Standard response from you - the hypocrisy is unbelievable. You have no substance.
Let's see now. Who am I? I'm a 50 something white male, no kids, with a partner who has a 20 something child. Born and grew up in Auckland and stayed outside the restrictive norms and constraints that a lot of boomers (some on here) seem to yearn for, and those same people vote to the right. I grew up with my mates playing league. I love league, cricket, a bit of the v8s out of nostalgia.
I've consumed numerous substances in my teens and twenties, and definitely inhaled. Stopped the booze a few years back and that's the best thing I ever did.
I've lived overseas for a substantial amount of time and love expanding my horizons beyond the narrowness of New Zealand.
I love the arts, visual, sonic and creative.
I love education.
I love nature and look in despair at the destruction that a rampant viral strain of capitalism, called neoliberalism, imparts on this world. Of course that rampant strain has people at the helm, and those people are the right and the far right. Generally.
I've got a shitload of flaws, made a huge amount of mistakes. In other words, human.
I vote green mostly, Labour once, but Labour really did fuck things up, and had no clue to be honest. Maybe they had a comms disaster this last 6 years, certainly they were underprepared. But a lot of people kid themselves - this country is ruled by the wealthy. We've seen that come out time and time again. The reserve bank has stated that a level of unemployment is desired to keep inflation down. This recession that certain people have banged on about, is MANUFACTURED. And is part of the neoliberal playbook. At the same time the usual beneficiary bashing, landlord rentier rhetoric gets rolled out to make the right look like they're doing something, when in actual fact their direction is entrenched racism, wealth stripping, asset concentration, ecological destruction and enhancing corporate profits.
There is no true political left apart from the TePati Maori and the Greens.
The person I replied originally to often posts factually incorrect statements, and then when challenged will spray more factually incorrect statements in different directions, then when further challenged, state they're going on holiday and then come back the next day.
Feel free to point out other comments with no substance.
However, the difficulty we all have if we're honest - if you pick one thing, just one thing, like National cancelling the ferry replacements. A small statement right? Go deeper. Where is the economic cost benefit? What's the reasons behind this? Go deeper and you find that National should have replaced them 8 years ago. Go deeper and you find that the infrastructure is cost blow out, and that's not owned by kiwirail. Go deeper and you find that if we had rail we would have better economic success, better movement of goods, less carbon emissions but it's not ideologically part of the right's neoliberal playbook. Go deeper and you find that Rail was sold off through ideology, and some complete fuckers asset stripped it and took the profits and ran.
Go deeper and you find that maybe, just maybe, we had world class infrastructure that was actually centralised and stood up by a government, and that department was actually apolitical, not trained in fear for the last 40 years by those with a neoliberal agenda.
Go deeper and you might find that our infrastructure is under threat through unrestrained immigration. Who's setting that? Etc etc etc etc etc
Go deeper and you will find deliberate underfunding of all infrastructure, again in line with a neoliberal playbook that has determined our economic and political agenda for so long now.
Cross party consensus is needed to fix these things in my opinion. The restoration of true democracy - 100% participation etc. Anyway, I digress.
Very complex. Yet, here we are, in sections of a (wonderful) rugby league forum, each of us in our own echo chambers, hopefully some less partial than others.
And no one really goes to that level of depth because EVERYTHING IS COMPLEX.
And meanwhile we're sleepwalking while fascists gather, billionaires seek to dismantle democracies worldwide and the wealthy look to concentrate their fortunes at the expense of the planet.
When what we need as a whole is the exact opposite.
And I really, really, really should spend less time in the politics, climate change and anything that certain members post in on this forum, 'cos, well, this isn't that real and what do we really get out of this?
EXCEPT
I was raised with a strong moral compass that I often don't live up to myself.
I can't fucking stand the tall poppy syndrome here in New Zealand, the narrowness and petty vindictiveness we hear mostly on right wing radio stations.
One thing really winds me up. Disinformation. And lies. And this government meets that criteria in spades. And I will call out bullshit, all day, every day. Although to be honest, who cares in a rugby league forum right?
All of this is serious. Very serious.
Lives, our society, our communities are at stake. So anti vax, climate deniers, conspiracy theorists - no time for that bullshit. Far right - no time for that bullshit. Disinformation? No time for that bullshit. Neoliberal ideology? No time for that bullshit.
So yeah, happy to address anything else you think I've said without substance - be warned though, there's hidden depth, and the weather forecast is good, it's the weekend, and who can be bothered trying to piss in the wind?
nzmarketingmag.co.nz
I hope you got some sleep last night!
