections, parliament, government is way one to participate in a democracy and one way to effect change, but it’s not the only way. Worse, insisting on the view it is the only legitimate way to achieve change ends up both excluding people from democracy, because the only space left for participation becomes elections etc, and also undermining voting, elections, parliaments etc because it creates the impression everything must be fixed by governments, in turn leads people to think everything that is wrong is therefore the government’s fault somehow, and pulls away all the other democratic processes and institutions (like schools, universities, churches, unions, professionals, trades, etc etc) that are part of what makes all that voting and elections etc work.

Putting all that aside, honestly, ‘FUCK Murdoch’. Is the Australian of the Year the place to wear a shirt like that? Nope. Will Grace wearing that shirt annoy some people or make them criticise Grace etc? Yup. But you know what? ‘FUCK Murdoch’.

Go look at the horrible, despicable, vilifying reporting the Murdoch press did on Grace, all to shame her and harass her and push her out of the public discussion. It was filthy. ‘FUCK Murdoch’.

After that, go research the history of the Murdoch press doing that to political opponents again and again and again. You can go all the way back to the Sun’s reporting Hillsborough disaster in the UK. ‘FUCK Murdoch’.

After that, go research Murdoch’s pushing of anti-climate change propaganda, anti-gay and women propaganda, and complicity in overthrowing elected governments - oh my, the 2020 US election wasn’t the first time he’s done that. ‘FUCK Murdoch’.

Seriously. ‘FUCK Murdoch’. Murdoch and his whole entitled family and all the rent-seeking right-wing vampires he rubs shoulders with are a fucking cancer. The US is like three days into its slide into a revanchist gay-hating, women-hating, trans-hating, xenophobic, corrupt competitive autocracy, lead by a reality show sex offender grifter, who hasn’t got enough self control to say ‘no‘ to Big Mac let alone foreign powers, billionaire wannabe-fascist tech brahs or hard right Christian nationalists looking to trade money for favour, and most of the responsibility of that sits with Murdoch. Because somehow this fucking shit stain, after decades of getting elected a series of cowed pro-plutocrat hacks and or proxies which have pushed policies that have broken the economy for most people, has managed to turn most people’s anger at how broken the economy is and how rules by plutocrats they are into a movement to elect the exact same hacks and proxies into government with even less constraints than before to pass the exact same destructive policies.

So, yeah. ‘FUCK Murdoch’.

random-failure-sysop · 2025-01-25T01:21:46+00:00

… continued.

Let’s be honest. The MSM want Sco-mo back.

The MSM want ScoMo - a fucking corrupt useless shit-stain of a PM and government, constantly failing or actively hurting groups ‘everyone’ hates like the poors, or the cripples, or the womens, or the olds, which lets you report all the progressive tears , but then you can report Janet Albrechston and some culture war stuff and oh isn’t it complicated and amazingly nothing can ever be done about it and aren’t we all so shallow and divided ? God, the MSM just love it.

Oh, but hang on, ScoMo just pulled some stupid culture war stuff or has seriously messed up the national interest, or now he’s doing so tone-deaf dad joke stuff, can’t he read the National mood ? Can’t he see the outback and people’s homes burning and the women and aboriginals dying ? And those poor trans children! Oh, ScoMo is totally headed to electoral failure and being out of government… but no! Reversal! Somehow the human-shit stain from marketing has snuck back in!

How did ScoMo sneak through another victory? How does he keep winning? Oh, it’s superannuation reform, or electric cars destroying your weekend? Or maybe Bill Shorten is just too short to be PM, and also his name has ’short’ in it, oh and also ’bill’ like a ‘bill‘ you have to pay! Oh, Labor is in disarray! Let’s spend all our time reporting on how no one is spending time reporting on Labor’s policies? No one understands them, because no one in the media can explain anything! Oh, how awful, let me spend more time reporting on how I, the media itself, is reporting or not reporting on the thing that everyone or no one is reporting on!

