Controversial philosopher Peter Singer’s speaking event cancelled in NZ
Controversial Australian philosopher Peter Singer says he expects to find an alternative venue for his Auckland appearance in June.
Singer was due to appear at SkyCity on June 14, but on Tuesday SkyCity cancelled the booking because of the concerns of disability activists.
The cancellation was a reaction to a Newshub report criticising Singer’s past statements about disability, including his belief that parents of profoundly disabled newborns should be allowed to ask doctors to end the child’s life.
Who the hell is a Casino to be the moral arbitrator of debate?
They pimp the worst compulsive disorder human beings have and sell that addiction right back to the addicted!
It’s like being lectured on etiquette by cancer!
Who the fuck is a Casino to judge?
The only reason we tolerate SkyCity is because regulated gambling is a far better outcome than a prohibition state that would empower organised crime!
You are a tolerated necessary evil, you are not judge, jury and executioner of free speech!
The shining slither of hope in all of this is the slow but building backlash to woke cancellation culture and its puritanical streak of ruthless heresy crimes that must be censored…
The Detail: Does cancel culture limit freedom of thought?
Journalist and broadcaster Graeme Hill has interviewed Singer twice, and wrote an article in the New Zealand Herald in February arguing Sky City should’ve let him speak.
Hill says a type of groupthink is evolving in which people who see themselves as morally “right” take a perverse joy in de-platforming people they disagree with.
“The rejoicing … finding something, anything, which doesn’t fit the polite society narrative … they can be held down, lose their jobs, [be made] exempt from society from that point forward.”
Hill says the situation is comparable to the zenith of McCarthyism in the USA in the 1950s – and that a societal pushback may be required.
“It behoves us to recognise when that sort of thing is happening, and to pull back and have a good think about it.
“Mao killed millions of people through neglect, hubris and horror … I’m not talking about that.
“But it really is dystopian … if you feel, right, the opinion is all on my side, therefore we are right – it’s easier to be caught up in it.
…we should be ashamed a Casino banned a philosopher from speaking because free speech is now defined by the Invisible Council of Enlightened Outrage!
The real danger here is that this cult of woke censorship triggers the dormant political fault line that is ACT and inadvertently hands ammunition to Seymour’s free speech crusade.
ACT shouldn’t ever get above .5%, but this constant censorship activism by the woke could well hand ACT 3%+ as the ubiquitous nature of social media creates alienating woke censorship examples in everyones social media feeds.
A National/ACT Government would give the woke something to finally wake up over.
The looming debate on hate speech is going to easily feed these tensions.
PS – Peter Singer was offered another venue because the Trusts Arena believed freedom of speech mattered. Support them for having the courage.
Fully agree and I’m glad you are brave enough to be on the correct side of the ledger over woke culture.
It’s a horrible thing to have the moral police decide your part of society doesn’t matter or your opinions don’t count over gender/race/occupation/location/recreation.
That these people currently have their hands on the levers of power is a situation that will only lead to more dystopian censorship and loss of freedom unless reversed at this election.
Agree 100%. Never heard of the Peter Singer, but boy the woke really help controversial views get out into the mainstream by their actions trying to get these people banned from speaking. Same as the Lauren Southern and Stefan Molyneux duo. I’m sure they were not mainstream name in NZ until the woke panic.
Also noticing every NZ public coronavirus notice is claiming there is rampant racism occurring in NZ but the only real evidence they seem to be able to muster up is a guy being beaten up in the UK https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2020/03/coronavirus-is-bringing-the-worst-out-in-people.html
Anybody who knows anything about the UK would know these people beat up everyone it’s part of multiculturalism there and it’s all across the racial divide, and they don’t just stop there. From people claiming to be blowing up the buses and tubes on 7 July 2005 on behalf of muslims, killing 52 people and injuring 700, to the islamaphobic Darren Osborne killing one and injuring 12 by driving his van into the public at a nearby mosque. 96 killings (some by UK police) are racially motivated https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-16438933 and literally thousands of attacks through their history based on identity issues https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_terrorist_incidents_in_Great_Britain
If someone getting beaten up in the UK is now considered proof of rampant coronavirus racism – pretty far fetched, because you could wear the wrong colour T – shirt and be attacked by the same thugs. Many are just angry and looking for an excuse, its called over crowding and social poverty.
In my view the constant fake racial cries in NZ by the media and officials that are either trivial, fake or overblown and are another strategy (by reverse) is how we will become a racially divided country like the UK and US and thus keep the neoliberal agenda continuing.
The neoliberals want racial attacks in NZ to create the diversion for neoliberalism to continue here.
Seen it all before with the Urewera raids… now arming the police in South Auckland, because of the terror attacks that occurred in CHCH by a person who was not a Kiwi and nothing in place to stop overseas nationals coming to NZ to do it again such as much greater border control of visitors and racial/criminal profiling and a cautious approach to letting people like Tarrant into NZ to train to become a terrorist here (while probably receiving a NZ benefit to help the cause. )
And if they had bothered to tighten the NZ borders, with the Meth and drug shipments and agricultural bactaria like PSA, like they have with coronavirus, then the NZ government could have voided the Meth and agricultural disasters which has been a human and economic disaster here for the last decade.
Well said Martyn. I’ve long been a bit of a redneck and on the righty side of the political spectra but since I started reading your articles I’m beginning to think you are NZs answer to the likes of a Jimmy Dore.
Well done and keep it up.
By the “woke”I gather you mean Labour and the Greens? After all they are if I’m not mistaken the one’s pushing the “Hate speech” agenda? No that the Nats seem to be criticising and they bloody well should be!. So thank God for ACT (never thought I’d say that). At least they are for whatever reason doing what most reasonable people want and if they get 5% or more next election we can thank the current govt for that.
woke activism is an intolerant fundamentalist cult. it’s a mob mentality does not allow diverse ideas or dissent from woke mantras. having conquered the social sciences it’s attacking the hard sciences, history and philosophy.
all human relations are viewed through the lens of power and oppression. religion and morality is bad, except Islam. freedom of thought/critical thinking is bigotry. human nature is a blank slate. evolutionary genetics is racist. nations and borders are racist. academic achievement is racist.
these dipshits are destroying the Left and aiding the Corporate takeover of democracy
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