Like we got ourselves a convoy

[fixed_truth]

Stuff's cartoon today on point

[ChaosWulf]

Originally Posted by DrTiTus

I hope you guys can see how twisted this whole situation really is. They were willing to get sprayed with pepper spray and arrested to stand up for other people's jobs. Both sides were doing the hard yards - some getting needles by nurses and hoping for the best, some getting attacked by Police. Neither was pleasant. We played different positions in the team of 5 million. But somewhere along the way we forgot we were all on the same side.

I can see it.
You can see it. If we can, I’m willing to bet that a whole bunch of people out there can too. And, we’ll keep fighting for transparency, fighting the media spin on both sides, the information and the misinformation, and fighting the division in our society. But I won’t be doing it alongside the alt-right.

And that’s the real price in “principles over popularity”, I’d rather have a protest of one than stand shoulder to shoulder with some of the people that crowd embraced.

I’m signed up to help out with the clean up though, hopefully that’s something everyone can get behind.

[The Edge]

Originally Posted by Ab

Hope he had image stabilisation enabled on the phone he's holding

Classic!

[sidbo]

Originally Posted by DrTiTus

cherry picked point to try and focus on

1 in 5 in the UK/US have had Covid of some variant. That's with vaccine regimes, mandates, lockdowns etc etc.

Come back when cases in NZ reach a million. Or don't, I don't care. While you're at it, google confirmation bias. Or likely duckduckgo based on your posting history. Either way I won't see it.

[Native]

Originally Posted by ChaosWulf

So I’d say no, the moral of the story is “Don’t be a dick and people might hear what you have to say”.

This and your excellent post above it.

So much I can agree with you in this post despite my position leaning on the other side of the argument. I don't disagree with the principle of what the government has done but the execution makes my blood boil (particularly the lack of transparency & effective planning that the government just didn't do).

The lack of an effective opposition or an effective means to engage with the alternative view entrenches my dislike of our leadership - I'd like to think it used to be better but I'm probably just naive.

[Native]

Originally Posted by Ab

Just an anodyne "you have chosen to hide posts from this user" or something like that, although the variable is still named message_hidden_tiny_penis.

It's kinda funny. I'm still not 100% sure that I put that there, but if I did it's almost like a snapshot of naive younger me who thought the Internet was about expression and free speech and who thought that someone who hides posts should feel silly. Old me hates the Internet and thinks people are retarded and can't stand reading their retarded thoughts, so to that guy a post-blocking function seems perfectly sensible.

100%. Back then I would've felt the title was justified, whereas the older me just accepts the title and makes me reflect on the younger me.

I used to think the old generation was just indifferent to proactively changing the world - but now I think I'm just tired, or I have much fewer fucks to give and I'd rather spend them elsewhere.

[Ab]

Uh-oh, it's the white people again

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/anti-v...6OCJ5D42CMQ5M/

[The Edge]

The protesters get (rightly) given a piece of someone's mind as to how ridiculous they are:
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-z...rotesters.html
Especially using their children as human shields (all documented), then calling it "a lie". These people are utterly deluded.

[The Edge]

https://thespinoff.co.nz/politics/21...olitical-force

[StN]

The McGillicudy Furious Party?

[pxpx]

Was in wellington last week for a funeral at St Pauls and it was good to see work going ahead on the grounds.

Having spent very little time on parliament grounds, I was surprised to see how small the area actually is.

[MadMax]

Originally Posted by The Edge

https://thespinoff.co.nz/politics/21...olitical-force

baleeted

[The Edge]

https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-z...paid-debt.html

[Lightspeed]

These guys larping as a government is cringe:

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/hea...he-authorities

[xor]

How good is meth?!??!

[The Edge]

Originally Posted by Lightspeed

These guys larping as a government is cringe:

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/hea...he-authorities

Wow. What a bunch of winners. Maybe I should "self-proclaim" myself to be the President of NZ. That's what these geniuses are doing, right? Dreaming up a title and then "deciding" that's what they'll do. All in the name of "freedom", of course

[blynk]

I would seriously be concerned as a politician - especially Ardern - with these guys.
They are so fucked up, that someone will probably actually try to assassinate them because "common law sentenced them to death"

[The Edge]

There's this too.
https://thespinoff.co.nz/politics/04...it-for-purpose
I gotta say, there are some really sick and twisted people out there.

[blynk]

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/cri...efusal-to-move

As a followup

[MadMax]

But he he say “data” or “data”?

[The Edge]

https://thespinoff.co.nz/politics/07...ndate-movement

[Lightspeed]

What I wonder about some of these guys, with the age they're at, how many just missed out on a free tertiary education? What might have been different if education was still something for everyone in NZ?

[Lightspeed]

By the power of common law!

