Responding to criticism from a fellow Green voter
A fellow Green voter writes…
Hey Martyn, you posture yourself as left and green but you spend a huge amount of time slagging the left and green sides.
In the meantime you are actually a softcock as to your treatment of the right wing.
You continually criticise the most trivial things while failing to put the boot into Luxon and Seymour with any conviction.
Why criticise Marama over something trivial like chocolate while letting Luxon off over his “enquiry” into Uffindell of which no information has or will be released or the Nats absolutely hypocritical stance on the changes that were proposed to Kiwi saver.
John Cobbler
Dear John Cobbler.
Thank you for taking the time to write to me.
Time is a luxury in a world demanding our next like, retweet and attention constantly.
If you can make the effort to write, I should make the time as a fellow Green voter to reply, so allow me to respond as graciously as I can Comrade.
Hey Martyn, you posture yourself as left and green but you spend a huge amount of time slagging the left and green sides.
Posture myself? I set up MANA & wrote a lot of their policy, I broke the ponytail pulling story against John Key, I took the NZ Police to the Human Rights Review tribunal for their breach of my civil rights in their failed prosecution of Nicky Hager after they believed I was RAWSHARK, I was blacklisted from RNZ for ‘defaming’ John Key, I led the campaign against the mass surveillance state…
…I helped put together the Labour strategy that saw them win the 2017 election with my comrade Matt McCarten who was their Chief of Staff, I run the largest Left wing blog in the country and host the number 1 political podcast that isn’t funded by NZ on Air.
I tangled with the Public Service Commissioner recently.
To paraphrase Muhammad Ali, I done wrestled with an alligator, done tussled with a whale; I’ve handcuffed lightning, thrown thunder in jail; only last week, I murdered a rock, injured a stone, hospitalized a brick; I’m so mean I make medicine sick!
I have also voted green most of my adult life.
But ‘posture’, sure.
I spend the time ‘slagging off the left and green sides’ because the ‘left and green sides’ are fucking children playing bullshit identity politics games while the poor we claim to give a shit about have their lives get increasingly worse because the ‘left and green sides’ won’t stand up to a Professional Managerial Class self serving Public Service whose neo-elitism ensures their puritan morality is serviced first.
As I argued at the time in 2020, the decision to accept vacant ministerial baubles without any real power would bite the Greens in the arse once their powerlessness was exposed. Rather than accept those hollow positions, the Greens should have remained in Opposition so that they weren’t sub 10% in the Polls.
These are strategic and tactical political failures by the Leadership and you want to gloss over that for what purpose?
I want meaningful, transformative change, not middle class virtue signals while the poor suffer and the planet burns!
In the meantime you are actually a softcock as to your treatment of the right wing.
You continually criticise the most trivial things while failing to put the boot into Luxon and Seymour with any conviction.
Hmmm.
Let’s unpack some of this.
You will of course remember I was the first to point out ACT’s insane push to amputate the Ministry of Youth Affairs, the Ministry of Ethnic Affairs, the Ministry of Māori Affairs, the Ministry of Women and Ministry for Pacific People ON TOP OF killing off the Human Rights Commission amounted to the worst self mutilation of the State since Rogernomics.
TDB was the first to point out the extraordinarily spiteful and malicious nature of these savage cuts into the political voices of NZs Youth, Māori, Women, Ethnic Communities and Pacific Communities ALONGSIDE removing the highest civil rights court in the land!
We were the first to call out ACTs conflict policies, and if you remember John, I was warning the woke Left in 2018 when they started their insane attacks on Free Speech that they would inadvertently trigger a dormant political fault line with ACT and could empower a huge political backlash.
ACT was polling 1%, the woke activist Left attacked Free Speech, and ACT is now 10%.
We warned ACT would become what they have and we have been warning that an ACT/National Government would be the worst possible outcome for NZ.
We have even gamed out how their conflict policies would lead to civil disorder and we have been the only ones who have done that.
Claiming TDB has not gone to fucking town over the dangers of a National/ACT Government is simply not in any way shape or form true.
We were the first to link Luxon to the abortion issue, the first to hold up his lies about being in Te Puke when he was in Hawaii and we have torn his neoliberal experiment in welfare to pieces.
