Let’s be blunt, these are frightening times.
Human beings need certainty of tomorrow and they need hope, the pandemic has overturned the rhythms of our life and upended our sense of normal.
Into this space creeps fear, add to this fear social media platforms that are algorithmically curated to feed you anger coupled with a low background scientific literacy and you have the perfect cultural media landscape for disinformation, misinformation and a cocktail of terror inspired rage.
I don’t blame people for being ‘vaccine hesitant’ because this is all scary stuff but I do blame people like Billy TK and his leadership team who manipulate this fear for personal power and money.
Billy TK is a snake oil merchant minus the snake & oil. He plays t people’s ignorance and fear and that is disgusting.
The vaccine will dampen down the spread of this virus and it will lessen the severity and mortality rate. It doesn’t have microchips in it, it won’t mutate your DNA, thus isn’t a plot to bring about a one world government.
I’m not going to mock those who are ‘vaccine hesitant’ because that doesn’t help them make the right decision.
Every citizen has the absolute right to refuse the vaccination, but there are consequences to that and it tends to be severe illness and or death.
I don’t want to see people needlessly suffer due to the ignorance someone like Billy TK is spreading so while I won’t attack the followers, I sure as hell will attack Billy and his lieutenants.
Lockdown protester Kelvyn Alp talking about police just after Billy Te Kahika and Vinny Eastwood were arrested. He says police “project force” and that “it’s time we stood up and projected right back at the bastards”. 🤔 #COVID19nz #nzpol pic.twitter.com/XvFCnYP11v
— Bob Miller (@BobbyMiller202) August 18, 2021
Of all the things to start a war with Police over – not being dicks during a pandemic???
Kelvyn’s threshold for resistance seems snowflake fragile.
In a pandemic, we can only be safe when we are all safe.
Go hard or go to Australia.
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Some deaths will quieten these malevolent loonies, and unfortunately the dyings are coming.
Speaking of the vaccine hesitant it seems only 40% of police have been fully vaccinated. Those guys leading the protestor away. As hypocritical as the government threatening the use of force for non compliance when a Labour volunteer was observed during lockdown being…non compliant.
Or an ex National member of parliament deliberately not scanning.
As most of our police are under 40 and their usless minister did not push for them to be pushed up the queue they had till wait until stage 4 came up so point your finger at Poto not the police.
Agreed, treat every frontline worker as a potential contagious super-spreader.
Sorry mate, but this is an operational matter for the police. They should have their own processes in place to ensure that their women and men are protected.
thank you for the common sense rebuttal.
Apologies to Trevor S, I ‘m wrong. It was the Ministry of Health which refused to prioritise front line police officers for vaxing, and the coppers’ union which was, or has been requesting this. I imagine that the cops at the top in HQ were done, because they’re the old ones.
These guys are Nut Jobs who need to be put in re-education camps ?
@Hongi
NZ is not a place where people are imprisoned for having a view, even if that view is unpalatable.
Continue advocating for fascism.
Keep trolling for the right wing.
Stay safe.
Oh yes they are! There’s H8 Speech legislation coming! Woke Liberal latte Mellinials lore.
They have a friendly voice on the Radio Peter Williams pushes his anti vax message to keep up interest in his show . He should be stood down the country does not need to hear this crap
Williams has never been the sharpest knife in the block. I pity anyone who listens to him.
Fifteen seconds of Peter Williams launching into a plug For Soimon Bridges’ new book was as much as I could stand. And he’s antivax, too? Christchurch really is a different country.
Dear Stave Bellentoine. Stop mocking someone’s accent. Why don’t you mock Jacinda’s jeprodise.
Sadly Trevor there are still those out there and at Williams age he can only be pushing his personal agenda, not his employers.
Williams definitely not the smartest Kid on the Block ?
Where I am very few people either trust or have confidence in the New Zealand government. So there is a large cohort who believe that the vaccination program is a genocidal government plot. They tend to be from the most alienated and detached social strata, people with few roots or social connections in the community. Not necessarily people who are poor or uneducated however. They span a range of educational achievement and wealth.
