Sir Russell Coutts’ dictatorship, Mandatory vaccinations & the rights of the individual vs the collective 

By
Martyn Bradbury
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79
3542
Proof positive that Labour are planning to take over the country with secret socialist stormtroopers.

Sailing: Kiwi yachting great Sir Russell Coutts accuses Government of ‘dictatorship’ in social media post

Kiwi sailing great and America’s Cup hero Sir Russell Coutts has launched a stinging attack on the Government, accusing it of turning into a “dictatorship”.

There has been an explosion of fear and paranoia over the Government’s Covid response.

Suddenly everyone is comparing Labour to fascism, or blaming them for earthquakes or casual genocide and a murder Disneyland .

The hyperbole matches our brittle states of mind after being locked down in de facto house arrest for 3 months.

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Everyone is angry and frustrated.

Amongst the unvaccinated is a rising tide of radicalization and sense of persecution that borders on easily triggered millennial snowflake level.

It is important I think to ease the concerns of the unvaccinated while acknowledging the impatience of the double vaxxed.

Let’s be very clear, it is unacceptable for any State to hold down a person against their will and inject them with medicine, even if it’s for the individuals own good.

A human being has intrinsic rights, and forcing medicine on someone via a process as intrusive as an injection would be immoral but the State has an obligation towards public health so making the jab mandatory for certain jobs is their mandate.

In terms of service provision and vaccination passports, the unvaccinated still require medical services and supermarkets so they should be able to access those as long as they follow social distancing and mask wearing but for restaurants and pubs and retail outlets, those private business have the authority to set standards to ensure their double vaxxed customers are safe.

It’s like smoking in a restaurant, your freedom to smoke crosses my right to not have cancer.

Those pretending they live free of any restriction ignore the obligations those freedoms demand. You have a right to not be vaccinated but that right doesn’t undermine everyone else’s right to be safe.

You want to smoke, you don’t do it around the rest of us who don’t want to.

This is not dictatorship, it’s basic public health.

Chill the fuck out folks.

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79 COMMENTS

  1. If Russell Coutts could get close he’d throw a brick of US $100 bills at Jacinda, maybe more.

    I really could not care less what some mercenary sportsman who now lives in Shangri la and who bathes in money thinks of the way NZ is run.

  3. Coutts is just another spoilt brat throwing his toys out of the cot.
    I would add to Martyn’s punchline, grow the fuck up.

  4. What about the Govts requirement to keep its citizens safe? Surely that means checking out ALL options and HONESTLY reporting back on them.
    Who is going to put their reputation and Govt-pension on the line and LIE to us about Ivermectin? Remember, the propaganda wave over ‘weapons of mass destruction’? Whos head rolled after that fiasco?
    I don’t know of any ‘top expert’, NZ or otherwise, who directly denies Ivermectin has human usage, won the Noble prize in 2015 for human use, and is being sucessfully used in many places around the world.
    NOBODY with any ability to look at facts and make a logical conclusion can seriously doubt Ivermectin looks to be a great solution that NEEDS an HONEST trail in NZ.
    I know you’ve all convinced yourself that you’re right. But have you HONESTLY read/listened to the othersides argument? I have no choice but to hear yours, it’s the propaganda message everywhere.
    But when you pigeon hole ALL people who’ve a difficerent opinion, as ONLY nutters you fall for the trap Mark Twain famously refers to………..“It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.”

      • The FDA explains: “Even the levels of ivermectin for approved human uses can interact with other medications, like blood-thinners. You can also overdose on ivermectin, which can cause nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, hypotension (low blood pressure), allergic reactions (itching and hives), dizziness, ataxia (problems with balance), seizures, coma and even death.”

        It’s actually one of the safest drugs given to humans (when used as prescribed).

        • Not sure what point youre trying to make, but all drugs have interactions, hence why it’s so concerning that the vac seems to be ‘one size fits all’, And given responsibly at a hospital/medical al centre would not lead to overdose, And you need to read the guide sheet on every medicine . They all have disturbing side effects. Panadol can
          be deadly!

    • Ivermectin is a poster child of the conspiracy theory driven right. It fits into the libertarian narrative. It hasn’t been proven at all and is responsible for hospitalising those taking it in an uncontrolled manner.

      Stick to facts please.

    • Using ivermectin to cure covid is like giving me a fork to consume chicken soup. To spell it out: forks are great for spagetti – useless for soup, much like ivermectin for covid.

  5. The four main steps to ideological subversion are:

    Demoralization – This process can take 15 – 20 years (approximately a generation) and involves the intellectual reprogramming of young people to become sympathetic to ideas that gravitate closer to socialism and communism. The idea is to cement ethos, ideals, and frameworks into the minds of people who will one day become the leaders of a nation’s government, corporations, and military. As this new generation begins to take leadership roles, the older generation begins to cede control to a subset of the population that has different ideas.

    Destabilization – This stage of the process is intended to change a country’s economy, foreign relations, and defense systems. The driving force is a larger and larger government, which continues to promise a variety of social welfare benefits. It ultimately doesn’t matter if they successfully deliver on their promises, because the mere promise of a stronger social safety net becomes too much for the demoralized generation to resist.

