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Australia marks national day with protests over 'Invasion Day'

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The gift of the British Empire just keeps on giving. Dear native Americans and Aboriginals: Please send the bill to London, they owe the world a lot.

-6 ( +1 / -7 )

Flourishing in mud huts? 

A lot of ignorance here, plenty of people who lived in mud huts live in houses without subjugation. And they are not occupied by the Chinese either.

Saw a whole bunch on TV today, alive and well.

Unfortunately when there was no TV when there massacred in the 19th century.

Australia has turned into a first world country with fantastic wealth and quality of life in a part of the world that is still mostly third world.

I am sure the hundred and thousands of Aboriginals who were killed would rather be alive than be thankful for a 1st world country.

-2 ( +3 / -5 )

Racism is just a member of the set of all 'differencisms'. 'Differencisms' are the things which our rulers have used for many thousands of years to ensure that their herd is more interested in attacking and mistrusting each other than in realizing the evils which all suffer at the hands of these parasitic controlling psychopaths. It is NOT "the people", which was clearly pointed out by the trump phenomenon, but their 'trusted leaders' who maintain intragroup hatreds, fuel them, fan them up if necessary into active violence if their overall control is threatened. And it is not racism, per se, in America but institutionalized antipathy to education which has left certain Americans with no trust in their own ability to judge and without the means to recognise bald-faced lies regarding people they see every day. Goebbels used the same techniques to destroy German decency and was highly successful in perverting the same kinds of minds trump seemed to reach so easily. Focussing on 'racism' rather than the full set of "How about we fear and hate..." techniques limits our vision and our imaginations in looking for social antidotes to this kind of behavioral poison in general. The greatest of those antidotes is EDUCATION. It is much more difficult to lie to an educated person than to one who has been convinced by psychopaths that they know everything they need to know now, a lie so obvious to educated people that it is laughable. Never will WE know enough to thoroughly block techniques that have been used successfully upon us for many thousands of years by our psychopaths and proven in their effectiveness in getting us to do the most horrific things to 'others' but also to each other in the same group. 'Racism' is the easiest because the targets are immediately obvious but there are many other things we are made to hate. And in almost every country on this planet at this very moment, some 'leader' is playing a hate card whether race, religion, political leaning... it's a standard technique: disunity. Disunity is power to the rulers. Remove the Master manipulators and you will remove the hatreds. But we are made to 'love' those who teach us to hate each 'other'. Sigh...Humans...

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Sigh. Introspection, understanding and acknowledging past mistakes is very far from self hate.

The problem with this line of thinking is that no one is denying what happened in the past.

The problem caused now by the relatively well off social justice warrior is the never ending demand that people alive today be responsible for the wrongs of the past based solely on skin color and not anything they did wrong. The classic guilt by association. It is so damaging because it’s the same flawed and hate filled logic used by white supremacists to point to the actions of a misbehaving non-white person and jumping to the conclusion that all people of that race are guilty of the same sin. Claiming a sin on the part of all white Australians alive today is immoral and lacking in elementary logic. You can’t move forward as a nation if resentment is all one side has to offer.

4 ( +6 / -2 )

Having a few ratbags is not necessarily a bad thing, just so long as their destructive energies are kept in check. Those among them who are more amenable to reason should consider that taken to its logical Year Zero extreme, a goodly part of their ‘we art better than thou’ virtue signalling Newspeak prescriptions for social upheaval will be just as much a candidate for the same historical revisionist fate as the verities of today these Pied Pipers are demanding we trash.

There is nothing wrong with pointing out the lies some nation's foundation stories are founded on. Knowing your past is never a bad thing. If it somehow bothers you that is nobody else's problem but yours. Figure out why it bothers you and solve the problem in your head. Failing to understand and acknowledge past mistakes makes a person or a nation prone to repeating them. The goal is not to turn the clock back because that is impossible. The goal is to learn from past mistakes and not repeat them.

-3 ( +1 / -4 )

Having a few ratbags is not necessarily a bad thing, just so long as their destructive energies are kept in check. Those among them who are more amenable to reason should consider that taken to its logical Year Zero extreme, a goodly part of their ‘we art better than thou’ virtue signalling Newspeak prescriptions for social upheaval will be just as much a candidate for the same historical revisionist fate as the verities of today these Pied Pipers are demanding we trash.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

nonsensical self loathing

Sigh. Introspection, understanding and acknowledging past mistakes is very far from self hate. It is a sign of maturity and being secure in oneself. The stubborn refusal to understand and acknowledge one's mistakes is the hallmark of the immature and insecure, too emotionally weak to admit a mistake so they resort to lie upon lie to deny their error. We criticize Japan for refusing to admit to its many 20th Century barbarities while admiring Germany for atoning for it's own during the same historical period. Why does this not also apply to Australia or the US?

