The social forces that resulted in the trump presidency won’t go away. He’s not a political aberration. He’s the culmination of decades of grievance, which accelerated after the GFC. He’s the wrong solution of course, much like one nation is the wrong solution to Australia’s problems.

To look at things from a charitable perspective, that generation experienced the most stable economic period in history, in terms of social mobility. I think a lot of them assumed that we had reached a stable normal (as in the fukuyama end of history idea). What they didn’t realise was that the period they experienced coming of age was a historical anomaly, and now we are reverting to the normal (unequal wealth). They had a misplaced trust in authority. I can accept that things have changed, but I can’t accept millenials being told it’s their fault they didn’t work hard enough. On the one hand I hear about about 17 percent interest rates, and then they go on about buying a house in Melbourne on a single income public service wage and leaving work for the pub at lunch time. The cognitive dissonance is rattling.

I understand that, and I empathise with their position. I have friends in this position. I’m talking about housing prices rising, not staying the same or dropping and putting them into negative equity. It will affect everyone negatively unless they are an investor. But I can’t stand hearing the boomers in my wider social circle creaming their pants over house prices. I’ve put up with it my whole life. They never spared a thought for the future generations.

There are a lot of people who aren’t able to make that logical step. Home ownership is a rite of passage in this country, mainly because renting is awful for many. When the media frames house price rises as positive, which was the framing for much of the previous 3 decades, many people accept this without question.

You’re one of the smart ones with a social conscience.

The media headlines framing the budgets in terms of “winner and losers” fuels this counterproductive notion that government policies serve some at the cost of others. For example, high house prices seem positive to house owners, but this comes at a long term cost to all of society.

I don’t expect it to be addressed either. But it’s killing my career motivation, and I used to be a very driven person in my engineering career. I’m starting to change my priorities and expectations, now that my salary increases have slowed dramatically to below inflation level. No prospect of home ownership, so I spend more time hanging out with the neighbourhood cats instead of grinding every night. Enjoy the moment a bit more and not worry about the things I can’t control.

Unless this is properly addressed in the coming years, we are going to see a lot of resentment everywhere, and declining productivity, since those who must work for wages will have their rewards taken by those who have assets. All the money going to rents and mortgages.

And consequently this degrades peoples trust in our public institutions. “They only have one lever”. Yeah, and it isn’t having the intended effect.

We will implement polices to improve housing affordability while the housing minister assures the public that house prices will grow “sustainably”. Then the public will see us as helping those in need while protecting those with wealth. Win win.

Spot on. Trump’s behaviour needs to be viewed through the lens of narcissistic personality disorder combined with ADHD. All of his actions are in pursuit of narcissistic supply. We have a crisis of sane washing in mainstream media. He has no strategies. He acts based on his psychological needs. He doesn’t have beliefs, he has dispositional states. He is easily manipulated by those who can see that. This is why sucking up to him fails. Anyone who has lived with a narcissist can understand this.

As a side note, there are some things you absolutely need money for. Like dental care. I wiped my arse with tobacco plant leaves instead of buying toilet paper. But you always end up needing to go to the supermarket for something. Even dumpster diving relies on the existence of supermarkets.

I can relate to her feelings here. But as others have pointed out, this type of lifestyle relies on financial support from others. I lived like this in my early 20s. For a while in the same area as her. Working on farms for food and board, and WOOFing in permaculture communities. Living without earning money. Looking back, I realised that all of the people who set up the farms and communities I lived in were boomers who bought land cheaply, and got family support to set up their lifestyles. None of this is accessible to younger people. For me, coming to terms with reality meant not living the kind of life I really wanted which was consistent with my ecological principles, but changing myself to accept things about society I can’t change. This meant learning how to adapt to the “urban hive” and develop skills to earn money. I’m not judging her, but most of us have to figure out how to pay the big rents and bills that come with not having the financial support of family or friends. So I shaved off my dreads and got an engineering degree. I don’t think going off grid is a good message. It reminds me of David Holmgren’s attitude. As if we should all have such a charmed life to be able to live in the country side and grow our own food. It’s a very insular and privileged message.

I mean that’s interesting, but my thoughts on it weren’t that sophisticated. Narcissistic people just don’t like having their behaviour questioned. Think of it like the oppositional defiance of a frustrated child. They will say no when questioned by default. He probably does have some of that class anxiety, being around people from elite backgrounds. I’m not a psychologist, I’ve just grown up around narcissistic people from troubled backgrounds, so I see patterns in body language and speech. What you’ve mentioned is food for thought though.

That’s where majoritarian politics fails. Sometimes unpopular decisions need to be made to help those who aren’t in the majority. And leave off with the patronising language. I’m not shocked, I’ve lived through it and it’s what I’ve come to expect.

Doesn’t mean much to me when he’s not the decision maker anymore. He gets to bolster his reputation without taking responsibility. That doesn’t impress me at all. Gillard does the same. They had their opportunity to make changes and they didn’t take it. Most people don’t get that opportunity.

Yeah for sure. He always had to signal his intellect. It was condescending. I remember his comment about “detailed programmatic specificity”. Morrison was a dick head, but he got elected because of his daggy dad routine. He pretended to be relatable.

A big ego is OK sometimes. The problem is when it’s coupled with narcissism. A truly confident person won’t become overly defensive when criticised. They can recognise their faults and work around them. Albo doesn’t have that quality. Which is partly why he is fixated on his class background. He never grew out of it mentally. So when his policies are scrutinised, it makes him feel insecure.

Nah it was in 2017. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_Marriage_Law_Postal_Survey Turnbull was PM. Abbott was against it, despite his sister being gay. Absolute toe rag of a human being.

Thanks mate, appreciate that. I’m not a malcontent, I can appreciate good things when I see them. I just haven’t seen many good things come to fruition during the course of my millennial life observing politics. I feel there is something about the Australian mindset that makes apologies for those in power who don’t improve things. We have this idea that change is hard. The government has limited power etc. I remind people that during the lockdowns we had a 9pm curfew. In the 2010s, most people would have said the government couldn’t do that. They absolutely have power to make change. They choose not to, because the status quo benefits them. They could fix housing. They could fix wealth inequality. We’ve been conditioned to believe that change is impossible. I don’t buy it.