On this weeks Working Group (NZs best weekly political Podcast that ISN’T funded by NZ on Air), Matt Mcarten tells us a story of how at the end of last year, Jacinda and Neve went out for a coffee with a friend of theirs at a cafe just in their private capacity.
The way any mum with their daughter does every weekend.
However when Jacinda and their friend and Neve had settled down at a table, two people walked into the cafe after learning of Jacinda being in there, and started screaming at Jacinda and Neve telling them how they intended to hurt and kill Neve and Jacinda.
No mother should have feral lunatics screaming death threats at them and their child in a cafe.
The response from the Feral Right to accusations their toxic malice towards Jacinda is misogynistic has provoked the most ridiculous and surreal of defences.
The first defence is the argument that Jacinda herself claims that the tsunami of bile she faced had no impact on her decision, but you all saw with your own eyes how burnt out she was and incidents like the cafe one are impossible to ignore.
The truth is Jacinda could never point to that abuse because it would embolden these feral lunatics and that would make things more dangerous for female leaders in the future if the ferals believe this is an effective tactic.
The second defence is the following, “‘My spiteful, vicious, abusive and threatening hate is NOT misogynistic’
Ummmm. Ok.
Let’s pretend for one second that your spiteful, vicious, abusive and threatening hate is NOT misogynistic, but it’s still spiteful, vicious, abusive and threatening hate isn’t it?
We can pretend you are not sexist if you want, but you are still spiteful, vicious, abusive and threatening right?
There is a world of difference between criticising the PM and her policies and threatening to hurt her kid right?
The Right are desperate that you don’t see how their wave of abuse burnt Jacinda out because they are now scared at how this all looks.
There is a danger in the way and manner in which the Right have burnt Jacinda out.
Henry Cooke did a very good break down of who the swing voters are.
They are 50+ white tertiary educated women.
They voted Helen Clark, but were then seduced by John Key.
They voted for Jacinda because in her leadership they saw themselves and they emotionally bonded deeply to her.
They see the hate online pushed by the Right and they experience it themselves online all the time.
Will that swing voter reward that hatred and malice politically?
By burning Jacinda out with hate, ACT and National have ended up like the Republicans winning Abortion rights in America last year.
The shock wave at how Republicans won the Abortion fight burnt the Republicans in the mid terms, I think the danger for the political right in NZ is that the manner in which they’ve taken out Jacinda creates a backlash that solidifies around Labour and the Greens
The wider community of NZ are shocked at what has happened to Jacinda while a small percentage of feral antivaxxers aligned with National and ACT are rejoicing.
I don’t think Kiwis will reward this type of political malice and ACT and National will see a backlash to this type of toxic politics.
That’s why the Right are so keen for you to not have seen what your eyes told you, that they had maliciously destroyed her, because in the cold light of day we all lost from this kind of ugly cruelty.
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Bomber’s thought experiments have me giving side eye sometimes, but really agree with this one.
As soon as Jacinda’s announcement was made I thought “this could a US Midterm clone–revenge of the women and the young”.
there are a lot of loose ends to thi stay Did it happen as described, Where was rthe DPS did tghe police investigate a threat on the life of the PM’s child/ Were police even informed What was the name of cafe/ why did it take a month for it to be publicised. Is it as outrageous as it sounds, Or Clickbait based on hearsay.
As many loose ends as there are to the many stories on sites ‘Jacinda has destroyed New Zealand?’
Please provide evidence, very rash statement ?
Why? The people making claims about her never have any evidence. I’ve seen that first hand a thousand times.
Not everything in the world needs to appear in the media for it to have happened.
@Martyn
“The truth is Jacinda could never point to that abuse because it would embolden these feral lunatics and that would make things more dangerous for female leaders in the future if the ferals believe this is ban effective tactic.”
Assuming you are 100% correct, (I think abuse is a part of the story but is too simplistic, demeans Ardern’s resilience and dignity in favour of victimhood and prevents mainstreaming a hard discussion on the left as to why popularity went from over +70% to -1%). However assuming you are completely correct, don’t you think the media frenzy on this topic and crediting “the ferals” with a political victory (correctly or incorrectly) is going to embolden them and make things more dangerous for female leaders in the future. The media frenzy IS saying abuse is an effective tactic.
