Hard News: Dirty Politics
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nzlemming, in reply to
It’s utterly depressing. The New Zealand I thought I knew has hardened into a mini-me reflection of the very worst of american republican/democrat division.
It's not accidental. Farrar and Slater have been deliberately fostering this split for years. It suits the right to tribalise politics this way. Farrar is a devotee of Karl Rove, the master of dog whistling. The left do themselves a disservice by buying into it.
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I'm a little confused by Slater's proposed injunction. He's listed the hacker, the Herald, TV3 and Fairfax -- but not RNZ or TVNZ. Does that mean those two organisations would be exempted from any injunction?
Having previously claimed (along with our ex-minister of injustice) that those Facebook conversations were "forged", Slater appears to be undermining his own credibility by conceding they are genuine.
Slater has filed papers claiming further exposure of information from his emails and social media accounts would inflict a huge personal toll.
Sorry. Did I suggest that Slater still has any credibility? My bad.
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Charmless, smarmy, witless, utterly untrustworthy. But to his supporters he’s _their_ charmless, smarmy, witless liar and you’d have to pry him from their cold, dead hands.
Spot on. John Key doesn’t have to be charming, witty or trustworthy. He just has to be “one of us”. So what if John Key corruptly used the SIS to discredit Goff. At least the economy is doing well, and he is normal with a wife and kids “like us”. And did you see how while his urban liberal critics smugly talk about their diverse food culture in Mt Eden and Kingsland, Key has a BBQ with Prince William, just “like us?"
Now, I was reading Rob Ford has a good chance of being re-elected mayor of Toronto. In other words, the Toronto suburbs hate the ’the downtown liberal elite’ so much that they would rather re-elect a buffoon and a criminal drug addict than let the inner city elite have a victory. John Key is our Rob Ford. And like Rob Ford John Key is the measure by which we can begin to gauge just how much provincial and suburban New Zealand hate the people whom Rob Ford and his supporters hate most — ’the urban liberal elite’. Key might be Visionless and inarticulate, but at least he is a regular guy who sticks in the craw of all those queers and liberals and femininazis.
John Keys personal popularity is the product of the progressive left’s disastrous twenty year experiment of combining acceptance of the neo-liberal economic status quo with an urban liberal sense of cultural snobbery. This politics of place – sentiments of resentment, exclusion, and social isolation felt by provincial and suburban New Zealanders of varied backgrounds towards the inner city urban elite status quo – is the reason for Key’s successful appeal to “middle New Zealand”.
Like Ford’s various Toronto scandals, the dirty politics scandal may flake off enough support for the progressive “left” to tack together a shaky majority. But the fruits of happenstance shouldn’t deflect from the real lesson for the left. The lesson the left must learn from John Key and his popularity is that its primary political vehicle (the Labour party) cannot simply be a party of left leaning urban liberals. It also has to be a party with a leader and policies that appeal to those in the provinces and outer suburbs who feel excluded from the fruits of economic growth and threatened by cultural change.
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oga,
I spoke to an old friend on the street yesterday. He is switching his vote this year to National. I was surprised, so I asked him why he's changed his vote this election. And basically it was because he didn't feel any party in opposition would maintain the current state of the economy (he needs lots of rich people with disposable income to buy his luxury goods, and doesn't want any extra business-related or personal taxes beyond what he's currently being taxed). I asked what he thought about the national debt going from 0 to 10+ billion and he shrugged and said we all live with some level of debt, that's normal. But is it normal to not have a repayment plan for the debt in the budget? Oh, is that right he said. *Cognitive dissonance face* And as for the capital gains, he rolled out the But John Key Donates His Income line. Has anyone ever seriously attempted to determine whether that pre-PM statement had any basis in fact? It seems that he, as a pro-National voter (this year, anyway), has swallowed all the popular disinfo about the state of the economy, etc. It's amazing how sometimes I feel like I am living on a totally different planet to my peers.
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Sacha, in reply to
The left do themselves a disservice by buying into it.
and by not countering it. Doesn’t go away by ignoring it.
The deep framing that the right spent years laying has helped them slide past one of the biggest scandals NZ politics has seen. What’s next, now that they know it works?
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Ian Dalziel, in reply to
they would rather re-elect a buffoon and a criminal drug addict than let the inner city elite have a victory.
Key is addicted to P...
Power! -
I'm worried that after the election, National will cobble together some sort of majority then claim that because the public voted them back in, the left's smear campaign didn't work and it's back to business as usual.
It seems that most of the National party membership will hold their nose until after the election. If they win they will hope the fuss will die down, if they lose, the knives will come out. I really, really hope they lose. -
It’s amazing how sometimes I feel like I am living on a totally different planet to my peers.
Several of my peers who supported National have changed their vote over the dirty politics scandal. But out in the low information hinterland, the “deep framing” is absolute. Hager is nothing but a dirty trouble making communist.
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Steve Barnes, in reply to
I know a lot of working journalists are dismissive of Herman and Chomsky’s “propaganda model,”
We don't use that word anymore, propaganda, too many nasty associations, WW2 Germany, Stalin, real nasty shit. I mean we don't do things like that anymore, do we? We have open and honest Governments these days, don't we?.
