Lushington D. Brady: In Praise of Shaneel Lal

As Sun Tzu said, he who knows when to fight and when not to fight, will always be victorious. Sometimes, your enemies do enough damage to themselves that the best course is to just sit back and let them go at it.

In Australia, opponents of the “Indigenous Voice” referendum have learned that, often enough, all they have to do is let the “Yes” campaign keep going. The harder “Yes” tries to sell their case, the more they’re losing. Not content with screeching “Racist!” at anyone who demurs, Australia’s wealthiest Scotswoman, Linda Burney, has taken to calling “No” voters “Trumpists”.

Which has to be about the best shot in the foot since Hillary Clinton sneered about “Deplorables”.

In New Zealand, anyone wishing to make the case that “trans rights” activists are nasty, misogynist, violent men in dresses need only sit back and let the TRAs go. “Tomato Boy”. The Auckland Granny Basher.

And, of course, the King of Queer bullies, Shaneel Lal.

During my time with the Free Speech Union I, and my fellow unionists, were busy presenting arguments in support of this central progressive value. We would do so in print, on radio, in podcasts, at live events, and even in theatrical documentary form […]

And yet, as tirelessly as I and others worked, we often had to hand the employee of the month honor to one of our opponents, many of whom were walking, talking arguments against censorship.

Few more than the Queen of Woke Authoritarianism, Jacinda Ardern.

When, on the AM show, she responded to the question, “How do you define hate speech?” with “You’ll know it when you see it”, it was like cans of spinach had been rammed down our gullets. When your Prime Minister tells the public to prepare itself for kangaroo courts, a free speech activist can take the weekend, if not the next six months, off.

Well, now, they might as well put their feet up and enjoy a well-earned retirement.

We have traveled from staid academics like Prof. Paul Spoonley to the professional hysterics at the faux-research group ‘The Disinformation Project’ and the cartoonishly unpleasant Shaneel Lal.

There are some people whose very visages just scream, “Predator”. Even those people are put off by the sight of Shaneel Lal.

Lal, and the now former Pride director Max Tweedie, drove the smear campaign against both women’s rights campaigner Posie Parker and local feminists ahead of her ill-fated March visit. After an attempt to deny her entry into the country was rejected, the pair shifted their focus to organising a crowd to chase women out of a public park. A few women were violently assaulted. The message sent was clear – oppose us, and we will physically hurt you.

Lal, now globally recognised as a misogynist and thug, is one of the media-crowned voices telling us censorship makes us safer. Who they think he’ll convince is beyond my imagination. Thanks to Lal the pro-censorship side has never been more toxic.

Did somebody say “toxic”? They must be thinking of “The Disinformation Project”.

In their bid for censorship, Hannah, Hattotuwa, and Lal have set themselves the hare-brained quest of trying to convince New Zealanders that feminism is a thoroughly loathsome pursuit, indistinguishable from Nazism.

Good luck with that.

Lal is an ally, without even knowing it.

Even Kiwibank unwittingly did the Lord’s work in awarding the oleaginous Lal “Young New Zealander of the Year”. The award was so egregiously misplaced that even the Daily Blog was horrified. When even a die-hard lefty like Martyn Bradbury is so appalled that he responds with 30 (and, yes, I counted them, 30) question marks, you can bet that Mr and Mrs Average Kiwi were spraying Marmite crumbs clear across the breakfast table.

If you support free speech, the chessboard is currently extremely favourable to you. All we need to do is remain the most rational in the room (which shouldn’t be hard) and let our opposition further unravel.

Plain Sight

And if you doubt the wisdom of that, merely consider that The Disinformation Project’s latest appointment is someone whom even Bradbury shudders at as “the most Toxic Wellington Woke Troll in NZ”.

Time to pour another single malt and let them go at it.

Lushington describes himself as Punk rock philosopher. Liberalist contrarian. Grumpy old bastard. This article was first published HERE