Politics 🗳️ NZ Politics

[Damo]

Interesting commentary:

There’s something deeply rotten in New Zealand’s political culture right now, and the Julian Batchelor saga has dragged it into the open.

If you challenge race based politics or co‑governance, you don’t get argued with. You get labelled. Smeared. Treated as a problem to be neutralised rather than a citizen to be debated.

Batchelor went on the road. He spoke to ordinary people. He questioned a political direction that many New Zealanders feel they were never properly asked to consent to.

And for that, he wasn’t countered with better arguments — he was branded.

Once the media sticks words like dangerous, harmful, or racist to your name, the debate is already over. Employers back away. Venues cancel. Friends distance themselves. The punishment happens long before any court ever looks at the truth of the claims.

That’s not journalism. That’s social execution.

Why this court case really matters. This defamation case isn’t a side show. It’s a line in the sand.

It asks a very simple question: are powerful media organisations still accountable when they destroy someone’s reputation — or are they untouchable as long as they’re on the “right side” of politics?

If the answer is that media can say anything about you as long as your views are unpopular, then free speech in New Zealand already died — we just didn’t bother to hold a funeral.

The panic you can sense from parts of the media isn’t about press freedom. It’s about precedent. Because if one man can successfully push back, others might follow.

The unspoken power imbalance. The media loves to posture as brave truth‑tellers holding power to account. But when they are the power, scrutiny suddenly becomes “harassment” and pushback becomes “dangerous rhetoric”.

Here’s the part the commentariat refuses to acknowledge: co‑governance is not beyond criticism. Believing in one person, one vote is not hatred. Questioning race‑based political structures is not extremism. Wanting laws to apply equally is not violence.

You don’t have to like Julian Batchelor. But if you’re cheering the attempt to erase him rather than challenge him, you’re not defending democracy — you’re dismantling it.

Because once speech is policed by narrative and punishment replaces persuasion, the system no longer belongs to the public.

It belongs to those who decide which voices are allowed to exist.

If you hold TPM to account for saying racist things like being 'superior', then Batchelor saying things like a whole race lacks character also needs to be held to account.

 

[wizard of Tauranga]

If you hold TPM to account for saying racist things like being 'superior', then Batchelor saying things like a whole race lacks character also needs to be held to account.

Agreed but from the article:

‘You don’t have to like Julian Batchelor. But if you’re cheering the attempt to erase him rather than challenge him, you’re not defending democracy — you’re dismantling it.’

 

[Damo]

Agreed but from the article:

‘You don’t have to like Julian Batchelor. But if you’re cheering the attempt to erase him rather than challenge him, you’re not defending democracy — you’re dismantling it.’

How is he being erased though? He's suing for an online article saying he used racist rhetoric. If anything, Batchelor is more in the news due to his own court case.

 

[juju]

How is he being erased though? He's suing for an online article saying he used racist rhetoric. If anything, Batchelor is more in the news due to his own court case.

Look at the cesspool social media forum this opinion piece is pulled from.

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A lot of posters in this thread spend a bit too much time in weird corners of the internet & end up thinking this is how normal rational people think.

 

[MrFrankWhite]

Couple of things:

If you have $10m and end up with 10 grandkids then the wealth gets diluted by the third generation if shared equally.

You’re forgetting that 10 grandkids have 20 parents with earning ability. They should be increasing net worth not decreasing it.

If you have 10 grandkids 3 will maintain and grow the wealth, 7 will revert to mean.

Not sure the math works that way. It was a % of families that lost wealth, not % of offspring.

 

[wizard of Tauranga]

How is he being erased though? He's suing for an online article saying he used racist rhetoric. If anything, Batchelor is more in the news due to his own court case.

Check the whole history around Batchelor’s co-governance road show. This court case is the tip of the iceberg about media using their power to cancel.

The media went feral on him. There was no defending of the ideas around co-governance, just attempts to cancel his tour, shut down venues, disrupt them when they did go ahead, slander him and label him as racist, divisive, crazy, send the electoral commission on him, etc.

