Groan – Young Labour wander into free speech culture war
Oh sweet Jesus Christ no…
New Zealand Young Labour Calls For Ban On Candace Owens
New Zealand Young Labour is calling on the Coalition Government to deny entry to far-right commentator Candace Owens, who is scheduled to visit Aotearoa in November 2024. Young Labour’s President, Ethan Reille, warns that Owens’ record of divisive, hate-filled rhetoric threatens New Zealand’s values of inclusivity and compassion.
“Aotearoa is a nation built on manaakitanga, kindness, and acceptance,” said Reille. “But our commitment to tolerance cannot extend to those who seek to undermine it. Candace Owens’ views are not merely controversial—they are dangerous. We must protect our communities from rhetoric that empowers divisive movements. Allowing her a platform here would fail to uphold our core values. We call on the Government to act with courage and safeguard a diverse, unified Aotearoa New Zealand.”
Young Labour draws parallels between Owens and previous far-right visitors, such as Lauren Southern and Posie Parker, whose presence in New Zealand led to increased tensions and the normalization of hate speech. Owens’ influence extends to extremists, including the March 15 terrorist who cited her in his manifesto. Her visit, Young Labour argues, would embolden hate driven narratives and undermine New Zealand’s commitment to diversity.
In a letter to Minister of Immigration Hon Erica Stanford, Young Labour outlined the following demands:
Immediate Ban on Candace Owens – Deny Owens entry, citing her harmful rhetoric and documented influence on those spreading hate speech.
Enhanced Security if Entry is Permitted – Ensure visible police presence and security at public events to protect vulnerable communities and deter hate speech.
Increased Support for Anti-Hate Initiatives – Strengthen funding for organizations that counter hate speech, promote social cohesion, and educate against divisive rhetoric. Stricter Entry Restrictions on Hate Speech Advocates – Prioritize public safety by restricting entry for individuals who incite division and disrupt social harmony.
“Aotearoa is known for compassion and unity. This is our moment to reaffirm that and show the world we are serious about protecting our multicultural, inclusive society,” Reille added. Young Labour remains committed to advocating for a safe, inclusive Aotearoa and welcomes further dialogue with government officials on these urgent issues.
…ok.
I’m going to be very polite here.
And calm.
This sort of fucking bullshit is the fucking reason why the Left keeps getting fucked by the right! Why the fuck are we handing the fucking Free Speech Union culture war ammunition to shot back at us.
Let’s be clear, when Young Labour argue that Posie Parker generated the violence, it was actually the woke who caused all the violence on the day.
We on the Left should be championing Free Speech instead of constantly trying to strangle it off.
In the wake of news that Russia is secretly funding all these Right Wing influencers, shouldn’t we know who Candace is working for?
Canadian tied to alleged Russian influencer op received thousands in fees: U.S.
Lauren Chen is seen on the set of Candace Owens’ “Candace” show on May 24, 2021 in Nashville, Tenn.
WASHINGTON — YouTube says the channels of a far-right Canadian influencer have been removed after U.S. officials alleged the companyshe co-founded received US$760,000 in fees and commissions as part of an alleged Russian ploy to dupe right-wing influencers into sowing division among Americans.
An indictment filed Wednesday charged two employees of RT, a Russian state-controlled media outlet, in a US$10-million scheme that purportedly used social media personalities to distribute content with Russian government messaging.
While not explicitly mentioned in court documents, the details match up with Tenet Media, founded by Canadian Lauren Chen and Liam Donovan, who identifies as her husband on social media.
Candace of course should be allowed to speak in NZ and NZers who find her vile hate grift offensive should be free to protest her, but we should also know she is stained by association to a Russian disinformation and misinformation network.
We on the Left have become so accustomed to using cancel culture social media Lynch mobs to shut down debate we don’t like rather than having the confidence to out argue and out articulate that all we know to do now is attack Free Speech rather than use it.
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.
Not a surprise that so called “Young Labour” would choose to ban one of the strongest voices against the slaughter in Palestine. It pretty much proves they really are not anti-war, never were and don’t even know what it means to be.
If you think Candice Owens is one of the “strongest voices against the slaughter in Palestine” I would question what media commentators you are following.
Strong in terms of numbers, I’m guessing. She has a big following. Well done to her for going against the grain of the crowd she’s usually associated with.
