Quote Originally Posted by BBB View Post
Politicians in Australia are not immune from this sort of behaviour either. But, they are playing with fire (literally, the case of climate change denial - it's still spring in Australia and there are serious bushfires in two states of Australia) as an angry and divided country for the sake of political gain is not a good outcome.

I don't get the anti-abortion thing. Thankfully it is not a major, or indeed minor, political (or moral) issue in Australia, but in 2023 surely giving roughly 50% of the population the choice to have some form of autonomy over their own bodies is a good thing. These knuckle draggers want to go backwards it would seem instead of forwards. The Lord of the Flies photo earlier in the thread is probably misplaced and maybe the ape banging the bone in 2001 A Space Odyssey is probably closer to the mark.

As for the election business...a temper tantrum by Trump, a large number of failed legal actions over electoral fraud leading to an armed insurrection in which people died and people have been sent to prison. If you upend the electoral process and disregard the legal system you are inviting dictatorship. I suppose this might be seen as a 'gain' to some (f*ck the Libs and all that), but for anyone with two working brain cells it will be a complete disaster.
The US was colonized by religious zealots (New England) and pirates (Virginia).

Abortion uses a moral argument to maximize turnout among the zealots so the pirates can rob the country blind.