#settlersociety — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #settlersociety, aggregated by home.social.
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Unsheltered in the wide open spaces
Unhoused in Australia: "‘A sobering indictment’: 14 homeless people die a year in public parks or countryside in Australia, analysis finds:"
"Between 2010 and 2020, 54 rough sleepers died in public parks, the analysis shows. Eighty-five homeless Australians died in countryside areas – including in bushland, desert, beaches and riverbanks – in the same period...It is a sobering indictment of societal abandonment and systemic failure." >>
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/may/09/homeless-people-deaths-per-year-australia-ntwnfbThe human right to adequate housing. Housing is a right, not a commodity
https://www.ohchr.org/en/special-procedures/sr-housing/human-right-adequate-housing
#housing #precariousness #abandonment #HomelessnessCrisis #AffordableHousing #PublicHousing #privatisation #DecadesOfNeglect #HumanRights #homelessness #Unhoused #FamilyViolence #SettlerSociety #commodity #rentierism -
Unsheltered in the wide open spaces
Unhoused in Australia: "‘A sobering indictment’: 14 homeless people die a year in public parks or countryside in Australia, analysis finds:"
"Between 2010 and 2020, 54 rough sleepers died in public parks, the analysis shows. Eighty-five homeless Australians died in countryside areas – including in bushland, desert, beaches and riverbanks – in the same period...It is a sobering indictment of societal abandonment and systemic failure." >>
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/may/09/homeless-people-deaths-per-year-australia-ntwnfbThe human right to adequate housing. Housing is a right, not a commodity
https://www.ohchr.org/en/special-procedures/sr-housing/human-right-adequate-housing
#housing #precariousness #abandonment #HomelessnessCrisis #AffordableHousing #PublicHousing #privatisation #DecadesOfNeglect #HumanRights #homelessness #Unhoused #FamilyViolence #SettlerSociety #commodity #rentierism -
Unsheltered in the wide open spaces
Unhoused in Australia: "‘A sobering indictment’: 14 homeless people die a year in public parks or countryside in Australia, analysis finds:"
"Between 2010 and 2020, 54 rough sleepers died in public parks, the analysis shows. Eighty-five homeless Australians died in countryside areas – including in bushland, desert, beaches and riverbanks – in the same period...It is a sobering indictment of societal abandonment and systemic failure." >>
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/may/09/homeless-people-deaths-per-year-australia-ntwnfbThe human right to adequate housing. Housing is a right, not a commodity
https://www.ohchr.org/en/special-procedures/sr-housing/human-right-adequate-housing
#housing #precariousness #abandonment #HomelessnessCrisis #AffordableHousing #PublicHousing #privatisation #DecadesOfNeglect #HumanRights #homelessness #Unhoused #FamilyViolence #SettlerSociety #commodity #rentierism -
Unsheltered in the wide open spaces
Unhoused in Australia: "‘A sobering indictment’: 14 homeless people die a year in public parks or countryside in Australia, analysis finds:"
"Between 2010 and 2020, 54 rough sleepers died in public parks, the analysis shows. Eighty-five homeless Australians died in countryside areas – including in bushland, desert, beaches and riverbanks – in the same period...It is a sobering indictment of societal abandonment and systemic failure." >>
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/may/09/homeless-people-deaths-per-year-australia-ntwnfbThe human right to adequate housing. Housing is a right, not a commodity
https://www.ohchr.org/en/special-procedures/sr-housing/human-right-adequate-housing
#housing #precariousness #abandonment #HomelessnessCrisis #AffordableHousing #PublicHousing #privatisation #DecadesOfNeglect #HumanRights #homelessness #Unhoused #FamilyViolence #SettlerSociety #commodity #rentierism -
Unsheltered in the wide open spaces
Unhoused in Australia: "‘A sobering indictment’: 14 homeless people die a year in public parks or countryside in Australia, analysis finds:"
"Between 2010 and 2020, 54 rough sleepers died in public parks, the analysis shows. Eighty-five homeless Australians died in countryside areas – including in bushland, desert, beaches and riverbanks – in the same period...It is a sobering indictment of societal abandonment and systemic failure." >>
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/may/09/homeless-people-deaths-per-year-australia-ntwnfbThe human right to adequate housing. Housing is a right, not a commodity
https://www.ohchr.org/en/special-procedures/sr-housing/human-right-adequate-housing
#housing #precariousness #abandonment #HomelessnessCrisis #AffordableHousing #PublicHousing #privatisation #DecadesOfNeglect #HumanRights #homelessness #Unhoused #FamilyViolence #SettlerSociety #commodity #rentierism -
Harvesting fruit and vegetables 'in the middle of nowhere': The Pacific Islander farm workers scheme
"With about 30,000 PALM workers in Australia as of October, that equates to about 30 deaths per 100,000 people — more than six times the national average of 4.8 per 100,000."
"Back home, I usually drive for no more than 30 minutes before reaching my destination. Here, I'd drive for hours... after working 12-hour shifts." >>
https://www.abc.net.au/pacific/palm-workers-urged-to-obey-australian-driving-laws-/104730954"Two Pacific Islander farm workers dead" >>
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-05-06/manjimup-fatal-crash-pacific-farm-workers/106636166
#PALM #workers #food #farms #work #AgriculturalIndustry #SettlerSociety #roads #TyrannyOfDistance #transport #rural #cars #Australia #exploitation #plantations #MobilityDesign #WideOpenSpaces #FossilFuel #FoodMiles
Image: The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, 1939 -
Harvesting fruit and vegetables 'in the middle of nowhere': The Pacific Islander farm workers scheme
"With about 30,000 PALM workers in Australia as of October, that equates to about 30 deaths per 100,000 people — more than six times the national average of 4.8 per 100,000."
"Back home, I usually drive for no more than 30 minutes before reaching my destination. Here, I'd drive for hours... after working 12-hour shifts." >>
https://www.abc.net.au/pacific/palm-workers-urged-to-obey-australian-driving-laws-/104730954"Two Pacific Islander farm workers dead" >>
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-05-06/manjimup-fatal-crash-pacific-farm-workers/106636166
#PALM #workers #food #farms #work #AgriculturalIndustry #SettlerSociety #roads #TyrannyOfDistance #transport #rural #cars #Australia #exploitation #plantations #MobilityDesign #WideOpenSpaces #FossilFuel #FoodMiles
Image: The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, 1939 -
Harvesting fruit and vegetables 'in the middle of nowhere': The Pacific Islander farm workers scheme
"With about 30,000 PALM workers in Australia as of October, that equates to about 30 deaths per 100,000 people — more than six times the national average of 4.8 per 100,000."
