Can the woke screw up Election 2026 for the Political Left (again?)
As someone who likes to credit myself with the wide spread use of the word ‘woke’ as a derisive term aimed at identity politics activists in NZ, I feel we need an urgent redefinition of the term as the Right keep using it as a weapon to provoke culture war responses the Left can’t win.
As a class lefty, I see identity as an important personal journey that leads you to politics but Identity Politics becomes terribly limited in gaining the democratic 51% as its most shrill advocates in the cancel culture landscape manage to make progress as alienating as drinking a cup of cold sick.
Class solidarity can gain 51%, Identity Politics risks pure temple over broad-church and you get endless schisms and little to show for it.
For most ultra woke activists, their starting point is all white people are racist, every man is a rapist and anyone supporting free speech is a uniform wearing Nazi who hates the Trans Community.
There’s not much intellectual wriggle room there.
That virtue-signalling-middle-class-micro-aggression-policing-identifiably-Green-Party-militant-bike-riding-vegan-condescending-supporting-pronoun-Spinoff-subscriber in your social media feed screaming endlessly at you in the ubiquitous world of social media certainly thinks they are shouting truth to power, unfortunately it all ends up as a cacophony of self righteous struggle sessions alienating the vast chunk of voters who just want to know how they are paying for the roof over their heads and the food on their tables.
So that’s ‘Woke’. Identity Politics activists suffering the narcism of petty difference and subjective triggering who put their identity above all else.
They engage in outrage olympics and cancel culture because it’s easier to shut down an idea because you have feelings than actually put together a cohesive intellectual argument.
It’s middle class and it’s very virtue signalling.
We get it wokies, your self created identity is more important than our shared humanity.
The problem is the Right keep using woke to provoke culture war over reaction that the Right points to and says, ‘I told you so’.
Now that feelings are the dominant currency over thinking and rational objectivity (because rational thinking and objectivity is a heteronormative white cis male privilege), peoples feels get hurt and they vote against their economic interests.
Wokeness wouldn’t be so toxic if the Woke hadn’t launched online cancel culture pogroms.
The Left needs to focus on the material well being rather than empty hashtag virtue signals.
The Ipsos survey highlighting the deepening cynicism of the NZ electorate should be seen for what it is.
Truth.
The study, conducted in February 2024, also shows a significant consensus among New Zealanders that the system is rigged in favour of the rich and powerful, with 65% agreeing to this statement.
That’s because it’s the fucking truth!
In 2010, the 388 richest individuals owned more wealth than half of the entire human population on Earth
By 2015, this number was reduced to only 62 individuals
In 2018, it was 42
In 2019, it was down to only 26 individuals who own more wealth than 3.8 billion people.
And in 2021, 20 people owned more than 50% of the entire planet.
And now in 2025, 0.001% hold three times the wealth of poorest half of humanity
This isn’t democracy, this is a feudal Tech plutocracy on a burning Earth
We need a new taxation and regulation model to stop the neoliberal rot. We need to remove the yoke of taxation from the 90% and reset it to the 10% richest.
The Big Tech Tzars have manipulated our collective fear, ego, anger and insecurities through social media in a way that has led to the largest psychological civil war ever launched against one another.
Meanwhile, the planet burns and every aspect of our existence is monetarised for big data to sell us more stuff we can’t afford. We are alienated and anesthetised by a consumer culture that keeps us neurotic and disconnected. Our work, our existence, every move we make are all built to suck money to a minority class that sits above us while under neoliberalism, globalisation, financialisation, and automation, our existence as individuals has only become more disposable.
This isn’t progress.
Unfortunately the Left are culturally too busy micro aggression policing everyone under the rules of the new woke dogma while the Right are silently harvesting that alienation for more neoliberal exploitation.
The Political Left responds to rising populism in NZ by leaning into that populism with Broadchurch Politics rather than alienating pure temple middle class Identity Politics woke dogma!
We need more Zamdani and less Keir Starmer.
Woke middle class activism has made our movement an alienating unfunny joke that the Right have weaponised.
The woke’s pronouns are “I” and “Me”.
The Left’s pronouns are “Us” and “We”.
Activism this year must be Economic Justice, not the minefield of hashtags that is Social Justice.
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.
This –> (https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360924818/working-hard-and-still-broke-reality-living-1000-week) <– must be the primary talking point of Opposition parties this year.
Also preferably some sort of plan for coping with anthropogenic climate chaos, and how they will renationalise former Public Assets.
All necessary for the new future we are clearly entering.