I mean if that kind of shit happened it would be in the papers, surely?. I mean, you know, we see it in the papers when people claim it happens but then the truth comes out and we realise it was all made up, a silly mistake blown out of all proportion.
Nah, we don't use that word anymore... We call it Public Relations -
Angela Hart, in reply to
The deep framing that the right spent years laying has helped them slide past one of the biggest scandals NZ politics has seen. What’s next, now that they know it works?
It's not done yet. The press and the public must keep up the pressure.
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I think polls are another tool in use to sway public opinion. I have great concerns about their use close to elections.
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BenWilson, in reply to
The lesson the left must learn from John Key and his popularity is that its primary political vehicle (the Labour party) cannot simply be a party of left leaning urban liberals.
What should they be? This is an honest question. What demographic do you think is untapped, and yet tappable, by Labour? I agree that urban liberals are not enough, since National moved in on them, and there are plenty of other choices for urban liberals. It seems to me that in some ways the fate of Labour is inevitable, unless they fundamentally change their nature.
Since the battle of ideas over social liberalism is pretty much over, and bipartisan consensus reigns, the battle over economic equality is the main distinction they could claim. But there are many left-wing ideas there, so the Left is somewhat doomed to be fragmented unless one single alternative idea can gain dominance. Currently the Washington consensus is just too strong and reaches deep into Labour and the population at large.
But what is that idea?
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Stephen Judd, in reply to
I should note that Josie Pagani says she has never been shooting with Slater.
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Looks like Whaledump is calling it a day:
Whaledump2 @whaledump2 · 15s
To all other ratfuckers, present and future: Don't make me come out of retirement. #whaledumpWhaledump2 @whaledump2 · 1m
To targeted ratfuckers: Good luck lying. Remaining dumps are with journos. You feeling lucky, punk? #whaledumpWhaledump2 @whaledump2 · 1m
Read about Jeremy Hammond. Read about Aaron Swartz. Think it through again. If you're not afraid, you've already fucked up. #whaledumpWhaledump2 @whaledump2 · 2m
Don't try this at home.. unless you think it's important enough to risk 7 years in jail. Think it through. #whaledumpWhaledump2 @whaledump2 · 2m
If I didn't do it, who would have? If I didn't do it this way, how could it have been done? #whaledumpWhaledump2 @whaledump2 · 2m
I know vigilantism is a dangerous final resort. I hope history judges me kindly. #whaledumpWhaledump2 @whaledump2 · 4m
This was never about party politics for me. I have done what I set out to do. It is time to go. #whaledumpWhaledump2 @whaledump2 · 2h
TGIF. #whaledump -
it also looks like he dumped everything else on the journalists .... Note he didn't say which ones, Slater (spit) only injuncted a few .... I be he's scrambling right now ....
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Ian Dalziel, in reply to
Looks like Whaledump is calling it a day:
I hope that they are OK.
Sounds a bit fatalistic... -
Sacha, in reply to
(the Labour party) cannot simply be a party of left leaning urban liberals. It also has to be a party ...
MMP means no it doesn't. A coalition of parties each representing particular groupings of people well may be more stable over time than a broad church struggling over its divisions. Similarly, National should really become more than one party like their brethren over the ditch.
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stephen clover, in reply to
from 0 to 10+ billion
Can you call him back and correct that: I thought it was 10-odd to 60-odd billion.
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BenWilson, in reply to
MMP means no it doesn’t.
He does have a point, though, that the political left as a whole can't just be formed from urban liberals. There's not enough of them, and the right also appeals to many of them. Since National's moved in on the cities, the Left (via Labour or something else) needs to broaden rural appeal.
I'm surprised that no anti-Big-Finance movement has made any serious inroads there for a long time. They have in the past, both via Social Credit, and, ironically, one of the founding parties of National, the Liberal Party. Farmers and small town folks are constantly concerned about the levels of debt required to partake of country capitalism, and they always feel prey to the movements of the big corporations that take control of their product. The only remaining wholly NZ owned bank apart from Kiwibank primarily targets the rural population.
It's not like socialist ideas get no traction in rural communities. They just do it differently to city dwellers. I think rural people have quite a different idea of the good life.
Sure, National kind of have rural welfare sewn up. But that's for lack of strong competition to at least some extent.
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Joe Wylie, in reply to
It’s not like socialist ideas get no traction in rural communities. They just do it differently to city dwellers. I think rural people have quite a different idea of the good life.
How quickly we forget. Selective socialism, in the form of subsidies, propped up the rural sector right up until the 1984 election.
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Alfie, in reply to
I thought it was 10-odd to 60-odd billion.
Currently $86.5b and counting
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Angela Hart, in reply to
I hope that they are OK.
Sounds a bit fatalistic...Or just being careful. Many thanks to Whaledump/Rawshark, a hero in my book.
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A S, in reply to
"Look! A tax cut!" seems to be the current technique. Sigh.
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Tom Semmens, in reply to
How is that being kept so far away from public discourse?
Because the media would rather lead the 6pm news with the soccer-trip pranks of posh schoolgirls.
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Sacha, in reply to
the political left as a whole
that's what I was saying, yes
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