Strongest and biggest are different things – on the right, maybe strongest but as a whole, she’s hardly on a par with Norm Finklestein or Bassem Youssef
Apples to oranges, but unfortunately for Norm, her reach is far greater than his and reach/numbers matter. When you speak out against the interests of the powerful, the censorship/cancellation/smear cards start coming into play and they will be used against you once you start gaining real traction. She, has the ability to influence significant numbers of people, which is fantastic from a stopping genocide point of view. She can’t educate or inform people to the level of Norm, on Israel/Palestine, few people can in fact, but she can influence. She is strong, she is big, and I am glad that she’s against the slaughter taking place in the Middle East. As Ralph Nader loves to point out – when interests align, embrace them.
Tip to Young Labour, the powerful are not on your side, so stop playing their free speech busting, censorship/cancellation, division game.
Yep, in order to protect their “core values”, they’ve just got to trample over them first, meaning their values are worthless, or to put it another way, this has nothing to do with ‘values’, this is all about their inability to counter opposing views, hence they want to play the censorship card. The future is not bright for Labour.
Yes, we have become accustomed to cancel culture, but this is by design, this is not organic…the money behind our political puppets are driving this climate to increasingly stifle political debate between we, the people…
Am I the only one who finds it ironic when people like Candace Owens who call for mass deportation of migrants whine and piss themselves when other countries ban them?
The snowflakiest of snowflakes…I think self reflexion is not part of their or their followers make ups
Yes.
Heartily agree that Owens just talk. Who cares.
That said, even if allegations of Russians under the bed are correct (not great, given Russiagate track records) the saddest thing is that people pretend the US is not the biggest influencer of mis and disinformation in the world. They don’t have to prove anything ever, just make headlines and never recant.
It is the heart of the Empire of Lies.
If you look at our universities, does this really surprise you? Welcome to our political overlords of the future where they we will after us and protect us from the bad people and their words.
All young Labour members should have to have work experience in a Fish n Chip Shop. Then they wouldn’t make such comments.
Please no…then they’ll embarass us at UN/harvard/Colbert..take ur pick
Binders full of women They won’t embarrass us at the UN, it’s already a global issue instigated by the left, and Ardern advocated for global censorship of free speech to the UNO, referring to it as weapons of destruction or sumsuch Blairite jargonese.
All they will have has achieved so far is to draw attention to this person (Candance Owen) including my own.
From Wikipedia:
Anti-black racism and Black Lives Matter
Owens is known for her criticism of the Black Lives Matter movement,[5][75][76][77] and has described Black Lives Matter protesters as “a bunch of whiny toddlers, pretending to be oppressed for attention”.[78] Owens has argued that African Americans have a victim mentality, often referring to the Democratic Party as a “plantation”,[75][70] stating in 2020: “Black lives only matter to white liberals every four years—ahead of an election.”[79] She has also argued that the American Left likes “black people to be government-dependent”,[80] and that black people have been brainwashed to vote for Democrats.[4] Furthermore, Owens has argued that police brutality in the United States and instances of police killing black people are not sourced in racism, but typically occur when the officer feels his life is under threat,[75][78] adding a police officer is eighteen-and-a-half times more likely to die at the hands of a black person than vice versa.[24][70][69]
Owens knows that appealing to White Right wing prejudice ignorance entitlement and power is easy in a majority White country.
Winston Peters popularity for 50 years has also being based on being the
Brown Uncle Tom in a White majority country. Seymour is doing the same.
Licking White Right wing arse for a sell out Brown is a good earner.
The Left wing has the much harder task of challenging and changing
White Right wing prejudice ignorance entitlement and power.
But it has been done before.
Clinton did it Obama did it and hopefully Harris will do it too.
Remember Savage did it, So did Kirk, so did Lange so did Clarke so did Ardern.
The next Labour party will keep fighting for diversity and win in 2029.
Try not to get caught up so much in the short term set backs.
Three steps forward under the Left two steps back under the Right.
Remember in 2029 all the odious right wing policies can be reversed.
So we are winning the long term battle.
We will never surrender.
Keep the faith.
Yawn
What fun!
The left that promotes “acceptance” cannot accept, of all things, a black woman coming here to talk. It’s the makings of a Monty Python script!
Don’t they realise that banning is just a form of advertising? The example being those two Canadians: I’d never heard of them until the left made a fuss. All their product is a click away on the internet.
LO@
She is antisemitic (which is probably why Ben Shapiro let her go from the Daily Wire) and not shy is giving off very big ol hint to it, and I mean BIG! Free speech and all but – on a really serious note – do we really want holocaust denying, slavery apologists coming over & giving a gathering place for others’ dark sides to get a pat on the back & make new friends? Do we want this? Australia has banned her – what high road do we take to let her in, really?
There is a difference between not wanting to hear her and letting her visit so others can hear her. While I would not agree with her the idea behind free speech is that those we don’t agree with have free speech also otherwise we will not be allowed to share our views if those opposing us have control. Go to North Korea if you only want one side of any discussion.
