Politically triggering: Cancelling Guy Williams, Youth Parliament walk out & banning Taxpayers Union
Do they though?
Youth MPs prove this generation deserves to be heard
It’s a bit of theatre; a bit of fun; and it’ll look good on their CVs, but the triennial Youth Parliament is more than that – it’s a reminder of the importance of youth voices in public debate.
Hilariously the woke Stuff writer heaps praise upon praise upon praise for youth generations annual attempt at performative politics yet utterly misses how some of the uber woke walked out when they heard something they didn’t like…
Mass walkout at Youth Parliament after firearms speech
More than half of this year’s Youth MPs walked out of the debating chamber in response to a fellow participant’s speech on gun rights at Youth Parliament on Wednesday.
…and it is this micro aggression policing woke snowflake dogma tactics that truly sum up the current state of the Political Left.
Sure the woke Stuff writer glowed about how righteous the kids were, but seemed to miss the utter contempt they displayed of having to hear an opinion that triggered them.
This culture of cancellation and deplatforming to control free speech is driven by a momentum of middle class social media echo chambers, Twitter Stockholm Syndrome of mainstream journalists, Critical Race Theory, 5th wave feminists and non-binary activists.
You can see it on display with the current attempt to cancel Guy Williams for ‘platforming’ Leo Molloy…
Guy Williams is now facing a backlash for the piece. He’s been accused of platforming a mayoral candidate, of normalising offensive behaviour, and of ultimately helping Leo’s campaign. These are ridiculous critiques that only serve to further entrench the things they’re criticising.
…you can see it with the bewildering decision to cancel Taxpayer’s Union from covering a Local Government Conference…
LGNZ Bans New Zealand’s Largest Ratepayers’ Group From Conference
Fewer than 24 hours before the opening of the Local Government New Zealand conference in Palmerston North, the Taxpayers’ Union was notified by LGNZ that the Union’s registration to attend the event has been revoked and that all union members, staff and board members are banned from attending the conference on ‘the future of local government’.
…all the Political Left in NZ seem to be good at any longer is shouting down or cancelling anyone they disagree with.
As a class lefty, I see identity as an important personal journey that leads you to politics but feel 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 a cold cup of vomit.
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 cross burning racists, believe all women because 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.
There’s this terrible truth that once you go middle class woke you start doing 5 things:
1 – You start loudly correcting Te Reo mispronunciation in public.
2 – You become humourless about your veganism.
3 – You pay a subscription to The Spinoff and Stuff.
4 – You buy Tim Minchin concert tickets.
5 – You become unbearably militant about your cycling.
Twitter outrage is woke righteousness porn for the middle classes. A puritanical razoring where the self elected morality police publicly shame and cancel anyone for not using the language protocols of the conclave.
Social media is an ocean of the bullied who have finally found strength online and that taste of power is too addictive to ever leave. In a post #MeToo world where allegation is the new evidential threshold, virtue signalling subjective rage is almost as important as the constant competitive sadfishing where intersectionist wounds and scars are held up to the foaming public demanding attention.
As politics polarises around identity and not class solidarity, tribal micro-aggression policing is only going to get more puritanical on social media because those who need this vehicle gain too much emotionally from its self-aggrandising algorithms.
The low hanging fruit of identity politics is easier to pontificate over for activists than actual reform of the neoliberal economic hegemony that drives poverty and inequality.
Woke Left are too busy arguing over pronouns, banning movies and cancelling comedians for platforming problematic candidates than finding solutions for housing, child poverty, adult poverty, inequality, hunger, climate change and welfare.
This is why we on the Left risk getting smashed in the next election, we focus on bullshit identity politic flag waving over shared values.
I’m no political expert but a movement that sees everyone less mentally ill then themselves as privileged and everyone more mentally ill than them as toxic doesn’t win elections.
Meanwhile the 1% are laughing.
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Talking about gun rights to city kids is like a vegan speaking about tofu at a federated farmers conference in Dipton.
Not exactly reading the room. I think we have found the next Nick Smith.
Very surprised they selected a kid from Southland to go to this event!
Nick Smith… eewwwww!
Wait! So the left must appeal to the left on how to speak? YES. All of this METOO, B.l.m, all of it was to push normal working leftist people to the right – the “right” meaning that your country is already bought. But reasoned arguments are cancelled in favor of big business.
I was amused to see that apparently the Youth Parliament supported importing nuclear pollution into our harbours.
Maybe we shouldn’t be letting aspiring careerist politicians vote at 16, huh?
That’s what I was a-thinking too!
It’s not a good look for lowering the voting age at all.
This may seem to be a fairly partisan view, but over the two days my perception was that the right leaning candidates (Bhatnagars et al) were like little programmed clones of their MP masters, whereas those leaning left were prepared to challenge existing policy and practice – whether from the left or right. Some of them have had bloody tough lives and they did well.
Damn, Martin, your writing is a thing of beauty, inspirational and just awesome!
Can’t wait until your first novel!
Walking out of the DEBATING Chamber on mass – how ironic and gauche!
“I’m no political expert but a movement that sees everyone less mentally ill then themselves as privileged and everyone more mentally ill than them as toxic doesn’t win elections.”
🙂
Like your free speech right (not privilege) join https://www.fsu.nz/
Wannabe politicians walk out of parliament when they don’t agree with another’s view?
So democratic. So tolerant. So diverse.
You couldn’t make this shit up if you tried.
Oh, and the finger wagging from the grown ups in the Herald is still happening, this time councillor Ben Goodale warning us off that cad Leo. Long story short, we imbeciles are subtly warned to make sure you vote so he doesn’t get in.
Best anonymous twits get elected I guess Benny’s saying!
One of the amazing things about the ‘walk out’ is that the speech in question was only 3 minutes. Must have packed a lot of uncouth thought in the first seconds – or did they not even make the decision on the content of the speech, but on their umbrage that a different opinion may be voiced? Was it that someone suggested the Govt made a mistake that was the truly offensive thing?
“it’s an equally valid decision to leave when you feel uncomfortable with the comments that someone’s making.” Did they even hear any of the comments?
maybe it’s their delusional hate filled toxic followers and the bullshit divisive memes that has something to do with it. Why is it always the ducks calling the rabbits divisive? I find this cancel culture vs free speech arguement tiresome – no-one is preventing free speech by taking their own soap box away. Go and find your own soap box.