-3 ( +3 / -6 )

Some people here seem to be getting upset at this uppity Aborigines.

-4 ( +2 / -6 )

Bjorn TomentionToday  09:03 pm JST

Celebrate the Nation as a nation Stop trying to tear everything down you morons!

Oh, so we're the morons?

> Some are not happy with the direction the world has taken over the last 10 years either but we have to accept it and move on.

Uh, sometimes people change things. Remember the Soviet Union, the Berlin Wall, Apartheid, the Vietnam War? Those were things that some people didn't just accept and move on from.

-3 ( +2 / -5 )

@Hillclimber

These "white people" you speak of care more about Aboriginals than Aboriginals do.

Whites care more about Blacks in the US than Blacks do. Most murders in the US are perpetrated by Blacks, and most of those murders are Blacks vs Blacks. Lighter-skinned Blacks are often racist against darker-skinned Blacks! Most of the participants at BLM demonstrations (riots) are White. Just sayin.

3 ( +11 / -8 )

Margaret Court has already been awarded an MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire) in 1967 and an Officer of the Order of Australia in 2007 for her services to tennis. Since then the main thing she's been noted for is persistently spouting her archaic religious views about gays and transsexuals.

It is a pity. She went from being something sport-loving kids could aspire to to an example of someone who should have paid more attention to her education. I read she was a fan of apartheid along with her knuckle-dragging religiosity.

A tough one for parents with kids who have sporting ability. Encourage them to follow their sporting dreams but run the risk of neglecting their education and ending up with something which belongs in a zoo.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

I wonder what aboriginal culture would be like today without western intervention?

Alive and flourishing I guess.

Flourishing in mud huts? Flourishing under the boot of Chinese masters? Would they even exist today at all? Doubtful.

The penal colonies did no good to anyone, except for a minority of the administrators. The convicts had to put up with harsh conditions, the aboriginals got wiped out due to war and disease.......

Saw a whole bunch on TV today, alive and well. Perhaps the phrase "wiped out" doesn't mean what you think it means.

Australia has turned into a first world country with fantastic wealth and quality of life in a part of the world that is still mostly third world.

January 26 was a victory for progress and the best that civilization has to offer.

-2 ( +7 / -9 )

Celebrate the Nation as a nation Stop trying to tear everything down you morons!

Some are not happy with the direction the world has taken over the last 10 years either but we have to accept it and move on.

1 ( +6 / -5 )

So if these people are so annoyed at a thing called progress/development then disconnect from the internet, throw their smart phones away, dont use cars or trains, and walk everywhere !

0 ( +7 / -7 )

Well said Hillclimber

I’m interested in how many posters here actually know what they are talking about or just going on what they read in this article.

I wish we could all live in peace in this country, we are made up of many races and colours and grateful to live in a great nation. Sure we’re not perfect but the day for 95% of the population is about celebrating us as a nation and how far we’ve come. I’m sure most Australians acknowledge the wrongs of the past but changing the date won’t suddenly fix everything.

1 ( +4 / -3 )

I wonder what aboriginal culture would be like today without western intervention?

Alive and flourishing I guess.

The penal colonies did no good to anyone, except for a minority of the administrators. The convicts had to put up with harsh conditions, the aboriginals got wiped out due to war and disease.......

-6 ( +4 / -10 )

I wonder what aboriginal culture would be like today without western intervention?

Probably similar to what it was before white people invaded and subjugated the aboriginals.

@P.Smith

You're nearly right. The correct answer is they (not "it"... there are/were hundreds of cultures) would be exactly as they were before, **and that is exactly how they would want it. ** They never had any interest in material possessions. "Civilization", as we define it, is alien to them. They're not interested in it, no matter how much anyone tries to ram it down their throats. They have always valued the land, and seen it as their duty to protect it. Meanwhile, the "developed" world continues its headlong rush to environmental catastrophe.

Anyway, keep it coming posters. Don't let lack of the first clue about aboriginal cultures stop you from putting them down.