"Back home, I usually drive for no more than 30 minutes before reaching my destination. Here, I'd drive for hours... after working 12-hour shifts." >>
https://www.abc.net.au/pacific/palm-workers-urged-to-obey-australian-driving-laws-/104730954"Two Pacific Islander farm workers dead" >>
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-05-06/manjimup-fatal-crash-pacific-farm-workers/106636166
#PALM #workers #food #farms #work #AgriculturalIndustry #SettlerSociety #roads #TyrannyOfDistance #transport #rural #cars #Australia #exploitation #plantations #MobilityDesign #WideOpenSpaces #FossilFuel #FoodMiles
Image: The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, 1939 -
Harvesting fruit and vegetables 'in the middle of nowhere': The Pacific Islander farm workers scheme
"With about 30,000 PALM workers in Australia as of October, that equates to about 30 deaths per 100,000 people — more than six times the national average of 4.8 per 100,000."
"Back home, I usually drive for no more than 30 minutes before reaching my destination. Here, I'd drive for hours... after working 12-hour shifts." >>
https://www.abc.net.au/pacific/palm-workers-urged-to-obey-australian-driving-laws-/104730954"Two Pacific Islander farm workers dead" >>
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-05-06/manjimup-fatal-crash-pacific-farm-workers/106636166
#PALM #workers #food #farms #work #AgriculturalIndustry #SettlerSociety #roads #TyrannyOfDistance #transport #rural #cars #Australia #exploitation #plantations #MobilityDesign #WideOpenSpaces #FossilFuel #FoodMiles
Image: The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, 1939 -
Harvesting fruit and vegetables 'in the middle of nowhere': The Pacific Islander farm workers scheme
"With about 30,000 PALM workers in Australia as of October, that equates to about 30 deaths per 100,000 people — more than six times the national average of 4.8 per 100,000."
"Back home, I usually drive for no more than 30 minutes before reaching my destination. Here, I'd drive for hours... after working 12-hour shifts." >>
https://www.abc.net.au/pacific/palm-workers-urged-to-obey-australian-driving-laws-/104730954"Two Pacific Islander farm workers dead" >>
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-05-06/manjimup-fatal-crash-pacific-farm-workers/106636166
#PALM #workers #food #farms #work #AgriculturalIndustry #SettlerSociety #roads #TyrannyOfDistance #transport #rural #cars #Australia #exploitation #plantations #MobilityDesign #WideOpenSpaces #FossilFuel #FoodMiles
Image: The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, 1939 -
From Gold Rush to Green Rush
The environmental consequences of cannabis cultivation* "Professor Kaitlin Reed (Yurok/Hupa/Oneida) argues that the state's booming cannabis industry can be situated squarely within other extractive settler colonial enterprises such as gold mining and overfishing."
“The real gold is not gold, after all, but the land itself”
Kaitlin P. Reed, "Settler Cannabis: From Gold Rush to Green Rush in Indigenous Northern California" (U Washington Press, 2023) >>
https://read.dukeupress.edu/agricultural-history/article-abstract/100/1/140/407075/Settler-Cannabis-From-Gold-Rush-to-Green-Rush-in?redirectedFrom=fulltext* Reed "connects California cannabis production to the violence and dispossession of Indigenous land and people."
"Young countercultural back-to-the-land settlers flocked to northwestern California beginning in the 1960s, and by the 1970s, unregulated cannabis production proliferated on Indigenous lands."
https://www.degruyterbrill.com/de/document/doi/10.1515/9780295751573/html#cannabis #extractivism #agriculture #logging #overfishing #BackToTheLand #counterculture #GreenIdyll #SettlerSociety #GoldRush #GreenRush #CannabisIndustry #water #pollution #disposession #FirstNationsPeoples #IndigenousPeoples
Image: Country idyll with river -
"... With this arrival, this conquest, one idea reigns supreme. You are a numbers person. You believe in possession through measuring the thing. The land is this many metres, the elevation is this high off the ground. Where a traveller may have seen the land, been curious about what 50 names say about the tree, already your mind was quartering, the stake hammered right in..."
"Possession—the numbers game—requires brute strength and the willingness to eradicate the speakers too."
- Yumna Kassab, The Conquest of Land and Dream
#land #biodiversity #life #quality #diversity #dispossession #commodification #quantifiability #ratability #scalability #values #language #naming #LanguagePolicies #SettlerSociety #EuropeanColonisation #IndigenousPeoples #writers
https://meanjin.com.au/essays/the-conquest-of-land-and-dream/
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"... With this arrival, this conquest, one idea reigns supreme. You are a numbers person. You believe in possession through measuring the thing. The land is this many metres, the elevation is this high off the ground. Where a traveller may have seen the land, been curious about what 50 names say about the tree, already your mind was quartering, the stake hammered right in..."
"Possession—the numbers game—requires brute strength and the willingness to eradicate the speakers too."
- Yumna Kassab, The Conquest of Land and Dream
#land #biodiversity #life #quality #diversity #dispossession #commodification #quantifiability #ratability #scalability #values #language #naming #LanguagePolicies #SettlerSociety #EuropeanColonisation #IndigenousPeoples #writers
https://meanjin.com.au/essays/the-conquest-of-land-and-dream/
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"... With this arrival, this conquest, one idea reigns supreme. You are a numbers person. You believe in possession through measuring the thing. The land is this many metres, the elevation is this high off the ground. Where a traveller may have seen the land, been curious about what 50 names say about the tree, already your mind was quartering, the stake hammered right in..."
"Possession—the numbers game—requires brute strength and the willingness to eradicate the speakers too."
- Yumna Kassab, The Conquest of Land and Dream
#land #biodiversity #life #quality #diversity #dispossession #commodification #quantifiability #ratability #scalability #values #language #naming #LanguagePolicies #SettlerSociety #EuropeanColonisation #IndigenousPeoples #writers
https://meanjin.com.au/essays/the-conquest-of-land-and-dream/
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"... With this arrival, this conquest, one idea reigns supreme. You are a numbers person. You believe in possession through measuring the thing. The land is this many metres, the elevation is this high off the ground. Where a traveller may have seen the land, been curious about what 50 names say about the tree, already your mind was quartering, the stake hammered right in..."
"Possession—the numbers game—requires brute strength and the willingness to eradicate the speakers too."
- Yumna Kassab, The Conquest of Land and Dream
#land #biodiversity #life #quality #diversity #dispossession #commodification #quantifiability #ratability #scalability #values #language #naming #LanguagePolicies #SettlerSociety #EuropeanColonisation #IndigenousPeoples #writers
https://meanjin.com.au/essays/the-conquest-of-land-and-dream/
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"... With this arrival, this conquest, one idea reigns supreme. You are a numbers person. You believe in possession through measuring the thing. The land is this many metres, the elevation is this high off the ground. Where a traveller may have seen the land, been curious about what 50 names say about the tree, already your mind was quartering, the stake hammered right in..."
"Possession—the numbers game—requires brute strength and the willingness to eradicate the speakers too."
