It’s Not Pretty outside the Echo Chamber

Comparing notes with like-minded people is comforting but I worry that it is unlikely to have a significant impact on the great echo chamber encompassing the New Zealand government, mainstream media, and many of my fellow Kiwis. So I bravely journeyed into what feels very much like enemy territory, in the form of The Daily Blog. I don’t really have great knowledge of the New Zealand journalism industry so it is possible The Daily Blog has some quality work in its past, and may still have some today. However on prominent display now are articles that paint an ugly picture of left-wing attitudes toward their fellow Kiwis.

I didn’t cherry-pick to find these articles – they are all billed as Best of the Week. The first one is from Chris Trotter. The article opens by saying that “many New Zealanders recoiled with shock and disbelief” at the recent vax mandate protests in Wellington. My first reaction was to recoil in shock and disbelief at this statement – but then Trotter provided no evidence for his claim so I moved on.

In essence, Trotter seems to be comparing the groundswell of opposition to the government as a parallel to the Trump phenomenon. While there may be comparisons to be made, I think this shows both a naïve understanding of the reasons Trump came to power and a misreading of what is currently happening here in New Zealand.

To Trotter, what we are witnessing in this protest is the “losing-class”. He describes them as “people for whom no room could be found on the board game called Neoliberal Capitalism”. There is something insincere about his portrayal – it seems to be more about satisfying his Trump comparison eureka moment than genuine concern for those most badly affected by this government’s hysterical overreaction to Covid-19.

I certainly agree that those with fewer resources have suffered most – to those of us paying attention from the start this was among the most obvious harms that would result. However, in his rush to link concerned New Zealand citizens to the Trump supporter stereotype, he has failed to notice that there are a considerable number of people from all walks of life who are not happy with what is going on (just as there are in the case of Trump supporters).

But even worse was Trotter’s characterisation of “losing-class” motivations – a brutish uneducated lashing out driven by misinformation and conspiracies. Trotter’s failure to consider the possibility that the rag tag bunch in the Wellington protest might be there because of important ethical principles or genuine safety concerns is both ignorant and deeply insulting to a great many New Zealanders.

Having presented an array of simpleton strawman arguments that in his imagination summarises the views of the protestors, he asks us to “realise that not even the grim reality of hundreds-of-thousands of Covid-19 victims is enough to change losing-class minds”.

He opened with “Who are these people?” and having satisfied himself on a job well done closes with the same question. Well, I hate to break it to you Chris – but you need to go back to the drawing board on this one. Or better yet, if you want to know why people are protesting – just ask them. I belatedly posted a comment pointing out some of these problems, but I don’t think either he or his regular audience are interested in a conversation.

Next up was an article by Martyn Bradbury. For him, this is all about “radicalisation” – although like most people who use this word he never attempts to define it, and instead just relies on the association that word has with terrorism. He seems to be of the opinion that there is an interplay here between ACT policies, wokeness, and various “splinter groups” (including the notorious anti-vaxxers), all of which are currently in the process of radicalising.

Bradbury starts by expressing concern at ACT’s apparent rise in the polls, as for him it seems to be a sign of growing extremism. Never mind that ACT seems to have recently alienated many in their traditional base because of their failure to live up to the principles on which they were founded.

If there is a rise in support for ACT – and I’m not sure how much we can rely on these polls – it may be because ACT has been pushing the government for clarity and certainty. They may have a superficial appeal to people who are in general agreement with the government policies but are tired of the uncertainty (and who may be becoming increasingly concerned about other things that Labour are doing).

In any event, with all our political parties sandwiched together into the government and mainstream media echo chamber, a decent chunk of the population now has no effective political representation and so the polls may be even less reliable than they usually are.

Bradbury points a finger at wokeness – and I would agree that wokeness carries a lot of blame for a lot of things. His thesis, if I understand it correctly, is that the rise of wokeness has created a backlash of ACT support which is in turn fueling the radicalisation of a number of different groups. These groups according to Bradbury have been “radicalized by the 90% double vaccination threshold”.

First, there are the “good people” who have “done what they were asked” but are apparently now being radicalised by the “unfairness of continuing to lose your liberty under de facto house arrest because Liz Gunn thinks vaccinations are raping Gaia”. Then there are the small business owners who are also apparently ripe for radicalisation. Third on the list is the woke but I’m not sure why – maybe some woke people have run out of things to call racist and realise that the political parties they have infiltrated are now ushering in true systemic discrimination.

Number four is the “Qanon anti-vaxx lunatics”. In Bradbury’s mind, this group are the ones who “see the vaccination passports as a vast erosion of their civil rights”. Interesting how he associates one of the biggest concerns people have with a fringe internet stereotype and doesn’t mention safety concerns at all.

Next are the “Crystal Karens”, who are the “middle-class new age conspiracy clique who will become culturally ostracised by the vaccine passports”. Apparently, this group is exemplified by Liz Gunn, who according to Bradbury believes that “the vaccine is raping Gaia to the point that the Earth Mother Goddess is starting earthquakes”. He condescendingly and euphemistically dismisses the fact that real people will be denied access to important things – dehumanisation as a prelude to persecution.

The last group are religious people who according to Bradbury believe that the vaccine is the number of the beast and that Jacinda is the anti-Christ.

Bradbury’s list is a confusion of mischaracterisations, stereotypes, and omissions but, according to Bradbury, these groups are now ticking time-bombs driven by desperation, fear and rage. He seems to believe these groups have now constructed a “feral right” alternate dimension that is somehow a parallel to that of the reality-denying woke.

At the end, he says in what seems to be a proud tone “If you thought getting people to take a vaccination was hard, wait till you tell them you will take away their free speech”. The extent to which this man has distanced himself from the target of his persecution is remarkable – almost psychopathic.