Good article Martyn.
Thank you.
Agreed- Well done Bomber. Facts trump emotion
Excellent article Martyn
Everyone is entitled to be young and stupid once but this has significant political consequences.
Actually she has been banned from Australia by the Labour Govt over there.
Are they woke too ?
Yes? Where gave you been?
I don’t think we can ban her for what she might say, but if she actually says anything that amounts to incitement, then hit her with a ton of bricks.
And remember, over-enthusiastic liberals might sometimes want to ban people they don’t like, but fascists like Owens will (if they have power), lock up, torture and kill people they don’t like. This is not a case of ‘both sides do it” – there is a massive asymmetry of evil here and everyone had better bloody realise it soon.
Young Labour have learned well from their elder sprinkler turning riot squad unleashing “rivers of filth” teachers
Great complex sentence there Don, well done.
It’s something kind of adjectival post modifier.
DEBT, A CULTURE OF CAPITALISM ITS PROFIT EXPLOIT, AND WHO EXPLOIT TO COLLECT
I resent anyone telling me I am not allowed the opportunity to protest against Candeath Owens.
Richard Richard Richard. There’s nothing to stop you protesting about anything. Make a sandwich board or placard about it and pace the street. My Aunt Violet gives money to people like that and it’s not like you’re saying The End is Nigh, or Vote Purple.
I want to protest to her face, dingbat.
Richard Christie Unless you’re 7 feet tall she mightn’t notice you. Do it my way and you could get onto the news, and then she might. Sufficiently hyped-up you could also score a cuddle from Coster, with, of course, your consent.
Enough of us outside her venues and she’ll notice.
You are obviously severely challenged if you think she’s notice a sandwich board in a provincial centre.
Of course she wouldn’t notice a sandwich board, but my Aunt Violet, and lots of people would, and the media would notice it and kaput, you’re making news.
Protest peacefully outside the meeting by all means. Go inside and challenge Ms Owen’s opinions from the floor according to the norms of civil debate, following the rules of the Chairperson. But don’t try to shout her down, disrupt the meeting, or exercise the thug’s veto in any other way. Otherwise, you might as well join Young Labour in trying to get her banned .
Are we allowed, to open up the Pike,.River, or flag care.
Candace Owens is a deeply problematic figure who could be argued to be discrediting many of the positive and true positions she has argued for by supporting bizarre conspiracy theories about the shape of the earth and the participation of certain parties in the French Revolution. But noone serious should support banning her from visiting- those views she promotes like ‘murdering hundreds of thousands of Palestinian children is bad’ and ‘Americans would be better off if they had domestic control of their own foreign policy’ are self-evidently true, and the more cranky claims she has made should be challenged.
Defending Candace Owens rights etc to go round making extravagant emotional claims and stirring up people who are hurting because of our ordinary politics, is like trying to stamp out bush fires that should never have been allowed to get started. FFS is a short way of expressing disillusionment. It can also stand for fucking free speech. Restrained Free Speech would be good but reading the emotional language of many of these demagogues, it seems they just want to stir the witches brew. And not just on halloween.
What you perceive to be extravagant emotional claims others may perceive to be a rational statement. It’s all subjective.
Thus, it’s not that people are defending Candace Owens rights per se, it’s the right for free speech for all.
Time now, wake up, our Pike River, knowin. John boy, his shame, how we going. Pike River, kiwi, open eyes.
Owens was cancelled by her own side for opposing Israel.
Just waiting for you to say she is anti trans ????
Owens was once an incisive right-wing voice, very sharp. I enjoyed video clips of her eviscerating democrats. But something happened to her, and she has turned into a fundamentalist fruitloop. This is not a reason to ban her.
And the Young Labour princeling needs to know I do not require protection, especially from a whey-faced boy barely off his mother’s breast.
I disagree John R Turning into a dangerous fruit loop has meant that she has absorbed a potent overdose of the current mind-bending kool-aid. And there are many very vulnerable to the hysteria that produces.
It is like the need to close down on cannabis that has been bred to be super potent.
We should be able to obtain it legally at the optimum level I think, But there will always be the ones who want to spike it somehow so it becomes a danger to the individual and society. Look at Candy as being a sugar shot too far.
She’s a dangerous anti-vaxxer and her rabid rhetoric undoubtedly cost some people their lives.
Richard, do you support free speech?
Do you support adults having the right to make their own decisions when it comes to medical treatment?
If not, you’re potentially more dangerous than her
The challenge for Young Labour is to produce some people as articulate as Owens. Calling for the cancellation of Owens is their failure to meet her challenge.