- Yumna Kassab, The Conquest of Land and Dream
#land #biodiversity #life #quality #diversity #dispossession #commodification #quantifiability #ratability #scalability #values #language #naming #LanguagePolicies #SettlerSociety #EuropeanColonisation #IndigenousPeoples #writers
https://meanjin.com.au/essays/the-conquest-of-land-and-dream/
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Oh no, not the bison again
The Trump Administration’s Latest Target: This Woolly American Icon >
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2026/04/trump-administration-doug-burgum-interior-american-bison-buffalo-ban-blm-grazing/The Forest Service “Reorganizes” Under Trump
https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-lede/the-forest-service-a-force-across-rural-america-reorganizes-under-trumpImage: Photograph from 1892 of a pile of American bison skulls in Detroit (MI) waiting to be ground for fertilizer or charcoal. Wikipedia
#biodiversity #conservation #bison #wildlife #LandManagement #CattleGrazing #forests #LoggingIndustry #Pastoralism #extraction #nature #SoonHereToo #SettlerSociety #meat
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Oh no, not the bison again
The Trump Administration’s Latest Target: This Woolly American Icon >
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2026/04/trump-administration-doug-burgum-interior-american-bison-buffalo-ban-blm-grazing/The Forest Service “Reorganizes” Under Trump
https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-lede/the-forest-service-a-force-across-rural-america-reorganizes-under-trumpImage: Photograph from 1892 of a pile of American bison skulls in Detroit (MI) waiting to be ground for fertilizer or charcoal. Wikipedia
#biodiversity #conservation #bison #wildlife #LandManagement #CattleGrazing #forests #LoggingIndustry #Pastoralism #extraction #nature #SoonHereToo #SettlerSociety #meat
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Oh no, not the bison again
The Trump Administration’s Latest Target: This Woolly American Icon >
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2026/04/trump-administration-doug-burgum-interior-american-bison-buffalo-ban-blm-grazing/The Forest Service “Reorganizes” Under Trump
https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-lede/the-forest-service-a-force-across-rural-america-reorganizes-under-trumpImage: Photograph from 1892 of a pile of American bison skulls in Detroit (MI) waiting to be ground for fertilizer or charcoal. Wikipedia
#biodiversity #conservation #bison #wildlife #LandManagement #CattleGrazing #forests #LoggingIndustry #Pastoralism #extraction #nature #SoonHereToo #SettlerSociety #meat
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Oh no, not the bison again
The Trump Administration’s Latest Target: This Woolly American Icon >
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2026/04/trump-administration-doug-burgum-interior-american-bison-buffalo-ban-blm-grazing/The Forest Service “Reorganizes” Under Trump
https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-lede/the-forest-service-a-force-across-rural-america-reorganizes-under-trumpImage: Photograph from 1892 of a pile of American bison skulls in Detroit (MI) waiting to be ground for fertilizer or charcoal. Wikipedia
#biodiversity #conservation #bison #wildlife #LandManagement #CattleGrazing #forests #LoggingIndustry #Pastoralism #extraction #nature #SoonHereToo #SettlerSociety #meat
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Oh no, not the bison again
The Trump Administration’s Latest Target: This Woolly American Icon >
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2026/04/trump-administration-doug-burgum-interior-american-bison-buffalo-ban-blm-grazing/The Forest Service “Reorganizes” Under Trump
https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-lede/the-forest-service-a-force-across-rural-america-reorganizes-under-trumpImage: Photograph from 1892 of a pile of American bison skulls in Detroit (MI) waiting to be ground for fertilizer or charcoal. Wikipedia
#biodiversity #conservation #bison #wildlife #LandManagement #CattleGrazing #forests #LoggingIndustry #Pastoralism #extraction #nature #SoonHereToo #SettlerSociety #meat
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Hunting with thylacines
* "They used to tell stories about going hunting with thylacines," Djalama man Joey Nganjmirra.
"Arnhem Land rock art raises questions about Tasmanian tigers living on mainland" >>
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-04-04/thylacine-rock-art-arnhem-land-tasmanian-tiger-mainland/106528418* "The last known thylacine...died in captivity at Hobart's Beaumaris Zoo on September 7, 1936, due to neglect and exposure to extreme weather. The species was officially extinct in 1986, following decades of state-sponsored bounty hunting, habitat destruction, and disease that decimated the population" >>
https://www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/extinction-of-thylacine#thylacines #TasmanianTiger #Indigenouspeoples #djankerrk #RockArt #biodiversity #extinction #settlersociety
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Hunting with thylacines
* "They used to tell stories about going hunting with thylacines," Djalama man Joey Nganjmirra.
"Arnhem Land rock art raises questions about Tasmanian tigers living on mainland" >>
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-04-04/thylacine-rock-art-arnhem-land-tasmanian-tiger-mainland/106528418* "The last known thylacine...died in captivity at Hobart's Beaumaris Zoo on September 7, 1936, due to neglect and exposure to extreme weather. The species was officially extinct in 1986, following decades of state-sponsored bounty hunting, habitat destruction, and disease that decimated the population" >>
https://www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/extinction-of-thylacine#thylacines #TasmanianTiger #Indigenouspeoples #djankerrk #RockArt #biodiversity #extinction #settlersociety
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Hunting with thylacines
* "They used to tell stories about going hunting with thylacines," Djalama man Joey Nganjmirra.
"Arnhem Land rock art raises questions about Tasmanian tigers living on mainland" >>
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-04-04/thylacine-rock-art-arnhem-land-tasmanian-tiger-mainland/106528418* "The last known thylacine...died in captivity at Hobart's Beaumaris Zoo on September 7, 1936, due to neglect and exposure to extreme weather. The species was officially extinct in 1986, following decades of state-sponsored bounty hunting, habitat destruction, and disease that decimated the population" >>
https://www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/extinction-of-thylacine#thylacines #TasmanianTiger #Indigenouspeoples #djankerrk #RockArt #biodiversity #extinction #settlersociety
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Hunting with thylacines
* "They used to tell stories about going hunting with thylacines," Djalama man Joey Nganjmirra.
"Arnhem Land rock art raises questions about Tasmanian tigers living on mainland" >>
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-04-04/thylacine-rock-art-arnhem-land-tasmanian-tiger-mainland/106528418* "The last known thylacine...died in captivity at Hobart's Beaumaris Zoo on September 7, 1936, due to neglect and exposure to extreme weather. The species was officially extinct in 1986, following decades of state-sponsored bounty hunting, habitat destruction, and disease that decimated the population" >>
https://www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/extinction-of-thylacine#thylacines #TasmanianTiger #Indigenouspeoples #djankerrk #RockArt #biodiversity #extinction #settlersociety
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Hunting with thylacines
* "They used to tell stories about going hunting with thylacines," Djalama man Joey Nganjmirra.
