Have the woke cancelled Dr Bryce Edwards yet? How the polarising divisions of society will destroy New Zealand 

One of the weirdest manifestations of political polarisation this year has been the attempted cancellation of Dr Bryce Edwards for having the temerity to disagree with Morgan Godfrey over the class nature of the Parliamentary protests.

The Woke had written off the protestors as Lumpenproletariat Nazis while Bryce argued it was a class based response to the lack of transformative change and the anger at Covid had sparked it.

For having the temerity to challenge the Middle Class Maoists, there was an attempt by woke activists to have Bryce removed from his job!

Of course there were bad faith far right actors manipulating the anger and frustration of working class kiwis, but there wouldn’t have been an angry mob ripe for manipulation if the Left had actually provided for their material well being rather than alienating middle class virtue signals.

Dr Bryce Edwards wrote a powerful column this week looking at the break down of social cohesion and the polarising impact of algorithm generated social media debate.

It is worth reading in full.

Bryce writes:

“It is the unequal distribution of wealth that most New Zealanders believe is at the heart of this decline in social cohesion. According to the Herald’s survey, 74 per cent believe that wealth inequality is pushing us apart. In addition, when asked if “Our distribution of wealth is fair and good for the country”, 46 per cent disagreed and only 24 per cent agreed”

This is the crux of the tension between the Middle Class Woke who have benefitted from the rigged casino of capitalism but who dominate debate on the Left and alienate with their virtue signals.

We have allowed on the Left the wank virtue signals of the middle class woke to eclipse true messages of class solidarity for whatever hobby horse 4th wave feminists, nationalist Māori and non-binary gender activists have hijacked us into and it’s alienating.

People’s real hurt is economic and that is a direct response to free market neoliberal Capitalism.

Bryce Edwards continues…

The second most significant factor in declining social cohesion is housing inequality. According to the poll, 70 per cent believe that access to housing is a cause of the growing division. And when asked if “Our access to housing is fair and good for the country”, 60 per cent disagreed, and only 21 per cent agreed.

There is a tendency to view a lot of New Zealand’s current social cohesion challenges as being primarily due to conspiracy theories and opposition to vaccines. This is certainly the argument being put forward strongly by academics from The Disinformation Project. In responding to the Herald survey, Kate Hannah and Sanjana Hattotuwa have emphasised the problem of misinformation and disinformation as being at the heart of the problem.

However, the survey results and related evidence shows that the problem of increasing social divisions and declining social cohesion is more closely related to the very real material struggles the public are facing in their day-to-day lives. Academic focus on global conspiracies, social media, the internet, and public ignorance can distract from understanding and addressing material inequality.

…which is what TDB has been saying all year. The woke activists has spent  too much energy on alienating virtue signalling and not enough about the material well being of people.

Woke Dogma Activism on Twitter sees everyone less mentally ill than them as privileged and everyone more mentally ill than them as toxic – not much of a Broadchurch recruitment attraction to that tiny woke kingdom.

Despite the best virtue signalling intentions of the middle class woke, poor people are not sitting around the kitchen table cancelling people for misusing pronouns, hate speech or mispronouncing te reo, they are freaking out about the economy…

Poll: Economic pessimism soars to 10-year high

Kiwis are feeling more pessimistic about the economy’s immediate future than at any other point in the last decade, today’s 1News Kantar Public Poll shows.

Respondents were asked: “Do you think during the next 12 months the economy will be in a better state than at present, or in a worse state?”

Of those polled, 18% responded ‘better’, 21% responded ‘same’ and 61% responded ‘worse’.

Dr Bryce Edwards has shown enormous courage for challenging the Woke and has provided deeper insight and oversight for his courage.

We should celebrate academics prepared to challenge values especially when they are criticising our own side.

 

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