There is that angle. But I put it substantially down to Jacinda Ardern, as an individual human. She had had enough, she got COVID–which can cause major brain fade and exhaustion even if you are not a Prime Minister. Few pundits seem to have factored her illness in so far.
So you think mysoginstic abuse is OK. Mind you, not suprising from a Jordan Peterson diciple.
Wasn’t that her approval declined but that says nothing about her popularity?
Yes, that’s exactly what it said Kiwijoker, but bob doesn’t know the difference. He comes from a time when petrol was called benzine…
The real risk to Labour is that media will support Bombers narrative all while they prepare the way for a return to class warfare regime governance under National.
Remember it was not just the unvaccinated (mandates), the international class whose lifestyles were limited and the farmers who felt slighted during Labour’s tall poppy popularity period. But also media.
They will relish holding a blow torch to the government (and Hipkins in lieu of Ardern) to show all the critics of Labour how essential their role is in a (neo-liberal regime) democracy.
There will always be nutters on both side of the political spectrum who take thinks too far but surely they cannot be entirely to blame for Jacinda stepping down .She is a young mother which is a job in itself running the country as well is a step too far over time and she has made a choice to put family first and good on her .Politics has been her whole life and she has reached the top in this country .The only way forward was down so why stay ? Marriage, another child then a good job possibly overseas why deny her that
. The vitriol may have been a factor but surely it was not the whole story even if this sits well with the line you are pushing about the evil right .
I agree with you on this Trevor, lots of salient points.
Not entirely to blame … that’s a great defence.
You can only resist cancer for so long and this one started with a few cells and then metastasised. How do you deal with people like Jenna Lynch and Jessica on a daily basis while you know they’re doing their best to undermine you. The ceaseless baying for blood on social media? It’s draining and debilitating and we now have the result.
There is a pattern in these attacks, certain stock phrases, worst PM ever, liar, PR Hunter, shallow, weak, wrecked the economy, tyrant, wrecked of democracy, etc generally delivered in unsupported one liners as statements of fact, anonymously.
In addition the 5th colon as “ legitimate “ commentators” disguise opinion as fact, drive their knives in on any TV forum they can suck onto, all with their lean and hungry looks and their 30 prices of silver, but all done in the best possible taste.
I hope Nikki Haager is beavering away somewhere. In the meantime it’s time for good men to stand and call these pricks out.
Totally agree Kiwijoker. Jenna and Jessica are toxic and with a merger, Jessica should get the boot. Andrea Vance would be a good replacement.
And now Jacinda’s successor is talking about bringing in even more immigrants to drive wages down, even as inflation continues to rise. How odd that these politicians are hated.
When Jacinda announced her resignation, after the initial shock, I realised that I was relieved: I’d been afraid of what could happen to our Prime Minister. Feared for her life and the ramifications for Neve.
Relief in this context is a shocking response and saddening.
All party leaders in NZ would show integrity and caring for us all by standing up and forming a front against the abuse and threatening behaviour Jacinda and many others have had to deal with and are dealing with. My hunch is this is wishful thinking on my part…..
Good call by Jacinda and Labour hopefully it will stop the rot and Labour will get enough votes to form a Government with the Greens and the Maori Party. I shudder at the thought of a National/Labour Coalition Party.
I’ve listened to the rhetoric coming from the critically challenged for the last 5 years and have come to the conclusion that many of the conservative crowd are just a bunch of sore losers who can’t function without a Lord Baron to protect and assure them that they’re good peasants. Lord Baron Luxon to the rescue. Hoorah!
Matt McCarten says….. say no more.
Itvis funny how the pendulum has swung .Growing up in the 60 s it was the very left hippies and such whom were anti vax and fighting the institution now it is the hard right who make the biggest noise .I wonder how the story changed .
