Andrea Vance looks like she is putting her hand up for a leading role in the Media Party. She has an opinion piece that is as vitriolic as it is wrong, about Shane Jones and his alleged racism:
[…] in this era of alternative facts, it’s not hard to see why interest groups indulge in misinformation when constructing and communicating their political message.
The tone is set from the top. And when politicians like Shane Jones spray out virulently racist, and blatantly false, claptrap about Indian students you cannot blame others for losing their moral compass in public discourse.
Politicians ought to use restraint and reason in their statements. As Prime Minister, responsible for the conduct of ministers in her Government, Jacinda Ardern should have censured him.
Jones will be undeterred – this kind of messaging is easy and effective. Lobbing incendiary charges and stoking fears against a minority guarantees attention.
For all the critical commentary, Jones knows there will be a rump of supporters cheering him on. To condemn a politician for racism is to implicitly accuse their supporters of harbouring the same bigoted tendencies. They will rail against the cult of political correctness.
The fact that there was no evidence, or justification for his vague claims got a bit lost in the howl of outrage.
But allowing false claims and a disregard for truth to seep into policy debates is destructive and irresponsible. It legitimises the tactics of climate deniers, anti-vaxxers and other groups who don’t have truth on their side.
If Shane Jones can spit out a xenophobic tirade, on national television – and ‘get away’ with it, can we really expect pressure groups not to blur the lines between between fact and opinion, informed argument and blustering conjecture?
Stuff
The Media Party is becoming completely unhinged.
Shane Jones merely pointed out that a lot of dodgy “curry munchers” had their immigration applications rejected. That is a hard, incontrovertible fact. It happened and there are serious issues in tertiary institutions that are enabling this behaviour. All Jones has done is to say that it needs to stop.
No one is actually arguing that it happened or otherwise. Not a peep about the actual facts of the issue. Yet Andrea Vance has the temerity to accuse Jones of having a fact-free argument. They are not false claims and for her to make her own false claims in that regard shows that the Media Party hasn’t learned from overseas experience. Saying something is so doesn’t make it so when pesky details called facts are raised. The Media Party are telling Jones he is wrong because he pointed out a fact.
It isn’t racist, no matter how hard the vested interests howl that it is. Facts are facts and Shane Jones has that on his side.
And that is before politics enters the fray. It is only globalists who howl about racism when others point out facts. They want unfettered immigration which, perversely, is what has landed us all with the coronavirus. Shane Jones is merely saying what many in the streets of Auckland and any other city with large migrant populations are saying. For every howling and mewling globalist, or National party sycophant who goes on about racism, there are plenty more people who will be liking what that Jones boy from Northland is saying. They will be saying over their beers at the BBQ or the pub that New Zealand doesn’t need any more dairy owners, or liquor store owners or even more Uber drivers. They’ll be saying Jones is right and the whingers, including the Prime Minister, are wrong.
Jacinda Ardern has implored voters to prove Shane Jones wrong, but what is more likely is that the voters will prove that they like what Jones is saying. Then what will the Prime Minister say?