Why amplifying Simon Bridges comments will probably help him
The fat grey tout jumped over the slippery blue fox.
Amongst the woke echo chambers of Twitter, Simon Bridges undergrad comments on Hauraki about gender fluid pinkos and University causing strange ideas has caused outrage.
Feeding that outrage however is probably a very bad idea.
Less than 9% of NZ uses Twitter, and using that as a measure of how the wider electorate feel about any issues is the sort of enclosed certainty that saw Trump and Brexit win.
To the majority of the people Simon Bridges just finished meeting on his tour of National voters, his comments will come across as exceptionally mild. This is a voter base who are still incandescent with rage that Winston cheated them, still furious that their property speculation bubble is slowing down and are up to their eyeballs in debt for dairy intensification. For these voters, social engineering is a way for communists to trick their children and progress is something that is always at their expense.
Bridges hasn’t been doing well with National voters because he is not as feral as the anger his base wants. These boorish comments will be music to their ears.
The danger in all of this is that the woke Twitter bubble goes into meltdown and over eggs it.
If the response to Bridges is a fully fledged claim of hate crime, then the swing voter in the middle who doesn’t see his language as anything more than a joke will side with Bridges. We are seeing this dynamic occur with Trump supporters over and over and over again.
Existential philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre once said ‘hell is other people’, I think this needs to be updated to ‘hell is other peoples social media feed’.
The Left are excellent at pointing out what’s wrong but we are hopeless at forgiving and offering redemption for those that do the wrong. If our goal is to exclude everyone who doesn’t agree with us, we can’t gain the mandate to implement the change we all desperately want.
Standing up and screaming, ‘I’m different and you’re wrong’, isn’t much of a recruitment tool.
While Bridges needs calling out, I don’t think woke twitter has the nuance to do that without accidentally creating more support for Simon.
Does that mean that every-one has to like Simon Bridges ?
What about Paula Bennett and Judith – the one with the fair hair ?
Amy Adams ?
Nick Smith ?
Simon is a practising Christian so his redemption is probably really up to God.
Is it ok to still hate all the electric power companies and Telecom ?
John Key said exactly the same sorts of things but knew how to couch his words to signal what his intent was and still get away with it. Much worse
Oh yes, E P.
When it comes to persuasion, the Backfire Effect will screw up your best efforts.
https://youarenotsosmart.com/2011/06/10/the-backfire-effect/
I’m not so sure Bridges comments will work counter productively , I’m more inclined to think give Bridges enough rope and he will do the job himself.
He does not come across as confident , only desperate.
And yet, with more than a dash of lackadaisical attitude regards those less well off. Or the environment . Coupled with a very pronounced belligerency , rigidity and a dogmatic ideology, – that being of the neo liberal persuasion. Indeed in order to hold those very ideologies one , – if they so choose to be a leader of a party expressing those ideologies – must have those sorts of quality’s.
And it is here in plain sight for all to see:
john campbell interviews simon bridges FULL campbell live – MSN.com
https://www.msn.com/…/john-campbell-interviews-simon-bridges…campbell…/vp-BBJ…
Only those bloody minded tribalist’s who refuse to be converted will not be swayed by what they see,… as they were Key. Nothing will convince them otherwise. I am not so sure criticizing Bridges is a bad thing , because Bridges acts in a way that sends himself up all by himself, – let alone needing anyone else to do so.
His comments were rank. And to simply let him pass ‘Go’ and collect the money free of any comment would be equally as bad , – if not being seen as an outright tacit endorsing of his views.