How and Why the NZ Right are beating the NZ Left

The New Zealand Council of Christian Social Services has released a new report last week, which shows that 10.2 percent of the population experiencing relative income poverty, Māori unemployment is 11%, Māori youth unemployment is 19%, 51 percent of Māori households experience moderate to severe food insecurity and 16.5% of the total population  are living in relative income poverty after housing costs.

That’s over 860 000 Kiwis living in poverty.

So why the fuck is the next election down to the wire?

When the economy is haemorrhaging DIRECTLY BECAUSE OF GOVERNMENT POLICY, why is the election so close?

Why can’t the Left win voters back to our side?

There are a couple of reasons:

The Left have lost male voters: Thanks to our beloved Middle Class Woke activists, they have turned identity politics into a vast cultural backlash. The damage their cancel culture social media Lynch mobs caused between 2016-2020 have generated a level of resentment altho has become political. TDB has argued and warned that you don’t want men seeing themselves as an identity, you want them to stand in solidarity via citizenship and class, the millisecond they adopt the grievance of the Woke, you lose them to the reactionary right. If the Left can not win men back, we lose the election.

The mainstream media is completely weighted against the Left now: Stuff and NZME are now utterly dominated by Right wing pundits and voices, there are a few exceptions but the majority are now  foaming right wing voices. There is not even the pretence of ‘balance’ meaning the Left are never given the space in corporate media to make their case.

The Left have no infrastructure: Look at how the Right have built a strong infrastructure that connects corporate dark money to right wing influencers and media amplification…

…take the Free Speech Union as an example.

Who Benefits: The rise and rise of the Free Speech Union

The union’s critics say its veneer of reasonableness hides a darker mission of knocking institutions, sowing the seeds of racial division, and importing culture wars on issues like transgender rights.

Some, like University of Auckland academics Sereana Naepi and Peter Davis, say a free speech “crisis” at universities has been manufactured – and amplified by like-minded groups, like the NZ Initiative.

…I have always felt that Free Speech Union was a Zionist front group that weaponised free speech for right wing purposes.

It is part of the Taxpayers’ Union stable of clients and is an important mouthpiece for the wealthy and powerful.

The irony is that it would never have come about if woke middle class identity politics acolytes hadn’t decided to start a culture war on free speech.

Good one wokies.

The reality is that the astroturf constellation of Taxpayers’ Union, Free Speech Union, The Campaign Company, Groundswell, Federated Farmers, The NZ Initiative, The Atlas Network, Business NZ etc etc etc are all having enormous success at pushing for corporate interests while distracting with culture war talking points.

Kiwis are having their petty bigotries manipulated by these astroturf organisations to advance corporate interests.

Take the last local elections, Dr Bryce Edwards makes the following point…

…the issue isn’t that the right are using dark money to run influence campaigns and winning, the issue is why the hell can’t the Left counter that influence?

How does NZ Left beat influence of astroturf Taxpayers’ Union/NZ Initiative stable of clients? 

The problem is that while the right all hate each other, they put that aside to work for their masters.

On the Left, we are far too focused on attacking each other.

On the Right they search for recruits, on the Left we search for traitors.

This has become a real issue for the Left because the next generation don”t see themselves as a class or as citizens, they see themselves as hashtag identities and the woke infiltration of many Left wing groups (as seen most tragically in 2021 when Auckland Students Against Climate Change cancelled themselves for being too racist) has ended up with a brittle dispirit group of Wellington based groups that are still on talking terms with each other.

The current ‘unity’ on the Left is like a threesome that goes bad.

Hilariously when you speak with Left Wing Generals in private, they all acknowledge that the woke cancel culture of 2016-2020 has left us decimated to the extremes of the reactionary anti-woke right.

I believe there is infrastructure within the NZ Left that could be harnessed in time for the election to act as a counter weight to the Right’s astroturf influencers, it is finding the will to make then Left work together.

We need to build a group of think tanks and support their work through amplification that goes beyond Action Stations list of approved Wellington friend group.

THINK TANKS

In this area, we desperately require real intellectual weight to argue for Left Universalism and capitalist critiques.

The Helen Clark Foundation – The amazing work Helen’s Foundation does and the issues they raise mark her Foundation as one of the best think tanks we have.

Dr Bryce Edwards – Bryce has probably had the best insights into the influence of the right wing astro turf organisations.

Greenpeace – Continue to be the best critic of the Government’s denial of climate change.

NZCTU – They have the money to fund research and step up as leaders.

AMPLIFIERS: 

There has to be an acknowledgment that if we are to win the next election, it has to go beyond Action Stations rainbow of the approved Wellington friend group association.

Against the Current, Nick Rockell, Gerard Otto + BHN – All important voices on the Left that need to be patched into this flow of info from the think tanks for distribution online.

Māori Media – Waatea has built their Facebook page to 110 000, Māori media are doing better at building influence than most of the mainstream media.

Political Party social media – They need to step in here as well and promote wider content that isn’t just party based.

Spinoff – Scoop is dead, which is a problem because their press release section once mattered. The Spinoff has social media muscle and they should become the new place for all press releases for the Left.

If the Left doesn’t work to build a counter weight to the right wing astroturf organisations, we can’t win hearts and minds.

 

Independent Media is more important than ever, especially in the lead up to the Election. TDB is the largest Left Wing Blog in NZ and we have been operating for 13 years now. We get zero funding g from NZ on Air and we don’t have no rich backers. If you can donate please do so here or directly into our account – 12-3065-0133561-56