4 ( +9 / -5 )

But the fact is, most civilisation is built upon the conquest of weaker or less technologically advanced groups of people; 

Make that "all civilization" and I'll agree.

7 ( +9 / -2 )

The way that Western societies are going down the social justice rabbit hole there seems little hope that people will be able to live harmoniously in the future. Oddly most of the people causing the divisions and rancor are the children of wealthy “people of color” whose color happens to be white. How so many could be indoctrinated into a nonsensical self loathing is beyond logic. There isn’t much of a way forward if people are unable to put the past in context. No one denies the past harms. Denouncing the past will not change it.

-1 ( +8 / -9 )

I wonder what the Aborigines have to say about it - without someone writing their script for them, that is. As several have pointed out, many of the "protesters" seem to be white and are probably of the "trying to find something to be offended about" brigade.

1 ( +10 / -9 )

Dwelling on the past is good. It complements denial very well.

1 ( +4 / -3 )

@Atilia

IF the Aboriginal people want to return to their ancestral way of life, more power to them. They can live in dirt huts, hunt with spears, and enjoy a life expectancy of 30 years. They cannot, however, simultaneously decry the "invasion" and also enjoy its benefits.

That also means Europeans off their lands.

Ironically, the European invaders are always the first to tell POC to go back where they came from!

7 ( +14 / -7 )

I wonder what aboriginal culture would be like today without western intervention?

And how many would like to be in that situation?

Few is my guess.

0 ( +10 / -10 )

Our stories since that day have been of sorrow and of joy, of loss and redemption, of failure and of success.

Pretty much every country. While I’ve got no time for patriotic crap, I don’t see what abolishing this day will achieve. It won’t get to the root of the problem.

3 ( +8 / -5 )

Time to watch Walkabout again.

2 ( +4 / -2 )

And Europeans wonder why Indigenous peoples tend not to like them!

2 ( +10 / -8 )

People are far too sensitive. Anyone opposed to Australia Day needs to get a life!

-3 ( +12 / -15 )

Court, a Pentecostal minister who runs a church in Perth on the west coast, said last week she won’t change her opinions.

Bigotry and the religious right have always gone together, it's a shame that the government honors such people.

Rush Limbaugh receiving the medal of freedom for his bigotry is another one!!!

4 ( +12 / -8 )

It’s a public holiday enjoy the day doing something fun!

7 ( +9 / -2 )

It’s very surprising but a country next door is way ahead of these decisive issues, not perfect but way ahead. Hey Oz take a lesson or continue this volatile poisonous, head down, dare I say it Shogani way, or actually improve lowering death rates, education, empowerment, political input . Hell a mining company blew up a 40,000 year old scared site with no qualms? So saying we white Australia have said sorry one minute then blow up such a place, just shows you how seriously we take that apology.

7 ( +11 / -4 )

IF the Aboriginal people want to return to their ancestral way of life, more power to them. They can live in dirt huts, hunt with spears, and enjoy a life expectancy of 30 years. They cannot, however, simultaneously decry the "invasion" and also enjoy its benefits.

-7 ( +15 / -22 )

Yes, there were atrocities committed against the native people of Australia in the first 150 years of British settlement. However, over the last 50 years a lot of compensation has been paid and reconciliation efforts have been made.

if you have a close look at the photos very few of the protesters are native Australians. They are just troublemaking millennials with nothing better to do with their day off.

7 ( +22 / -15 )

The date for Australia day will eventually be changed so that all Australians can feel a sence of pride. The current day represents different things to different parts of society for obvious reasons. Picking a date that is both significant and unoffensive will help bring the nation together and allow all to celebrate the great country of Australia and it's many achievements.

6 ( +9 / -3 )

There is still a discussion that needs to be had in many countries around the treatment of indigenous people, and Australia is no different.

On another note, I don't completely agree with Margaret Court, but she is entitled to her views, and her achievements as a tennis player are second to none.

6 ( +10 / -4 )

Court, a Pentecostal minister who runs a church in Perth on the west coast, said last week she won’t change her opinions.

> “All my life I’ve had those views and I was just saying what the Bible says,” Court said. “I should always be able to say my views biblically, being a pastor and helping people with marriages and family. And I’ll never change those views.”

I believe in the Bible too and used to think like her, but upon reading it more and more, I've realized the words have been perverted to fit the radical views of some. Jesus Christ never turned anyone away and neither should society. I reject what she says and all of us are sinners.

6 ( +14 / -8 )

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