Juan Manuel Sánchez Gordillo, Mayor of Marinaleda from 1979 to 2023 (among other things) has been described exactly as a “modern Robin Hood” in newspapers^[1], especially in reference to their supermarket raids:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_Manuel_Sánchez_Gordillo

In mid August 2012, Sánchez Gordillo attracted considerable media attention both within Spain and internationally due to his role in raids on supermarkets in nearby towns, Seville and Cádiz, where food was stolen and handed out to poor families and to food banks. The items stolen were part of a list chiefly made of rice, sugar, pasta, milk, olive oil and flour. Sánchez Gordillo did not personally remove food, but was outside in the car parks while members of his union conducted the raids. Several of these members have been arrested and later released, though Sánchez Gordillo himself has immunity from prosecution. Sánchez Gordillo has however said he is happy to waive his immunity and go to jail for his cause, in fact he said he expected to be jailed in order to make his message spread further.

And stole from the poor, not the rich.

If anything, a software pirate at home is a far greater example.

I think rules, written or otherwise, should have exceptions to account for extreme circumstances like this, but a lot of online people just go ‘No, if you don’t bring your cart back you’re a BAD PERSON no matter what!’.

To treat any rule as immutable is an idealist junk perspective. Rules, like all ideas, need to be applied to a context, and I personally don’t see the point in codifying every possible exception. Law officials, programmers and others can tell you how Sisyphean that task would be.

So yes, there are exceptions (obviously!). If you’re putting your cart back and you injure your leg, you don’t have to crawl on your arms just to put it back. But we can still generally say “people should put their cart back after shopping” and it’s clear that we’re generalizing.

Related to tests and skills, What if we just didn’t mark students?, a short talk from a university course runner and educator in general.

It makes some points that are already familiar or easy to notice, but it’s also an interesting exploration of academia, tests and skills. I know some students who learn under that lecturer and what they’re taling about clearly comes through in the course structure. One notable part is that one tutorial class is responsible for making notes for each week of lectures, and the whole cohort is allowed to bring those collaborative notes into the exam, like a semi-open book test. I heard they just decided one class to have a lesson on rhetoric instead of cybersecurity because it’s a pretty nerdy industry and one involving invisible risks, and there’s no point being an expert if you can’t convince your boss to let you fix the problems.

Well, if this is some attempt at a virgin sacrifice, I don’t think they’re doing it right.

The majority of the world has always been in a bad mood because 90% of planet has always been poor, struggling, doesn’t have enough, live in poverty, are hungry and are generally not happy.

On one hand, there is absolutely harsh struggle around the world for the vast majority of the world.

On the other hand, it’s not as if most people are never in a good mood. Australia’s state broadcaster (ABC) had a show where people in small or disadvantaged groups answer anonymous questions, and when it came to Sudanese Australian refugees, a few were saying that life in Sudan was often happier despite their material struggles. IIRC a main part was that they had a collective culture, in some places outside of the cities even a communal village culture, and where good fortune was cause for celebration. Some contrasted that with our largely individualist, money-centric culture here.

All that to say, money doesn’t buy happiness, poverty doesn’t guarantee sadness. Money and other resources really really help, but it’s far from the whole picture.

For what it’s worth, a lot of mainstream culture in Australia comes from the British colony and European immigration so they might be on to something.

In Australia, depending on the state you live in, footie/football is assumed to be either rugby league or Australian rules football, unless the context makes it obvious that you’re talking about soccer (association football) or rugby union.

Yep, had to ask teacher for permission. Some would say ‘you should have gone during the break’ but I can’t remember if anyone was denied (and I don’t know if that would be illegal).

but open to other rabbit holes

If you like satirical comedy or entertaining educational shows, there’s a lot on Australian television (particularly shows from the national Australian Broadcasting Corporation). Also, for people who enjoyed The Office (at least, the UK version, I haven’t seen the US variant), I recommend Utopia - it’s far from a clone but has a lot of similar themes of workplace life mixed with poking fun at bureaucracy and government.

but I don’t live in australia, or have a VPN to access ABC iView!

Visit the sidebar resources of !piracy@lemmy.dbzer0.com, or even just YouTube will get you a lot of them.