To claim that TDB, the home of the ponytail pulling story that led to the demise of John Key, is somehow soft on ACT and National when we have explicitly warned the country that we risk civil disorder if these right wing freaks gain power and implement their romper stomper policies is simply an outright lie on your behalf John Cobbler.
Green voters should not lie comrade, it’s not a good look for our movement.
Why criticise Marama over something trivial like chocolate while letting Luxon off over his “enquiry” into Uffindell of which no information has or will be released or the Nats absolutely hypocritical stance on the changes that were proposed to Kiwi saver.
For the love of Christ.
Have you not noticed the 27 000 on emergency housing wait lists? Have you not noticed the 200000 kids in poverty? Have you not noticed the million dollars a day spent on damaging Motels to kettle beneficiaries?
There are more children living in fucking cars now than when we first came to power in 2017!
Have you not noticed the 4000 disabled young people we cut off welfare? Have you not noticed the suicide rate? The meaninglessness in policy when it comes to homelessness and the environment?
You have the audacity to defend Marama, when all she has done is virtue signal chocolate wrappers ffs!
Have you noticed the planet is burning and shit for the most vulnerable – THE PEOPLE YOU HAVE THE FUCKING AUDACITY TO SAY YOU CARE ABOUT – their fucking lives are going backwards while our Political leaders are fucking around with middle class virtue signals!
I’m critical of the left and the greens because we are doing a fucking appalling job of doing anything other than middle class virtue signals.
Thank you for taking the time to correspond.
Yours.
Martyn Bradbury
Fellow Green Party voter who honestly has no idea who he is voting for any longer
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Touche Martin.
Mr Cobblers appears to be an apologist for Marama, but she ‘s a big girl, and she should be explaining her own comfortable chocolate posturing when the chronically homeless and the sexually and domestically abused, should clearly be being prioritised. And the hungry. And the cold.
He has a point about Uffindell though, when this country’s dark violent underbelly makes life a misery for its victims and results in the deaths of so many babies and children, and the police attend dozens of home violence call-outs daily, and even the government itself is airily dumping the much needed Commissioner for Children.
If Luxon endorses ex- bully boys, he needs to know that for all the bullies, there were boarding school pupils who did not succumb to mob rule and put the boot into the smaller weaker kids, and he should find one. The problem, of course is finding one among the current tawdry bunch of Nats.
It would be morally indefensible for Bradbury or anybody else to gloss over the deficiencies of political parties which we support even if politicians pay grubbers big bucks to do so.
Just as long as he’s an ex “bully boy”, because none of us are perfect.
Meanwhile the last 5 years of Labour has seen a claim of sexual assault in their youth camp buried by the spin people. A claim of sexual assault in the PMs office buried by the same people. A Speaker of the House appointed who has previously fought with a fellow MP in Parliament and continued that approach as Speaker. Finally, an MP (Meka ‘Fightery’) who was demoted for assaults on her staff.
Andrew, Yes. I think that they appointed a bullying warden at Parliament recently, in lieu of having a Commissioner for Children, but the even more bizarre appointment has to be that of Trevor Mallard as a diplomat.
Like you are an ex-thinker Andrew? What about your John Key as a Sir John Key?
I’ve heard that when Sir John Key and his fellow right-wingers like you, go in for your centre-right/slightly right/alt-right /uber-alt-right-meetings, you are told to leave your brain-cells, conscience, empathy, Socratic questioning/thinking, gumboots and care for others in the lock-box by the toilets?
Mea culpa – I lied about the gumboots. BTW, what’s your views about Came Slater and Jordan Williams Andrew? In case you missed it, from your right-wing buddies:
https://insightnz.wordpress.com/2014/09/04/leaked-jordan-williams-and-slater-conversations-part-six/
The sound of Crickets!
I assume you’re denying Dirty Politics’ links with National and ACT by your reticence Andrew?
Apparently to be a good leftie and greenie, you are not allowed to have your own opinion.
Cancel culture, not allowing difference and critique, and targeting abuse (softcock) at others in their so called clique for not towing an authoritarian party line is part of the new, Green Party leadership.
You’re not alone, punishing Shaw for trying to do his job (and even his attempts at climate change are better than Marama’s absolute cratering of homelessness and emergency housing figures), while publicly humiliating him by making him win his co-leader job back, that nobody in the party could be arsed to contest anyway.
(Probably the “John Cobbler” email, is mostly anger about the brown washing of Te Reo, which the woke are the most proud of).