Then there is another Chris Trotter article, the title of which jauntily implies that more state force is what this situation needs.

He begins by pointing out that the UK government has long had sweeping powers to use force against its citizens if deemed “expedient in the interests of the public safety or the defence of the realm” and asks why the NZ government did not bring something similar into law at the beginning of 2020.

For Trotter this would have allowed the government to avoid legal challenges, The Bill of Rights, The Privacy Act, The Employment Relations Act, and other pesky obstacles which would interfere with its ability to force us all to “feel safe” from Covid-19.

Trotter suggests that it was “as if Ardern and her colleagues were frightened of wielding power”. The explanation according to him is that Labour have traditionally been averse to the state wielding power, even more so in the woke present than in the past. There is too much to unpack there, but overall I think Trotter’s thinking here is very muddled. The woke obsession with “safety” does not encompass the safety of those who disagree with them, and if Labour ever had a reluctance to wield power Jacinda seems to have got over it.

Lastly, we have another article by Martyn Bradbury.

The opening paragraph says it all:

“…thousands of miscreants protesting Parliament with such underserved smug delusions do not represent the vast majority of us – they are the political conclusion of poor public education and welfare services alongside algorithms of hate.”

Wow. He then goes on to say that they “wouldn’t know what to do with ‘freedom’ if they got it”.

After that it’s just more cherry-picking and confused abusive rambling.

Bradbury closes with the delightfully good-willed thought that “All these AntiVaxxers will have in a months time is sickness, hospitalizations and regret” and that “We don’t have to punish these AntiVaxx lunatics, karma is about to do that for us.”.

The comments attached to these articles paint a picture equally depressing as the attitudes of these authors – if not more so. I’d like to include some quotes but this is already too long, and you can look for yourself if you have the stomach for it.

There are several themes that come out in the comments and in the articles themselves.

One major theme is exaggeration of the threat of Covid-19. One commenter stated several times in a John Minto article that if someone is not vaccinated and they catch Covid-19 then they are “likely” to be hospitalised. This exaggeration fuels the idea that many will die and that the health system is certain to be overrun – by unvaccinated people. There also seems to be little or no awareness that vaccination does not prevent people from catching and transmitting the virus.

There is also an obvious lack of awareness of the various methods of prevention and treatment – and even a lack of awareness that Covid-19 is both preventable and treatable. All for reasons we know well here on The BFD.

There is the deeply mistaken belief that those who oppose the government policies are “anti-vaxxers” who get their information from Facebook and fringe conspiracy theory sources. The much broader group of real people who have genuine concerns about the vaccines, and the variety of reasons for those concerns, aren’t acknowledged at all.

Lastly, there seems to be a lack of awareness of vaccine adverse events and other statistics relating to the vaccines which don’t fit in with the mainstream echo chamber narrative.

Underpinning this all is the whole question of individual rights and social obligation – under what circumstances should we make sacrifices for the sake of others. This is a complicated ethical question that cannot be settled satisfactorily when relevant facts are not known and when people are operating under the influence of fear.

Even when there is debate, the silent hand of censorship still seems to be there. The John Minto article had a refreshing amount of diversity of opinion and there were a number of (relatively) civil discussions. But sadly several replies I posted which I am sure would have caused the commenter to think twice, never appeared (without an indication as to why). Oddly, other comments I made did appear.

One of my replies that didn’t appear until long afterwards was refuting a claim that if I am not vaccinated and catch Covid-19 then I am “likely to be hospitalized and have life long major organ damage” [my emphasis]. Other comments where I suggested people have a look at NZDSOS and some other high-quality resources have still not appeared.

Ultimately, the apparent willingness of people to deprive others and override the rights of others, and to have the state do this by force, is most troubling. Equally troubling is the fact that people seem to have been brought to this state of mind so easily. Of course, most know about the famous experiments that were conducted after World War Two to demonstrate this unfortunate aspect of human nature. But still, I wonder why so many have succumbed so easily and so fast.

In this case, I suspect that the exaggeration of the threat and the fear this creates are key reasons. It is difficult for those of us who are less anxious about Covid-19 to really appreciate how that might affect people – how that might shift their whole perspective especially when they are fed a curated version of the facts.

The person who confidently told me that without the vaccine I was likely to be hospitalised and have life long major organ damage really believes that. I’d like to think I would remain rational if I was in the same position as that commenter – but the reality is I don’t know for sure that I would.

Ironically, I fear our government more than I do Covid-19. The difference between a phobia and a justified fear is whether there is justification. Some of us certainly seem to have a lot of justification to fear this government.

[1] The Daily Blog. https://thedailyblog.co.nz/

[2] Chris Trotter: MUST READ: Behold, The Losing-class. https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2021/11/12/behold-the-losing-class/

[3] Martyn Bradbury: NZs sudden radicalisation + who poses a bigger threat to Democracy? AntiVaxxers or The Spinoff & their woke commentariat?. https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2021/11/12/nzs-sudden-radicalisation-who-poses-a-bigger-threat-to-democracy-antivaxxers-or-the-spinoff-their-woke-commentariat/

[4] Chris Trotter: Why Is Labour So Frightened Of “Mr Stick”? https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2021/10/08/why-is-labour-so-frightened-of-mr-stick/

[5] Martyn Bradbury: Furious at AntiVaxxer nutters protesting today? Don’t worry Covid Karma is coming https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2021/11/09/furious-at-antivaxxer-nutters-protesting-today-dont-worry-covid-karma-is-coming/

[6] John Minto: A welcome change of direction away from mandatory vaccinations https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2021/11/18/a-welcome-change-of-direction-away-from-mandatory-vaccinations/