Zaledin
5mo ago
I've been waiting for the details to be finalised but we have a new government here in New Zealand, with the required CW controversy.
The first piece is the new government directing departments to prefer english in communications over the pidgin that had formed over the last government. This one is getting less coverage in the international media.
The second big controversy that made it to international media was reversing the previous government's lifetime ban on tobacco for anyone born after 2009. Weirdly, the usual weed legaliser types were in favour of the ban.
Link to full agreement: https://www.national.org.nz/national_act_and_new_zealand_first_to_deliver_for_all_new_zealanders
Zaledin
1yr ago
Apologies if this is too culture war-y
If I told you that public servants in a Western country were forced (by social pressure) to pray at the beginning of meetings, what kind of prayers do you think they were and what side of the political spectrum would the social pressure come from?
In the US context, one would assume I was referring to right-wing Christianity, but here in New Zealand it is becoming more and more expected to pray in Maori before meetings. Many of these prayers refer to Jesus or the Christian god, or the pre-contact Maori deities.
The stranger part to US ears (perhaps) is that this is mainly pushed by the more left/woke type of people. While I know that other Anglo countries do like to integrate indigenous spirituality into land acknowledgements etc, I believe only the NZ public service has gone out to this extent.
Since land acknowledgements have already spread around the Anglo world, I wonder if this forced spirituality will also spread. Certainly Australians I have spoken to (at least liberal Australians) talk about the integration of indigenous spirituality as a desirable outcome.
Zaledin
1yr ago
The silliest part of the anti-QALY argument also means that its not worth spending money to help disabled people, since we can't count their health as being less. The QALY is mostly an attempt to quantify health for resource prioritisation, but most critics don't believe there should be prioritisation at all. Either the societal health budget should be infinite, or they don't consider it at all.
I agree. Ragnarok was generally pretty good, but Atreus and Angrboda just dragged, seemingly because the writers wanted a black girl to teach Atreus how to be peaceful?
I also remember cringing at the "be better" lines that they scattered through the game. It seems that is the standard woke writing line, since it was also in the Falcon TV show.
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