Correction: On the article The Condundrum of David Seymour, Luke Malpass conducted joint reviews with Bryce Wilkinson, the architect of the Regulatory Standards Bill - not Bryce Edwards. The article was corrected on the day of publishing. This notice is for additional clarity.
Google needs no introduction.
It’s one the most powerful companies in the world, and is held as a subsidiary under the umbrella parent of ‘Alphabet.’
Alphabet is one of the USA’s 5 big tech companies.
In terms of financial heft, Alphabet has ~US $450bn (NZD $800bn) in assets. In 2024 it drew in US $350bn revenues (NZD $620 bn).
To put that in perspective, their annual revenue is more than double NZ’s GDP - not to mention their vast power: dominance over information flows, traffic, technology, data.
[Another way to look at it is - the world has 8.2 bn people]
They haven’t been without their controversies: controversial handling of sexual harrassment, anti trust, anti-competitiveness etc.
But for the most part, people have accepted Google and their “Do no evil” and subsequent “Do the right thing” mottos.
Anyway, over the last two days, Google has been making changes to its systems - updating the Gulf of Mexico to Gulf of America for its US based users.
Google’s just following the new laws.
Trump signed an executive order decreeing the name change - saying this is about “American pride in the history of American greatness”.
The British tabloid Daily Fail positioned it as Trump dominating a tech giant.
There’s always an ongoing theme of nationalism, showmanship, and white and colonial supremacy to his new Administration, and it shows.
International users will get help - for example Canadians will see Gulf of America in brackets next to “Gulf of Mexico”
Significantly, Google’s making other amendments - removing the following from its US calendars -
Pride Month, Black History Month, Holocaust Remembrance Day, Jewish Heritage, Hispanic Heritage, Indigenous People Month
And Google is simply following orders.
Same as NASA, which has been ordered to “drop everything” and scrub all references to women in leadership, indigenous peoples, diversity, environment, justice etc.
They’re not the only US department to get its marching orders. (Can you think of any other country where a government started off its term by scrubbing words it didn’t like?)
The Centre for Disease Control and Prevention staff were given a guide to remove terms like “transgender,” “gender”, and “LGBT”.
Forest Service has to scrub anything related to “climate change”.
i.e. It’s an ideological purge, a demonstration of what the new alt-right conservatives call an opportunity to “play offence” if Trump (or Vance) won; to turn the tables against decades of “radical left wing ideologies” like environment, and minorities.
All this reminds me of what Martin Luther King said:
"We should never forget that everything Adolph Hitler did in Germany was 'legal'"
And by that, King seems to have reflected that much of Hitler's powers came from laws he helped establish.
For e.g. the Enabling Act of 1933, considered a cornerstone law of Nazi power, amended Germany’s Wiemar Constitution to allow Hitler to govern without approval from the German Parliament.
To get it through, the Nazi Party used “intimidation and persecution”. They detained all 81 communists and 26 of the 120 Social Democrats to prevent them from entering Parliament to vote on the Bill that day.
Although the means change, consolidating power and then changing laws is frequently the first step of government takeovers.
Say for example, sacking half of the judiciary if you don’t like what they say. Installing friendlies into your Human Rights Commissioner roles or say, the Board of Energy Efficiency and Conservation to influence narratives.
Subtle or obvious is the difference.
When I studied our government’s playbook, it had occurred to me quite early on that they represent a form of corporate and wealth takeover - although nothing jarringly close on the surface to what we are seeing in the States (And remember, Trump’s first term was still marked by him ostensibly trying to remain centrist “there are good people on both sides” re: white supremacists, trying to appear benefactory-like to minorities, and the US’s culture wars and indoctrinating of extremism is much deeper and longer).
From America, we here have the advantage of seeing it play out more and more transparently.
I use the word “advantage” not because I’m not concerned for caring Americans, or the potential violence, but because this was all the unfortunate inevitability when Trump won. There was no stopping their intention - and their ideology.
If it was hidden under kind words and positive stated intent, as we might see in New Zealand e.g. on the Treaty Principles Bill, or Chris Bishop’s state housing plans, many more would not realise what was happening.
“It’s really just about equality!”