"Arnhem Land rock art raises questions about Tasmanian tigers living on mainland" >>
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-04-04/thylacine-rock-art-arnhem-land-tasmanian-tiger-mainland/106528418* "The last known thylacine...died in captivity at Hobart's Beaumaris Zoo on September 7, 1936, due to neglect and exposure to extreme weather. The species was officially extinct in 1986, following decades of state-sponsored bounty hunting, habitat destruction, and disease that decimated the population" >>
https://www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/extinction-of-thylacine#thylacines #TasmanianTiger #Indigenouspeoples #djankerrk #RockArt #biodiversity #extinction #settlersociety
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The ultimate neoliberal “dreamworld” – on desert sand without water
Expat influencers sold Dubai to the world and were paid to look the other way. Now the dream is crumbling* "The Dubai project requires demanding visitors and expats to not think too much about the suffering or question what goes on beyond the city’s borders. And how that city came to be built in the first place."
"The whole social contract of Dubai involves a wilful blindness to the proximity of suffering and violence. After all, Gaza is geographically close." >>
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/mar/31/dubai-influencers-expats-denial-middle-east-crisis* Living Well at Others' Expense: The Hidden Costs of Western Prosperity, Stephan Lessenich, 2019, Polity Press >>
https://www.politybooks.com/bookdetail?book_slug=living-well-at-others-expense-the-hidden-costs-of-western-prosperity--9781509525621#WesternProsperity #GlobalInequality #wealth #inequality #externalisation #mobility #Dubai #drylands #settlersociety #WilfulBlindness #CrumblingDreams #FossilFuels #oil #water #war #WarZone #ClimateCrisis
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The ultimate neoliberal “dreamworld” – on desert sand without water
Expat influencers sold Dubai to the world and were paid to look the other way. Now the dream is crumbling* "The Dubai project requires demanding visitors and expats to not think too much about the suffering or question what goes on beyond the city’s borders. And how that city came to be built in the first place."
"The whole social contract of Dubai involves a wilful blindness to the proximity of suffering and violence. After all, Gaza is geographically close." >>
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/mar/31/dubai-influencers-expats-denial-middle-east-crisis* Living Well at Others' Expense: The Hidden Costs of Western Prosperity, Stephan Lessenich, 2019, Polity Press >>
https://www.politybooks.com/bookdetail?book_slug=living-well-at-others-expense-the-hidden-costs-of-western-prosperity--9781509525621#WesternProsperity #GlobalInequality #wealth #inequality #externalisation #mobility #Dubai #drylands #settlersociety #WilfulBlindness #CrumblingDreams #FossilFuels #oil #water #war #WarZone #ClimateCrisis
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The ultimate neoliberal “dreamworld” – on desert sand without water
Expat influencers sold Dubai to the world and were paid to look the other way. Now the dream is crumbling* "The Dubai project requires demanding visitors and expats to not think too much about the suffering or question what goes on beyond the city’s borders. And how that city came to be built in the first place."
"The whole social contract of Dubai involves a wilful blindness to the proximity of suffering and violence. After all, Gaza is geographically close." >>
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/mar/31/dubai-influencers-expats-denial-middle-east-crisis* Living Well at Others' Expense: The Hidden Costs of Western Prosperity, Stephan Lessenich, 2019, Polity Press >>
https://www.politybooks.com/bookdetail?book_slug=living-well-at-others-expense-the-hidden-costs-of-western-prosperity--9781509525621#WesternProsperity #GlobalInequality #wealth #inequality #externalisation #mobility #Dubai #drylands #settlersociety #WilfulBlindness #CrumblingDreams #FossilFuels #oil #water #war #WarZone #ClimateCrisis
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The ultimate neoliberal “dreamworld” – on desert sand without water
Expat influencers sold Dubai to the world and were paid to look the other way. Now the dream is crumbling* "The Dubai project requires demanding visitors and expats to not think too much about the suffering or question what goes on beyond the city’s borders. And how that city came to be built in the first place."
"The whole social contract of Dubai involves a wilful blindness to the proximity of suffering and violence. After all, Gaza is geographically close." >>
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/mar/31/dubai-influencers-expats-denial-middle-east-crisis* Living Well at Others' Expense: The Hidden Costs of Western Prosperity, Stephan Lessenich, 2019, Polity Press >>
https://www.politybooks.com/bookdetail?book_slug=living-well-at-others-expense-the-hidden-costs-of-western-prosperity--9781509525621#WesternProsperity #GlobalInequality #wealth #inequality #externalisation #mobility #Dubai #drylands #settlersociety #WilfulBlindness #CrumblingDreams #FossilFuels #oil #water #war #WarZone #ClimateCrisis
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The ultimate neoliberal “dreamworld” – on desert sand without water
Expat influencers sold Dubai to the world and were paid to look the other way. Now the dream is crumbling* "The Dubai project requires demanding visitors and expats to not think too much about the suffering or question what goes on beyond the city’s borders. And how that city came to be built in the first place."
"The whole social contract of Dubai involves a wilful blindness to the proximity of suffering and violence. After all, Gaza is geographically close." >>
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/mar/31/dubai-influencers-expats-denial-middle-east-crisis* Living Well at Others' Expense: The Hidden Costs of Western Prosperity, Stephan Lessenich, 2019, Polity Press >>
https://www.politybooks.com/bookdetail?book_slug=living-well-at-others-expense-the-hidden-costs-of-western-prosperity--9781509525621#WesternProsperity #GlobalInequality #wealth #inequality #externalisation #mobility #Dubai #drylands #settlersociety #WilfulBlindness #CrumblingDreams #FossilFuels #oil #water #war #WarZone #ClimateCrisis
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Illumination in dark times
A genealogy of modern Western selfhood and a post-Western world"Smith ... outlines a genealogy of modern Western selfhood: a radically individual, hypermasculine character that was formed during the rapid nineteenth-century expansion of the white man’s world. “Bold, conquering, and altogether assertive,” it was “dedicated to action,” hostile to reflection, indifferent to community and the environment, and guilty of possessing, Smith writes, an “undeveloped heart,” a term borrowed from E. M. Forster’s assessment of the British elite." "
" “We must alter our very relations with the world around us.” This means giving up the exalted and exaggerated idea of the West that boosts a masculinist self-image but severely constricts thought and feeling. “We should welcome our era’s uncertainties,...the not-knowing of how the post-Western story will come out.” Smith’s final warning—that “we will not survive the Western notion of the individual much longer”—should resonate today, as nineteenth-century individualism reasserts itself in the degraded Nietzscheanism of Peter Thiel and Stephen Miller." >>
* Mishra, P. (2026, April). "The Authority of Thought". Harper's Magazine.
