Want to see new Nu Zilind? Read the comments section of Andrea Vance’s column

26
5

10370818_10152789378972704_4472079187341112666_n

Andrea Vance is no stooge. She is one of the few mainstream media voices who has challenged power and authority, her latest column on the outrageous attempts by Key to use fear mongering to  spook the sleepy hobbits into war is a must read, but so too are the bewildering comments on that column.

Based on the previous history of how easily manipulated our mainstream media have been by the NZDF, I wouldn’t be surprised if war PR spinners are sprinkled amongst the opinions there, but the overwhelming number of Kiwis who attacked Andrea for challenging Key is a reminder that we live with a large chunk of the voting electorate not only willing to turn a blind eye to mass surveillance lies and dirty politics, they are willing to allow Key to flog off 30% of the State Houses (despite there never being any hint during the election they would do that), lead us into war (despite specifically saying we wouldn’t go to war) and redesign the spy roles so that Key isn’t obligated to be responsible any longer.

We are looking less like a functioning democracy and more like a Cult of Personality minus the personality.

I get the feeling National voters spring out of bed each day and recite this..

I pledge allegiance to my brand new Prime Minister designed Flag and the Milk Powder Republic for which it pollutes rivers and sells publicly owned assets to subsidise unsustainable irrigation for. One nation under GCSB, indivisible, with selfishness and property speculation for some. In John we trust.

Welcome to the new Nu Zilind, we electorally reward mass surveillance lies, dirty politics and proceed with war because – wait for it – it would be ‘odd‘ if we didn’t.

Christ, we don’t want to be ‘odd’ now do we? I’d bet that the word ‘odd’ was tested extensively by David Farrar the way he tested the buzzwords Key used for the election. Key pitches every message to the NZ Mall (which is why his election campaign was mostly a nationwide tour of Malls), and that’s the banality of the debate, those who crave wider social acceptance will fall in line with NZ going to war for no other reason than a sense of belonging.

NZers were once described as a passionless people, I think that’s a very generous description post this election.

TDB Recommends NewzEngine.com

26 COMMENTS

  1. And so it goes on. The inability of people to think critically in this country is reason for despair. Do they not remember Colin Powell’s vial of ‘anthrax’ and the flagrantly incorrect ‘intelligence’ about WMD given as reason to go to war with Iraq? Are they not able to see that John Key is presenting precisely the same sort of muddle-headed wooly-worded pretendy ‘evidence’ of a threat to New Zealand?

    The only reason this is being done is because somebody is or wants to be making money out of it…a metric tonne of money…several trillion metric tonnes probably. Those people aren’t your average New Zealander, they are the people intending to make profits either selling arms or contracted private defence services. Then once that’s done and the dust settles, goodness knows how many people having died since, they’ll rush in and make even more phat loot from the reconstruction effort. This will again involve doling out the contracts in a less than fair way to the buddies of those in power.

    Those that questioned Andrea Vance’s knowledge of history in the comments section of her article need to stop shooting the messenger and start wondering why they didn’t see this for themselves.

  2. Great last paragraph about “odd”. Someone should be making a complete list of these mall friendly buzzwords that churn out of the Farrar, Joanne Black, spin office in the beehive.
    These keywords are powerful, they placate, soothe, reassure and ultimately mesmerise the sleepy target market.

  3. Passionless sheeple is what we have. Just watched some You Tube of Irish communities protesting against water meters. Theres some passion – wish we had some of that.

    • So, instead of offering intelligent criticism of Martyn’s opinions, you call him a sick arse bastard instead. Why do you think anybody should listen to your opinion here?

    • Would you please respond with your reasons – attacking the messenger rather than the issue achieves nothing. In fact it is a repetition of the language used by Slater disclosed in the book ‘Dirty Politics’ – have you read it? Why not?

    • @IGM – Threatening violence this time I see, something your master and cohorts from the WhaleOil blog site seem to advocate from time to time!

  4. Read some of the comments yesterday and quickly came to the conclusion that these had been paid for – they are too focused on Vance, too frequent (or did NZ suddenly become politically activated after the election?), and too vindictive to be anything else.

    • Yes just because you don’t agree with them they were paid for and targeted get over it. (I wrote a comment and I did not get paid)

  5. Hey Martin,

    I have another complaint, ban this twerp and place this wanker IGM on your radical right wing list as truly the epitome of Hiltlerism.

    Good article and serves to reminding us that this reckless mob are now following the same path as IGM’s Hitler did before WW2.

    This was also after six years of long painful economic hardship for the middleclass and poor so the only way to start the economy again similar to now.

    Remember our global debt stands now at over 700Trillion while the total asset values of our global stock market is only at 50 Trillion, the global economy is broke beyond repair.

    RNZ said this morning that the latest Government budget forecast is showing the budget surplus National had stated would exist pre election was nothing but a “Mirage”.

    So we are clearly being set up for a big role in war with swathes of low paid workers and unemployed who will gladly take the opportunity to a army pay and go to war under PM warkey.

    • While I disagree with IGM’s comment entirely I’ll defend their right to express their beliefs. Bans are for censors. You can’t have an open and comprehensive debate on any subject without all views being freely available.

      So while their comment effectively amounts to, “Neener, neener, punchy, punchy,” he or she is free to make it. It certainly doesn’t seem to add anything to their argument and is unlikely to gain them any support.

      • Agreed, but IGMs post was 100% bereft of any meaningful content. What’s the point of posting it? How does it add to a healthy debate? S/He clearly disagrees – that’s fine, but what exactly does s/he disagree with and why?

