Our media is completely captured, Murdoch's companies have near total dominance, we've managed to avoid most of the total culture war brain rot that's taken over in some countries but there's a bottomless and well funded Will to get us there so I'm assuming it's just a matter of time.
I lived in Australia for a while, and the political system seemed like it was mostly just for show to a greater extent than anywhere else I’ve ever been. In the mould of “whoever you vote for, the government always gets in”. And any big actual decisions where they deem fit to have a referendum such as the change to a Republic in 1999 or the Aboriginal Voice (would have been completely meaningless and powerless anyway), gets nerfed and purposefully mishandled and obfuscated so the status quo remains as it was.
Well I had never heard “whoever you vote for, the government always gets in” but it perfectly sums up Aussie politics, you're spot on, it's a power sharing agreement between two right of centre status quo preservationists.
Not sure if it really looms large in the minds of present-day Australians, but they did vote for a left winger in the 70s and got a coup for their troubles.