https://harpers.org/archive/2026/04/the-authority-of-thought-pankaj-mishra/* Somebody Else's Century: East and West in a Post-Western World by Patrick Smith. 2010 >>
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/169395/somebody-elses-century-by-patrick-smith/
#TheWest #WhiteSupremacy #masculinity #ImpulseControl #EthnoNationalism #WesternCivilization #AngloAmerican #parochialism #individualism #subjectivity #SettlerSociety #Culture #RacialInequality #war #EastWest #PostWesternWorld #DarkTimes #illumination #narrative #environmentImage: Double Bay War Memorial, Steyne Park, Sydney
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Illumination in dark times
A genealogy of modern Western selfhood and a post-Western world"Smith ... outlines a genealogy of modern Western selfhood: a radically individual, hypermasculine character that was formed during the rapid nineteenth-century expansion of the white man’s world. “Bold, conquering, and altogether assertive,” it was “dedicated to action,” hostile to reflection, indifferent to community and the environment, and guilty of possessing, Smith writes, an “undeveloped heart,” a term borrowed from E. M. Forster’s assessment of the British elite." "
" “We must alter our very relations with the world around us.” This means giving up the exalted and exaggerated idea of the West that boosts a masculinist self-image but severely constricts thought and feeling. “We should welcome our era’s uncertainties,...the not-knowing of how the post-Western story will come out.” Smith’s final warning—that “we will not survive the Western notion of the individual much longer”—should resonate today, as nineteenth-century individualism reasserts itself in the degraded Nietzscheanism of Peter Thiel and Stephen Miller." >>
* Mishra, P. (2026, April). "The Authority of Thought". Harper's Magazine.
https://harpers.org/archive/2026/04/the-authority-of-thought-pankaj-mishra/* Somebody Else's Century: East and West in a Post-Western World by Patrick Smith. 2010 >>
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/169395/somebody-elses-century-by-patrick-smith/
#TheWest #WhiteSupremacy #masculinity #ImpulseControl #EthnoNationalism #WesternCivilization #AngloAmerican #parochialism #individualism #subjectivity #SettlerSociety #Culture #RacialInequality #war #EastWest #PostWesternWorld #DarkTimes #illumination #narrative #environmentImage: Double Bay War Memorial, Steyne Park, Sydney
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Illumination in dark times
A genealogy of modern Western selfhood and a post-Western world"Smith ... outlines a genealogy of modern Western selfhood: a radically individual, hypermasculine character that was formed during the rapid nineteenth-century expansion of the white man’s world. “Bold, conquering, and altogether assertive,” it was “dedicated to action,” hostile to reflection, indifferent to community and the environment, and guilty of possessing, Smith writes, an “undeveloped heart,” a term borrowed from E. M. Forster’s assessment of the British elite." "
" “We must alter our very relations with the world around us.” This means giving up the exalted and exaggerated idea of the West that boosts a masculinist self-image but severely constricts thought and feeling. “We should welcome our era’s uncertainties,...the not-knowing of how the post-Western story will come out.” Smith’s final warning—that “we will not survive the Western notion of the individual much longer”—should resonate today, as nineteenth-century individualism reasserts itself in the degraded Nietzscheanism of Peter Thiel and Stephen Miller." >>
* Mishra, P. (2026, April). "The Authority of Thought". Harper's Magazine.
https://harpers.org/archive/2026/04/the-authority-of-thought-pankaj-mishra/* Somebody Else's Century: East and West in a Post-Western World by Patrick Smith. 2010 >>
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/169395/somebody-elses-century-by-patrick-smith/
#TheWest #WhiteSupremacy #masculinity #ImpulseControl #EthnoNationalism #WesternCivilization #AngloAmerican #parochialism #individualism #subjectivity #SettlerSociety #Culture #RacialInequality #war #EastWest #PostWesternWorld #DarkTimes #illumination #narrative #environmentImage: Double Bay War Memorial, Steyne Park, Sydney
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Illumination in dark times
A genealogy of modern Western selfhood and a post-Western world"Smith ... outlines a genealogy of modern Western selfhood: a radically individual, hypermasculine character that was formed during the rapid nineteenth-century expansion of the white man’s world. “Bold, conquering, and altogether assertive,” it was “dedicated to action,” hostile to reflection, indifferent to community and the environment, and guilty of possessing, Smith writes, an “undeveloped heart,” a term borrowed from E. M. Forster’s assessment of the British elite." "
" “We must alter our very relations with the world around us.” This means giving up the exalted and exaggerated idea of the West that boosts a masculinist self-image but severely constricts thought and feeling. “We should welcome our era’s uncertainties,...the not-knowing of how the post-Western story will come out.” Smith’s final warning—that “we will not survive the Western notion of the individual much longer”—should resonate today, as nineteenth-century individualism reasserts itself in the degraded Nietzscheanism of Peter Thiel and Stephen Miller." >>
* Mishra, P. (2026, April). "The Authority of Thought". Harper's Magazine.
https://harpers.org/archive/2026/04/the-authority-of-thought-pankaj-mishra/* Somebody Else's Century: East and West in a Post-Western World by Patrick Smith. 2010 >>
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/169395/somebody-elses-century-by-patrick-smith/
#TheWest #WhiteSupremacy #masculinity #ImpulseControl #EthnoNationalism #WesternCivilization #AngloAmerican #parochialism #individualism #subjectivity #SettlerSociety #Culture #RacialInequality #war #EastWest #PostWesternWorld #DarkTimes #illumination #narrative #environmentImage: Double Bay War Memorial, Steyne Park, Sydney
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Social cohesion and gritted-teeth tolerance
"In 2022, for the first time in decades, the government commissioned a review of multiculturalism, Towards Fairness. It found Australia had muddled on, but squandered its world-leading status and recommended the government create a minister, a permanent commission and department for multiculturalism. Labor MP Dr Anne Aly was appointed multicultural affairs minister in 2025."
She delivered a powerful speech last November:
"Aly declared it was time to end “the conditional form of multiculturalism, that kind of gritted-teeth tolerance that,
'You are welcome here as long as your food tastes good,
your celebrations are colourful, and
your music is present to the ears.’"
"But any questioning, any speaking out, any disruptive participation in any practice of citizenship will not be tolerated. Instead, acts of citizenship afforded to the broader community are viewed as acts of defiance when performed by the other and are met with cries of, ‘Go back to where you came from,’ and ‘Love Australia or leave it.’ " >>
https://www.theguardian.com/society/ng-interactive/2026/mar/23/social-cohesion-meaning-has-lost-feelgood-vibeFull speech: Reimagining Multiculturalism in Australia, The Hon Dr Anne Aly MP, Minister for Small Business, Minister for International Development, and Minister for Multicultural Affairs 2025 >>
https://ministers.treasury.gov.au/ministers/anne-aly-2025#SocialCohesion #ethnonationalism #Anglosphere #SettlerSociety #mainstream #belonging #diversity #IndigenousPeoples #CALD #hate #racism #silencing #culture #entertainment #SongAndDance #ScarilyDiverse #representation #participation #Australia #culture
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Social cohesion and gritted-teeth tolerance
"In 2022, for the first time in decades, the government commissioned a review of multiculturalism, Towards Fairness. It found Australia had muddled on, but squandered its world-leading status and recommended the government create a minister, a permanent commission and department for multiculturalism. Labor MP Dr Anne Aly was appointed multicultural affairs minister in 2025."
