Jordan van den Berg: The 'Robin Hood' TikToker taking on Australian landlords
bbc.com
Three years ago, lawyer Jordan van den Berg was an obscure TikTok creator who made videos that mocked real estate agents.
But today the 28-year-old is one of the most high-profile activists in Australia.
Posting under the moniker Purple Pingers, Mr van den Berg has been taking on the nation's housing crisis by highlighting shocking renting conditions, poor behaviour from landlords, and what he calls government failures.
It is his vigilante-style approach - which includes helping people find vacant homes to squat in, and exposing bad rentals in a public database - that has won over a legion of fans.
Some have dubbed him the Robin Hood of renters.
This is the most aggravating part of the article for me. This will force policy change way faster than “putting that energy into pushing representatives.” Which is twice removed from the issue.
He’s helping people find shelter, AND he’s causing a huge stir, taking it worldwide, and making news. THIS is the type of direct action that we need.
Less incrementalism, more fucking over landlords and making the ownership class uncomfortable.
Bugging politicians can work, if you're sufficiently relevant to re-election. This dude has achieved that relevance very well by doing what he's doing.
Sure, but what this stupid fucking association of landlords or whatever is saying is that he needs to “work within the system.” They mean “write to your representatives, vote, donate to politicians, etc.” It’s complete horseshit. Because that clearly hasn’t worked. They don’t want it to work. These people lobby (read: bribe) to make sure the laws keep shifting in their favor. Which is exactly the point. Citizens trying to influence policy are very limited and removed a few steps from the actual decision making and decision makers. They want it to stay that way, because they get to write laws, lobby directly, spend face-to-face time with these people, call their cell phones because they’re large donors, and the winds are blowing ever harder in their favor. Their power grows exponentially while ours dwindles and we become exponentially LESS powerful as lawmakers become more and more insulated from the people they’re supposed to serve.
The quotes in here were indeed horseshit, but voting and donating (plus volunteering!), at least, work pretty well. I don't want to pick a fight with you, but sometimes boring is good. Shit, even insurgencies get pretty paperwork-heavy at any kind of scale.
Well, I don’t feel like arguing either honestly lol
But I will say that I believe this approach on its own has led us exactly to where we are today. They are—on their own—a bandaid on a massive wound.
The biggest victories for the masses are so often won through direct action, through huge fights with the powerful. Often bloody ones. Strikes are the most powerful tool we have, because the system that is more and more only benefitting the wealthy actually runs on our bodies and minds. And strikes turn bloody because they try to beat us back into submission.
I’m not saying it’s pretty. But it’s a war, and we’ve been surrendering this entire time. And in that surrender, plenty of people have been writing their representatives, voting, signing petitions, etc. The system has continued to get worse. Look how much the recent trend of strikes and walkouts has accomplished for those people. In my industry, the writer’s strike changed a lot for them. Actors too. Which is kinda funny because those of us that don’t work in front of the camera know how well actors are treated, but whatever. Even though they’re wealthy celebrities, against the massive corporations squeezing all of us harder and harder, they’re still kind of on our side.
I’m not saying we need to stop doing any of the tedious work of Revolution. We still need all aspects. But when it’s just the tedium and the quiet work, we keep moving backwards.
That is my point. You’re definitely right, that sort of clerical work is a necessary part of revolutionizing, but when it’s all clerical work and no revolution—which is what we are constantly corralled into, solution-wise—we are stuck slowly falling behind on the treadmill of capitalism. Which is exactly how we’ve found ourselves so far behind at by this point.
You're right, action is also a missing piece - even when it's way easier than getting shot or pepper sprayed. I also don't know you personally, but I see a lot of people that wanna revolution because they think it's an easy shortcut. I like to emphasise that it's not whenever that comes up.
Sometimes about restricting access to gender affirmation care, or keeping the browns out. It's depressing, but I think the real problem is that most people don't care, and many of (the older-leaning group of) those that do don't like our newfangled ideas.
Edit: After thinking about this, I should have a disclaimer that I'm in a country where useful new laws get passed all the time. It's probably not a shortcut in really flawed democracies either, but normal participation is bound to be less fruitful. In autocracies, the approaches mentioned obviously don't work at all, so it is kind of a shortcut.
