Australia feels so much better than the U.S. I like being here. It's still neolib af don't get me wrong, but on a personal level I feel much safer here than when I'm back home in the U.S.
To be fair a lot of white people in Australia absolutely abhor the yanks, culturally at least. And not just "haha weak beer and worse version of football".
Any time a business tries to introduce tipping and the local Facebook page erupts in Anti American Aktion. They'll fall for similar Murdoch pushed myths, they'll even believe Qanon/Qanon adjacent conspiracy theories, but my god olmate down at the pub will body shame the penis size of someone he sees driving a Ford 150 Yank Tank at the pub to his mates.
One of the regulars at the pub I worked before I moved back to China was having a rant about how the US better not drag Australia into yet another war in Ukraine or the Middle East.
There's a real unique love-hate relationship with the Yanks
Yeah. I get that feeling too. Like in ten years something it'll just be just as bad. I've noticed white Australians are way more racist than I expected.
My little sister is in Straya for school, and yalls' minimum wage and wages in general pay better than here. Now, housing and prices are fucked but they got fucked up where I live and there's been no concomittant increases in wages.
I was in Sydney during one of the union strikes when the CFMEU was getting attacked for 1/100th the level of corruption the LNP got away with. Glad to see there is still solidarity. Unions seem hit or miss in Australia but the overall consensus seems to be pro rather than anti which is a plus.
Probably the most beautiful place I have ever been and with some of the worst people I've ever met. There are places there with a stark primeval majesty that is unique across the whole world, and to see them I had to deal with some of the most naked racism I've ever encountered.
The image that emerges out of all my memories of the place is looking out the window at the incredible flat red-sand expanse of the outback while a motel owner was warning me about how the local indigenous population comes out at night and steals wallets with fishing poles.
Honestly, if you can fish my wallet out of my back pocket with a rod and tackle while dangling over the edge of a building, you deserve to have it. That's some real Looney Toons shit.