[roenxi]

> I’m highly doubtful about this - it seems to be an excuse to disestablish the BSA, rather than a genuine basis for the decision.

The title of the piece is "Government to disestablish the BSA" and the domain is .govt.nz. I think it only fair to point out they're being very upfront that this is their excuse for disestablishing the BSA.

> NZ has been relatively resistant to populism and partisanism in the past, partially because we have a watchdog to make the media all play nice.

It's an island [0] that has a smaller population the 2 largest cities of the nearest mainland, Australia. A substantial chunk of the country is uninhabitable due to mountains (and Orcs, based on what I've seen of it). It'd be quite challenging for the NZ population to rift into partisanship, they don't have enough people or space. If you look at somewhere like the US, it tends to be populations the size of NZ locked in a fight with other populations the size of NZ for who wants the right to tax the other.

What is NZ supposed to fight over, whether the factories go on north island or south island? It isn't that big a deal. I suppose no fight more serious than one over trivia, but really.

[0] Islands?

[pseudohadamard]

NZ imported a lot of MAGA crap during Covid despite having one of, if not the, best Covid responses in the world. They had something close to the US Jan 6 where a large collection of MAGA-inspired nutters camped outside parliament and caused a near-riot, or an actual riot depending on how you see it. So it can happen anywhere, unfortunately. The reach of Fox News has grown long indeed...

[bombcar]

Venice was a hotbed of political intrigue in the olden days and had half the population of NZ.

[roenxi]

I suppose. Although if NZ manages the sort of vigour and industry of Venice back in the day I am going to move there.

[bombcar]

It's amazing reading history, about a huge city that totally affected the course of a major war, manufacturing and logistics hub - open it up and look inside: "Population 10,000."

Roman Army at it's peak: 450,000 men.

Walmart: 2.1 million

(Cue reddit arguments about Roman Army vs Walmart)

[pseudohadamard]

> Roman Army at it's peak: 450,000 men.

Plague of Justinian: A handful of rats (initially).

[piva00]

I don't think the republic of Venice ever had 2 million people, what time period are you referring to?

[bombcar]

Wikipedia reports it peaked at 2.5m - "16th century estimate".

[whateverboat]

Cyprus, Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia: all small countries with small population divided by civil war. More than population it can be the strategic location of the country and powers that want that country.