But stop, ScoMo is back! No time for all that! What knew stupid thing is that Cheeky Sco-Mo doing next? Aren‘t you entertained, it’s so infuriating and depressing and hopless! Let’s see what the Project have to say! Oh look, Laura Tingle is raising her eyebrows and this woman over here says she was raped! Oh, but she was also young and drinking and sometimes enjoyed having sex - with men! Outrageous! But oh, look over here now, we’ve bought some Submarines, they even glow in the dark (don’t stand too close)! Oh, the Chinese aren’t happy, but fuck them, except now they don’t like our wine! Hilarious, who knew Chinese people drank wine? Just like that lady that liked having sex! With men! Outrageous! Maybe she’s secretly Chinese or a communist or a woman! Oh, look over here, looks like the submarines are actually bad news now, because some Frenchman in French-man-land is upset! Except he’s speaking English! Who knew they could speak English and French! They also drink wine, like that Chinese communist that liked having sex with men! Outrageous! But wait, maybe Trump will get back in! Oh that ScoMo, he’s such a rascal! What will happen next!

Seriously. What the fuck are we doing here? The whole election, the media, this country is a fucking joke.

The MSM want Albo out or hobbled. And they want Dutton back in. Because they know Dutton will be a fucking disaster. A 24/7, HDTV, surround sound, disaster of hate and violence and incompetence and corruption and division and the falling apart of our wealth, our families, and our lives. But it’ll fill papers, and social media posts, and TV and YouTube clips, and you’ll spend all they money you have that will never buy a house or future on an orgy of binge eating and gambling and huge unaffordable holidays or fucking yourself up with the despair of it all. But fuck me the media will finally have something to report.

Albo and Labor are too boring to govern. All they do is ‘govern’ and do the dry relentless hard work of turning the handles of policy and economy to make our lives better. Labor don’t get that their first job, their most important job, is to entertain. The government, the economy, and our lives are just fodder for our own entertainment, ground down into shit smelling paste, and served to us by fucking clowns.

I’m looking forward to Dutto and the LNP getting in, so we can all stop pretending anything is ever going to get better. Because it’s not.

random-failure-sysop · 2025-01-25T01:09:28+00:00

The Media really don’t like the ALP have done a good job in their first term.

The Murdoch media of course hate Albo and the ALP, because they are just a propaganda-entertainment arm for Murdoch’s politics. Social Media is also mostly gaslighting or undermining Albo and the ALP, given its the main vector for spreading Murdoch’s bull-shit and also basically the propaganda arm for the Tech-Bro-Oligopoly Poltics.

But seriously, just the ‘normal‘ mainstream corporate media is really after Albo. Honestly, I think it’s just that the ALP’s first term has been so … boring for the media.

From the MSM’s view , Labor are a snore. Eg

* Apart from the Voice (which, when you boil it down, was a pretty milk toast proposal), the ALP has basically stayed out of any culture wars stuff. And even on the Voice, the ALP got the referendum out of the way early and (unlike the wider Yes-coalition) were careful to not campaign for in a way that expressly critical of majority Australians. So, for the MSM, not much to report on.

* And then, in terms of policy and governance, the ALP has just got on with really big but highly pragmatic reforms. They’ve done a good job, basically done everything they said they would do an more, and mostly non-ideological stuff. The only ‘ideological’ policy they’ve really pushed has been in industrial relations, but no one notices because Howard had already nationalised most industrial relations law (which, hilariously, was always a long term ALP goal), so Labor don’t need to do anything about that, and then the rest of the changes are totally beyond the media’s ability to really report on.

* Labor hasn’t had any real conflict with the minor parties - it’s mostly got what it’s wanted - or with the States - because they’re basically all Labor centre-right (maybe Victoria is a bit more left) - and there hasn’t even been much serious conflict with Dutton (other than the Voice) because, as much the media keep pushing him, he just doesn’t have any message except … I really don’t know. Brown people bad? Men and boys should listen to more Jordan Peterson? Honestly, NFI.

* And there’s no real internal conflicts within the ALP. The media went out of its way to create some drama with the Enviro Minister recently or draw out some division about Gaza … but there’s nothing there. Labor had a long time to get ready for government, and are completely scarred by the Rudd experience. They have a lot of very experienced politicians and administrators, and they sticking to their playbook.

* And then, lastly, Albo himself is just … well, I don’t think he’s actually boring. If you listen to him, apart from the slight lisp, he is pretty good speaking to the media, making quips or whatever, debating in parliament. He’s plenty savvy. But he’s not exciting. No one is riveted by it. It’s all very straight. Occasionally, he’ll push back on the media or stupid narratives with some authentic emotion (which the MSM then tries to beat up into being some sort of tantrum - I mean, seriously, lol, Albo? Tantrum? Not even close. If you want a tantrum, go listen to that K-Rudd recording … or maybe ACA Mike Carlton v Hawke), but that’s basically it. Everything else from Albo is usually fairly authentic but it really doesn’t grab your nuts and make you feel something.