It sounds like the police should have been notified. Did anyone in the cafe during this extraordinary event of people threatening toil the prime minister’s child take a photo. Wa there no security near the PM.it sounds very odd. Did it happen the way described?
I listened to The working Group, and the story went that the diplomatic squad were there and did very little and the rat bags left the cafe and then returned and nothing happened.
The perps should have been arrested
Some additional info would be interesting, if we are talking about misogynistic. What gender were the two who abused Jacinda’s family in the cafe?
Would they have acted that way to a male politician?
Is it an outcome of raw, perturbed citizens grown from decades of children being dragged up rather than being brought up, by parents kept on the run to low wage jobs from their homes and family affairs, who have been despised particularly if they were single/solo parents who were fed on the mantra that going out to work was the best thing for themselves and their children? (Because it stopped them lazing around at home, having sex and breeding more while their children were at school. That is the reality of the mind of welfare administrators who have fed such notions into their staff. Last century these children in the UK were known as latch-key children.)
Instead of building capability and enabling great parenting skills in such parents, they are undervalued, fed on corn from the internet, television – along with corny fastfood – instead learning from sensationalism, immediate gratification and magical realism. They have been betrayed by their traditional representatives in politics; discontent, anger and cynicism simmer under the surface as living standards sink low forcing them into a manipulated lower class we had all expected to belong in the distant past.
David Lange was one of the betrayers. While he shone his light overseas, in background NZ we were being stripped of our social system, and this ugly defrocking relegated citizens from centre stage to contract menials fighting for crumbs with imported workers fleeing from low wages and fed dreams of betterment in NZ. This at the same time that the low cost manufactures imported here cut out the simple jobs available for the vast number of people interested in being semi and skilled workers. Knifed from the front and the back, the children of the ousted mass, have lives cobbled together with little opportunity for betterment, and punitive fines for misdemeanours,.
PM Jacinda just seemed to be following along the primrose path, covering up what people knew were impossible promises eg about housing, and she was considered to be lying and tying Labour’s banner to a bigger helium balloon, further out of reach while spreading tomorrow’s jam thinly on mouldy bread. Enough is enough was the at first silent cry, then the loud dissension.
Whilst most of this article resonates with me, as a 50+++ white, tertiary educated woman who voted for Helen, I am appalled to be classified with those silly old women who were ‘seduced’ by John Key. Besides being the greediest, sleaziest, smarmiest, silliest and most self serving person, he is also decidedly unattractive. As a master derivatives trader, he had honed the skills he needed in order to sell his country – the one in which his mother grifted on the system to enable him to have a comfortable upbringing thanks to the taxpayers. He repaid that by selling off as much of NZ as he could before an event which could have (and still may) come back to haunt him. Then he quit. So, on behalf of other women like me – I object to this classification. In case it isn’t clear enough – I abhor John Key and by association the National Party who enabled him.
Wow, A lot of overthinking in the comments. A mother and daughter having a coffee, should be able to do in peace. Irrespective of who they are.
Coffee time is sacred, end of.
Misogyny, Politics and People.
By Ann Chapman
‘Men weren’t really the enemy – they were fellow victims suffering from an outmoded masculine mystique that made them feel unnecessarily inadequate when there were no bears to kill.’ Betty Friedan.
I have watched the past three years while many in the media and trolls alike trash a female politician. That she happened to be the Prime Minster is almost irrelevant to me. Because it’s been happening for years, in various forms and various degrees to women who have sought higher office. I watched with interest and concern because it happened to me. Not the vileness of today. There was no Facebook, Twitter or other forms of social media then. But it was around, on the streets, in the newspapers and within the corridors of power. As an elected representative on the Kapiti Coast District Council, a young(ish) woman in my late 40 sitting around a table of older men it was there. There were 14 of us, five of us were women. The marginalisation of our views happened around the council table, in the corridors, over cups of tea. I overheard the then male mayor, say to the then male deputy mayor, ‘what do these chicks want?’ We wanted equality. We wanted our voices listened to. We still want that. We don’t want to take over. We want to play our part. Now, as it was thirty years ago, it still seems a hard ask.
