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Monday, April 3, 2023

Karl du Fresne: Most people just wish Shaneel Lal would shut up


I wonder if the woke-friendly executives at Kiwibank ran due diligence on Shaneel Lal before naming him their Young New Zealander of the Year.

If they had, they must have seen the stream of obscene invective he has unleashed on Twitter against anyone who isn’t on board with his polarising agenda.

“Go f**k yourself you stupid asshole” was a typical example – this in January last year in response to a tweeter who mildly rebuked him and his supporters for their aggression toward anyone who disagrees with them. Lal obligingly confirmed her point.

Perhaps Kiwibank did see it and decided to give him the award anyway. Nothing would surprise me.

By conferring the honour on him, the government-owned bank is presenting this divisive figure as a model to young New Zealanders. That’s the extent to which corporate New Zealand has been captured by identity politics cultists.

Lal is fond of the phrase “F**k you”. He has directed it at capitalists (all capitalists, by implication – so including Kiwibank), the New Zealand Herald, cis men and apparently anyone with a police officer in the family.

He seems incapable of civil dialogue. I think he’s seriously disturbed.

He has described the Herald as a “racist, homophobic, classist piece of shit”. That was in 2021, after the paper published something he didn’t like.

Bizarrely, the Herald has rewarded him for his abuse by publishing his almost incoherent columns, including one in which he whipped up hysteria against Posie Parker.

Call it corporate masochism – a phenomenon of wokery in which companies debase themselves by pandering to extremists who hate them. I wonder, did the Herald think before publishing Lal’s rant on the morning of Parker’s abandoned Albert Park rally? It was a call to arms that came close to incitement.

Lal says he doesn’t want to be tolerated or accepted. We are left to conclude that he's happier seeing himself as an oppressed outsider.

He says he doesn’t want to be hated either, yet he seems to revel in identifying himself as hated. It’s how he defines himself. If he were genuinely concerned about countering hate, he wouldn't be so busy stoking the fires of the culture wars.

In any case, do people really hate him? I doubt that most New Zealanders give him a thought. They have more pressing things to worry about.

That must be Lal’s worst nightmare, because I suspect that what he wants above all else is attention. And the way to ensure that is by constantly and noisily playing the victim card.

Lal is obsessed with his sexual identity and the special status he thinks that confers on him – an impression the media reinforce by acting as his promotion agents.

He seems to assume the world shares his fascination, but he’s wrong. Probably 99.9 percent of New Zealanders regard Lal’s sexuality as entirely his own business and are happy for him to live as he chooses.

They don’t hate him or want to do him harm. They just wish he’d shut up.

Karl du Fresne, a freelance journalist, is the former editor of The Dominion newspaper. He blogs at karldufresne.blogspot.co.nz.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

So who is this person?

EP said...

Yes they're all pretty boring aren't they - only just a fraction more boring than all the sad people who find their purpose in this wonderful life - on this finite planet for a limited time to laud them and give them infinitely boring meaningless awards - oh God help them!

Unknown said...

Dear Mr du Fresne.

Kiwibank, the operation established by the late Jim Anderton, as a NZ Bank (to be operated by NZ Post), in opposition to the Australian Banks, who "came raiding NZ", when the NZ & Australian Govt's, signed the 'Closer Economic Relations Bill (CER)', that wonderful piece of Legislation, created by our very own - Roger Douglas/ Min. of Finance - in the David Lange/Labour Party.

A Bank who of recent years 'has gone woke' in "stating that it has obligations to Customers and will not entertain a/c's from - examples, Oil, Gas" (there are others I am advised), 'must be seen to be clean & green'.

So, being woke, and they present awards to "twits", then it will reflect back on them, when people enter their Branches and state - "I wish to close my accounts, thank you, Now."

Chase Bank, USA faced the same scenario, when it "did the woke thingy".

As a certain Gentleman, who resides in the USA, said "Go woke, go broke".

DeeM said...

The average person cares as much about New Zealander of the Year Titles as they care about New Zealand Bird of the Year. May as well call it Woke Wanker of the Year because that's what we end up with.

They're political appointments - not the Bird category, at least I don't think so, although if our robin had a red breast it would certainly win the title whenever a Labour government was in power.

And when that pink-haired bird Souixie Whatever won it she could easily have been nominated for both awards.
Shaneel sounds more like a parrot which has been taught to swear and repeat the same offensive crap over and over again.

It's like all the awards ceremonies these days. It's not the best who win, its the most woke. The two are poles apart and that's why ratings and level of engagement have dropped like a stone.

Anonymous said...

DSM-V says that 'gender dysphoria' is a 'diagnosis', but 'autism' is a 'disorder'. any idea why this distinction, and what is the implication of such?

Anonymous said...

It is all part of the cultural marxism invading the west. I bet the russians and chinese cannot believe their luck at how easily the west is destroying itself. I think the worst thing is the active recritment of little kids in schools. Very sinister how govts are doing this.

Owen said...

How many actually wrote to Kiwibank and lodged their objection? Unless we take a stand and stop talking to just our selves this ridiculous and self serving claptrap will continue.

Brian said...

Well said OWEN. Yes I have just lodged my complaint in Kiwibanks complaint section.
I would urge every Kiwi to do the same.
Owen is right we need action not talking to ourselves.
Regards Brian.

Unknown said...

To Owen - How apt your comment is. If you lived in America, it would be ignored, just like it will be here in NZ. Why do I say that - well, in America, the "placid, conservative, bible reading, church going American", (just like their NZ Cousins) - ignore what is going on a round them,; they use the mantra "What we can not see, will not hurt us, why speak up, it will "DO NO GOOD".
Two good examples of this approach (in America) have been -
[1]- Portland, Oregon and ANTIFA and what they have been able to get away with, even assaults on other citizens, on the street, in broad daylight, whilst the Police stood by;
[2] - the BLM riots, that galvanized more "left leaning zealots (including disenfranchised African American Youth) - to "loot, burn. assault" - whilst the Police "stood by".
Do you see a pattern. In America there has been the "Defund the Police", which has led to many long term Police Personnel leaving (is currently an issue in New York City) and has led to an overall drop in Police being able to respond to other crime.
Now I do believe we may have the same issue here in NZ - your thoughts?
And if you had our NZ MSM tell you what Maori get up to - wow!

Peter Bacos said...

If he underwent psychoanalysis he could learn to be, what he very well could be - a happy homosexual.

Anonymous said...

I think in the next few weeks he’ll quietly fade away and in six months time we’ll be saying ‘who?’

Allan said...

Although reported in our bought and paid for MSM as some sort of love fest, video of the nasty bits very quickly went viral around the world and Posie went from zero to hero in a few hours. I wonder if he realizes how much damage that incident has caused to NZ's reputation around the world. I wonder if he cares.

Peter van der Stam, Napier said...

Karl, I am wondering is Lal a he or a she. Or just a PERSON to be politically Correct. Which of course is also BS.