    Crisis – This stage is the shortest in terms of timeline, meaning it could be merely weeks long. There is a catastrophic event that takes place and leads to social unrest dividing the nation. The division of the population presents an opportunity for a significant shift in power and control at the government level. Past examples would include the overthrowing of the government in Egypt and Libya in the last decade.

    Normalization – This is the final stage of the cycle. It is the process of citizens accepting communism/socialism as the selected way of life. They no longer fight the new model, but rather believe that it is the standard of governance for everyone around the world.

    • Hi James, you’ve managed to very succinctly sum up the last 40 years of neoliberalism. Thank you.

      If you need to there is a definition of communism in the oxford dictionary you can look up – it doesn’t seem that item 4 fits with that definition.

    • This sounds pretty much the process by which NZ became part of the vanguard for neoliberalism. Are we heading for the out-of-control Covid crisis do the country can set about rectifying the faults of the last dose of ideological subversion? One could only hope James.

    • We once had an an egalitarian ethos and then it was subverted by neo-liberal shills of capitalist greed.

      This is what happened to us.

      And that sort of MK Ultra big lie dribble is part of the cover up.

  6. I don’t mind if the demonised non vaccinated folk want to come have a curry and a beer with me in a restaurant. I’m double dosed and in line for a booster so safe as houses right. I’ve done my part for the team. They the ones that need to worry…

    • Nath, absolutely 100 % spot on.

      GOOD ON YOU FOR HAVING AN OPINION RATHER THAN THE USUAL NEGATIVE MANTRA.

      HOW DARE YOU!

      Double vaccinated let the games begin.

  7. I cracked up at Couttsy throwing his $1c piece into the debate – I instantly recalled the old Chappelle bit: ‘where’s Ja?!’ This dickhead doesn’t even live in NZ, and hasn’t for decades now. Fuck off Russ, when we need advice on how to sail a boat, like some bloody caveman, we’ll be in touch.

    I probably show my age a bit when I recall the good old days of the internet, when Godwin’s Law was ironclad, and a good many of us were well-educated enough (there was a certain barrier to entry that kept the dummies away, mostly) to have actually read Orwell extensively – maybe most pertinently his 1944 article ‘What is Fascism?’

    “It will be seen that, as used, the word ‘Fascism’ is almost entirely meaningless. In conversation, of course, it is used even more wildly than in print. I have heard it applied to farmers, shopkeepers, Social Credit, corporal punishment, fox-hunting, bull-fighting, the 1922 Committee, the 1941 Committee, Kipling, Gandhi, Chiang Kai-Shek, homosexuality, Priestley’s broadcasts, Youth Hostels, astrology, women, dogs and I do not know what else.”

    How about everyone just shut up about things of which they know nothing? Is that too much too ask?

      • Yeah. It pretty much goes for ‘socialism’ and ‘neoliberalism’ too, these days. The terms are (un)surprisingly mutable. I don’t really blame people for trying to find patterns in the scary chaos of history – but it’s all just dangerously sophisticated chimp logic. Monkey see monkey don’t. Children arguing about what shape some random cloud resembles. There certainly is a lesson to be learned from the Hitlers, Lenins, and Maos of this world: we’re not ever as clever as we like to think we are.

        Modernity’s greatest victim is humility. Why not wallow in a smirking, smug nihilism? Everybody is wrong – and does it even matter? Live and let die.

  8. “How New Zealand, a country where it’s people greatly valued freedom of choice…..how we even got to this stage of blindly accepting this sort of unilateral rule, power and dictatorship from our government is deeply troubling indeed.”

    The words of Russell Coutts. He’s talking of NZ’s Covid response of course.

    “The price of allowing this FTA to proceed without open public and media debate is just too high. Another TPPA-style agreement will lock us into the failed neoliberal project of the 20th century at a time when we desperately need to discuss and develop a new paradigm that will confront the realities of a 21st century already beset with multiple, potentially existential crises”.

    “How New Zealand, a country where it’s people greatly valued freedom of choice…..how we even got to this stage of blindly accepting this sort of unilateral rule, power and dictatorship from our government is deeply troubling indeed.”
    The words of Russell Coutts. He’s talking of NZ’s Covid response of course.

    “The price of allowing this FTA to proceed without open public and media debate is just too high. Another TPPA-style agreement will lock us into the failed neoliberal project of the 20th century at a time when we desperately need to discuss and develop a new paradigm that will confront the realities of a 21st century already beset with multiple, potentially existential crises”.

    Jane Kelsey’ conclusion to her piece on the recent NZ-UK free trade agreement.
    https://theconversation.com/old-wine-in-new-bottles-why-the-nz-uk-free-trade-agreement-fails-to-confront-the-challenges-of-a-post-covid-world-170621

    Isn’t here a common thread here? Just where does policy for the public good begin and end?

