Once upon the time the Herald on Sunday pretended to have some balance in that they would have an opposing voice to the usual foaming right wing fanatics it hands column inches to.
That was once upon a time. Matt McCarten used to write the column in HoS, and the Herald briefly considered a few writers to be his replacement (I was one of them), but then the Herald decided not to have a left wing columnist at all and just kept far right ratbag Rodney Hide on instead.
Charming.
This week we had to put up with Rodders standing up for the destruction of 500 year old trees because his selfish property rights philosophy – which in part is what is exacerbating global warming – demands that an owner has the right to do what they like to the environment, regardless of the cost to the wider community.
Hide claims those who protested are abusive and selfish!!! Talk about chopping down native forests in glass houses, it is the environmental vandalism of the developers who are at fault here and screaming property rights at a time when we should have intelligence and respect for nature shows how fanatical Hide and his neoliberalism really is.
We can’t go around chopping down trees that have taken hundreds of years to grow, we don’t have that many left! I have no problems with a Community over turning some buggers need to be able to jet off to Bali for a months holiday off the back of their latest subdivision.
The arrogant selfishness of Hide’s column reeks with privilege minus any values other than a child screaming for its toy. We tolerate Hide and the Herald’s lack of diverse opinion, so we tree huggers are actually showing a remarkable amount of tolerance.
Well have you all not heard about the Vogon spaceship destroying Earth to make way for a new galactic hyperspace?
Similarly , this is Hide’s attitude.
So whats needed then is a council to designate a new motorway project that completely runs through and bisects his property arbitrarily and without consideration whatsoever for any protestations that he may offer.
And to which devalues the equity and land value of said property so that he will readily sell for any small amount that is offered to recoup his losses..
Such is the same boorish mentality that Hide shares with other neo liberal pirates and their intergalactic counterparts , the Vogons.
Funny how right wing, neo-lib fanatics like Hide (and their fanboys) demand their rights – but never consider their responsibilities.
Yet, the right wing are the ones who demand “personal responsibility” from everyone else.
Spot on Frank.
Their continual attacks on the poor,the disabled and the old may be
more sinister than most people might think.
I am waiting for cuts in the pension next.
Thank God for Winston and his Gold Card. Double+ benefits overseas.
Cheers.
Lets take your view on personal responsibility as valid and acknowledge that the property owners had a responsibility around the protection of this tree. Didn’t they follow all the current processes in place to allow people to advise them of this respoonsibility? Also if property owners need to acknowledge their responsibility over the environment does that mean you agree other people also have to acknowledge their own responsibility on other aspects of their lives such as getting a job?
Yes but rodney hide thinks rodney hide’s wonderful so it doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks . So long as the love keeps giving between him and himself , life goes of for the rodney hide love affair .
Just like every other pro free-market neoliberal slithering around out there . Their special brand of insanity is a hugely powerful tool to manipulate their prey with . Once under the neoliberal witch craft of greed is good , burn the planet for a dollar , fuck you mate , it’s mine now , the lesser determinedly ignorant and just plain lazy and stupid will stand back and tut tut as some other voodoo princeling tries to cut down a tree; of some social standing I might add . A Kauri isn’t some foreign-bastard macrocarpa after all .
So , the careless and mopey will tut tut and the greedy and vile will say good on ya maaaaate as they oil up the chainie .
Good on you @ Martyn Bradbury . Only a Daily Blogger would stick up for a tree at the expense of some shitty hut designed to peddle debt to schumcks .
Countryboy;
And the joke is there is no free market. It’s a myth.
The Oligarchs don’t like competition.
No one has mentioned what the value of the timber might have been.
Cheers.
After reading a few of Rodney’s columns I am left with the impression of a very narrow minded person with an almost immature way of looking at things. Intolerant of other cultures or ideas. If it doesn’t fit Rodney’s way of thinking something is wrong with it.
I remember how vile he was during the port dispute, constantly repeating the company’s false narrative & dirty politics on radiolive, denigrating the workers for political purposes, a form of harassment and abuse.
Ironic that today he is berating protesters for lacking ‘tolerance and respect’ and creating “an atmosphere of such rancour and abuse” – exactly what he has willingly participated in in the past, and what he continues to display in his opinion pieces.