The resignation of the Prime Minister, the Right Honourable Jacinda Ardern has prompted speel, good and bad, vile and reasonable and also some of the most extraordinary of headlines. ‘It’s hard for a woman politician to compete in a man’s world’, is the one that raised my ire. Politics is for people. It is about people. It makes rules for people. Women are people. But some journalists and opinion makers seem to forget that. Women have become fair game in what should be ‘a man’s world’, or so it seems to me.
And then there was the Daily Telegraph’s headline ‘Jacinda Ardern has shown how hard it is being a woman in a world built for men by men’.
The presumption here, the subtext if you like, is that women have no place in a political world, they should not dare to be equal to men and how can they dare they presume to become a politician, a cabinet minister or heaven forbid a Prime Minister.
The late Hon Shirley Williams, a British Labour politician before joining the Liberal Democrats, coined the phrase, ‘Politics is for People’. I just borrowed it because she’s right and I lived in England at the time. In her book of the same name, published in the 1980s, she says, ‘If we are to enhance the quality of life, a bold new approach to politics is needed that takes into consideration the economic realities of the 1980s.’ Even today Williams’s words ring with harsh truths and tangible needs. She challenges us with her own declaration of intent: ‘The old politics is dying. The battle to decide what the new politics will be like is just beginning. It is possible, just possible, that it will be a politics for people.’
Jacinda Ardern led our battle to redefine politics to become kinder, fairer, and more relevant to everybody.
Women have always fought, not for power but for equal representation. Throughout history men have made rules to suit men, and strangely many seem frightened by the idea that politics might matter to women. That women might have a view about what is best for them. The current leader of the National Party seems to believe that he knows what’s best for women with his stance on abortion. Emmeline Pankhurst said ‘Deeds, not words was to be our permanent motto.’ As relevant today as it was then when British women fought for the right to vote. Our deeds as well as our words need to count if we are to have equality of voice.
As I write this at the beginning of 2023 after the shattering, and for many, the wilful destruction of a female prime minister, it is worth remembering that Jacinda Ardern is not the first. Julia Gillard, Benazir Bhutto, Hilary Clinton, Metiria Turei, never mind the countless women denied a voice in Iran. They lack not only a voice in democracy but a voice and freedoms we take for granted.
‘Freedom of expression – in particular, freedom of the press – guarantees popular participation in the decisions and actions of the government, and popular participation is the essence of democracy.’ Corazon Aquino
But what happens with the media go a step further than simply providing information so we can participate. What happens when the media uses their extraordinary power to tilt the scales as they have done here in Aotearoa for the past three years. What happens when the media is no longer neutral and is part of the problem of the trolling of female politicians. And some of these media trolls are women. Words matter. Dignity is the word for Jacinda throughout all this. Misogyny is the word to describe the men who tormented her. But there are no words I can say aloud or write, to describe women who trash other women. My own dignity, a mere shadow of the dignity shown by Jacinda Ardern would not allow me to describe them as I want to. And as Angela Merkel said, ‘When it comes to human dignity, we cannot make compromises.’
Yes, the media have a huge role to play in our democracy. But it is not to be judge and jury. It is not to hang someone out to dry. It is not to be the knitting women at the foot of the guillotine. Is it to fair and impartial. Many in the media today, right now are partisan. They are part of the problem faced by many women politicians of all colours. We can do nothing about the trolling key board warriors. But let’s call out our own media when they behave like revolutionary whores in the pay of the opposition.
Because to me, as an old grey warrior, that’s what they are. They should be aware of the adage, ‘never piss off a woman over 40 because she filled with rage and doesn’t give a damn.’
Ardern is only receiving what she has earned for the death and injury to hundreds, if not thousands of vaxed people. And not just hurt from the vax, but incredible hurt for people who lost businesses and jobs through being forced to vax and being forced to lock down. 70,000 de-registered companies as at September last year I heard. Hundreds gave up jobs rather than be forced to take a toxic vax. Now she is reaping the whirlwind.
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