Ummmmmm.
Firstly, what actual woke war is Winston talking about?
His hateful attack on the Trans Community?
His Hate Troll Rhys Williams defamatory attack on a Green MP?
Or Shane’s pimping for trans national mining?
It’s so hard to actually keep up with his ‘war’ on ‘woke’, because all it feels like is malicious smears on groups who can’t fight back.
It’s like his War on Woke is really bullying.
On Sunday, Andrea Vance did a deep dive into the nasty pus pit of Malice Merchants NZF is now using (at arms length of course) to promote their culture war revenge fantasies, it makes a very clear connection between NZF Hate Troll Rhys Williams and his role in the Benjamin Doyle smear…
Inside the murky evolution of Dirty Politics 2.0
A Sunday Star-Times investigation reveals how keyboard warriors have found a home in NZ First’s orbit, reviving attack-style politics, report National Affairs Editor Andrea Vance and investigative reporter Charlie Mitchell.
The tip-off came from out of the blue.
A small-town journalist received a phone call from a man offering a salacious scoop. A young, self-styled journalist with a combative online presence had secretly uploaded explicit videos of himself to a porn site.
“I wasn’t quite sure what he was looking for from me,” the journalist told the Sunday Star-Times.
“I think he thought that if there was enough information that he could feed me — juicy information — then he would expect something from me”.
The journalist hung up, unsettled by the conversation. He chose not to follow up. But in the days afterwards, it became clear the tip was linked to a loosely coordinated, fiercely partisan network of online accounts that had formed in the orbit of NZ First.
The caller was Rhys Williams, a Taranaki businessman behind an influential X (formerly Twitter) account. The account had previously targeted Green MP Benjamin Doyle, sparking a wave of backlash that at times veered into personal abuse.
Williams had apparently set his sights on an online foe: a 25-year-old university student behind a fringe news website that mocked Williams and others like him as “cookers”. The student had antagonised Williams and others for months, often in harsh and insulting terms.
Soon after the tip-off call, rumours swirled online. An X account belonging to Inflection Point — a group linked to Williams — posted a screenshot of a now-deleted account on a porn site allegedly associated with the student.
Others joined in. Sean Plunket, founder of The Platform media outlet, who has tangled with the student online, taunted him with a cryptic jab on X. Political operative Glenn Inwood and property developer Vlad Barbalich — both known associates of Williams —shared similarly veiled references. There appeared to be foreknowledge.
That evening, Williams named the student publicly.
“Most reading this will not know who he is,” Williams wrote.
“What he is is the product of the far left […] a 25-year-old who is unable to control his compulsions, or moderate his emotional response or understand consequences.”
He accused the student of uploading “illegal and disgusting” videos, and implied the porn account had been deleted only after the student realised it would be exposed.
(The Sunday Star-Times has reviewed an archived version of the porn account. While incomplete, much of the content does not appear to be illegal, though some videos show behaviour, including public masturbation, that could potentially be prosecuted.)
The online reaction was swift and vicious. Commenters called the student “sick” and “deranged”. One post, shared by Williams, likened him to serial killer Ted Bundy.
Inwood and Barbalich shared the post, as did Cameron Slater, the former Whale Oil blogger once synonymous with such attacks.
Williams’ post included a video that showed two of the student’s associates. One has since filed a complaint with police.
The other was Matthew Tukaki, a political commentator and former director of the Suicide Prevention Office.
Tukaki said he had arranged mental health support for the student and was worried about his wellbeing.
“This is a serious matter. I think he is at risk of self-harm.”
The student declined to comment on the record, but has continued posting online without directly addressing the accusations.
Williams, meanwhile, is defiant. He has continued attacking the student, calling him a “creep” and “unhinged”.
He did not respond to questions from the Star-Times, instead mocking the reporters online as “pathetic gutter retards” working on a “bullshit story from a trio of fantasists and an assortment of other gimps”.
…the cruelty and malice these Right Wing Hate Trolls act with has no place in NZ Politics.
This was Winston’s response to the damning, damning, damning, damning, damning, damning, damning, damning, damning, damning, damning, damning, damning, damning, damning, damning, damning, damning, damning, damning, damning, damning, damning, damning, damning, damning, damning, damning, damning, damning, damning, damning, damning, damning, damning, damning, damning, damning, damning, damning, damning, damning, damning, damning, damning, damning, damning, damning, damning, damning, damning, damning, damning, damning, damning, damning, damning, damning, damning, damning, damning, damning, damning, damning, damning, damning, damning, damning, damning, damning, damning, damning, damning, damning, damning, damning, damning, damning, damning, damning, damning, damning, damning, damning, damning, damning, damning, damning, damning, damning, damning, damning, damning, damning, damning, damning, damning, damning, damning, damning, damning, damning, damning, damning, damning, damning, damning, damning, posts Andrea raised…
…oh we know why you keep going up in the Polls Winston, that’s our issue love. You are endlessly flirting with antivaxx rednecks and using the worst agents of Dirty Politics to gain that polling traction!
That Winston doesn’t even attempt to engage with the evidence Andrea highlights and instead claims she is a conspiracy theorist is the most Trump thing Winston has done to date.
NZFirst are a culture war party who have weaponised grievance and are relying on Hate Trolls to dispatch NZF enemies and push their talking points.
It’s like MAGA but less humorous.
The pus pit of NZFirst’s new hate politics is generating divisive online cultural vandalism for shits and giggles.
Political Sadism shouldn’t be celebrated, it should be alienated while simultaneously challenged and denounced.
We are a better people than these hate trolls.
Increasingly having independent opinion in a mainstream media environment which mostly echo one another has become more important than ever, so if you value having an independent voice – please donate here.
Clearly Martyn whatever percentage support this two faced fossil are not “better people”:
Desperate sooky knows his time in both politics and life is short so he blames everyone else for the ills of the universe knowing full well that he is full of bovine excrement – bye Winston First and your moronic supporters who are also desperately clinging to what little they have.
Winston’s War on Woke is exactly like the govt’s war on social media.
DIVERSION. Don’t look here, look over there!
We know there’s a lot of secret stuff going on in the background, being prepared to undermine NZ citizens with cruel restrictions, the likes of which we have never seen.
The diversionary tactics show it’s worse than we can imagine.
He needs to hurry up and force a snap election.
All the Minister of Mangled Syntax needs is a set of bone spurs to complete the job.
History repeats. In the 80’s and 90’s it was ‘PC gone mad’ now it’s the ‘the woke are running the world’. Very simple and effective wedge issue strategies that are used to mask the long-term economic interest of a voting population. Tend to split working class voters most effectively and confusingly – NZF are extremely socially conservative (as highlighted) but many of their economic polices are to the left of the Greens.
Winston had his chance to go out as an elder statesman with Super Gold card and Provincial Growth Fund but once he shat on Jacinda with the threatened letter to the GG his fate was sealed.
He rediscovered his inner malevolent arsehole and wound it up to Trump like levels. What Winston probably most desires is a dry fart.
“A small-town journalist received a phone call from a man offering a salacious scoop. A young, self-styled journalist with a combative online presence had secretly uploaded explicit videos of himself to a porn site.”
I can’t make out from that word salad which journalist was uploading salacious material vs which was being offered it – or whatever the hell was supposedly going on.
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