Both funny and sad (Mr Cobbler)
One feature of the PMC is that they do not like criticism (constructive or otherwise) – usually pulling out the PR spin and bullshit machine at the first opportunity in response.
I wonder whether Mr Cobbler has ever experienced homelessness, or been directly affected by, or had to interact with some of the more dysfunctional agencies our ‘left’ politicians seem happy to act as enablers.
Tee hee, Schadenfreude…
But all pleasure aside, you really do have the winning argument there Bomberino. Well spoken indeed.
The most relatable part of your response is your very last bit:
“Fellow Green Party voter who honestly has no idea who he is voting for any longer”
Coz that’s how itz bin 4me 4 the last God knows how many years.
Let me know how you’re gonna vote coz I got nuffin’…
Spot on Martyn.
NOT A DAMN WORD COMES OUT OF THE GREEN PARTIES MP’s about our dysfunctional healthcare system.
It is pissing me off.
All we hear is climate change climate change what damn good is doing shit about climate change when our health system has been so damn americanised we are basically fucked unless carted into hospital by Ambulance even then you may be waiting in the damn thing for hours just to get into ED.
Our medicines funding is beyond a damn joke.
Meanwhile The Greens say nothing.
It is even harder now to borrow money to pay for unfunded medicines, dare I say it damn near impossible in some cases, unless you own a house or have valuable assets, under the new loan laws and Riccardo Mendez and the AAAP’s vendetta against the PayDay loans companies have made the situation 10 times worse.
.
The Green Party – the best marketing tool ACT could have wished for!
VFF, Destiny, Sam Uffindell and the other National Bully Boys – the best marketing tools Labour and Greens could have wished for!
Everyone knows (or should) that it’s impossible to improve the right wing of the neoliberal party.
That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t demand an actual left wing socialist alternative, and demand that the left wings of the neoliberal party start delivering some fraction of the services that an actual left party would, or at least promising to do something good, as the Greens used to.
We agree wholeheartedly.
ACT is good
Lwft-Green is baaaad
Cheers Martyn. The issue here is that the correspondent John Cobbler(s), does not recognise objective opinion and criticism, which is necessary to keep a balance in media.
Careful Bomber, the Greens, will do to you what the supposed British Labour party did to Ken Loach, and banned him from being a member, cause his left leaning, was to much of a tilt for them.
Good on ya Martyn, you rock!
Does that guy John Cobbler have an Uncle Tom Cobbler and all? Nursery rhymes get to be cliches, but have vitality and fun. The criticisms above are a great platform for the true left to make a stand and fire off unassailable responses to those weak-kneed certainties and objections that have formed and been broadcast, or are unspoken and littering people’s brains; waste but blocking the way to better, more practical ideas for fast, necessary change to remedy some of our ills and ameliorate the rest.
In the last month, I have noticed a far more organised push by trolls especially on centre left or centre right websites that allow comments. I have also noticed on Newshub that the comments which are usually dominated by right wing KiwiBlog types has become incredibly intolerant and polarised particularly on the left.
These days a post that starts “we cant assume this came from the right or the left or even is in fact a thing, maybe just more reported on” will get you crucified.
You always get people who don’t read a post properly or just aren’t bright enough to get it but lately it seems that moderate voices are being targeted and silenced by the identarians in particular. There is no tolerance for any view that isn’t implicitly in support of their views. A worrying trend.
I share Martyn’s dilemma.
I have voted Labor/Labour and the Greens in two countries for more than 40 years. For the first time I am struggling to see me voting for anyone.
Ditto.
Be a deplorable and don’t vote jack!
Its your prerogative.
But, don’t come here to this site and bitch and moan here afterwards that the wrong party, or coalition got to power through your apathy!
The Mick Lynch Party gets my vote. All the others are phoneys.
I can’t understand why all the tory Natz don’t just keep voting for Jacinda. She is their ticket to riches afterall.
Many of them are. Doesnt stop them from clutching their pearls and trying to look virtuous.
Or what National did to innocent Uffindell jim?
National have a mock trial for 5-6 weeks.
They tell Sam he’s ‘a naughty, naughty boy’ …. and tell him not to get caught bullying again!
Chris Luxon. Mike-Drop. Uffindell. Sorted!
Well said Martyn.
Gold