“KO just had record debt. We had to stop them” - no shit, Sherlock, that’s because 14,000 homes were built and assets more than doubled to $45bn (against debt of $12bn)
But deception is nearly always cloaked within elements of truth - from the benign to the malignant.
That’s why propaganda is so effective. They hook us in with a grievance, a fear, a concern, one out of context fact, or a belief - and the rest is mythical, but many can’t dissect the wheat from the chaff in the end.
In New Zealand, Melanie Nelson and Dr Jane Kelsey have written at length about the Regulatory Standards Bill - a “constitutional straightjacket” that’s “dangerous” that will essentially enshrine the principles of property above people, weaken our courts, and endanger Te Tiriti by stealth.
We also have the “Countering Crimes Against Foreign Interference Amendment Bill”, which Free Speech Union’s Jonathan Ayling supports.
This is the same FSU that is lobbying to abolish hate laws in New Zealand in the name of freedom and other nebulous concepts. [Should I be “free” to punch them to demonstrate my “liberty”? Rhetorical - but illustrative]
Under new clause 78AAA of the CCFI, improper conduct for or on behalf of foreign power - a person commits an offence if they know or ought to know that they are engaging in the conduct for a foreign power, as in S105C.
Italy’s conserative and ultra-right government is currently pushing through a “Security Bill” that can criminalize peaceful protests and imprison protestors for up to 7 years.1
NZ’s CCFI law, which NZ’s Council of Civil Liberties warns against, could imprison peaceful protestors for up to 10 years.
And that’s the key to all this: we can’t approach it like a note pad checklist exercise - the form and stage i.e. progression of all things can look different, but in each case, we must look deeper - at the intent, direction, and potential use cases within our own context.
The world is an infinite variation of probabilities. At each point - from where we are, from where you stand, sit, think, feel - is choice.
And each individual has choice.
And through that we reveal a collective consciousness that has emanated from billions of singulars to a collective whole, which we call “the world”.
As Nick once wrote on his Substack, in introducing the South African concept of ‘ubuntu’ - "I am because we are" - "humanity towards others".
Yes, there are marker events that bring us all to common junctures e.g. a new world order, a financial system collapse, or even fascism, again - but together as individuals - each of us - we make this world and choose its next.
I’m proud to be woke2, whatever it means.
I’m proud to care about our critters and our natural beauty, I’m proud to stand up for those that can’t speak up, or those who are maligned for their sexual choices or skin colour. I’m proud to care about curiousity, observation, new means and awareness. I’m proud to stand with all those that stand for equality and fair treatment. I think thinking long term and in generations - not in election cycles - benefits those I care for. I think deep listening and hearing heals.
Ironically, most of my principles are highly conservative - I care greatly about efficiency, I appreciate hard work and outcomes, I believe in merit and responsibility. I care about economics and financial theory. I am interested in improvement and productivity. I don’t like change that much - and am pretty staid all said and done. I usually work for remuneration. I don’t like shouting over substance either - show me your thought process and let’s talk.
But I’m not sure when and how those values i.e. conservative and ‘woke’ even diverged - and don’t believe they really have.
All empires rise and fall, all things come in waves and dissipate.
The time for forging will come.
It’s been met with stark warnings from the UN and Human Rights observers.
According to Wikipedia: Woke, the African-American English synonym for the General American English word awake, has since the 1930s or earlier been used to refer to awareness of social and political issues affecting African Americans, often in the construction stay woke.
Thanks for another great article. One of the things I love about reading different authors is how their writing reflects the links and interconnections between things that their own minds find in our complex reality. Each so different and fascinating.
I do constantly find it perplexing that environment often gets framed by the right as a left-wing or ideological issue. It seems more like an existential issue. Whatever one's ideology, it would be hard to progress it without the ecosystems, soil, air, water etc that are fundamental to our lives. Is that not kind of obvious?!
Some very good points. I sometimes think in many ways I'm conservative in that I wish to "conserve" a way of life I enjoyed during my own childhood. I grew up in a single income family. We lived for a period in a rental home we treated as if it was our own. I had a largely free education up to post-graduate level.
It frustrates me that so many traditional values which might have been considered "conservative" have been forgotten. Supporting local decision making was one. Now it's just considered an inconvenience.
A friend pointed out he considers himself "woke", why would you not want to be awake, aware and what does it say about one if you are not?