She delivered a powerful speech last November:
"Aly declared it was time to end “the conditional form of multiculturalism, that kind of gritted-teeth tolerance that,
'You are welcome here as long as your food tastes good,
your celebrations are colourful, and
your music is present to the ears.’"
"But any questioning, any speaking out, any disruptive participation in any practice of citizenship will not be tolerated. Instead, acts of citizenship afforded to the broader community are viewed as acts of defiance when performed by the other and are met with cries of, ‘Go back to where you came from,’ and ‘Love Australia or leave it.’ " >>
https://www.theguardian.com/society/ng-interactive/2026/mar/23/social-cohesion-meaning-has-lost-feelgood-vibeFull speech: Reimagining Multiculturalism in Australia, The Hon Dr Anne Aly MP, Minister for Small Business, Minister for International Development, and Minister for Multicultural Affairs 2025 >>
https://ministers.treasury.gov.au/ministers/anne-aly-2025#SocialCohesion #ethnonationalism #Anglosphere #SettlerSociety #mainstream #belonging #diversity #IndigenousPeoples #CALD #hate #racism #silencing #culture #entertainment #SongAndDance #ScarilyDiverse #representation #participation #Australia #culture
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Social cohesion and gritted-teeth tolerance
"In 2022, for the first time in decades, the government commissioned a review of multiculturalism, Towards Fairness. It found Australia had muddled on, but squandered its world-leading status and recommended the government create a minister, a permanent commission and department for multiculturalism. Labor MP Dr Anne Aly was appointed multicultural affairs minister in 2025."
She delivered a powerful speech last November:
"Aly declared it was time to end “the conditional form of multiculturalism, that kind of gritted-teeth tolerance that,
'You are welcome here as long as your food tastes good,
your celebrations are colourful, and
your music is present to the ears.’"
"But any questioning, any speaking out, any disruptive participation in any practice of citizenship will not be tolerated. Instead, acts of citizenship afforded to the broader community are viewed as acts of defiance when performed by the other and are met with cries of, ‘Go back to where you came from,’ and ‘Love Australia or leave it.’ " >>
https://www.theguardian.com/society/ng-interactive/2026/mar/23/social-cohesion-meaning-has-lost-feelgood-vibeFull speech: Reimagining Multiculturalism in Australia, The Hon Dr Anne Aly MP, Minister for Small Business, Minister for International Development, and Minister for Multicultural Affairs 2025 >>
https://ministers.treasury.gov.au/ministers/anne-aly-2025#SocialCohesion #ethnonationalism #Anglosphere #SettlerSociety #mainstream #belonging #diversity #IndigenousPeoples #CALD #hate #racism #silencing #culture #entertainment #SongAndDance #ScarilyDiverse #representation #participation #Australia #culture
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Social cohesion and gritted-teeth tolerance
"In 2022, for the first time in decades, the government commissioned a review of multiculturalism, Towards Fairness. It found Australia had muddled on, but squandered its world-leading status and recommended the government create a minister, a permanent commission and department for multiculturalism. Labor MP Dr Anne Aly was appointed multicultural affairs minister in 2025."
She delivered a powerful speech last November:
"Aly declared it was time to end “the conditional form of multiculturalism, that kind of gritted-teeth tolerance that,
'You are welcome here as long as your food tastes good,
your celebrations are colourful, and
your music is present to the ears.’"
"But any questioning, any speaking out, any disruptive participation in any practice of citizenship will not be tolerated. Instead, acts of citizenship afforded to the broader community are viewed as acts of defiance when performed by the other and are met with cries of, ‘Go back to where you came from,’ and ‘Love Australia or leave it.’ " >>
https://www.theguardian.com/society/ng-interactive/2026/mar/23/social-cohesion-meaning-has-lost-feelgood-vibeFull speech: Reimagining Multiculturalism in Australia, The Hon Dr Anne Aly MP, Minister for Small Business, Minister for International Development, and Minister for Multicultural Affairs 2025 >>
https://ministers.treasury.gov.au/ministers/anne-aly-2025#SocialCohesion #ethnonationalism #Anglosphere #SettlerSociety #mainstream #belonging #diversity #IndigenousPeoples #CALD #hate #racism #silencing #culture #entertainment #SongAndDance #ScarilyDiverse #representation #participation #Australia #culture
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Social cohesion and gritted-teeth tolerance
"In 2022, for the first time in decades, the government commissioned a review of multiculturalism, Towards Fairness. It found Australia had muddled on, but squandered its world-leading status and recommended the government create a minister, a permanent commission and department for multiculturalism. Labor MP Dr Anne Aly was appointed multicultural affairs minister in 2025."
She delivered a powerful speech last November:
"Aly declared it was time to end “the conditional form of multiculturalism, that kind of gritted-teeth tolerance that,
'You are welcome here as long as your food tastes good,
your celebrations are colourful, and
your music is present to the ears.’"
"But any questioning, any speaking out, any disruptive participation in any practice of citizenship will not be tolerated. Instead, acts of citizenship afforded to the broader community are viewed as acts of defiance when performed by the other and are met with cries of, ‘Go back to where you came from,’ and ‘Love Australia or leave it.’ " >>
https://www.theguardian.com/society/ng-interactive/2026/mar/23/social-cohesion-meaning-has-lost-feelgood-vibeFull speech: Reimagining Multiculturalism in Australia, The Hon Dr Anne Aly MP, Minister for Small Business, Minister for International Development, and Minister for Multicultural Affairs 2025 >>
https://ministers.treasury.gov.au/ministers/anne-aly-2025#SocialCohesion #ethnonationalism #Anglosphere #SettlerSociety #mainstream #belonging #diversity #IndigenousPeoples #CALD #hate #racism #silencing #culture #entertainment #SongAndDance #ScarilyDiverse #representation #participation #Australia #culture
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Americana meets the Aussie bush
Trying to get some bread in a cafe on Bellingen's main drag. Once the obstacle course of the packs of dogs on extendable leads are overcome it is time for waiting in a long queue on a Saturday. Many hipster families are there to have breakfast done for them.
One set was showcasing their three toddlers in a full 'American Western-inspired aesthetic', cowboy hats and boots. Mum had that Instagrammable ‘Mar-a-Lago face’.
