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  1. I blame 40 years of the “dumbing down” of society since the introduction of Neo-Liberal policies into New Zealand by Labour in 1984 and carried on by both major parties ever since. People used to talk a lot about the dumbing down of society from the mid-1980s and into the 1990s. But not any more, because the dumbing down process is complete. There is nothing to compare the dumbed down society with anymore.

    1. There is nothing to compare the dumbed down society with anymore.

      Can compare it with dementia – We have a sate of National dementia?

    2. I agree with you 100% esoteric pineapples.

      When Labour came in during 1984 our life went backwards and it actually forced our family to reside in Canada until 1998.

      Then when we returned to NZ again, to see a new better Labour Government returned, so we are hoping this will continue again now.

      I liked Government during the last tree years with the coalition.

      Especially after the hell that John Key put us through with yet another rogernomics type of governance so we need to get rid of any “National sleepers” inside any other Government in future as they are danger to NZ’s future.

    3. +esoteric pineapples: …. we used to talk a lot about the dumbing-down of Nieuw Zeeland culture — but not any more: for the dumbing-down is done ….

      Considering the mindless stupidity and utter ignorance of the average fascist-Marxist, (Jac-Ass-Queen Canute-Ardern, say) isn’t it amazing, that for the average leftard to be that darned dumb, half of them are even more-dangerously-dumber.

  2. we must look at a new public funding model for broadcasting that counters the failed market we have right now

    Yes.

    Here is a link to Martyn’s earlier post about this: Highlighting The Desperate Need for Public Broadcasting

    Excerpt:
    The NZ population has always been too small for advertiser funded journalism,
    it has ALWAYS needed State support,
    add a broken market where vulture capitalists use media profits to pay the interest on their debt
    and you have a hollowed out Fourth Estate
    that can’t be a watchdog to anything other than their self interest
    and it has eroded trust in the media
    which is being exploited by Facebook and unscrupulous politicians.
    [my re-set]

  3. YEp. To try to understand for myself what was going on, I listened to a recording of one of Billy Te Kahika’s addresses, and when describing Oranga Tamariki he actually called it a “communist, fascist” organisation.

  4. The vandals of democracy. The unthinking hordes that would favour the lifestyle of high tension and stretching remaining boundaries as in Mad Max beyond Thunderdome. Human intelligence is like electricity, it has to be used carefully and controlled; actually we do run our own electricity don’t we. There always will be ‘action men and women’ who are blinkered about life and surge around in easily excited masses. Groups develop that tend to go to excess, simplify solutions to suit their own desires. It was interesting for watchers of Babylon 5 back in the day, to see what closed society was written for a large spaceship housing thousands. We need to think objectively about what we need to do here on Earth to avoid getting these simpletons whose electrical circuits are too heated for cool thinking to occur. That should not be left to machines, algorithms, and I fear that will become the default if we thinkers don’t rouse ourselves to action, which people have developed for; too much sitting is bad for the body, the eyes and posture and mind deteriorate from being absorbed in screen viewing; we separate ourselves from each other at our peril.

    Education in NZ doesn’t include thinking, it’s mainly absorbing facts and discussing the world around us, and getting skills that fit and conform to it. Humanities, philosophy, the complex grid of ideas and contradictions – how to make decisions about life as it is lived, how it could be lived – parents don’t sit down and explore new ideas, teachers have to stick to rigid curriculums, though better since National Standards factory-ed has been dropped.

    Those whose fuses don’t blow till it’s too late need keeping damped down. And it all goes back to how we are raised when young children, the personalities and values and respect for oneself, family and others is the ground that we stand on. It needs to be done better, why doesn’t a highly educated society admit that and follow through to a reflective society, instead of a doing society that thinks taking part in physicality, sport, marathons, sports are the highest character-forming activity?
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbQy-0SzshA

    1. Greywarbler, Yes! …about our Education system. It is a hangover from a bygone age, an earlier millennium. It needs an overhaul to bring it into the 21st Century.

  5. …the lunatic fringe of the NZ Conservatives, Billy TK’s NZPP and Gerry Brownlee are all promoting conspiracy theories but posters comparing Jacinda to Hitler?

    It is not just fringies who are promoting the sick idea that Jacinda is somehow running an authoritarian Deep State. The idea is being slipped into our psyche by those within what remains of the decaying National Party. Eg, see here

    Excerpt:
    it’s only in Belarus and places like that where the leader has absolute control of the media, which is the way we get our views through to the public…” Comment by Nat MP Stuart Smith.

  6. The fringe right QAnon madness

    …is given the thumbs up by Trump: Salon Mag 20th August, Trump Embraces QAnon Support

    Excerpts:
    President Trump crossed a new line Wednesday — one that until recently no one knew existed — when he offered praise from the White House briefing room for the baseless QAnon conspiracy theory, which the FBI has labeled a potential domestic terrorism threat. QAnon followers “like me very much” and “love America,” the president told reporters, before affirming the group’s core belief that he is in fact “saving the world” from the “radical left.”
    —————

    “After calling neo-Nazis and white supremacists in Charlottesville ‘fine people’ and tear gassing peaceful protesters following the murder of George Floyd, Donald Trump just sought to legitimize a conspiracy theory that the FBI has identified as a domestic terrorism threat.”

    Warning: Only read the linked article if you have a strong stomach.

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