        • The point is that it quite eloquently illustrates the mentality of people who support the existing security arrangements of the state.

          It would be good if people like IGM could be convinced by reasonable arguments, but I think were are way past that point here.

      • Also these arsewipes are necessary, don’t censor them – they give us some substance to flush away with solid criticism (sorry with the terrible pun-like commentary) – I mean, be boring if these brain damaged right wingers were not here to laugh and jeer at.
        Having said that, the humour is not that satisfying – am actually in despair of the large percentage of sheeple inhabiting this not-fair-for-long country. But fight back, we have to.

  6. New Cylinders

    Shades of East Germany

    John Key wants to restrict the right to travel and trap within our borders, citizens who have committed no crime but, who “may” support international causes he doesn’t like.

    Will he be using this law against the numbers of New Zealand defence force personal who took extended leave to fight in Iraq against the express wishes of the New Zealand people and the government of the time?

    • I’m screwed then – I support my Greek anarchist friends and I’m a staunch supporter of international labour.

      To your second point Pat – I know some of these men and for some it was way more complicated than just fighting in Iraq. I know of two who should not have been there at all – as they PTS (post-traumatic-stress) and they felt being in a combat zone was their only option. Which speaks volumes of the upper levels of the officer corps in NZ. I’m not one to blame ordinary soldiers, for the failings of a military elite – who seem out of touch with reality.

  7. Here we go again, its 1914 or Vietnam or any other shitty conflict not of our making and not for our corporations to profit from either. Old school tie, Rugby and God save the King, or Queen in our case. Need to do our bit, show these arabs what for, not going to put up with their sort, eh what? And this is the worry that our subservient conservative bedfellows we live with in this country have created, the ones who have given us this government. Out of touch idiots.

    And yes, Farrar et al will have focus groups going overtime to script the next utterances from Keys mouth. Having said that Key is lost without them

    I wonder if National supporters who just voted for this lot are willing to go join this fight in the front lines of Syria and Iraq, two countries that have so little to do with NZ? Or send their kids?

    Or would they find that just the tiniest bit odd?

  8. I agree with most of this but not running down National voters in this way that turns them into ‘others’.

    Living in a small town is good for the soul, I regularly meet with and have good relationships with people who vote National. Some are dickheads and some are genuine caring people who ask after my family and are genuinely concerned when things aren’t going well for me.

    If we can connect at a personal level, I’m curious to know what is happening at the political level, why there’s a disconnect. I believe our political affiliations are determined by emotion rather than reason but I don’t know exactly where that leads. Except that I think we’ll do better by trying to connect with people rather than vilifying them.

    • while i don’t disagree with your sentiments Aaron, having chosen to raise my family in a provincial area. The fact is after nearly 60 years of breathing I am left with the conclusion that New Zealanders are pretty damned thick. I worked on the MMP campaign and lost count of the otherwise intelligent people i encountered who simply couldn’t understand MMP. I had a simple exercise to illustrate the system but after teaching for a few years I have reached the inescapable conclusion that due largely to the influence of the media, human intelligence is considerably less than it was. A lack of fundamental literacy skills has led to poor comprehension and a complete inability to think critically. If you study the attacks on and changes to the NZ education system curriculum over the last 35 years it is perfectly apparent that that has been the result the neo liberals have been aiming for. I am appalled by the stupidity I encounter in my day to day dealings with the public. I am often criticized for thinking too much . I am tired of pointing out the realities of life here in NZ to young people. That it is not their fault they can'[t earn enough. As for older people I have less and less sympathy as the years go by. I am becoming less caring and more selfish with each passing year. And have to hold myself in check when my contempt outweighs everything else. We are seriously deluded as a nation and very, very stupid in our collective decision making.

      • To a great extent I will agree with much of what you say here, and I do think it is literacy skills which are lacking. The inability to use language to construct an argument or to outline critical thinking.

        However, critical thinking is an integral part of our secondary curriculum. We have excellent passionate teachers trying to teach this… but it’s really difficult when the kids don’t have the language to convey thinking.

        • Precisely which is why I have become a teacher of Public and Professional speaking as well as Drama . It keeps me on my toes as I age and it is so satisfying enabling the young with the skills to communicate orally. Shakespeare is no longer a compulsory part of the English curriculum , our teachers no longer have the skills to teach the Bard. The way oral presentations are taught at secondary level is completely wrong. once again the curriculum is at fault and the teachers do not have the knowledge. They don’t know the principles of rhetoric. I often find myself using transcripts of Winston Peters speeches for teaching because he has all of those ” old fashioned ‘ communication skills.
          When it comes to literacy comprehension is the key, that is what is missing in modern teaching. The look /say, whole language method is at fault here. The fact that old style grammar is not taught neither is spelling . When we introduced a phonics program at our local primary school we were able to use the reading recovery budget to get a music teacher in . As we no longer needed a reading recovery program after 3 years of phonics.

  9. One of the comments posted below Vance’s pieces,

    barnesn2 days ago
    We regulate how and where farmers drive cows. I’m happy if the Govt wants to regulate against security risks on my behalf.
    I have nothing to hide.

    barnesn2 has “nothing to hide”, he says. Hence why he uses a pseudonym?

    Bloody hilarious. *facepalm*

  10. Someone said something interesting on the RNZ the other day, he said ‘We as a species are rushing around faster and faster than ever, like moths around a light bulb unaware it will burn us up’. (The real issue is global warming).

Comments are closed.