This was a good one. Vis-a-vis the White Australia Policy, one of the first big challenges was the arrival of US servicemen during WWII, as the government wasn't sure how letting the black ones in would affect the WAP. In addition to the Immigration Restriction Act, the policy also included mass deportations of non-whites such as Chinese and Melanesians who were brought to Queensland via blackbirding. Those who were married to whites and Aboriginals were exempted from physical removal.
Regarding Australia's place in Asia, anti-American nationalism played a big role in Australia's establishment redefining the country as Asiatic. Whitlam responded to Operation Linebacker II with scathing criticism (see James Curran's "Unholy Fury" for more on Nixon vs. Whitlam), normalized relations with North Vietnam, and abandoned forward defense in favor of defense of Australia. Keating continued this trend, and phrases such as "Australia should seek its security in Asia, not from Asia" proliferated. Malcolm Fraser most lucidly and polemically expresses this anti-American, Asia-centric form of Aussie nationalism in "Dangerous Allies." The Coalition seems less prone to this attitude, hence Howard's support for the Iraq War and Scomo's following the Trump admin on China.
Australia was kind of unique in the degree to which it was founded as a white nationalist project. Its founders lamented the US and Canada's demographic transformation due to non-Nordic immigration and feared that Britain wouldn't be able to hold out. Hence, Oz was seen as the last Anglo-Celtic citadel. Peter Cochrane documents how this idea and fear of Japan led to involvement in WWI.
Yes there was a real reaction against the Americans with Whitlam who was a former socialist at university. This built a massive amount of the left wing movement in Australia. Then Hawke and Keating made a real tag team in modernising Australia independent of America through the 90s and 2000s.
It’s only now when we’ve now discovered there’s entire suburbs listing rentals saying “Asians only” that we discovered this generosity was stretched too far.
Keating is also a board member on the Bank of China and he’s really turned into a bitter old fart in his old age.
I watched Keating's National Press Club interview on AUKUS last year, and he feels like he's turned into a mix of Trump (blowhard) and Biden (senility), which is admittedly entertaining.
Funny anecdote on Asian suburbs in Oz is I have a friend with an Aussie passport despite never having lived in Australia. It seems like the Commonwealth countries have evolved into backup residencies and banks for wealthy Asians. It seems like a big change, as my dad was in the outback around 25 years ago for a military conference, and everyone could tell he was American since he had a black captain working for him, and Victoria outside of Melbourne was all white.
WTF, why do Australians always seem inherently more healthy and normal and cool? It kind of bothers me lol. Like I sometimes fall into thinking Americans are fat morons, but every time I actually go to the UK/Europe my feelings that despite that, we are still just fundamentally cooler than them is solidified and I return feeling renewed pride in the US. So it bugs me that it seems like Aussies are to us what we're to Canada/Europe. I have an AU/NZ inferiority complex.
Luckily they're stuck on an arid island full of man-killing creatures on the wrong side of the hemisphere. 😉
The public/private school convo reminded me of one of my fav shows ever on HBO, Summer Heights High (and Angry Boys). It's before your time I'm sure, but do you know what happened to Chris Lilley?? Like is he a known/popular comedian in AU or a canceled/unknown weirdo? I LOVED his shows back in the day. I'm now wondering if HBO even still streams them or if they got yanked, since he's pretty much in black/brown/Asian-face in all of them.
I need to go back and watch those shows, I absolutely loved him. It's ridiculous bc HBO promoted the hell out of like 3 or 4 of his shows roughly during the Obama era years, and he seemed to be their darling, with no controversy. Shows how quickly things took a turn for the worse circa the 20teens. And I bet they definitely yanked at least Jonah from Tonga...I'm going to check and see what I can find tonight.
Jona from Tonga is still available in Australia. And guess what? ALL THE ISLANDERS WE EVER KNEW WERE SO PISSED OFF when they pulled it originally. It’s all this American sensitivity bullshit I swear.
Re: Confucius Institutes, I took a Chinese language class with one in the U.S. The teacher was a young cosmopolitan woman from Liaoning who really loved The Big Bang Theory. Politics didn’t come up—it was a beginner-intermediate class, mostly daily topics, not literature.
One moment that stuck with me was when she drew a map of China on the blackboard to illustrate something. She sketched the mainland’s "rooster" shape before continuing her speech, then paused to roll her eyes, and quickly scribbled a circle off to the side for Taiwan before moving on. Never understood why Drew Pavlou types get so heated about this.