And Acc reform
https://www.facebook.com/groups/171564126882442/permalink/1706466090058897
Class consciousness originating with slave revolts and the peasants’ revolts, The French Revolution, liberté, égalité, fraternité and the understanding of Marx has led to the emancipation of the common man dependent on his labour to survive compared to those who live of their wealth and assets and rent extraction ( Rentiers ) bringing about free health care, unemployment support and electoral participation by voting. ” The new Deal ” the NHS and free education including University level are its social crowns. Those against have and are using undermining attacks to degrade : The citizen is merely a consumer! There is no such thing as society! Class awareness is dated Woke is the new consciousness. With the purpose of stealing the wealth of the common man to the 1% and 9% collaborators. Privatisation (Parasitisation ) is the other trick to make us unequal.The Lanlordism religion is another.
The “woke” are doing a grand job for the Right, the Green Party in particular.
Speaking of the woke ACT and National parties…
I stand with you in your quest to eliminate the word Wo…..I can’t even speak it as it upsets me!
Let’s hope you don’t belong to any kind of disadvantaged minority then, or become elderly or ill, or need assistance of any kind.
You of course wouldn’t accept any assistance, I know, because you are so sure that everyone should be looking after themselves. So, no pensions for you, no winter heating supplement, no public hospital (I hope you never have a heart problem), no state schools for any of your descendants.
As you have so much trouble with the idea of accepting consideration or assistance, even speaking the word WOKE, having paid tax all your life too, you must fend for yourself in every way. You’ve paid all that tax and you will never ever see a penny of it coming your way. You will refuse to take your pension and everything else these woke govts. insist on giving us.
That’s fine, more for people who genuinely need it.
If we should manage to keep NZ clean and less exploited than other places, you will benefit inadvertently so you’d better emigrate somewhere more fascist, and get the full experience of fending for yourself in trying circumstances. We’d hate you to be upset! Have fun!
From personal experience Bob will be fine if he has a heart problem in Chch. .Straight to the head of the queue heart monitoring started immediately CT scans and chest xray within the hour . Problems sorted sent home with follow up visits from Accute Demand. We live in a great country
They mistook your brain injury issue for heart issues. Sadly you are still brain dead,
Trevor/Trevori. We live in a once great country. NZ public health has been gutted by this National coalition and will be so again this year…
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/nicola-willis-2026-budget-plans-undo-labours-health-reforms-and-sell-assets-but-which-ones/premium/LSEENGK4CBDXPMNJIQ4GXSHXAI/
The new Ruth Richardson. Her last year thankfully.
Golly Joy you are really quite mean.
Sorry if I offended you.
Well done Martyn. This is one of your best ever.
How the hell to get our side lined up on this?
The Nats and Act are on a mission that, at its most fundamental, is to make the country safe for the owners of capital. Every move they make is checked against this goal I am sure. The mission excites and motivates their supporters.
What is Labour’s mission?
Labour have no mission, Chippy is evidence to that.
Chippy has done something with his life. Clearly you haven’t as all you can do is troll on here. Like Luxon you are weak as cat’s piss…
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/economy/bravo-reserve-bank-governor-anna-breman-but-wheres-christopher-luxon-as-donald-trump-wreaks-havoc-fran-osullivan/premium/SRFKZIEHAVBI3NEYR3QRVTRE5Y/
On the contrary CG I’m a person of success and strength.
No you are a mechanical troll bot
Labour’s mission is more public servants, co-governance, and putting men into women’s sports.
Nice bit of cat spray Ada is that all you got
while you polish your crotch in case Luxon wants to do a Trump and grab it .
More vile comments from gordon.
Agree Ada, plus a great deal more nonsense.
The woke NZ Herald and NZ right wing media will do all in its power to make out the National CoC is a success when the evidence is completely opposite. Are there enough people out there to see past the ridiculous rhetoric and lies the media puts out there? Any intelligent individual would vote out the worst government and individual MP’s we have seen in history.
I suspect there will be enough directionally in a positive economically. Combine that with a discombobulated three parties on the left, and I don’t see anything but the current govt being returned however marginally.
Agree David J except I’m predicting a landslide.
National have taken us backwards to the depression years and are totally clueless. Luther Luxon is evidence to that. This is NZ under this CoC… the evidence is overwhelming…
https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360924818/working-hard-and-still-broke-reality-living-1000-week
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/companies/liquidations-on-track-to-surpass-2024-total-as-business-failures-accelerate/34IBK6RX25BJNK5XG3C7N7NOOY/
https://www.news.com.au/finance/economy/world-economy/population-exodus-shrinking-economy-in-new-zealand-spells-trouble-for-australia/news-story/a193bdbc1378ec959346b8f198f972bd
The problem for the Labour party is that when they were talking about transforming NZ society they needed more Sue Bradfords. Instead they got Adern, implacably welded to Incrementalism and Structural Centralism
I agree which is why I went Green.
Labour is no longer progressive just their half assed 3 GP visits and capital gains tax says a lot.
Those two policies alone are no better than 2023.
And don’t even come close to the greens budgeted program.
All Labour need do is promise tax cuts, that one policy alone is enough to suck in the gullible kiwi voter. It worked for National.
