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.
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.