Looking back, what’s funny is that I (the student) was probably more nationalistic than she was at the time. Just from a lifetime of hearing white people shoehorn Taiwan or Tiananmen into every conversation about China. Kind of like how Jews will post a makeup tutorial on social media and get "Free Palestine" spammed in the comments.
This podcast boiled my blood a bit, because I think about the Chinese nationals who have no idea how much hostility they’ll face until they go abroad. Many start their studies with pro-Western ideals, romanticizing people who want them gone. Migration and tourism out of China have dropped sharply in recent years, and honestly, it’s probably for the best.
Hate to call you out mate but your entire page is based on phrenology and scientific racism and you’re saying China scepticism is making your blood boil.
You both completely overlooked that 75% of the economic value of Australia is captured by the banking sector. Wha?! Yes.The 4 big OZ banks represent 75% of the Economic activity bigger by 35% than any other US allied country including US, Japan Canada Sweden Germany & UK. Our 4 bank monopolies valued at $3.85T at the end of 2023 double the entire OZ economic output! They are the 4th largest pool of investment funds in the world. And who are the controlling shareholders of the 4 banks? Comsbank+60% stake include JP Morgan Citicorp Nominees HSBC Custody Nominees National Nominees, all US Banks.The "not seen" part of our centrally planned sub-imperial economy is this huge "service industry" serving not Australians but the US Global Hegemony. House Prices have been sky rocketing for a minimum of a 1/4 century here. Why else would there be a massively bloated and endlessly ballooning mortgage industry? Because outside of "digging holes" and "flipping houses" there is very little economic activity. (Australia was ranked 93rd out of 133 Countries in 2023 by Harvard's Atlas of Economic Complexity). As Sash pointed out Australia needs the US and by default US Geopolitics.
This was a good one. Vis-a-vis the White Australia Policy, one of the first big challenges was the arrival of US servicemen during WWII, as the government wasn't sure how letting the black ones in would affect the WAP. In addition to the Immigration Restriction Act, the policy also included mass deportations of non-whites such as Chinese and Melanesians who were brought to Queensland via blackbirding. Those who were married to whites and Aboriginals were exempted from physical removal.
Regarding Australia's place in Asia, anti-American nationalism played a big role in Australia's establishment redefining the country as Asiatic. Whitlam responded to Operation Linebacker II with scathing criticism (see James Curran's "Unholy Fury" for more on Nixon vs. Whitlam), normalized relations with North Vietnam, and abandoned forward defense in favor of defense of Australia. Keating continued this trend, and phrases such as "Australia should seek its security in Asia, not from Asia" proliferated. Malcolm Fraser most lucidly and polemically expresses this anti-American, Asia-centric form of Aussie nationalism in "Dangerous Allies." The Coalition seems less prone to this attitude, hence Howard's support for the Iraq War and Scomo's following the Trump admin on China.
Australia was kind of unique in the degree to which it was founded as a white nationalist project. Its founders lamented the US and Canada's demographic transformation due to non-Nordic immigration and feared that Britain wouldn't be able to hold out. Hence, Oz was seen as the last Anglo-Celtic citadel. Peter Cochrane documents how this idea and fear of Japan led to involvement in WWI.
Thanks for this I didn’t know all of that!
Yes there was a real reaction against the Americans with Whitlam who was a former socialist at university. This built a massive amount of the left wing movement in Australia. Then Hawke and Keating made a real tag team in modernising Australia independent of America through the 90s and 2000s.
It’s only now when we’ve now discovered there’s entire suburbs listing rentals saying “Asians only” that we discovered this generosity was stretched too far.
Keating is also a board member on the Bank of China and he’s really turned into a bitter old fart in his old age.
I watched Keating's National Press Club interview on AUKUS last year, and he feels like he's turned into a mix of Trump (blowhard) and Biden (senility), which is admittedly entertaining.
Funny anecdote on Asian suburbs in Oz is I have a friend with an Aussie passport despite never having lived in Australia. It seems like the Commonwealth countries have evolved into backup residencies and banks for wealthy Asians. It seems like a big change, as my dad was in the outback around 25 years ago for a military conference, and everyone could tell he was American since he had a black captain working for him, and Victoria outside of Melbourne was all white.
WTF, why do Australians always seem inherently more healthy and normal and cool? It kind of bothers me lol. Like I sometimes fall into thinking Americans are fat morons, but every time I actually go to the UK/Europe my feelings that despite that, we are still just fundamentally cooler than them is solidified and I return feeling renewed pride in the US. So it bugs me that it seems like Aussies are to us what we're to Canada/Europe. I have an AU/NZ inferiority complex.
