Centrelink
by Wholesome Rage | 17 October 2018
Australia has a Welfare service called Centrelink. Ideally it’s meant to pay you while you do job searching, or keep you afloat while you’re a student. It’s also the disability support pension and social security. Basically, if you can’t or shouldn’t work for some reason or another, this is ‘the dole’ or ‘the rates’.
I can’t work a stable job. My output schedule here should show that it’s not for lack of determination or education, but I have some fairly severe medical issues that means that I simply cannot work in traditional workplaces.
The most I could get, if I were living on my own and not making any money whatsoever, is $688 a fortnight, or $344 a week.
Let’s run down some numbers really quickly here.
Critics Will Be The Death Of Me
by Wholesome Rage | 10 October 2018
“Anyone can be a critic”, is said often. Unfortunately it’s true, and the followup is often left out; “But few people should be”. To be a critic only requires that you have an opinion on something. Everyone’s entitled to their own opinion, but I’ve found that there is an issue to that entitlement.
The reason I find this subject important can be found in Jerry Holkins blog post for Validation Syndrome, regarding video game journalists:
There are people who walk on eggshells out of fear, but there is a second type of person who literally distributes eggshells for other people to walk on. Try to imagine how I feel about this second person, who is the negative space around which the exploratory, human work of creativity is allowed to take place.
Mark Knight and Dog Whistling
by Wholesome Rage | 18 September 2018
Recently, this comic was published by a major Australian newspaper:
Mark Knight is the author, that’s his signature in the bottom corner of the screen.
Obviously, it’s racist.
Or, not obviously, apparently. When the author came out as saying it wasn’t intentionally racist, there was a lot of handwringing.
| Category | # |
|---|---|
| Writing Advice | 24 |
| Gaming | 4 |
| History | 4 |
| Media | 20 |
| Guest Article | 7 |
| Economics | 18 |
| Politics | 30 |
| Audio | 4 |
| Fiction | 1 |
| Mental Health | 2 |