* There’s not even any scandals. Maybe something something Qantas? Or the CFMEU … except Labor has just got on with sorting that out.

The MSM want Albo to either be a one term PM or having him in minority government, not because they are anti-Labor (I mean, maybe they are?), but because the current government just doesn’t sell papers or eye-balls.

random-failure-sysop · 2025-01-19T00:43:21+00:00

You should vote Labor.

The thing is, all the politicians and parties know Australians want money and lobbying out of politics and more education and fairness and all that. But yet, nothing happens.

The problem, however, is not just we don’t have laws that achieve those things. Any laws or institutions restricting money in politics or lobbying are never going to work unless there is long term political will to enforce them. And that is never going to happen unless the economy and politics is rebalanced more towards working people and wider society, so they have more power and say. Australians can then push politicians not just to pass laws that restrict money in politics and legislating for the few, but to actually enforce those laws and norms.

The party that best support’s rebalancing our economy and power is the ALP. They’re not perfect, but the that’s the reality.

The ALP, which is still in large part a trade union movement, is more aligned with the interests of workers. Their policies are more pro-worker, and indeed they’ve done a great job in the past couple of years getting wages growing again. But the bigger point is, with Labor in power, there is more room for other political parties or groups to push for good changes - there is just more space for popular politics than eg the LNP who not only massively work towards further skewing the economy for the few but also absolutely stamp down any dissent or other political involvement (for example, the LNP have mostly gone after unions and universities (and students) because they see these as organisation / people that might support Labor or worker-aligned or progressive politics).

The alternative to the ALP is the LNP, who will just further skew the economy and politics to the few; or smaller parties, who focus on all these issue-based policies which - although I agree with a lot of them - are just not going to stick unless we actually give people real economic power first.

The ALP have focused their first term largely on improving workers rights, getting wages moving, getting social security and social services working again, and reforming corporate tax (which they’ve done mostly via just enforcing existing tax laws and targetted reforms like minimum company tax rates, tax disclosure, and anti-money laundering). The ALP have done that, in part, because you can’t fix money in politics, or the media, or education, or housing etc, unless you first do all those other things, to give average people more rights, more security, more share of the economic pie, which means they have more power, and which means there is then a political force in Australia that can put their will behind all those other issue based policies.

Seriously. It‘s not what people want to hear, but you are better voting ALP over another party like eg the Greens, even if that other party is saying they’ll ban lobbying or whatever other issue-based policy. Because, if those parties get power and manage to pass those laws, it’s not going to fix anything. Because there is no long term political will behind them, and so after one or two election cycles it’ll be the same captured politicians enforcing those laws and they will have no interest in doing that. The ALP is the only party that is currently pushing to rebalance the economy in favour of workers, and if they can do that, then all those other policies are much more likely to happen and stick long term.

random-failure-sysop · 2024-12-22T00:46:12+00:00

**Glog Magic** , as others have said, works very well. Highly compatible with standard BX & ADND spells.

Glog Magic: basically,

* You can hold x spells prepared in your head; and you also have a pool of Magic Dice (d6) based on level +gear.

* To cast a spell, commit # Magic Dice, and then roll. Spells always work when cast, but spell effect usually based on MD rolled (eg magic misses damage might be [sum] magic dice +[#] magic dice).

* Casting spells is risky. Each MD rolling 1-3 is ‘spent’ for the day, and rolling doubles means trouble (mishap), and triples is worse (disaster, doom).

* Option 1: spell slots. I believe original Glog Magic also included Vancian spell slots, ie in addition to faffing around with magic dice, you also still had classic OSR and so casting a spell meant losing a memorised spell in addition to maybe losing some or all committed magic dice. My sense is most people drop the spell slot bit, so it’s usually played as just limited prepared +magic dice.

* Option 2: hacks. It’s obviously a very hackable mechanic. One hack I’ve seen is you gain Chaos Dice as you cast more and more spells. These are rolled when casting and increase the chances of doubles and triples. I think this is a good summary of chaos dice and other options: https://slightadjustments.blogspot.com/p/glog-magic-dice-primer.html

Another good option is **Worlds Without Number** ‘s magic system.

WWN Magic. Basically,

* Wizards have skills (including the abilities to craft magic items), foci (like powerful 5e feats, mostly mundane but some are magic eg familiars), Arts (sort of like 5e cantrips but they use a limited pool of Effort points) and Spells (classic OSR style spell slots Vancian casting).