Not the political discussions we should have in NZ.

 

[Damo]

Look at the cesspool social media forum this opinion piece is pulled from.

Log in to Facebook

Log in to Facebook to start sharing and connecting with your friends, family and people you know.

www.facebook.com

A lot of posters in this thread spend a bit too much time in weird corners of the internet & end up thinking this is how normal rational people think.

Facebook is a cesspool all around.

 

[Damo]

The media went feral on him. There was no defending of the ideas around co-governance, just attempts to cancel his tour, shut down venues, disrupt them when they did go ahead, slander him and label him as racist, divisive, crazy, send the electoral commission on him, etc.

That wasn't the media though, that was the public. Freedom of speech works both ways, if he is free to say those thoughts, people are free to protest against it.

 

[juju]

That wasn't the media though, that was the public. Freedom of speech works both ways, if he is free to say those thoughts, people are free to protest against it.

Another interesting element to this case is it's the same simpletons that had an issue with the public journalism fund having absolutely no issue with a right wing overseas billionaire buying into and attempting to make a major media company lurch right by board appointments and fund this legal cases like this.

 

[Rick O’Shay]

Another interesting element to this case is it's the same simpletons that had an issue with the public journalism fund having absolutely no issue with a right wing overseas billionaire buying into and attempting to make a major media company lurch right by board appointments and fund this legal cases like this.

I have an issue with both of those.

The trust in media polls show that something is not right either end of the spectrum

 

[juju]

I have an issue with both of those.

The trust in media polls show that something is not right either end of the spectrum

The trust in media declining has been accelerated by the rise of the internet... more choice, lower threshold to gain an audience, collapsed advertising streams so less resource to fund quality journalism.
Also the proliferation of rage baiting content generating revenue.

You need to go into all media consumption engaging your brain & remember opinions are like arseholes, everyone has one and they usually stink.

Julin Batchelor is a special kind of idiot.

 

[juju]

Julian Batchelor, a Kenyan born Brit - running an anti māori campaign funded by a Canadian billionaire.
Pathetic humans.

 

[wizard of Tauranga]

That wasn't the media though, that was the public. Freedom of speech works both ways, if he is free to say those thoughts, people are free to protest against it.

I disagree. The govt didn’t want to publicly discuss co-governance and what it meant and the media were running a smear campaign against his opposition.

Google all the media articles and try to find a positive one that explains his point of view and where he was coming from.

The protests I don’t have an issue with really except it was part of an organised campaign against him (which included the media).

And for context you see this in many other issues where the media has an angle and is very one sided in both sides of the political spectrum.

 

[Damo]

I disagree. The govt didn’t want to publicly discuss co-governance and what it meant and the media were running a smear campaign against his opposition.

Google all the media articles and try to find a positive one that explains his point of view and where he was coming from.

The protests I don’t have an issue with really except it was part of an organised campaign against him (which included the media).

And for context you see this in many other issues where the media has an angle and is very one sided in both sides of the political spectrum.

He is entitled to publicly discuss cogovernance but when one of his talking points is a whole race lacks character and should die as a culture, I am not sure how even a biased media his way can spin his points of view positively?

Question cogovernance sure, but to think that's all media and the public had opposition to is quite clearly incorrect.

 

[MrFrankWhite]

Facebook is a cesspool all around.

I wasnt aware anyone under 50 still used it

 

[MrFrankWhite]

Also the proliferation of rage baiting content generating revenue.

People uderestimate the damage that FB did to the news industry. Once views became more valuable than truth, industry just followed the money printer that was the algorithm and rage baiting became profitable

 

[juju]

People uderestimate the damage that FB did to the news industry. Once views became more valuable than truth, industry just followed the money printer that was the algorithm and rage baiting became profitable

Yup.

And factor that in the the addictive and physical effects (dopamine etc) of consuming internet media on the internet & it's quite mind boggling really.