Actually, I think what Rodney Hide suffers from is naivete. You see, in basic principal, I agree with him, however I am not so naive as him as to believe that it can work once you throw human nature into the mix. I can think of nothing better than a society that requires no law or regulation because we all thought of what effect our actions could have on others before we did them. Accumulating more and more at the expense of others would become not only unnecessary but a total anathema to the true understanding of freedom. Sadly, we do not seem to be able to see our way clear to live like this so we are unable to live the true libertarian ideal, which is, in fact, libertarian left.
Rae;
‘Sadly,we do not seem to be able to see our way clear to live like this’
It’s because we are not allowed to.
It’s all in the way we educate and indoctrinate our our young.
There was a time in China(and Japan I presume)when there was
hardly any crime for fear of losing face.
It was ingrained that strongly,that if they did they would commit suicide.
Heaven on earth.
Cheers.
Rodney Hide is Rodney Hide, a master of diffusion and blame shifting.
It was his monster he cleverly created with Key for business run by business, set up to privatise assets, the Auckland Council , the one we never got to choose, the one where we vote for people who are impotent, that anti democratic body. So when you take away people’s right to be represented, Rodney, the options they have left starting at the minor end of the scale are protest.
But what caught my eye was this Saturday’s Herald opinion piece by Fran O’Sullivans in defence of John Keys performance with the 1080 debacle and Winston Peters “nasty” allegation that “the Government had chosen to make the threat public four months after it was received to “distract people” during the Northland byelection campaign”.
She wrote, “Key may be occasionally cynical. He is a politician. But he is speaking the truth………” in regard to his reasoning on withholding information on the 1080 threat. Occasionally cynical, OMG, really Fran, but speaking the truth??, fuck me that’s like claiming there’s a Saudi sized oil well under Queen St! Next we’ll have statements like Stalin was so not paranoid.
I am tired of the friends of National in their positions of influence rushing to his aid when the chips are down, deciding that in spite of all the evidence of the past 6 years of his manipulative, cynical, dishonest, dodgy behaviour they will trade their brains in for a cabbage and pretend to us dummy’s in newspaperland that Key is some kind of misunderstood, honest, straight shooter with good intentions.
On this occasion Peters was dead accurate and you don’t have to be a genius to work that out.
Xray;
Hear,hear.
And to get us to this point they had to take down CH7&6 and extinguish our NZ Press Ass.
The only semblance of proper public broadcasting and high quality
‘clean’ cartoons for the kids.
And that’s just what they did. TV 1,2,3,4 x2 and a shopping channel!! A total act of vandalism of Freeview.
Then Sky takes over Prime and the last act in their play was to place the Racing channel with Sky.
And not a bleep from the opposition against this process. Labour should have been screaming from the rooftops! I will never vote for them again,ever, and I come from a working class background.
They are controlled by the same Global Elite thru their caucus.
‘Left’ and ‘Right’ is a bloody illusion.
And we are supposed to be a nation of rugby,racing and beer!
But oh,we have to pay for it. Pay for our own propaganda,mainstream history and pseudo-science documentaries. See what I mean by absolutely no competition.
That’s why the internet is the only place left for us unless we do something about the situation.
Sky started out with no advertising,and then,by increment,adds galore so we pay for them as well.
Every nation they go into they corrupt youth and ‘westernize’/destroy it’s culture,in my humble opinion.
We have not had a voice like Martyn’s for a very long time.
So they ban him for life from RNZ,of all places!!!!!
It’s all been the biggest act of Fascism this nation has seen in years!
I’ve had my rant for the week.I’ll go to bed now,I am so upset.
Cheers.
Which assets have the Auckland council sold off since the reforms?
as i explained to my english student. the guy next door can’t keep pigs on his own land , we have a responsibility to community
Well….that means no one will rent out a cheap flat for Wodney next door then……poor Wodney.
All dressed up and nowhere to go.
Rodney’s just pouring petrol on a fire that’s nearly out. His rant underlines the reason the ACT party is a failure. Ideological fundamentalism of whatever brand doesn’t work in a civiilised society because life is a series of compromises. We all want some freedom to develop our patch. But cutting down ancient iconic trees…no not in Titirangi. It doesn’t matter how much dirt you currently own those trees have been and will be around for more generations than we’ll share our lives with so just leave them please.
Sometimes Rodney writes good reasoned stuff but when he resorts to the ACT equivalent of “Allah Akbhar”, just breathe in and look at a tree.
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