Mea culpa! Mea culpa! Mea maxima culpa. In last week’s column, I failed to identify the real virus infecting New Zealand these days. Alongside the diversion of COVID-19, I named climatitis. I called it a virus, when I should have recognised it as a symptom of the underlying virus.
In correcting my misconception, I am indebted to the superb analytical horsepower of traditional leftie Chris Trotter who has drawn attention to the real, widespread, and burgeoning problem: wokeism. I urge you all to read Chris’s comments here (and do it right now) and earlier here.
Please be patient, and take the time to follow all the links in today’s column, because we BFD news addicts have a solemn and sacred duty to fulfil that I explain later.
We all need to wake up to wokeism, and especially to the way that our Prime Minister is using the Covid pandemic as self-promoting fairy dust to divert our attention from such egregious and outlandish wokeist offences as:
(i) The new tax disguised as a climate ‘cap and trade’ measure exposed by Hon Richard Prebble here.
(ii) The re-writing of our history post-1840 by a Ministry of Education team that is comprised totally of Maori, without a single Pakeha member, according to illustrious historian Dr Michael Bassett, as revealed in his podcast with Leighton Smith (No 98, 17 Feb). It’s the first item and well worth listening to in its entirety.
(iii) The deliberate intent by the Climate Change Commission to eradicate the progress and prosperity Kiwis have come to enjoy with wokeist proposals that have been torn to pieces by real scientists and engineers such as Bryan Leyland.
and by Cambridge University Emeritus Professor Michael J. Kelly.
Many years ago, in my wine industry days, in a visit to the MAF research facilities at Rukuhia, I was amused by a sign in one laboratory that read: “Be alert! New Zealand needs more lerts”.
Today, I want us all to become Lerts, an acronym for “Like Every Right Turn”. It will be our duty to expose and stamp out wherever and whenever we encounter every instance of wokeism. It will be us (the Lerts), against them (the Wokes). And no holds barred!
It’s not gonna be easy. We’re up against not just a woke left government and their newly bribed hirelings, the so-called news media, but what seems to be a majority societal affliction composed of apathy spiced with Covid fear.
What would help would be a stronger stance by our Opposition friends in Parliament. In her speech on Saturday to the National Party’s environmental watchdog, Bluegreens, Leader Judith Collins said:
“We believe real change won’t happen without strong evidence-based science and practical solutions that put New Zealanders first.
“We will be unwavering in our support of new technologies that will help us respond to the monumental challenges we face.
“We will hold the Government to account on climate policy, to make sure every cent is spent wisely and delivers results.
“We will not be an impediment to effective action, nor will we quietly stand to the side while the Government spends money on policies that won’t make a meaningful dent in our global emissions.
“We won’t quietly stand to the side if taking action simply means closing New Zealand for business at the cost of thousands of jobs
“In achieving our climate goals as a country, we must also maintain a focus on delivering value for money.”
What National could do also, is press the chairman of the CCC, born-again zealot Dr Rod Carr, for real scientific evidence to back up the extraordinary claims in his recent CCC report which are destined to cripple our lifestyle and our economy, especially in the rural sector.
Meantime, we Lerts have to flex our collective muscles and start somewhere, and the sooner the better. On the communications front, we have the benefit of The BFD news & views website.
This extract from Chris Trotter’s piece about shock-jockery relates:
“Similarly, how long will it be before one or more local (or overseas) capitalists grasp the possibilities of establishing a Fox News-type media entity right here in New Zealand, and using it to seize more-or-less the entire conservative demographic? How biddable will corporate leaders be if the size of its right-wing audience turns out to represent a clear plurality of the New Zealand population? Whose threats of boycott will count for more then: the Woke’s or the Right’s?”
If the New Zealand news media persists in the folly of “cancelling” all those listeners, viewers and readers who fail to pass ideological muster, then we will see the emergence of our own version of Fox News – with all that entails for the health of our country and its democratic institutions. Who would lead it? Do we have a Hannity, or a Tucker Carlson, waiting out there in the wings? Where to start looking for a talented right-wing contrarian, boasting years of professional broadcasting experience, who is currently between jobs?
I put it to Juana Atkins (SB) and her husband Cam Slater that The BFD could become New Zealand’s ‘right-wing contrarian’ news outlet, and the preliminary response was the equivalent of “watch this space.”
What we Lerts can do to help them is to encourage relatives and friends to become subscribers to BFD in sufficient numbers to sustain the site in financial and resource terms.
On the political front, introduce the same people to the National Party or ACT, and encourage them not just to JOIN UP, but also to SPEAK UP so that we’ll have an Opposition capable of attracting the votes they will need to win the 2023 General Election, and bring this whole sorry woke fiasco to an end.
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