Australia sanctions more Iranians over missile strikes
Australia sanctions more Iranians over missile strikes
Australia has called Iran's missile strike on Israel a 'dangerous escalation' of the Middle East conflict, announcing sanctions on Iranian military figures.
And I am complicit with this, and all the support Australia gives to US and israel by paying my taxes. As some @#$!#$ from the government said when censoring the protests, "Australia is a peace loving country".
Is there anything I can do other than just leave? I love living here, but this military fetish gives me constant guilt and anxiety of being here because I know I'm supporting that, and who knows how many people were killed using my work, to then later on get a monument erected praising the fact...
The anti-war movement has picked up massively where I am (Syd) since Oct 7, which means there are a lot more options for 'doing something' than there were even one year ago.
I was going through some of my photos from the Nakbah protest in 2023 just a few days ago, and it was honestly quite shocking to see how tiny it was compared to even the smaller weekly rallies that have been happening since Oct 7.
Obviously it's a lot easier to get involved in activism if you are in a larger city, but off the top of my head there are quite a few organisations like food not bombs, the Palestine advocacy network, the anti-aukus coalition which operate across the country.
But yeah, I feel you. When you watch the news you can see how blasé we all are about the horrors of war, and our role in proliferating it. I want to get out too.
I'm in a small town, so not much going on here. And while the protests should continue and I'm happy with their numbers, the media actually manage to turn it against the cause and increase the general population support for this kind of atrocity. When I see the news on the tv covering protest I'm afraid, because I know exactly what it will show and I'm always right. They usually don't even mention what the protest is about and the few people they give voice and the morons they interview are always just talking about how dangerous the protesters are, how "against peace", how pro terrorists, how they damage the economy and how they will eat your dog and rape your kids. Basically inciting the population to protest against the protesters.
I have never seen such biased and clearly controlled media as here, except for the US. It's amazing how powerful they are. I know that in most countries they usually just show the israeli side and just "forget" to show the other one. But here it's a clear propaganda and manipulation. So if anything the average person who doesn't look for more info will just defend the war point of view more with the protests being shown on tv.
And it shows. Even here, where people are more "leftists" (whatever that means) I see many "fox news" points of view. On reddit it's a lost cause. And talking to the average people it's the same. Everyone just knows that "israel is fighting terrorists".
It's what I complained about on my other posts regarding the military monuments. It's a fundamental part of australian culture and I see little hope of that changing. The countries that show some courage against israel have a whole history of not admiring the military and not being dogs of the US that often. Or being muslim based countries.
So I don't see how that can change any time soon but that doesn't change that I am being part of the problem being here, and that people are being murdered with my support.
Supporting help for palestinians is good and should happen, like the protests. But that won't fix anything and will just have to be something that needs to be done forever. Or until there is no Palestine left.