I’ve thought long and hard about whether I’d post this. But in the end, I’ve decided I will. (Obviously.)

Division between people is a horrible thing. And more and more often recently, we see divisions between people driven along on social media, and taken advantage of by politicians. It seems that now, more and more, people are unable to get beyond certain fixed positions, agree to disagree, and then get on with life.

We see it in politics, and we see it on social media, which drives it as people hide behind anonymity, or pound their keyboards (probably just like I’m doing now), from the safety of their lounge rooms. To a certain extent, I understand it.

I remember coming home from work during the lockdown phase of the pandemic (here in Australia, as I work in health, I was considered an essential worker, as was my husband – mining), and sitting down with a cuppa, and browsing through social media, checking to see what my home bound friends had been up to.

And of course, up popped the ultimate anti-vax post, from a friend I was startled to discover, had apparently gone down the rabbit hole of conspiracy theories. My initial reaction was to pound my own keyboard in response, and point out the gaping holes in the post, the complete and utter misunderstanding of science, and why spreading such things on social media in the midst of a pandemic was so irresponsible.

But in the end, after beginning to pound said keys in an incredibly frustrated fashion, I realised that it was unlikely to help anyone, let alone myself. So I stopped, deleted my words, and stepped away from the keyboard. It was a good decision for me right then, because I’d spent most of the day answering questions from confused patients about the same subject. And I’m a physiotherapist, not a doctor or nurse immuniser. (We do of course, have a good grounding in health science literacy, as we are the health professionals who rehabilitate those who suffer from preventable diseases. I still have a few patients who had polio as children.)

But it’s not just topics like vaccination that divide people. The biggest one right now, seems to be politics. People seem to be dividing themselves into ‘right’ and ‘left.’ When in fact, there are good policies in all parties, and also bad policies in all parties.

I always enjoy using the Australian ABC’s vote compass, which plots your responses on a graph against the major parties’ policies. I took a screenshot of my last one.

Apparently, I’m slightly left of centre economically, and mildly socially progressive. According to the Australian parties’ policies back in 2022.

More than anything, it reminds me that we all exist on a spectrum. Not one of us thinks precisely the same way, or about precisely the same things. And in that spectrum of thought and belief, we can make choices to get along, be nice, and be kind to each other.

Occasionally I stick my head into the Twitter space. Once I enjoyed it, now it seems be a cesspool of nastiness. I often wonder whether people would have the guts to say the things they type to people, were those people standing in front of them.

Another thing that bothered me recently, was the annual debate about the date of Australia Day. While I am a proud Australian, I am less and less happy about the date of Australia Day. It’s officially the 26th of January. But it’s only been an offical ‘across Australia’ date since 1994. A recent holiday. Unfortunately the date commemorates the arrival of Cook into Sydney Harbour. Now, while some Australians (mostly those of a certain vintage and ethnic background – English, and about my age or older) were brought up thinking Cook’s arrival was the ‘discovery’ of Australia, clearly our indigenous Australians were already here.

That date marked the beginning of genocide for some, land theft for many, and later, even removal from their ancestral lands. I often wonder how I’d react if a foreign invader celebrated their invasion day after taking over my country and removing me from my house.

So for me, nowadays, the arrival of Australia Day always suggests that we should consider changing the date.

Distressingly, I saw a post recently on Facebook, where people were rather nasty about the idea of date changing. And even more nastily, used the phrase ‘always was, always will be’ in the context of Australia Day.

For those of you who may not be aware, ‘Always was, always will be’ usually finishes with ‘Aboriginal land.’ You can read about that phrase here.

So, you can imagine how hurtful the use of that phrase in the context of a public holiday that is celebrated on what some of our indigenous people feel is actually ‘Invasion Day,’ may be. Particularly a holiday that has only 30 years of history behind it, when our indigenous Australians have been here for at least 40,000 years.

I was rather appalled, actually. Why can’t we just be nice to each other? I do understand that for some people what I’ve just said would be considered controversial. But hey, can’t we just agree to disagree, and get on with it, while actually considering why people think and feel the way they do?

That way, politicians can’t exploit division for gain, further dividing us.

And now, here’s the annual lamb ad link. We have a lamb ad every January. it’s often thought provoking. This one’s great.