Anzac service 'hijacking' by self-proclaimed 'sheriffs' prompts walkout

Some attendees at the 2000-strong Anzac Day service in Paraparaumu walked out in outrage after a group of “common law sheriffs” took to the podium to speak.

[StN]

Pair that with the idiot who got arrested yelling the "The World is flat".

I bet there were many heads nodding thinking that those that fell died so nutters had the right to nut.

/edit - Ok, saw that bit later in the article.

[StN]

Originally Posted by StN

I wish I had this banner when the convoy was hugging past:

"Christchurch District Court Judge David Ruth did nothing wrong"

This chap is awesome!

[Trigga*happY]

Originally Posted by StN

Pair that with the idiot who got arrested yelling the "The World is flat".

I bet there were many heads nodding thinking that those that fell died so nutters had the right to nut.

/edit - Ok, saw that bit later in the article.

Unfortunately i'd say a sizable number of the crowd, if not already FLErf's, could easily be swayed. The Flat Earth movement is almost purely about the disillusioned, the antisocial, the anti goverment, new world order believers, and trump nutjobs. All of which were over represented in NZ's convoy.

(disclaimer: NOT all convoy members were of this nature, but it sure seemed to be a large part of it!)

[_indigo1]

Why the rest of the world should be very concerned about New Zealand

Ahyuk hyuk!

[The Edge]

Brian says he was behind it all.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/covid-...2GIDFXHMMZTAU/

[crocos]

Originally Posted by _indigo1

Why the rest of the world should be very concerned about New Zealand

Ahyuk hyuk!

They're....
a

bit...

sloowww.

[Ab]

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/129...ed-and-charged

[The Edge]

Excellent.
Also - a piece on Tamaki's bs mock "trial" the other day:
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/300...t-has-moved-on

[_indigo1]

This movement and the strategy they are taking as referenced in that article shouldn't be taken lightly.

This is the same ilk of fucktards who got Trump elected.

We, as the sane majority, can't let this stuff go unchecked thinking it's OK we are the sane majority - these fuckwits are fervent and if we assume they are stupid or irrelevant we could end up just as surprised and shocked when they manoeuvre themselves into positions of power unchecked as the sane majority were when Trump was elected in 2016.

At which point undoing the damage will be a lot harder.

[Ab]

but the firstamendmentmyfreedoms

[_indigo1]

#winstonwillsaveus

[sidbo]

Originally Posted by _indigo1

This movement and the strategy they are taking as referenced in that article shouldn't be taken lightly.

This is the same ilk of fucktards who got Trump elected.

We, as the sane majority, can't let this stuff go unchecked thinking it's OK we are the sane majority - these fuckwits are fervent and if we assume they are stupid or irrelevant we could end up just as surprised and shocked when they manoeuvre themselves into positions of power unchecked as the sane majority were when Trump was elected in 2016.

At which point undoing the damage will be a lot harder.

We don't have an electoral college (sp?) as such, so representation is far more proportional than in the US. I recall seeing something that Chuddy McTurmplover in bumfuck flyover nowhere-ville, their vote is worth 2.8 times that of a central city dweller in somewhere like California. The heavily red states, Kentucky, Alabama et al are massively disproportionate in their power because every state has 2 senators, regardless of how little population they have.

TLDR, I don't believe that these people have the same path to power that could endanger our democracy as they do in the US.

[Lightspeed]

Their path to power in New Zealand is the National Party.

[_indigo1]

Well aware of the electoral college in the US and it's effects on their democracy.
That's beside the point. Clearly we are not the USA.
What IS the point is complacency and underestimation of this same type of crowd that surfs on populism which has caused issues the world over - not just the USA - and had been able to because the sane majority dismissed them as a threat.

If you read the article, you can see that they are well aware they need to be strategic in order to exercise any form of power given their numbers - and so are focusing on local body elections.

These nutjobs can still do a lot of damage at that level without ever touching parliament.

[Caesar]

Originally Posted by _indigo1

This movement and the strategy they are taking as referenced in that article shouldn't be taken lightly.

This is the same ilk of fucktards who got Trump elected.

We, as the sane majority, can't let this stuff go unchecked thinking it's OK we are the sane majority - these fuckwits are fervent and if we assume they are stupid or irrelevant we could end up just as surprised and shocked when they manoeuvre themselves into positions of power unchecked as the sane majority were when Trump was elected in 2016.

At which point undoing the damage will be a lot harder.

Yeah... Look at the articles featured this week in Stuff about these fucken twats running for Mayors etc.

[Ab]

Looks like antivax cooker Karen is running for half the council seats in the South Island...

[_indigo1]

This shit spreads like wildfire. Look what it did to the republicans in the US.

Not everyone has to actually believe in it, once they realise they can get what they want by cowing to this kind of crowd, all sorts of people who already hold positions of power jump on the bandwagon.

It's a slippery slope.