"Modern Australians are soft and compliant; rabbits in a spotlight, unable to move, no fight in them; and leaving the likes of Albanese to do as he pleases."

"Never was the adage that populations get the governments they deserve more pertinent."

I'll meet you halfway ttbn, the first statement is 100% true, but the second statement I disagree with,
it really doesn't tell the full story, which is that the system was weaponised against the people.

Most can't even comprehend that the chips have been deliberately stacked against them.
They believe in democracy, but don't realise they are victims of a system that was never acting in their best interests.
They exhibit 'Stockholm Syndrome', where they have fallen for the tunes played by their captors.
No one was there to tell them otherwise.

Until people get it, they will remain ignorant of it.
- And they will never get it.

There's a difference between ignorance and denial.
- With ignorance there's a lack of knowledge, whereas with denial there is knowledge, but that knowledge is rejected.

Therefore, you cannot be (completely) ignorant of something while having knowledge of it; and you cannot be in denial of something if you do not have knowledge of that something.

Some people know that something is drastically wrong.
But is not just one thing, it's a lot of small things right across the board.
No-one can exactly put their finger on it all, because whats wrong encompassess so many different areas.

AC

Not comprehending is no excuse. You comprehend. I comprehend. Mhaze comprehends. Several other posters comprehend. I would say that 80% of the population do not comprehend, and they do deserve what they have got. And I agree with you: they will never get it.

We in the 20% will suffer the same fate as the 80%; the difference being that we will be prepared - in my own case, I'm on limited time and hope to miss the really bad stuff coming. I feel fortunate to have lived through the best of times.

Maybe you're right ttbn, I just don't know.

"We in the 20% will suffer the same fate as the 80%; the difference being that we will be prepared"

As long as the 80% remain ignorant, (willfully or otherwise) the 20% have to go along for the ride.
The 80% are buying into something that everyone will end up regretting.
The 80% aren't going to get what they want either, and in time they will come to realise it, because the goalposts keep shifting.
Eventually they'll be forced to accept things they don't like as well, but by then it will be too late to do anything about anyway.

I must admit I'm already of the mind that its too late, in the West at least.
To change the trajectory, someone would have to take down UN Sustainable Development Goals, Open borders policies, Immigration quotas, Gay and Trans celebrations, Paris climate targets, US hegemony and their foreign policy of threats, blackmail, regime change and military interventions , WHO maybe.

[Cont.]
I'm not even sure that would be enough.
Democracy is a system of constant change that benefits foreign leaders (Rules-Based-Order) first and foremost, business and lobby groups second, next - the vulnerable and minorities (gays, indigenous and immigrants) and the Australian working poor last.

The rich get richer, they know all the tricks and loopholes to maintain their wealth,
While the poor stay poor living week to week struggling to make ends meet.

My hopes lie in Vladimir Putin and a multipolar world, instead of the US based Unipolar world and the Rules-Based-Order.
(BTW 'rules-based-order' means defending US hegemony, i.e. economic imperialism not necessarily international law.
- Nations have to hold US dollar reserves to trade (meaning there's demand for US dollar and they can print it with little negative impact) and they can sanction everyone who doesn't toe the line.

If a world can emerge where all nations get a seat at a round table, instead of the US sitting at the head of the table (and don't meddle in the internal affairs of others), maybe there's still hope for the world sometime in the distant future, but the west at this point is going to get much worse before it gets better.

Even the like minded people forum members you mentioned, on many topics we do disagree, but I think we can all see the bigger picture to a large extent.

AC

Yes. I too think that it is too late, particularly as we now have a government wanting to make things as hard as possible for us. New and unnecessary regulations and imposts on builders, making housing unaffordable is just one example of many. The rise and rise of electricity prices. The bulldozing of the environment and spoiling of productive land for a fairy tale about renewable energy; apartheid via the Voice.

There is now nothing Albanese won't try in his revenge for the single-mother-houso-crap that he won't let us forget. Everything about the man is crude and petty. He is using the position he has just for himself and all the dirty water he has on his chest. No wonder he wants to censor us.

I think it's that simple. We have seen it in tinpot dictators in the Third World feeding their own needs and egos. It has arrived here, with less than a third of voters wanting Albanese as first choice, and a stupid system that allows him to be supported by a few wackjobs in the Senate, who would not get within a bull's roar of any other system in a sensible jurisdiction.

Down, down we go.