* while salaries are higher than eg most of Europe, they're still nowhere near the US - US salaries are often at least double (or more, a lot more)
* their cost of living and taxes are high
* they're backwards and insular (maybe you think the US is too, but the US has 350 million people, Australia has like 25, lol, so insular takes on a whole new meaning there)
* they're not as diverse as the US (sure, London is diverse, but still, the diversity of the US smokes them all, so many different cities here with so many different demographics, climates etc etc)
I'm saying that as a Scandi who's lived in UK, Canada, Australia and now US. Of course the US has a lot of problems too, but as a destination for skilled immigrants, the others don't even compare IMO.
I'm Australian and though I don't live there now, I did for 27 years. Most of the things you're describing are just a function of the people you were hanging out with. I knew people like that, and I chose different friends.
People definitely used gay as a slur when I was in high school, and then people grew out of it because it was childish and awful. Perhaps it was at about the time that some of us came out as gay.
Diversity is certainly not uniform in the country, obviously, and exposure is a critical part of being well rounded. We had a lot of people from PNG and Sri Lanka where I grew up, and when I went to Uni there were a lot of foreign students from Kenya and other places. Being weird or racist about it would have been pretty fucking unacceptable to me and my friends. But I have met people who are indeed weirdly racist or sexist.
Also, I have noticed a pretty broad shift in this from people in my parents generation to people in my generation, and I'm sure again to people younger than myself. I think this actually happening in lots of places though, not just Australia.
As far as swearing goes... Yes? We swear a lot. It works for us!
We have lots of problems, and a truly horrendous history of colonial violence -- which we have at least begun to address in history class in schools in the last thirty years. Lots more work to do. I'm sorry you had a bad go of it, but please don't assume that you have a picture of every Australian.
Of course not all Australians are like that. But I've lived in many different countries and in my experience nowhere even comes close to how ubiquitous, accepted, even encouraged all the above are in Australia, how large a share of the population really are like that. Let's be real, it's not small. And sure, you can make a bubble of good people around you, but you have to exist outside it as part of your everyday life, and that's not easy if you're the type to notice these things. In the US, you could never ever get away with saying half the things that are casually said in an Australian workplace, at a social gathering etc etc, it simply would not be tolerated. I mean, try to imagine a white American acting all surprised and impressed a dark skinned person speaks good English, and chirpily complimenting them for it. It would never happen, lol. But in Australia it's par for the course. Anyway this is my experience and how I see it, completely understand if others see it differently. But I do think anyone who's under the impression Australia doesn't still have a loooot of catching up to do are kidding themselves.
All the points of criticism you've asserted as being true in the present tense in all of Australia are heavily, increasingly pushed back on these days.
Sure, Australia may have been slower to catch up than the rest of the world; it's a small, isolated country. But it's all changing very quickly now, and indeed has been for a long time.
I grew up in Melbourne in the 80s surrounded by many different cultures, and spent time living in Sydney in the 00s. Sure racism existed but has been increasingly unacceptable ever since I was young and is not tolerated among anyone I know of now. "Gay" as a pejorative has been unacceptable among anyone in inner Melbourne and Sydney since the early 00s - i.e., for at least 20 years.
No doubt you'll find exceptions and segments of the population that are slower to reform, just as you do in all places/cultures. Most of that is circumstantial; reform happens when people are exposed to people from different walks of life they become aware of them and more tolerant of them. That's how it's always happened, everywhere. Moralising about these kinds of things really serves only to feel morally superior in yourself, rather than understanding the society you're critiquing.
To slur the whole country with your observations of a particular region/cohort at a particular time is to succumb to the same kind of failing of which you're accusing others.
Another famous example would be AFL - the racism on display not just in the stands but within the teams and the AFL org itself, would be unimaginable in any other country. Imagine if fans, teammates, coaches etc abused black NFL players the way black AFL players get abused. It would not be tolerated, and it would never happen, it's completely unimaginable.
These are not cherry picked examples, they're just two manifestations of the massive problem.