  9. Mr Coutts–former bum chum of sirFay, “sell sword” sailor–forever Loyal–to the highest payer…yes, sure we should take his advice on how to deal with COVID Delta…

    the capitalist elite are clearly rattled, the Hosking, Soper etc. media campaign did not work well enough, so they have propped up sirKey, and now a faded relic of the four hour lunch 80s

    as for vaccination–grow up some of you–you sound like you were breast fed till 5 years old, home schooled and always hold the remote

  10. Dictatorships, compulsory vaccinations and freedom?

    There are a lot of crazy people in the world and Texas has it’s fair share. The debate about compulsory vaccinations and individual rights there has illustrated some of the craziness. Covid vaccinations are the current hot topic with many on lots of high horses. It’s hardly worth living apparently with individual rights being taken off people.

    You see the attached “Texas Minimum State Vaccine Requirements for Students Grades K-12” and ask, “What? You are happy for those rules to be in place for entry, attendance, or transfer to a child-care facility or public or private elementary or secondary school in Texas yet you go loopy about covid vaccinations? What’s that about?” Then you get the :”Oh, but…”

    https://www.dshs.texas.gov/immunize/school/school-requirements.aspx

    • Masks and Vaccines are an affront to personal freedom in Texas apparently, but the mainly male legislators are quite happy to mandate and punish women regarding their reproductive rights.

  14. More than just a touch of entitlement about his comments. Always easy to make comments after the fact as National have repeatedly proven. Not so easy when you have to anticipate what will unfold next and the potentially devastating ramifications of the decisions made.

    When the wealthy entitled yachtsman and friend of John Key next thinks about undermining one of the main reasons our Covid death toll is so low, perhaps he can also write a list of his family and friends he’s prepared to sacrifice to the disease to prove his comments weren’t just anti a Government his ilk would never vote for and arrogant entitlement. It would also be very helpful if he compared the Covid death tolls of the countries he compared NZ’s Covid response with. Another big question being, what would Russell Coutts have done had he been leading NZ through this pandemic? How many deaths would have resulted?

    What is the demographic of those hospitalized with serious Covid illness and deaths? Are those victims the usual demographic wealthy yachtsmen routinely rub shoulders with?

  16. So exactly who is the unvaccinated a threat to, other than themselves and maybe another unvaccinated person?

    Or are you now saying the vaccine doesn’t work?

    • Andrew,

      The vaccine does not absolutely guarantee you wont contract severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‐CoV‐2). My understanding is that should a vaccinated person contract the disease, it’s significantly less likely to lead to hospital admission and or death. Stats back this up emphatically. They can however still be bowled over by the disease and spread the disease to others including vulnerable people unable to take the vaccine.

      The freedom of choice thing is a red herring. Imagine a smoker being in a car full of non smokers but he decides it’s his freedom of choice to smoke a cigarette…..and then he blames the non smokers for the resulting disagreement etc.

      Only the ignorant are saying the vaccine doesn’t work. There is considerable compelling evidence that the vaccine is our best weapon against Covid but the Expert-Novice anti vax brigade are only interested in their own “facts”.

      • Only the ignorant say the cell biology modifier prevents the spread of infection.

        And only the ignorant say the untested cell biology modifier is safe.

        Evidence is now emerging that the cell biology modifier impairs the jabbed person’s immune system, leading to an increase in susceptibility to disease, as witnessed in Waterford, Ireland.

        Hence the rising numbers of jabbed people in countries tied into the Pfizer scam.

        Jabs forever (or until you die), anyone?

        https://www.rt.com/usa/538543-cdc-fourth-booster-immunocompromised/

      • Sorry old chap, but I’d trust Stuff as far as I could throw them. Weighed down by identity politics and millions of Govt slush funds.

        Just yesterday The Guardian reported a very recent real world study that indicated “whether an infected individual is themselves fully vaccinated or unvaccinated makes little or no difference to how infectious they are to their household contacts.”

        Good news is NZ’s hospitalisation rate is falling and fatality rate is a mere 0.06% for Delta. You’re simply highly likely to recover from Covid-19. We also have summer ahead, which is the ideal season to open up completely and manage the inevitable bump.

        There is considerable evidence vaccines are only part of the puzzle and many tools exists, including treatment, rapid testing, and self isolation.

        And if vaccines were a silver bullet, why would we be talking boosters indefinitely? I don’t recall yearly typhoid, chickenpox, measles, etc boosters.

        Free choice is completely irrelevant – if you treat people as disease vectoring pieces of meat without humanity, rights, or multi-dimensionality. That’s essentially what you’re arguing for – a total antithesis of Liberal democracy – people as objects, not subjects with agency. A free society always has a cost – that’s why it’s free. We accept it every day for all manner of harms, illness, and deaths.

        It’s no longer 2020 but you seem to be stuck there. I can suggest China might suit your sensibilities better – freedom and rights are also irrelevant there and there is a great tendency to hysteria on “safety” to justify mass human rights violations.

  19. Yes agree, all he (Coutts) cares about his himself and how much water he can extract from the local waterway for his private golf course. If anything this Covid epidemic has highlighted how greedy and selfish many are in our country mainly the very wealthy.

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