Hard News: Miracles just rate better, okay?
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And the website you link to is sick. I suggest you reconsider, strongly.
I'm not even going to consider following that link.
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Hey Lucy, is there anything else you've said today that we can misread spectacularly and then moralistically wag our fingers at you about? I don't think we've quite covered all the bases yet.
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Which, clearly, is going on; witness the talkback nonsense LegBreak heard. But far be it from me to question the general high-mindedness and non-racism of New Zealand society.
I think there are two things here. An eyewitness said that she saw an asian woman with a child. Police would like to speak with this woman. As far as I'm concerned these are not very controversial facts and there are no memes floating around.
What this turns into in media and talkback-land is a different story. And one that definitely falls into the meme of asians/jews/gypsies/blacks stealing white folk's kids.
But surely we can't blame the initial facts or story for the moronic reaction that follows.
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One of the more bizarre figments of the Christchurch Civic Creche case was the supposed victims' accounts of ritual abuse sessions with 'asian tourists' during their outings with Peter Ellis
And it's highly unlikely those kids were thinking "oh, yeah, Asians, Asians are evil."
This isn't about accusing people of conscious, direct racism. It's about othering. It's about it making sense at some level of the psyche that someone Other must have been seen, because this was an investigation about a little girl going missing. Only Other People hurt or take little children. Asians, in modern New Zealand society, are still highly othered. So the idea spreads, and becomes a focus of investigation, because at some level it just makes sense. And it doesn't mean the witnesses are liars, or racists, or the police are racists. It's about a meme.
And that's how you get questions about whether Aisling was kidnapped to order, and headlines highlighting that, when the police never suggested it in the first place.
Of course, there is still the possibility that the woman exists and did see Aisling and will be found. It's just that at this stage, given what we now know happened to her, it seems unlikely - thus the reminder of the historical pattern.
Hey Lucy, is there anything else you've said today that we can misread spectacularly and then moralistically wag our fingers at you about? I don't think we've quite covered all the bases yet.
I'm sure if you work at it there'll be *something*. Have I subtextually accused anyone of misogyny yet?
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Hmmm. Torrid day on the thread.
I think now might be the right time for everyone to take a breath.
I'm not saying you have to go and look at pictures of kittens on the internet, but ...
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Asians, in modern New Zealand society, are still highly othered. So the idea spreads, and becomes a focus of investigation, because at some level it just makes sense. And it doesn't mean the witnesses are liars, or racists, or the police are racists. It's about a meme.
And I'm equally concerned about "model minoritarianism" on the other extreme, especially when "involuntary minorities" are deliberately used as doormats to welcome in "voluntary minorities" carrying wads of cash in their pockets. To bring in skilled migrants & investors is all well and good, but to marginalise the involuntaries in doing so invites inter-minority tensions.
When South Africa was under the grip of apartheid, Japanese and Taiwanese businessmen who signed trade pacts with Cape Town were referred to as "honorary whites", and given much the same rights as the Afrikaner populace while the status quo was maintained towards the blacks & coloureds.
Amy Chua wrote about the wider phenomenon in "World on Fire".
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I'm not saying you have to go and look at pictures of kittens on the internet, but ...
There is never a bad time to go and look at pictures of kittens on the internet.
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I'm not saying you have to go and look at pictures of kittens on the internet, but ...
Well, this story connects cats and quackery, which can only be a good thing.
(To be fair, George's green eyes are pretty hypnotic...)
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Green eyes, Matthew? ether your monitor needs calibrating, mine does or one of us is colour blind.
Ha! Fortunately, it's the former, rather than the latter- there was dust and muck on the screen. Whatever, I can almost understand why George was mistaken for a hypnotist. Just look at him!
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Righty ho, like I'm going to have some quack, cat, trick me into revealing my credit card numbers.
You say that, but wait until he starts purring...
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Meanwhile, the Asian woman who is yet isn't a product of subconscious racism in our society has apparently been identified, and the police wants to speak to her.
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Meanwhile, the Asian woman who is yet isn't a product of subconscious racism in our society has apparently been identified
Quite so, Gio. What were people saying about subconscious memes?
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I'm going to stop worrying this bone.
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I’d like imply that is seems a bit odd that the bulk of the article linked has nothing to do with the headline.
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It's a surplus of weirdness: she was spotted by a nine year old, I cannot think of a scenario in which they worked out who it was based on that description and yet have been unable to speak to her. The article is completely unhelpful at any rate.
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What were people saying about subconscious memes?
That it was still entirely possible she existed, actually, but I'm going to take Stephen's advice.
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I was under the impression that you where a serious intellectual, Kyle.
No, I can still work the photocopier and my computer, and I never leave the office without my keys.
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Meanwhile, the Asian woman who is yet isn't a product of subconscious racism in our society has apparently been identified, and the police wants to speak to her.
Quite so, Gio. What were people saying about subconscious memes?
Well, the article refers to her as the 'mystery asian woman'. Which may actually be lazy journalistic shorthand for "y'know that woman we were talking about earlier in the week? She's been identified".
My point being that the facts presented in the article itself don't actually confirm she's asian.
No, I can still work the photocopier and my computer, and I never leave the office without my keys.
Unless you have interesting hair which makes you look like either a party or a riot is happening on your head, you're conclusively out of the running.
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Yes. Thanks for repasting that here, entirely appropriate use of PAS.
Must take that site down at some stage.
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I'm sorry Stephen, but you're wrong. We have the hard copies of the NZ Herald here. On the front page of the Herald, Wednesday, October 7, this is the standfirst beneath the main headline: "Police seek mystery woman as fears for Aisling intensify." This is a link to an online Herald story from last Wednesday without the standfirst but with the abduction angle. You'll note that it has the Asian woman in it:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10601788
That story with the heavier emphasis on the abduction angle (the first real emphasis on it, I think) seems to have gone up well after the Breakfast interview with Deb on the 7th, albeit the same day. Also, she flew in from Australia and, according to Henry, "caught a little bit of the news" about Aisling the day before their interview. A reaction based on that glimpse on the 6th is what she was referring to in the interview. So it still seems Stephen's right, it doesn't seem Deb had any reason to think anything was up other than a toddler had wondered away from home and was missing and being searched for.
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Assuming she didn't also see that morning's front page of New Zealand's largest newspaper, then you're right.
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Paul Feyerabend had some interesting views on science's place in society.
Interesting views, yes. But I couldn't disagree more with some of them. "He was especially indignant about the condescending attitudes of many scientists towards alternative traditions. For example, he thought that negative opinions about astrology and the effectivity of rain dances were not justified by scientific research, and dismissed the predominantly negative attitudes of scientists towards such phenomena as elitist or racist" Seriously: rain danes? He'd probably have time for the psychics, too.
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Assuming she didn't also see that morning's front page of New Zealand's largest newspaper, then you're right.
Well, I wouldn't be surprised either way. Deb said she didn't follow the news too much. On Breakfast, they protrayed it as if that glimpse from the previous day was all she'd seen/heard. They gave the impression [edit: they actually stated it quite clearly] she was repeating the reaction she had shown from the day before, when she watched a bit of telly. If Deb had said anything to anyone at the time (on the 6th) she could hardly change her tune the next morning.
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I have just seen the Media 7 segment on the stem cell therapy. Very interesting. Great television. The experts got to talk without interruption and develop their arguments.
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Damn it! The post I want to edit, I can't edit anymore...
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