Luckily they're stuck on an arid island full of man-killing creatures on the wrong side of the hemisphere. 😉
The public/private school convo reminded me of one of my fav shows ever on HBO, Summer Heights High (and Angry Boys). It's before your time I'm sure, but do you know what happened to Chris Lilley?? Like is he a known/popular comedian in AU or a canceled/unknown weirdo? I LOVED his shows back in the day. I'm now wondering if HBO even still streams them or if they got yanked, since he's pretty much in black/brown/Asian-face in all of them.
Summer Heights High and Chris Lilley defined a lot of 2000s and 2010s Aussie satire. It was actually brilliant.
We actually don’t take much that seriously.
I need to go back and watch those shows, I absolutely loved him. It's ridiculous bc HBO promoted the hell out of like 3 or 4 of his shows roughly during the Obama era years, and he seemed to be their darling, with no controversy. Shows how quickly things took a turn for the worse circa the 20teens. And I bet they definitely yanked at least Jonah from Tonga...I'm going to check and see what I can find tonight.
Jona from Tonga is still available in Australia. And guess what? ALL THE ISLANDERS WE EVER KNEW WERE SO PISSED OFF when they pulled it originally. It’s all this American sensitivity bullshit I swear.
Of course they liked it!!
He got cancelled off Netflix by dumbarse execs when they were pulling Fawlty Towers episodes off the air folllowing Black Lives Matter protests.
I just checked HBO and they pulled ALL of his shows!! Even Angry Boys! I can't believe it.
Re: Confucius Institutes, I took a Chinese language class with one in the U.S. The teacher was a young cosmopolitan woman from Liaoning who really loved The Big Bang Theory. Politics didn’t come up—it was a beginner-intermediate class, mostly daily topics, not literature.
One moment that stuck with me was when she drew a map of China on the blackboard to illustrate something. She sketched the mainland’s "rooster" shape before continuing her speech, then paused to roll her eyes, and quickly scribbled a circle off to the side for Taiwan before moving on. Never understood why Drew Pavlou types get so heated about this.
Looking back, what’s funny is that I (the student) was probably more nationalistic than she was at the time. Just from a lifetime of hearing white people shoehorn Taiwan or Tiananmen into every conversation about China. Kind of like how Jews will post a makeup tutorial on social media and get "Free Palestine" spammed in the comments.
This podcast boiled my blood a bit, because I think about the Chinese nationals who have no idea how much hostility they’ll face until they go abroad. Many start their studies with pro-Western ideals, romanticizing people who want them gone. Migration and tourism out of China have dropped sharply in recent years, and honestly, it’s probably for the best.
tbh I was shamelessly leaning into this angle bc it creates a gr8 dialectic for your own appearance
Hate to call you out mate but your entire page is based on phrenology and scientific racism and you’re saying China scepticism is making your blood boil.
Racism is my yetzer hara trap. I’ll seek forgiveness from those I’ve harmed and from God.
Hahaha a man of many contradictions
You both completely overlooked that 75% of the economic value of Australia is captured by the banking sector. Wha?! Yes.The 4 big OZ banks represent 75% of the Economic activity bigger by 35% than any other US allied country including US, Japan Canada Sweden Germany & UK. Our 4 bank monopolies valued at $3.85T at the end of 2023 double the entire OZ economic output! They are the 4th largest pool of investment funds in the world. And who are the controlling shareholders of the 4 banks? Comsbank+60% stake include JP Morgan Citicorp Nominees HSBC Custody Nominees National Nominees, all US Banks.The "not seen" part of our centrally planned sub-imperial economy is this huge "service industry" serving not Australians but the US Global Hegemony. House Prices have been sky rocketing for a minimum of a 1/4 century here. Why else would there be a massively bloated and endlessly ballooning mortgage industry? Because outside of "digging holes" and "flipping houses" there is very little economic activity. (Australia was ranked 93rd out of 133 Countries in 2023 by Harvard's Atlas of Economic Complexity). As Sash pointed out Australia needs the US and by default US Geopolitics.
Thanks for the opportunity! My friend loves to lean in without the breaks in real life and I’m the one usually getting him to pipe down 🤣.
Funny I was in this space he was telling me to shush this time because I love to soften topics. All good🐊🐊