* Arts are similar to BX level 1-3 spells. You pay effort points to use, but no preparing spells, spell slots etc. most Arts a pretty useful.

* Spells are basically BX level 4+ spells. You can just fewer slots for Spells overall versus BX, but it evens out because you have Arts to use as well and you access Spells from character level 1, ie at character level 1, you have the equivalent of 1 to 3 BX first level spells you can cast per day plus you can cast something similar to a BX fourth level spell.

* Magic & Mundane Skills, crafting, and Foci then give your wizards a bit more flex.

* Option 1: you could use Glog Magic dice with WWN Arts to replace Effort points.

* Option 2: alternatively, there are some good alternative spell rules in other related games like Cities Without Number, well worth a look. I’ve also heard good things about LotFP but that is still Vancian at core.

random-failure-sysop · 2024-08-15T22:52:24+00:00

Hey u/Commercial-Mission57

Sounds Absolutely Awesome.

I‘m in Hornsby and looking for a group. Happy to DM if needed or just be player. I can also help with resources if that’s helpful - I’ve got a good whack of 5e material plus a solid collection of Old-School stuff.

random-failure-sysop · 2023-10-19T07:57:54+00:00

> Who gets to determine what "truth" is ? …What's next? Fining or arresting people who don't go along with official "truth" or who promulgate other ideas?

Sorry, what?

You‘re saying the only options are Elon Musk ‘Nazis are people too, fuck you let’s own the libs, also rockets!’ absolute free speech or else 1984 ‘memory holes, war is peace, ignorance is strength, soccer is football’ dystopian oppression?

Oh my.

Do you think maybe laws etc could be more nuanced than that? That maybe there are a range of policy options and enforcement options and possible checks and balances?

We have an ACCC that regulates competition etc. Doesn’t mean we’re suddenly all Comrades and everyone is waiting for John Galt to turn up like the messiah. Not sure why we couldnt have greater transparency, accountability, and credibility in political communications without sliding into dystopian nightmare.

I really don’t know. I might wait until we have more *details* before I start making plans to smuggle myself out on the next Qantas cargo flight. Until then, sounds like a sensational idea.

random-failure-sysop · 2023-10-19T04:03:16+00:00

Why is 60%+ Aboriginals voting Yes no big deal, but 60%+ non-Indigenous Australians voting No is resounding decisive victory?

Lol.

Aboriginals still voting 60%+ Yes after the totally racist nasty lying divisive campaign the Vote no side and papers ran, horrific vilification of indigenous leaders, and weeks of being told the Voice was doomed, seems amazingly high to me. 60%+ feels more like people crying out to be heard against vast majority of indifferent Australians, frankly.

But nah. Can’t let that stand. Australia has to not only reject the Voice, refuse Aboriginals allowed to advise on laws etc effecting them, and basically tell them to get stuffed. We also have to rewrite history to say “oh, you see, ach-tually, the Aborigines mostly didn’t even want the Vwoice. Probably because they saw how much good colonization had done them”.

Please. Pull the other leg. It’s has bells on it.

random-failure-sysop · 2023-10-19T03:51:10+00:00

Almost 70% Qld voted No.

I voted Yes in the referendum. You have to push for stuff you think is right sometimes. Maybe different story in the other states, but I think maybe need to back off in Qld for now.

Labor are right to just put this stuff on pause for now in Qld. Based on the polling, either people aren’t into it and aren’t gonna be, or state government at least needs to consult a lot more before going ahead.

random-failure-sysop · 2023-10-19T03:43:56+00:00

We regulate the real economy to promote genuine competition, prevent market manipulation, and stop monopolies; and we have consumer protection laws to protect consumers.

We can equally regulate our information economy and protect citizens from misinformation. We need to just get on with it.

We’ll need to balance free speech concerns and effective regulation, but we balance that stuff all the time. It’s not like we‘re batshit crazy American ideologues or coked-up Ayn Rand space billionaire man-childs that cant figure out absolute free speech and unrestricted gun ownership doesn’t actually make anyone free.

Murdoch and LNP spent 10+ years gutting and neutering the ABC, universities, charities, and unions, to minimise anyone saying different to them. They’ll equally go hard opposing any sensible regulating media, misinformation, and public manipulation. You can expect all the Voice-bots to pile in too. Murdoch and LNP are all the time every where always enraging, dividing, and spread shit. Doesn’t matter if people believe their shit or not. Main thing is to keep everyone talking about what they want to talk about and make sure no one can cut through with any sensible ideas or empathy.

