Whisper555
4 HN mentions · mentioned in 4 months, 2022
1:32 · 1.2M views · Aug 10, 2020
A two-minute clip from the Australian satirical series Utopia about the country's defence policy, presented as an explainer.
Mostly cited as a joke about Australian defence and geopolitics.
4 comments from Hacker News
This is Australian, but probably relevant: this video Seriously - what does the US Navy have to do with Trump's "trade war" with China? With Russia-Ukraine conflict? With US balance of trade that is $7 trillion out of kilter? And with US sanctions, which not only restrict international trade directly, but also will lead the countries holding some of that $7 trillion to reassess the risks of selling to the US?
I believe Trump's administration ended the "globalisation project" by promoting China as the No1 US adversary. While Russia was the ideal "bad actor", China manufactures everything for everyone, so there's a catch-22[^1]. Similarly, the 10+ years EU German-driven austerity essentially killed social-democratic parties in Europe. The left did not come up strong (Podemos and Corbinstas did not manage to gain real power and Syriza capitulated), so all the gains went to alt-right (see Poland, Italy, Hungary, Greece, etc.). These alt-right parties are not pro-EU, by any stretch. Tech is really good at categorising, quantifying, etc. If anything, the "nation state" can become over-reaching using these new technologies. I don't see how tech is weakening the nation state nor I see how the Catholic Church is a good analogy to the nation state. Maybe megacorps (directly or indirectly driving wars to take over resources scarce natural resources like, oil, lithium, cobalt, etc.) would be a better analogy. [^1]: this video - Australia's Defence Policy Explained (satirical)
Prior to the elephant playing in the mouse's back yard, the mouse thought he could play in the elephant's back yard and be annoying with no consequences. Plenty of FONOPS by Australian planes and ships in the South China Sea over the last seven or eight years. Australia's Defence Policy Explained: this video
There is a difference between letting China export low value added products with many producers vs a literal spy in your bedroom. Is this now US policy too: this video