The Left are more likely to by climate conscious in their planning which frightens many people because it means cutting back on production and economic activities. This means job loses and less profit which is less tax and fewer hand outs . Stopping oil and gas production and less mining are an example of this thinking.
Most middle-class people like clean and green but aspire to join the wealthy so are torn between the choices of voting Left and remaining middle class or Right and having a chance at getting to be upper class
“This means job loses and less profit which is less tax and fewer hand outs ”
The irony is this has happened over the past two years due to having this government. Right wing governments don’t allow middle class to go anywhere other than staying middle class. Your trickle down theory has been debunked years ago so stop with your idiotic right wing posts.
“Meanwhile the planet burns…” Even if this is your personal belief wouldn’t it be better to keep it as a personal belief. Why would we want the weather to be a political issue. It is a distraction from real economic issues and just labels the speaker as woke. We should concentrate on things that are within the power of government to improve. I do agree with you that freedom of speech is something the left and the right ought to be able to agree on – as they did until only a couple of years ago.
Brain Kenny – you are a twit. Why would we want the weather to be a political issue. It is a distraction from real economic issues and just labels the speaker as woke. When you have found what knowing your A from your E is then you will have learned something of importance.
So you don’t think that keeping the environment we live in sustainable is an economic issue? Try talking to those who lose homes in major climate events and you might learn something.
Ok is the problem really that the right has “weaponised” the word “woke”, or that wokeism is just a bloody stupid idea?
“Woke” is an alt-right catch all brand label to lump in evil things like calibri fonts to hate.
Can NZAO make it a must to do a mental acuity test, checking that the potential voters knows something about the country they live in, ie how many islands, how people get about, what the country does to earn international finance so we can import, what we have been, and how it could develop, and how would that help everyone to have a better life?
Then just a general information scratch test, to check on what they know, geography, some Maori language, famous musicians, how many wars have Kiwis fought and died in, how many universities have we, medical schools, who owns water, how do we fight disease? Probing but in not doing it they would show they aren’t invested in the country and getting less than 10% right would mean a fail. Everyone should know something.
Democracy has offered a tasty dish served up by political chefs. But we haven’t even got plain-cooking short-order cooks. And would most of the citizens have a developed palate for what it takes to make a real democracy pie-chart?
Woke is their weapon.
Anything, anything at all, that divides the 90% plays into their hands.
If the 90% could unite, we’d be unstoppable.
Labour, the Greens, TPM need to find what unites us. I think public healthcare might be one of those things.
Public healthcare and this which is already Green party policy in most part.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/171564126882442/permalink/1706466090058897
UK Labour, in spite of clear Supreme Court rulings, is dragging its feet on trans excess rollback – NZ Labour is unlikely to do much better, nor are they ready to abandon Roger Douglas’s systematic betrayal of working people.
So – no reason to vote for them.
The biggest problem this election will be the weak as piss media .They will only spout right wing race based hate and print lies about the huge growth we have NOT had over the last 3 years and are never going to have .They will ignor the great policy from other parties like the great tax policy the Maori party had last time .This was swept aside because it was brown so how could it be good .Labour need to become more radical or get behind the greens if they really want to turn NZ back to being a country serving every member of the population not just the 10%
I’m politically centrist but I like what you say here, Martyn. Your characterisation of the Greens is devastating! You are so right to say that inequality matters about 1m% more than perceived soundness in countering the gender critical enemy The problem is that resolving the former is infinitely harder than establishing your woke credentials. Orwell would agree with you totally – and I mean that as a compliment!
Telling people what to think and say – free.
Actually doing something for normal working people – expensive.
The left can and will screw up the election all by themselves.
Just look at what we have in opposition to the worst government for a long time.
A major party that promises to do nothing to confront the crises they helped to create with their blind allegiance to free market policies and implementation. But still have Michael Joseph Savage adorning their offices if somehow they still believe they are anything the first Labour government advocated as the working people’s party.
Just maintaining the failure of the current direction , narrative and entitlement of neo liberalism will continue to lead us back to where we are now except even more marginalized.
Sure wokesim hasn’t helped with alienating a huge chunk of viable support in the form of men mostly who now mistakenly believe that the right will protect and enhance them and their families pretend affluent position and won’t dare suggest quite wrongly that they or their sons they raising are all guilty of being would be rapists.
The damage done to many members of our communities with this #me too movement and the hysteria that followed have yet to be fully appreciated but Bomber is well ahead in recognizing the danger of alienating a large , volatile , influential voting base.
There is presently a massive vacuum of inspiring intelligent , charismatic , brave leadership that can and believes in advocating for real change by taking the people with them.
In the past there was always someone who stepped up and led and made change possible.
Unlike the U.S who have Sanders , O.C and Mamdani and the U.K that has a real movement that opposes the current status quo we are drifting as life for many is deteriorating year by year and is controlled by cruel entitled governments and leaders like Luxon are only figureheads to continue the right wing entitled agenda that is destroying our people.