Move Over, Needles and Haystacks

[Zzzptm]

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/australasia/australia-perth-radioactive-lost-search-b2272153.html

New cliche: "As difficult as finding a cesium capsule in the Outback!"

[Vyn]

So...not too much of a health risk if you're 20 feet away from it, tissue damage and cancer if you touch it. But, since it is 8mm x 6mm, you're not going to know you're near it unless you are literally on top of it.

This is how super heroes/villains are born. In three months, the world will be reading about Brindabella, the super-aboriginal reclaiming Australia for her people.

[Jack the Stripper]

Our country(or do I need to say their country now?) has lost the plot with the loony lefts identity politics. We have welcome to country ceremonies for everything now, even private parties. We also have invasion day rallies on Australia Day. We are being guilt shamed just for being white.

If their is one one thing the looney left is good at, it’s dividing not uniting.

So over it 

[Zzzptm]

Getting back to the physics of it, the images of teams walking the highway with gamma detection gear are... daunting... imagine that as your job, scouring 875 miles of highway for a killer watch battery.

[Vyn]

Seems the escaped Caesium-137 capsule was found. Took them six days. The pictures of their efforts don't include hazmat suits - just some reflective vests, sadly.

@Jack - what is a "welcome to the country ceremony"?

https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/01/australia/australia-radioactive-capsule-found-intl-hnk/index.html

Edited - looked it up, it even has a wikipedia page dedicated to it lol. And all this time I thought the USA had the market cornered regarding shame/guilt-based activism.

[Jack the Stripper]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welcome_to_Country#Observance_and_criticism

I don’t mind it on very special occasions like an AFL GF, Australian Open final, Melbourne Grand Prix etc but it’s getting overused now and is diluting the message to the point it just goes over everyone’s head when it occurs now. The acknowledgment of Country is the one that is getting used for absolutely everything now though. Local footy games, schools assemblies, school newsletters, work meetings, flashing on the screen before a movie at the cinema, private parties etc etc.

And we are also constantly getting reminded by white folk that us white folk are living on stolen land.

[Zzzptm]

Glad they found the capsule and that's a win for the high-visibility vests!

As for the Welcome to Country ceremonies, they themselves have Aboriginal critics who see them as invented traditions and as a form of tokenism. It's an acknowledgement of a wrong, but does so in a way that doesn't do anything to rectify the wrong. It's like saying, "Well, we stole your land... give it back? No, we're not quite done with it yet... but we're happy to acknowledge that we nicked it off ya."

I remember a time for a while in the 1970s when American Indian costumery was seen as a way of making up, sort of. Buying trinkets and stuff was equated with squaring the accounts and there was a lot of whitemen telling whitemen that they were doing the right thing. Meanwhile, the actual activist movement, AIM, continued to struggle with Congress over legislation that would end discriminatory programs and treatment and treaty violations.

[Vyn]

If Jack wouldn't have stolen all that land, there'd be no problem. Haha!

Not to make light of a situation that is a big to deal some folks, but tokenism always seems to go hand-in-hand with divisiveness through guilt. It's hypocrisy, and somewhere, somebody is making money off it - and I can promise you it isn't the demographic being held up as the victim.

I remember the native american fad that Z spoke about. The intervening years, starting with all of that, have seen native american culture wrapped up in so much romanticism as to be a fantasy. And most of that involves conflating animism with personal character and conduct.

I can't speak for Australia, but in the USA, everyone is on the same track - some start at different points on that track, and have a much harder time than others as they try to "succeed". But it's the same track, and if you want to better yourself, you can do it. Whether you're a white dude from a working-class family or a native american raised by alcoholics on a reservation. That may be American individualism talking, to an extent, but it isn't wrong. Being the constant victim is horseshit, and my skin color has fuck-all to do with it.

[Jack the Stripper]

You guys have pretty much nailed it.

Was walking in a very left centric(greens dominated council) part of Town today and snapped this photo.



The acknowledgment of country is plastered in practically every 2nd or 3rd shop, although most of them have a small plaque in the window where the shop above has upped the ante.

[Vyn]

"Sexualities, Genders, Identities, Cultures"

One of those is not the same as the others.

Virtue-signaling is a never-ending game of one-upmanship. Oh, you have a plaque? Here's my bigger plaque. Oh wait, here's an even bigger sign. I wonder how many of those business owners care so much about it that they research where their ancestors came from, pack their shit and move there?