More immediately, the local iwi, the folk who live around the marae, who obviously do have strong connections, have little confidence in the government, which they perceive as at risk of failing to adequately protect their interests, rather than being involved in a malign plot to take lives and destroy communities. Their response to the current situation is more considered (which perhaps can be partly attributed to the fact that there is a high representation of health care workers and teachers in the village) but there is still a level of distrust over the government’s decisions, such as opening up MIQ-free trans-Tasman travel with Australia. Their reaction has been to impose a road block on the state highway that bypasses the village, to discourage the passage of an irresponsible element who don’t much care whether they bring Covid into our rohe, and to send a message to a colonial government which has been, in their assessment, far too lax.
Having said that, there are so many Covid sceptics and deniers out there (possibly approaching half the populace) as to demand serious consideration of their mindset. In part it must be a consequence of neo-liberalism which harks right back to the days in the nineteen eighties when the Labour Party drummed home the idea that the interests of the state are not your interests and that you cannot trust the state to do anything right. More specifically, it is a natural reaction among the vast numbers of Maori and Pakeha who have been left alienated and rootless by the colonialist state, living in transient communities with no sound point of reference. These are the people who move from house to house, from job to job and often from country to country sometimes at intervals of weeks and months rather than years. They see the world as a vast, amorphous, anonymous, unfathomable, ineluctable and malevolent power system, which to them it truly is. They are not susceptible to reason, because it is economic rationality that made their so disjointed and so filled with hidden threats. The only way you can change it is by restoring people to a true point of connection with the land and community.
I dont think you can blame a colonial state if people prefer superstition over science.
Joseph. The colonial state is not the cause of superstition. It is the cause of distrust through its long history of fraud, deceit and duplicity, and it is distrust, rather than superstition, that drives the Covid skeptics.
Most vaccine-hesitant group is those with PhDs, research shows:
https://www.thecollegefix.com/most-vaccine-hesitant-group-is-those-with-phds-research-shows/
https://covid.immune.org.nz/covid-19-vaccines-nz/comirnaty-mrna-pfizerbiontech-vaccine/how-comirnaty-vaccine-works-and
Looked at your link. Tragic trumpy nonsense for dummies. Wasted 4 minutes of my life
Sorry. It was meant for readers.
“A study conducted by Carnegie Mellon University and University of Pittsburgh researchers found that vaccine hesitancy is highest among those with a PhD”
ther are several documentaries on the subject of why people believe in conspiracy theories, and you just nailed one of the main reasons. i dont hate or feel condescension towards these people, just sorrow..
Where he went wrong was NOT being on a bike wearing lycra.
On the clip Alp says, “Perception is reality.”
My perception is that he and Billy Te Kahika are lunatic, idiots.
You can only Poke the Bear so many times before it reacts.
The Bear Reacted.
MB – Many of the “vaccine hesitant” people who choose to believe in the conspiracy theories and the Peter Williams of this world are the ones who will keep this virus spreading because through their denial of the virus and their refusal to get vaccinated – because let’s face it, even though they call themselves “vaccine hesitant” they are in fact uneducated anti-vaxxers – we will not reach the high percentage of a fully vaccinated population New Zealand needs before we can be somewhat more relaxed about restrictions and feel safer than we all feel at the moment.
It is not just public face of anti-vaxxers like Te Kahika and his mob we should be concerned about, it is also the smug “vaccine hesitant” types who, like the virus itself, are invisible yet virulent in their impact on the country.
There is another way of looking at it. With 30% or more of the population refusing vaccination, the state may hesitate to open the borders, thus saving us all an outbreak of Delta or some other variant that rides over the top of the vaccine. Of course the state could also decide to throw the country open to Covid regardless of vaccination levels. We will have to wait and see.
So if we look at it that way the 30% anti vaxxers would be responsible for N.Z. economy tanking?