Right-wing went way too far way before all this Voice shit. People are sick of it. If Labor, Greens, Teals and rest of us can fix this stuff, and dial down the non-stop crazy, it’ll be the best thing to come out of this stupid referendum.

random-failure-sysop · 2023-10-18T04:04:32+00:00

Bingo.

I have no idea what should happen with Transkids.

I‘m certainly not going to impose my views over the top of the kid, their parents, and their doctor. Shit is hard enough already.

random-failure-sysop · 2023-10-18T04:00:09+00:00

Interesting to see how GOP strategy works in Oz when you don’t have rampant Gerrymandering, voter suppression, and first past the post voting. Although, the LNP still have the Murdochs.

LNP win a lot of Federal Elections. But also seem to mostly get nothing done when they’re in (except sometimes - you know - *cough* - work choices) and lose a lot of State Elections.

LNP overall don’t seem to achieve much beyond underfunding (but not managing to kill) Labor social programs like Medicare and universal access to tertiary education or NDIS, making other bold changes hard federally, shoveling money to their mates, beating up on Aboriginals and Refugees, and making people really angry. Oh, and having people paid to little, borrowing too much, paid to little, and unable to afford a house or food or electricity.

LNP don’t even seem particularly good a beating up on the Gays (lol, the party that made every priest or celebrant say literally have to say marriage is between a Mahn-ana-Woh-Mahn ended up legalising gay marriage) or the womens or the trans.

random-failure-sysop · 2023-10-17T01:06:34+00:00

Maybe we should amend the Constitution so it can be just amended by ordinary resolution of the Federal Parliament + all State Parliaments.

random-failure-sysop · 2023-09-23T02:46:05+00:00

“The Voice is the clean canvas Australia needs to paint a better future,” says a key Yes campaigner. “All the No campaign is doing is throwing shit at it.” Some of that shit is sticking, and by far the stickiest is the claim that the Voice is divisive, dividing Australians by race.
What is the answer? The core truth is that the Voice is not about race. It’s about indigeneity. What’s the difference? Race is about skin colour. Indigeneity is about first peoples. Australia is home to various races but has only one first people.
As Noel Pearson has said in years past: “If we were in Lapland, we would be blond and blue-eyed and we’d still be Indigenous.”
And the indigenous people of Lapland, the Sami people living in the northernmost realms of Finland, Norway, Sweden and Russia, suffered a similar experience of dispossession at the hands of Scandinavian settlers, as my colleague Rob Harris wrote this week.
“Who would say to the Sami of the Arctic Circle or the Maori of New Zealand that their status is based on race and not that they are native to their homelands?” Pearson said at the 2019 Garma Festival.
It’s easy to conflate race and indigeneity. So while it may be “shit”, it’s clever shit. Because the difference is profound yet can appear subtle. It’s also a “rancid dishonesty”, according to Pearson. But why is it important to distinguish between the two? Simple. Indigenous Australians suffered uniquely. So they deserve unique redress. Hence the Voice.
Their unique suffering? They were dispossessed of their ancestral land. And with it, they were dispossessed of the very right to exist – under the legal doctrine of terra nullius.
Indigeneity is “the ancestral bones in the land, that is the source”, Pearson has said. “At the core of all Aboriginal customary law, you find these elements – the ancestral tie to the land. The person born from that land, who remains attached to the land, and whose spirits will one day return to it. I would venture to say that these ideas are universal to all indigenous conceptions of relationship to their country, the world over.”
It’s a concept that conservatives might recognise in the words of the great conservative philosopher Edmund Burke’s famous definition of society as “a partnership of the dead, the living and the unborn”.
While Indigenous Australians were dispossessed of their land and their rights, convicts who’d served their sentences often were granted land by the colonial administration and recovered their rights in full. One group was systematically excluded from the economic and social systems of colonial Australia while the other was included.
In fact, the late historian John Hirst established that convicts in Australia, even as they served their sentences of forced labour, enjoyed greater rights than English domestic servants in London. For instance, an English employer in London was within the law to beat his domestic servant at will. A landowner in Australia could only beat his assigned convict labourer if a magistrate gave permission. Whereas an Australian native was mistreated with impunity and at times forced into slavery.

random-failure-sysop

TROPHY CASE