If we are going to demand Bob Jones be stripped of his Knighthood, shouldn’t we be doing that for John Key as well?
The petition demanding Bob Jones be stripped of his Knighthood is being presented…
A petition to strip Sir Bob Jones of his knighthood will be presented to Parliament this month.
The petition has more than 65,000 signatures, and was started by filmmaker Renae Maihi after Sir Bob wrote a controversial column for the National Business Review.
…I think this is misguided for the following reasons…
1 – Stripping Bob Jones of his knighthood because he was racist is a tad fascist
Brothers & sisters, we are not a theocracy, we are a progressive liberal democracy. It is not a crime to have a racist opinion nor is it a crime to express a racist opinion. It is ignorant, offensive, petty, dehumanising, immoral, unethical and fucking ugly. But it’s not illegal. Yes, it’s illegal to discriminate based on race, but having a racist opinion and speaking it? We don’t arrest people for opinions
2 – Having a racist opinion isn’t hate speech
Let’s not give Bob’s petty and ignorant rant the kind of significance of actual hate speech. Hate speech is when you are attempting to incite violence against another group of people.
“Kill all the Māori and drive them into the sea”. That’s hate speech.
“Burn all the Chinese businesses and beat them in the street”. That’s hate speech.
“Kill whitey”, well, that’s just smart thinking. I’M JOKING. Calm down.
You get my point right? Hate speech is a serious and terrifying thing that we must always prosecute when it happens, but this bile and cringe worthy brain vomit from a tired old bigot like Bob isn’t hate speech, and giving him the power of actual hate speech is beneath the meaning of the word.
3 – If you wanted to strip Bob Jones of his Knighthood, surely THIS was the reason
If we are to demand his stripping of a Knighthood, then surely the time he goaded a protester into committing suicide and then bragged about how he goaded a fellow human being into committing suicide…
This sort of (always male) behaviour is a regular occurrence in the capital. In the 1980s when long-overdue reforms saw the closure of some isolated, scarcely used post offices, a Nelson region goose turned up in a park opposite my office, surrounded by the standard litter of signs, asserting he was starving to death in protest. I bowled across and nailed him with some impeccable logic. “Why starve to death?” I suggested. “Why not get it over with quickly and commit suicide?” So he did.
One of my daughters working, or more accurately, attending in our office at the time was appalled. “Don’t you feel bad?” she asked me. “To the contrary,” I replied. “Anyone who values their life on the existence of a country post office plainly hasn’t got one. I did him a wonderful favour.”
…was the moment to demand this prick had his Knighthood stripped from him.
4 – That Bob Jones is racist isn’t the issue, that the NBR published it is
Beside the fact that we don’t punish people because they have an opinion we don’t like is the truth that Bob isn’t the problem here. The problem is the NBR. The NBR is the most right wing newspaper in NZ and openly supports the neoliberal agenda. They are an elitist shit rag that provides Jones with a platform, not because they believe in his racist diatribes or are champions of free speech, they give this tired racist dinosaur a column because they think he’s funny. How the NBR have managed to escape the social media rage directed at Jones is the real question and by focusing on this attempt to strip Jones of his Knighthood, we are actually letting NBR off the hook.
5 – How can Bob Jones possibly sue for defamation when he no longer has a reputation to defame?
News that Jones has responded to the petition with threats of defamation are actually the most delusional thing this sad old racist has managed to say to date. Defamation law asks if a reasonable person would think less of the person being defamed. Seeing as Bob is a vicious, nasty, suicide-goading-then-bragging-about-it-fuckwit, nothing the petitioners have said could lower Bob in the eyes of a reasonable person any more than Bob’s own words and ugly behaviour.
…so if we are going to demand Bob Jones be stripped of his knighthood, shouldn’t we also be demanding it of someone whose actions are far worse than Bob’s?
The SAS revenge attack in Afghanistan where 21 civilians were murdered or wounded was considered so risky by the NZDF they personally phone called the Prime Minister at the time, John Key, and sought personal sign off in terms of responsibility from him.
John Key signed off on the attack.
During that attack war crimes were committed. Civilian homes burnt, 15 civilians wounded and 6 killed.
One of those killed was a 3 year old child, her name was Fatima.
This is her picture…
…we shot an Apache attack helicopter shell thorough her body.
If we are going to demand Bob Jones be stripped of his knighthood for a grossly offensive column, surely we should demand it be stripped from a Prime Minister who personally sanctioned a war crime?
why is bob the knob living in Aus because too many people in the hutt cant stand the b….d
ps- I know his old cleaner and she was cleaning more than his house
When the New Zealand soldier was killed I was disturbed to hear Key and others talk about “revenge.” It takes an incredible amount of naivety for the New Zealand Army et al to believe that one of their soldiers being killed was anything other than what one would expect when you have soldiers in a combat zone. Obviously, the Taleban didn’t get the memo that the New Zealand soldiers were there on a peaceful mission. They quite naturally saw them as enemy soldiers and acted accordingly. The only people who swallowed that line were people in New Zealand. The soldier was killed in the course of a war New Zealand was participating in.
“we shot an Apache attack helicopter shell thorough her body.”
Awesome when did we get Apache’s? I thought our airforce was gutted by Helen Clark and the 5th Labour Government.
Shame about the collateral damage, but unfortunately, people die when enemy combatants hide behind civilians.
Kia ora Kermit.
You will of course know from reading the book ‘Hit and Run’ where the shell came from and why NZ SAS were responsible for that because you would never comment on an issue that you hadn’t actually read about right because that would be the height of ignorance.
What are you talking about Kermit ? There were no enemy combatants present. None.
The insurgents had gone up to the summer pastures after Tim O’Donnell’s tragic death. The women and little children and fragile elderly were left behind in the villages so the NZDF terrorised and injured and killed them instead. That’s the way it was Kermit. And the following week the SAS returned and smashed up the humble houses the villagers were rebuilding.
After all, NZ’ers are already world leaders in battering women, and abusing and killing toddlers and babies. That’s the way it is Kermit.
your a bit cold hearted kermit
I always find it interesting that John Key’s part in Ireland’s economic downfall, before arriving in NZ to become OUR PM – is/was never talked about?
His knighthood should stripped and he should be tried for treason in NZ and Ireland – for what he has done to both countries!
Spot on there Kim Dandy and if I’m not mistaken, Ireland’s economy before Key destroyed it, had a reputation as being one of the best in the world at the time.
He’s protected alright. But by whom and why?
I hadn’t heard about Key’s time in Ireland. Do either of you have any links where we could read more?
I have never understood why John Key got a knighthood anyway!
ON WATCH … I’ll never know why Key received a knighthood either. For fulfilling his obligations as a traitor perhaps.
Considering at one point during his treasonable tenure as PM, Key wanted to remove the attachment of British colonialism from the NZ flag, replacing it with his favoured design, in a very costly but failed exercise on his part! Then he had the audacity to accept a British honour of a knighthood!!
The only thing Key is deserving of is serving time at Her Majesty’s Pleasure. Maybe that isn’t too far away, in relation to released official information regarding his signing off of Operation Burnham’s revenge raid, killing innocent civilians!
I think it’s a sad comment on the current political consciousness in Aotearoa that people consider ignorant and unsavoury opinions on race or gender more important things to campaign on than war crimes. Obviously I’m not defending Jones’ comments (on anything), and I would cry no tears if the thieving old fossil had his ribbons and baubles taken away. But I agree with Bomber that Key’s crimes against both this country and the world at large have had more lethal consequences for more people than Jones and his newspaper columns (who reads newspapers anyway, except perhaps looking for opinions to take offence at ?)