The number of MPs who own investment properties means that this IS going directly to the source, but it's doing it in a manner that they can't fob off, ignore, or form a committee about.
LOL - Reported as "not world news", where the definition is "news outside the US."
Being as this is Australia and Australia is outside the US...
Is Australia inside the world, though? 🤔
It's more ON the world. I think it's kinda like the world's cummerbund, with Antarctica being either the world's pants or slippers.
I thought it was underneath.
That's New Zealand you're thinking of, it's only there some of the time.
Its natural predator is the cartographer
IT'S BBC.
Can someone explain all this "everyone is good but straight white men in America" bullshit to me? How is the world "everything but America"? Why is racism anything possibly negative about a race except free range on white people? Why is it that I'm so privileged that I'm not allowed in a homeless shelter in a small town because they're all living in grants for target minorities/disabilities/women/addicts?
If I didn't know any better, and I don't, I'd think the world is playing spades and white Americans are the dealer.
World News should be things that concern the whole world and include things originating from space even!
Because there are already communities for American news (News) and American politics (Politics), other communities were needed to give non-US centric news room to breathe.
The last thing anyone wants is another community that's Donald Trump and Elon Musk top to bottom.
There are already communities for news for literally every country. Why is America left out with North Korea to be excluded?
America isn't left out. "News" is exclusively US News. "Politics" is exclusively US Politics.
Ever heard the arguments against segregation? America goes on an island while world news is just "everyone but America"?
How about everyone gets their own news community and world news is whatever affects more than one country rather than whatever happens in a not-America country?
Anyone is welcome to make a community for whatever country interests them.
And this one here is for haters to specifically exclude a specific group.
No, this one is for people who don't want a feed dominated by US news. If you want that, "News" is available.
The poster is either a troll or a fucking moron, best not to feed it either way.
Right? Why should I be subbed to a different community to get my latest sports news? Or to hear what's happening in Helldivers? That's news too! Segregation is bad!
It's all on Lemmy dude. People can freely access any Lemmy community and add it to their feed to access that news. You're just complaining you can't force something on them that they aren't interested in (because if they were they'd already be subbed to the appropriate communities).
I think it's a rather natural reaction to strait white males beeing in power for all of the modern time and therefor beeing the ones that were made to set the rules and, even more importantly, decide what the discourse looks like. Hence the view on women, minorities, non "White" countries, etc is heavily formed by their views.
Can someone explain how you went from "This sub is for news about not America, if you want news about America there's a whole sub for that" to "straight white men are victims of systemic injustice"?
It seems like there is a step in between, like, "America is the victim of injustice because it isn't given priority status in the world news sub that has to be distinct because all the other news subs end up being about America." Some sort of persecution complex?
being a victim is great as long as you're not actually a victim. you get to be outraged and make demands of people and, because no one is actually victimizing you at all, there's no downside!
"Isn't given priority status" is totally the same as "specifically banned here". Move them goalposts harder.
You transitioned into panicking that cishet white Christians are being persecuted because there is a sub for US news and a different sub for other news, but it is the other people's hyperbole that is wrong, got it.
You just go on ahead and make up more stuff to argue about. I'll watch since my input isn't really represented here.
Your input isn't represented? Uh oh, sounds like you are being silenced and persecuted!
More like 'brave new world'-ed. You're just making a bunch of noise hoping that I dig a hole and people avoid me.
It went to that because you decided to misrepresent what I said. You did that because you don't have a response for my actual position and needed something easy to attack.
Yes: when you've become accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression.
You specifically are not allowed here because equality.
Anyone is welcome to be here. Americans just aren't allowed to make this another community dominated by American-centric news.
Why is the "News" magazine for American news and not world news? Why is there no "American News" magazine?
Did anyone say "American news here only"?
Go find me a post of a non-American news story.
I'll wait.
Or you could POST one ya fucking bum!
Go ahead and show me how easy it is. Go post this news story over there and let me know how it goes.
This isn't world news. This is Australia specific news.
who said you're not allowed here, or anywhere?
Bro. Go outside.
gigachad.gif
Hopefully it ends up better than it did for friendlyjordies.