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.
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.