I favour the Daley’s solution.
Ah yes the ol’ well balanced Kiwi bloke.The one with a chip on both shoulders.
The real star of the main photo of course is the policeman’s
bulging tattooed bicep!
Billy TK should have stuck with blues guitar, and we’d all still think he was cool as…..
Instead we think he’s a dick.
You know its a sick country when property scumlords openly celebrate Delta arriving on our shores.
” Billy TK is a snake oil merchant minus the snake & oil. He plays t people’s ignorance and fear and that is disgusting ”
Put him in jail. Enforce the law for once instead of the Police ” we must educate the public “
Two things about the photo.
Billy-‘Look at me. At last I’m important’
Cop. -I hope these flimsy blue gloves are OK. I have to touch this insect.
A WORD REGARDING “THE VACCINE HESITANT ”
1.when one drives a car it is usually more prudent to put the safety belt on before you crash rather than after the crash.
Wearing no seat belt at all substantially decreases your ability to stay alive .
2. I have no problem with a NZ citizens freedom to choose not to vaccinate . It’s their life .
However …should these rocket scientists require publicly funded hospital care would it not be reasonable to make them pay .
1.Make it perfectly clear they will be billed for the full Medical Costs of Covid treatment if they had previously refused a vaccine . Or alternatively ,
2. Advise them to take out Covid Medical Insurance to cover the potential future health costs ,as the state will only assist citizens who have had a prior vaccination .
Given the mantra of right wing individualism to practice ” Self Responsibility ” this seems a fair go .
It doesn’t seem a fair go that theses people can potentially overload the health system at the expense of normal medical workloads or to place a huge financial burden on the health system and NZ taxpayer because they believed Billy T Numpty and he got it wrong .They should pay .
If 97% of current hospitaliations in the USA from Delta Covid are largely coming from the ” Willingly unvaccinated “.Should the rest of the 80% of American taxpayers who have acted responsibly be paying for the dick heads medical bills? I suspect im not the only one whose compassion erodes when faced with overwhelming arrogance ,righteousness and stupidity.
After some 900,000,000 doses of Pfizer given , it appears pretty safe .Duh.
3.According to RNZ there was annual a biker rally in South Dakota last weekend which is patronised by over 500.000 hog riding ,anti vaxin ,mask burnin , freedom lovin , Trump supporting ,rootn tootn ,good ol boy’s which don’t let a little delta virus get in the way of a jolly good time .
As potentially one of the greatest superspreading events of all time they will then ride home across the country to spread the delta far and wide to mainly republican friends , family and workmates .
The benefit of American Republicans eliminating themselves should not be underestimated .Its called evolution .
Well said BL.
People don’t vaccinate for many reasons, immunocompromised, previous adverse reactions and also mistrust of authorities.
Instead of taking an us and them approach, we should be asking how the hell we got here. How has the spread of fear and disinformation been so widespread and effective for so many people that they are compromising their health and their loved ones health? Why is it that the authorities are so maligned? Could it be that they have been shown to be untrustworthy? Why has the social fabric ripped?
There are bigger fault lines in society to be explored, rather than looking at the cracks on the surface and thinking we know it all.
If you truly want a solution, and avoid repetition in the future, we need to figure out where they are and deal with them
1. Seatbelts are not known to cause death or side effects. Arguments from analogy are fallacious.
2. Do you also propose withholding medical care from the obese, alcohol consumers, smokers, lolly-water drinkers, McDonald’s customers etc etc?
May I remind you what “publicly funded” means.
Anyone who has suffered medical misadventure (or witnessed one) has legitimate cause for vaccine hesitancy, particularly when (a) the vaccine is not yet properly tested and (b) vaccine manufacturers have sought and gained immunity from responsibility.
Would it not make more sense to spend the vast sums required for vaccines and lockdowns on improving treatment and the Health system generally, given that this virus has a IFR of .15% ?
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33768536/
+100% BL brilliant.
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