But Australia and Australians get a pass because "it's Australia".
It's not flattering to be unable to realize and admit maybe your country has some work to do. (it's not an attack on you personally)
You've literally posted a copy+paste comment in response to both responders, and you've included cases/references that don't support your claims nor refute mine (or my sibling commenter's for that matter). You seem much more interested in grandstanding and stereotyping than engaging fair-mindedly with what is a difficult and important issue.
The HN guidelines specifically state that "comments should get more thoughtful and substantive, not less, as a topic gets more divisive" and ask us to "eschew flamebait" and "avoid generic tangents".
With that in mind I don't want to perpetuate the flamewar but will try only to correct the record:
The article you linked makes absolutely no mention of the kind of behaviour you described in your earlier comment as being "rampant" at the ABC; it's about reactions from some audience members to Stan Grant's (and other presenters') comments during the introductory coverage of King Charles' coronation; it's a complex topic and one worthy of contemplation and earnest discussion, but it has no relevance to your original claims.
> Another famous example would be AFL ... It would not be tolerated ... But Australia and Australians get a pass because "it's Australia"
In no sense are any occurrences of racism "tolerated" or is anyone getting "a pass" for anything; the whole reason you know about them is they attract widespread condemnation and meaningful action.
All of these cases date back a significant amount of time, pertain to a small segment of the population, have attracted widespread condemnation, have led to major investigations, sanctions, reforms and broad progress in the way these issues are understood and handled, and instigated ongoing discussions and programs to continue to improve the way issues for indigenous/PoC players are recognised and accommodated.
Issues like this are not isolated to Australia, and these occurrences in Australia have somewhat mirrored the way issues of race in sport and politics have become prominent in the U.S. and many other parts of the world in recent years.
None of this is to say that occurrences like those you originally described never happen, nor that "maybe [our] country has some work to do". I didn't and don't dispute that, but the work is being done (going as far as a planned referendum for a constitutional amendment to give the indigenous population a formal voice to parliament, which has strong popular support) and meaningful progress is being made, just as it is in many places in the world that still have "work to do".
Anyway, I literally had to check the title of this article to remind myself that the topic is Are you a late bloomer in work or love? Maybe you’re right on time - i.e., nothing to do with this nationalistic flamewar.
So I'm certainly out of this discussion.
But if your ultimate point is "your country has some work to do", well, sure, of course.
I've lived in Australia my entire life (born here) and I can't think of a time in my working life where any of what you confidently declare is "common place and accepted" was anything like that - at least not within the city professional demographic I'm familiar with, which does trend middle class.
And the city-based tech industry in Australia is hardly a whites-only monoculture - far from it - so if you were in that sector and declared "racism was rampant" I squint my eyes a little wondering where exactly this managed to be possible. Which isn't to say it doesn't exist or isn't a problem elsewhere, but within the workplace? It would be surprising for it to be "casual" given the demographics of the sector.
Another famous example would be AFL - the racism on display not just in the stands but within the teams and the AFL org itself, would be unimaginable in any other country. Imagine if fans, teammates, coaches etc abused black NFL players the way black AFL players get abused. It would not be tolerated, and it would never happen, it's completely unimaginable.
These are not cherry picked examples, they're just two manifestations of the massive problem.
But Australia and Australians get a pass because "it's Australia".
It's not flattering to be unable to realize and admit maybe your country has some work to do. (it's not an attack on you personally)
* while salaries are higher than eg most of Europe, they're still nowhere near the US - US salaries are often at least double (or more, a lot more)
* their cost of living and taxes are high
* they're backwards and insular (maybe you think the US is too, but the US has 350 million people, Australia has like 25, lol, so insular takes on a whole new meaning there)
* they're not as diverse as the US (sure, London is diverse, but still, the diversity of the US smokes them all, so many different cities here with so many different demographics, climates etc etc)
I'm saying that as a Scandi who's lived in UK, Canada, Australia and now US. Of course the US has a lot of problems too, but as a destination for skilled immigrants, the others don't even compare IMO.