31 Comments

Hell, finding out musk likes you, is kinda wrist slashing stuff for anybody with any moral and/or ethical values.

The only way I personally can object to these oligarchs is to be very careful where I spend my money. No Facebook, no xcrement, no Amazon, no tesla. The same as I behave with foreign owned organisation's in nz.

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Clarity includes where we spend money. I never used Facebook until recently because I never liked its business model, ever - and the reason was I wanted to share my posts because of FB's sheer reach and power.

I think it was Luxon who once said more than half of people get their news from social media - so that speaks to their power, and why all the right and alt right groups work there, harvesting emails and spreading their ideologies.

In my opinion, the Trump experiment showed these types it's a numbers game. They don't care how many people they lose - the people with different values would never vote for them anyway, and what they are doing now is ignoring such folks - and going hell for leather for their preferences irrespective of dissent - so long as they can keep the numbers fairly balanced to their way, they will not fear.

But I agree - I can't look at Amazon the same way and still strongly dislike Facebook etc.

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😱 Haven't time to read & absorb right now, BUT QuelonMu$kRat saying nice things about Luxon says it all eh⁉️ I'm in post-Submission fatigue & playing catchup with what I put aside for them, so will read more fully later 👍

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🙌

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Yep, I'm in the same place, too...post Submission fatigue is a real thing!!

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Stuff has today posted an opinion piece from The Sydney Morning Herald by Matthew Knott.

Nothing but propaganda from Atlas junk tanks( widely quoted)

If we all wrote to Stuff expressing our extreme

distaste we could make a difference.

It’s nice to feel supported by like minded travellers yet if we don’t get out there and attack this fascist journalism they will continue to publish it.

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I hear you - and yes, agree; it's why I write too, John. Act as we see fit and act for sure.

I guess, John, what I worry about is that, as I said to JW above, I'm afraid that what I see happening is these groups - these rich folks and right wing press - that includes our current govt. etc - don't really care for dissent.

Today I was thinking - 1/3 of Dunedin turned up for the hospital and they are not budging and the TPB will receive the same - widespread dissent but this govt will spend millions bringing it to second reading and thumbing their nose at Maori.

And by giving peanuts, people get grateful for scraps...

The game they play, in my view, is a numbers game. So long as they can keep drumming outrage or fear or support on their side with the multi-million dollar might of their surrogates and direct parties ie. Taxpayers Union, Hobsons Pledge, NZ First, ACT, NZ Herald press etc. they can ignore the woke dissenters.

I regret that I'm not too optimistic at this juncture, but this year and next will be very interesting so I guess I hope good folks can find ways to keep their and our inner equilibrium.

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Do you know if Winston Peters is aligned to any of the ATLAS/Hobsons Pledge type groups?

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Winston it appears has a price and if so is prepared to sell our democracy.

It’s no accident that at least 20 per cent of those that voted for him were anti vaxers.

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See an old note of mine about this:

https://www.reddit.com/r/nzpolitics/comments/1bjxbhl/the_overseas_right_wing_dark_money_that_planned/

I think that the issue we see with Peters is, in my own opinion NZ First was bought by tobacco interests and the Coalition all stepped out to defend Casey Costello

i.e. they are all closely connected now in their money interests - my concern is as they money has got bigger, are Peters' hands tied?

I am no longer certain

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Thanks for posting that MT.

Yeah, he and his colleagues have certainly shown where their loyalties lie so far. And we’ve chatted before about the blatant corruption being exhibited by this CoC.

I’m not a fan of Winston Peters, but I’m sure he’s still not fond of David Seymour, and he has rocked the boat in the past.

I guess I feel so despondent and helpless about what the government is going to do with the rest of its term…

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So many have hopes on WP - let’s wait and see!

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Winston was widely reported on RNZ and other mainstream media when Andy Wigmore,Arron Banks, and Nigel Farrage stated that they had come to support Peters return to parliament.

Andy Wigmore stated that they had come to Nee Zealand to spread “trouble,mischief,mayhem and guerrilla warfare”

It’s worth looking at various media reports around June/July 2020

Initially Winston denied any association with the group but was soon called out by Andy Wigmore.

This group are all connected to Atlas

Arron Banks took Carole Cadwalladr to court and her story is best described by her.

She is on this site.

It’s clear that Winston’s appears deeply involved with this group.

His policy positions also reflect Atlas philosophy.

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UGH! Cookers and Atlas, what a great combo!

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Thanks John. He can also be a bit of a wild card. I’m curious to see what he does when Seymour becomes the DPM.

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If he makes a stand on the RSB he may surprise us all.

A

Whole squadron of flying pigs just flew over!

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😂

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I remember this one - thanks for the reminder, John. I wrote this 10 months ago:

https://www.reddit.com/r/nzpolitics/comments/1bjxbhl/the_overseas_right_wing_dark_money_that_planned/

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Don’t be a rabbit!

Fight it in every way you can.

It will make a difference.

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I am!!

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The headline says it all- who adores whom? I do not want to name them and wish that the media would take a break. On the other hand, thank you for presenting the facts and encouraging us to hold fast to our moral compass.

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Janet 🙏

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There are many things that bother me about our body politic. One of them being the way our msm is following the American model. Rationalise and minimise the damage being done by the government. Ignore all the good stuff the opposition, in all its forms are doing.

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I agree. There is some thing seriously amiss in much of our media landscape and that’s in no small part to its pro corporate setup. Thomas Coughlin essentially sponsored a pro PR piece for Willis.

We no longer seem to have sufficient journalists that explore, reveal and speak truth to power - and so long as money is the only currency that matters to them - that is perhaps what we will continue to see.

Ditto with Zuckerberg donning a pro Trump mask - the opportunists run much of these large business empires and that’s not a good thing.

NZ’s small size may be a boon - because we are still small enough where networks, friends and allies matter.

Biding our time opportunities will inevitably arise.

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Thanks for your words of wisdom, every time we read true heartfelt words it helps build our resolve and make us feel less alone.

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Ditto. Thank you to you too Julie

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Thank you for your kōrero Tui!

It is hard to be without Facebook; so many connections for me there. But I do get really irritated with the advertising that they flood you with ( and which I delete!) Its tiresome!

Is Blue-sky an alternative?

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You are very welcome Leonie.

I am staying on there for now - if we all leave it doesn’t help either so do what feels right and best for you.

Bluesky is considered an alternative to Twitter and many liberals migrated there given Musk runs Twitter like an alt right platform. How Facebook evolves is yet to be seen but it may look that way too over time but perhaps their push to the right will invoke a natural resistance among other people. Things are … volatile.

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Thank you

It is good to have alternatives, to lessen the hazards of dominance.

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Absolutely. 👍

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When Cough-Cough says from behind his hand, "That is all true..." Time to fact check...

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