Wide-brimmed hats are ideal to protect oneself from Australia's sun, but this was in the comfort zone of a cafe.
The "cowboy core" aesthetic facade harks back to the wide‑open‑spaces where cattle-herders (cowboys, stockmen/ringers) managed grazing livestock, for the pastoral industry, particularly in the Australian outback or American Western frontier.
Already in the 16th century, the Conquistadors and other Spanish settlers brought their cattle-raising traditions to Mexico and Florida.
The Western portrayed the cowboy as an enduring cultural figure representing freedom.
So why are these urban folks from the suburbs running around in 'costumes' looking like pastoralist workers from a mythical past? What 'sense of belonging' do they buy?
Maybe the fashionable habitus points to a vibe shift of the wannabe cowboys expressing preemptive subordination or imperial obsequiousness?
The rise of cowboy core: What's behind it.>>
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-03-10/dr-karl-how-things-work-cowboy-core-fashion/106336574Plastic surgeons wrestle with requests for ‘Mar-a-Lago face’:
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/nov/18/mar-a-lago-face-plastic-surgeryImage :
In 1859 European wild rabbits were introduced into Australia so they could be hunted for sport. Now hats are made out of some of the invasive species.
https://www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/rabbits-introduced#cowboys #pastoralism #SettlerSociety #fashion #WesternWear #CattleHerders #belonging #Bellingen #culture #MiddlePowers #subordination #RupturedGlobalOrder #BellingenObservations
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Americana meets the Aussie bush
Trying to get some bread in a cafe on Bellingen's main drag. Once the obstacle course of the packs of dogs on extendable leads are overcome it is time for waiting in a long queue on a Saturday. Many hipster families are there to have breakfast done for them.
One set was showcasing their three toddlers in a full 'American Western-inspired aesthetic', cowboy hats and boots. Mum had that Instagrammable ‘Mar-a-Lago face’.
Wide-brimmed hats are ideal to protect oneself from Australia's sun, but this was in the comfort zone of a cafe.
The "cowboy core" aesthetic facade harks back to the wide‑open‑spaces where cattle-herders (cowboys, stockmen/ringers) managed grazing livestock, for the pastoral industry, particularly in the Australian outback or American Western frontier.
Already in the 16th century, the Conquistadors and other Spanish settlers brought their cattle-raising traditions to Mexico and Florida.
The Western portrayed the cowboy as an enduring cultural figure representing freedom.
So why are these urban folks from the suburbs running around in 'costumes' looking like pastoralist workers from a mythical past? What 'sense of belonging' do they buy?
Maybe the fashionable habitus points to a vibe shift of the wannabe cowboys expressing preemptive subordination or imperial obsequiousness?
The rise of cowboy core: What's behind it.>>
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-03-10/dr-karl-how-things-work-cowboy-core-fashion/106336574Plastic surgeons wrestle with requests for ‘Mar-a-Lago face’:
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/nov/18/mar-a-lago-face-plastic-surgeryImage :
In 1859 European wild rabbits were introduced into Australia so they could be hunted for sport. Now hats are made out of some of the invasive species.
https://www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/rabbits-introduced#cowboys #pastoralism #SettlerSociety #fashion #WesternWear #CattleHerders #belonging #Bellingen #culture #MiddlePowers #subordination #RupturedGlobalOrder #BellingenObservations
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Americana meets the Aussie bush
Trying to get some bread in a cafe on Bellingen's main drag. Once the obstacle course of the packs of dogs on extendable leads are overcome it is time for waiting in a long queue on a Saturday. Many hipster families are there to have breakfast done for them.
One set was showcasing their three toddlers in a full 'American Western-inspired aesthetic', cowboy hats and boots. Mum had that Instagrammable ‘Mar-a-Lago face’.
Wide-brimmed hats are ideal to protect oneself from Australia's sun, but this was in the comfort zone of a cafe.
The "cowboy core" aesthetic facade harks back to the wide‑open‑spaces where cattle-herders (cowboys, stockmen/ringers) managed grazing livestock, for the pastoral industry, particularly in the Australian outback or American Western frontier.
Already in the 16th century, the Conquistadors and other Spanish settlers brought their cattle-raising traditions to Mexico and Florida.
The Western portrayed the cowboy as an enduring cultural figure representing freedom.
So why are these urban folks from the suburbs running around in 'costumes' looking like pastoralist workers from a mythical past? What 'sense of belonging' do they buy?
Maybe the fashionable habitus points to a vibe shift of the wannabe cowboys expressing preemptive subordination or imperial obsequiousness?
The rise of cowboy core: What's behind it.>>
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-03-10/dr-karl-how-things-work-cowboy-core-fashion/106336574Plastic surgeons wrestle with requests for ‘Mar-a-Lago face’:
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/nov/18/mar-a-lago-face-plastic-surgeryImage :
In 1859 European wild rabbits were introduced into Australia so they could be hunted for sport. Now hats are made out of some of the invasive species.
https://www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/rabbits-introduced#cowboys #pastoralism #SettlerSociety #fashion #WesternWear #CattleHerders #belonging #Bellingen #culture #MiddlePowers #subordination #RupturedGlobalOrder #BellingenObservations
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Americana meets the Aussie bush
Trying to get some bread in a cafe on Bellingen's main drag. Once the obstacle course of the packs of dogs on extendable leads are overcome it is time for waiting in a long queue on a Saturday. Many hipster families are there to have breakfast done for them.
One set was showcasing their three toddlers in a full 'American Western-inspired aesthetic', cowboy hats and boots. Mum had that Instagrammable ‘Mar-a-Lago face’.
Wide-brimmed hats are ideal to protect oneself from Australia's sun, but this was in the comfort zone of a cafe.
The "cowboy core" aesthetic facade harks back to the wide‑open‑spaces where cattle-herders (cowboys, stockmen/ringers) managed grazing livestock, for the pastoral industry, particularly in the Australian outback or American Western frontier.
Already in the 16th century, the Conquistadors and other Spanish settlers brought their cattle-raising traditions to Mexico and Florida.
The Western portrayed the cowboy as an enduring cultural figure representing freedom.
So why are these urban folks from the suburbs running around in 'costumes' looking like pastoralist workers from a mythical past? What 'sense of belonging' do they buy?
Maybe the fashionable habitus points to a vibe shift of the wannabe cowboys expressing preemptive subordination or imperial obsequiousness?
The rise of cowboy core: What's behind it.>>
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-03-10/dr-karl-how-things-work-cowboy-core-fashion/106336574Plastic surgeons wrestle with requests for ‘Mar-a-Lago face’:
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/nov/18/mar-a-lago-face-plastic-surgeryImage :
In 1859 European wild rabbits were introduced into Australia so they could be hunted for sport. Now hats are made out of some of the invasive species.
https://www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/rabbits-introduced#cowboys #pastoralism #SettlerSociety #fashion #WesternWear #CattleHerders #belonging #Bellingen #culture #MiddlePowers #subordination #RupturedGlobalOrder #BellingenObservations
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Americana meets the Aussie bush
Trying to get some bread in a cafe on Bellingen's main drag. Once the obstacle course of the packs of dogs on extendable leads are overcome it is time for waiting in a long queue on a Saturday. Many hipster families are there to have breakfast done for them.
