We've largely been able to put aside our differences and unite together to defend against the reactionaries.
I remember about a year ago the landscape of the site was quite different; posts were still largely positive, but people were tearing into each other more harshley in the comments if they disagreed with the other's brand of leftism.
While federation has exposed us all to a fair share of horrific takes, it has also united us all in a Hexbear-versus-the-world sort of way. In some ways, I like how the inner community feels a lot more now, and it makes me hopeful for the future.
Relatedly, thanks everybody for keeping the dunk tank in !the_dunk_tank@hexbear.net so I can choose when I'm willing to expose myself to it.
I don't like UK coverage of NZ news.
This feels like such a weird proposal to me. We're separate countries... Internationally we get conflated a lot, I guess because we're both in the same corner of the world and we don't come up much in the news, but on the ground AU and NZ are quite different countries.
I don't think there's any problem with the current state of affairs. Trying to merge into being a different country would be so much administrative overhead when we have bigger problems within the country we have to solve.
I guess it might also negatively impact Maori people since there's a greater chance of them losing their special affordances and being socially "merged in" with the rest of AU's indigenous population?
If the reason for this proposal is for trade deals and such, we already have those. NZers and AUians can travel back and forth without a visa, attend university without paying international fees, work abroad, etc.
I don't really get it. If there's a good argument for it, I could have easily have my mind changed, but right now it just sounds bizarre.