So this is a curious thing. The recent attack in Kashmir was carried out by Jaish-e-Mohammed, headed by a figure by the name of Masood Azhar. Understandably, India sought UN assistance in curtailing this ongoing threat; a move which the People’s Republic of China has (once again) blocked. Just as it has consistently done for more than ten years now.
So earlier this week I happened across a headline: DAVID DUKE ENDORSES ILHAN OMAR, or words to that effect.
Now, for those unaware, David Duke is a rather well-known figure due to his previous infamy in association with the KKK.
I see Don Brash was quoted in yesterday’s Herald calling for broader education about New Zealand history, and in particular history here prior to 1840. This .. was somewhat unexpected, but the next few lines gradually made clear what he was on about:
There are a few things to be said about this attack-line from the National Party’s Judith Collins. One of which, is that Collins either doesn’t know, or more likely simply doesn’t care about the facts of the situation. Juan Guaido did not contest the 2018 Venezuelan Presidential Election. It is therefore impossible to truthfully call him the “rightful winner” of said Election.
Now here is quite a thing. What is being suggested, is that the primary users of any of these terms are supposedly Russian bots, or other vectors for material that can be ‘safely dismissed’ out of hand as “propaganda”.
Politics, much like the ethically-challenged tawdry celebrity gossip-rags it occasionally so closely resembles, is a field in which “Truth” (or even, simply, ‘internal cohesiveness’ of an argument or a position) is often only a tertiary consideration. With some measure of “effectiveness” (especially of a slur) as a secondary, and “the venting of highly emotive vitriol” an unabashed and unquestioned prime.
I’ve seen a few strange things this morning; but one of the more peculiar has to be the Republican Party attacking Tulsi Gabbard’s just-announced Presidential candidacy, on grounds that “Progressives have blasted her”.
The 10th of December marks the 70th Anniversary of the adoption of the UN Declaration of Human Rights. It’s a pretty interesting document – not least because, if you peruse its contents, it contains an array of “rights” that have largely fallen by the wayside here in modern, neoliberal society.
A thought that’s been gestating in my head these past few days about the Yellow Jackets “political moment”, is how … I guess you could say that “populism” looks like *very* different things to different people.
It’s pretty interesting watching the reactions in the media to the GCSB disallowing Spark from using Huawei tech in the 5G network upgrade.