One set was showcasing their three toddlers in a full 'American Western-inspired aesthetic', cowboy hats and boots. Mum had that Instagrammable ‘Mar-a-Lago face’.
Wide-brimmed hats are ideal to protect oneself from Australia's sun, but this was in the comfort zone of a cafe.
The "cowboy core" aesthetic facade harks back to the wide‑open‑spaces where cattle-herders (cowboys, stockmen/ringers) managed grazing livestock, for the pastoral industry, particularly in the Australian outback or American Western frontier.
Already in the 16th century, the Conquistadors and other Spanish settlers brought their cattle-raising traditions to Mexico and Florida.
The Western portrayed the cowboy as an enduring cultural figure representing freedom.
So why are these urban folks from the suburbs running around in 'costumes' looking like pastoralist workers from a mythical past? What 'sense of belonging' do they buy?
Maybe the fashionable habitus points to a vibe shift of the wannabe cowboys expressing preemptive subordination or imperial obsequiousness?
The rise of cowboy core: What's behind it.>>
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-03-10/dr-karl-how-things-work-cowboy-core-fashion/106336574Plastic surgeons wrestle with requests for ‘Mar-a-Lago face’:
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/nov/18/mar-a-lago-face-plastic-surgeryImage :
In 1859 European wild rabbits were introduced into Australia so they could be hunted for sport. Now hats are made out of some of the invasive species.
https://www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/rabbits-introduced#cowboys #pastoralism #SettlerSociety #fashion #WesternWear #CattleHerders #belonging #Bellingen #culture #MiddlePowers #subordination #RupturedGlobalOrder #BellingenObservations
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Unleashing the racist underbelly of society by opening the floodgates of hate and violence
There has been "a shift in online rhetoric after the failed voice to parliament referendum in 2023. The campaign and its subsequent defeat unleashed a racist underbelly in society after a toxic debate, political divide and community harm coalesced in a way that has yet to be undone."
“Before the Nationals [and Liberals] decided to oppose the voice in late 2022, I didn’t experience much racism online...It exploded around the time that the Coalition started to ramp up a campaign against it. It was like they had not only given permission to racists to attack Aboriginal people, to try and intimidate us, and to try and make us cower and not pursue what we thought was just and right … It was like the floodgates were opened.”
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/ng-interactive/2026/mar/06/indigenous-australians-racist-social-media-messages-ntwnfb
#hate #IndigenousPeoples #SettlerSociety #violence #racism #Australia #HateSpeech -
'English First' policies and
the uncomfortable waning of empire* “The English Language Bill demonstrated that New Zealand First was "trying to appeal to a racist fringe". Professor O'Sullivan >
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-03-05/new-zealand-first-pushes-to-make-english-an-official-language/106410158* "The English-only movement...is a political movement that advocates for the exclusive use of the English language in official United States government communication through the establishment of English as the only official language in the United States." >
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English-only_movement* “Australia is home to over 250 distinct Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages, comprising around 800 dialects, which are deeply connected to specific land, culture, and identity.” >
https://www.alt.nsw.gov.au/learn/nsw-aboriginal-languages-information* 'Scarily diverse' people from First Nations or from a culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds
https://theconversation.com/a-shadow-on-your-art-how-do-first-nations-and-culturally-diverse-authors-feel-about-representation-275446* "Monolingualism or unilingualism, is the condition of being able to speak only a single language." >
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monolingualism#EnglishLanguage #EnglishFirst #language #LanguagePolicies #monolingualism #MonolingualMindset #diverse #polyglots #MultilingualPeople #NormativeMonolingualism #ForcedAssimilation #settlersociety #Anglophones #FirstNationsPeoples #Gumbaynggirr
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The cost of dirt and the soil beneath our feet
" Land prices do not reflect the cost of dirt. They reflect the cost of making land ready for housing." The Australian 'dirt' has grown by more than 500 per cent since 2000. >>
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-02-18/land-prices-blocking-new-housing-report-finds/106349190" What listening to the soil can tell us about our relationship with the land. Before European colonization, Indigenous communities had long histories of stewarding the land and living reciprocally with the soil...The next time you are walking on a sidewalk, a well-used trail in an urban park or your backyard, take a moment to think about the land and soil." >>
https://theconversation.com/what-listening-to-the-soil-can-tell-us-about-our-relationship-with-the-land-205457
#soil #land #biodiversity #settlersociety #EuropeanColonisation #dirt #housing #sprawl #regulation #IndigenousKnowledgeImage: Great Piece of Turf, Albrecht Dürer, 1503
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Big Quarry Literature and Settlers Caught on Screen
The complex anxiety of quarry noir"We dig holes in Australia...It’s what we do. It’s all we’ve ever done, we’re just the world’s quarry, an enormous pit, ever since we struck gold a hundred and fifty years ago." >>
https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-australias-quarry-noir-mines-our-anxiety-about-our-biggest-industry-239523"Dr James Finlay reflects on how Australia’s convict past has been represented on screen, tracing shifts from early cinematic melodrama through to television drama and contemporary film, and considering how these visual narratives continue to shape national memory." >>
https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/history-now-caught-on-screen-australias-convict-history/id1674476464?i=1000749142755James Findlay, Caught on Screen, Australia’s Convict History in Film and Television, 2025 >>
https://www.bloomsbury.com/au/caught-on-screen-9798765100523/#mining #extractivism #Literature #film #screen #culture #SettlerSociety #convicts #history #Australia #fiction #narratives #QuarryNoir #BigQuarry #books #NationalAnxiety #criminality #FirstNationsPeoples
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* The White Nationalist Agenda, the "missing white voter" and hate mongering
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-02-01/stephen-miller-donald-trumps-immigration-policy-architect/106272938* "Jean Guerrero, Hate Monger, a book that investigated the making of Miller. Miller has been seen as a link between the white nationalist agenda and the Trump White House."
https://www.npr.org/2020/08/24/905403716/hatemonger-paints-trump-advisor-stephen-miller-as-a-case-study-in-radicalization* The Apparatus of Whiteness, Linda Martín Alcoff »Cultural Racism« (2/3) Adorno Lecture >>
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhUu9nCzxvs
#hate #immigration #WhiteRage #Whiteness #settlersociety #EthnoNationalism #TheWest #modernity #whitesupremacists #CulturalRacism #EthnoEssentialism #SocialCohesion #SocialFabric