You would assume that both these interviewees, who must be senior enough in the student body to hold their positions, would have prepared for the event. After all Plunkett is known to be a confrontational interviewer, and Laws, though stealthier in setting his traps, can be just as lethal, but Parkinson and Broadbent gave the impression that armed with simplistic assertions about ‘hate speech’ they would carry the argument. According to them Ayling is in contravention of UN standards of speech although faced with an avalanche of logical fallacies and outright untruths from them, Laws didn’t take the time to point out that our country’s legislation is not decided by the UN. Yet.
Not that argument, debate or discussion was what Parkinson wanted to be involved in. ‘I’m not getting into that argument,’ she continued to repeat as Plunkett pressed her for evidence that Ayling purveyed hate speech. Finally unable to further avoid offering evidence she said that Julian Bachelor had refused a Māori admission to one of his meetings on co-governance, which made Bachelor a racist, and Ayling also a racist because he had protected Bachelor’s right to hold meetings to discuss the legality of the co-governance model. And if Ayling is a racist then he must be using hate speech and that would make VUW students and staff feel ‘unsafe’.
Broadbent used the same flimsy example and unfortunately for him added the long-debunked trope that Kelly-Jay Keen Minshull is a Nazi because Nazis turned up at her Melbourne rally for Let Women Speak, and because Ayling supported Minshull’s right to express her opinion which must be that of a bigot, transphobe, and hater then he too etc etc. There are no prizes however for betting that Parkinson and Broadbent would support an on-campus rally where shrieks of ‘From the river to the sea’ would be heard and little likelihood that they would call the shouters ‘Nazis’.
But it is not just that we’re already fed up with management and student leaders in our country’s universities mouthing extreme left ideologies, or even that, as Parkinson revealed, they don’t feel that there is anything to be discussed because there is only one acceptable point of view. No, it’s more about these interviewees’ paucity of knowledge and reasoning and the lack of simple preparation to avoid embarrassing themselves by not looking like a pair of middle school debaters.
Even if they had been snotty enough to quote for example Foucault or Delgado’s opinions on power and identity it would have given a better impression than that their stance had been lifted from a TVNZ 6 pm newscast or an activist op-ed in The Post. If the level of logical thought displayed by Broadbent and Parkinson was an indicator of their preparation for tutorials, tests and exams (if these tools of colonial oppression still exist), then I predict they will be a lot longer at Victoria adding zeroes to their student loans, before someone generously lets them graduate.
In the roil of the activist soup made up of Treatyism, transgenderism and climate hysteria in New Zealand I see nasty similarities to the madness that gripped our country during the Christchurch creche debacle when all kinds of people on whom we might have depended to know better made loud and lengthy public fools of themselves. A similar failure to think clearly is showing itself in those who are supposed to be pursuing higher knowledge and preparing themselves for the depressing eventuality of becoming our country’s future leaders.
Penn Raine is an educator and writer who lives
in NZ and France.
10 comments:
I heard one of those interviews and was aghast at how unprepared she was.
Seems a lot of people think in memes nowadays. I’m worried that social media has really screwed society. Maybe social and media don’t mix. Perhaps spontaneous and lowly considered social thoughts and feelings ought to stay localised rather than published to the world.
It seems incredible that these persons are not aware of the degree of intelligent enquiry likely from The Platfrom. By now even the most woke are presumably checking it out, as obviously does the msm.
Well said, Penn. Those two little dears came across as idealogues that cannot articulate or justify the position they adopted. Hopeless!
The many “ISMs” that plague Western society today, which are purposefully used to contrive wedge issues that are driven deeply into the heart of the body politic, have been manufactured by intellectuals, academics, writers, philosophers, thought leaders, social scientists and political reformers.
For example, the most societally destructive of these ISMs is Cultural Marxism, a highly divisive and devastating social theory and critical philosophy painstakingly developed by the Frankfurt School which was associated with the Institute for Social Research at Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany. This extremely deceptive and perfidious movement was populated exclusively by leftist intellectuals whose primary purpose was to construct a blueprint for the complete takeover of Western civilization, which they have practically done.
Other repugnant philosophies, movements and ISMs originated by similar groups of leftist intellectuals and thinkers include Communism, Fascism, Bolshevism, Socialism, Capitalism, Feminism, Trangenderism, as well as the prevailing worldwide regime of Political Correctness that’s currently destroying societies everywhere.
The same groups are also the most aggressive in strategically hurling slurs and slanders of racism, sexism, homophobicism, ageism and, of course, their favorite calculated aspersion—anti-Semitism.
Perhaps what NZ needs is a publicly funded non commercial free to air TV and radio channel similar to the ABC or SBS in Australia
Committed to freedom of speech, open debate and unbiased reporting.
If the Labour Party and the left can have government funded media committed to their interests, TV One and RNZ National, and the Maori have their own government funded TV and radio, perhaps the rest of us Kiwis can have media funded by the Government in tune with our interests and beliefs.
Just split the current funding down the middle and let's see how it goes.
The freedom of speech and unbiased media are fundamental planks of Liberal Western Democracies and these matters are why many of us voted Act, NZ First. Lets hope they and Mr Goldsmith remember this soon and do something about it.
Why on earth should the taxpayer continue to fund Tv One and RNZ National who both seem to operate as though they are dedicated PR and propaganda arms of the Left ?
Why should the Coalition Government keep giving the Left endless free
homeruns this way ? There may be overwhelming distrust of the MSM but it still seems to shape peoples opinions as the most recent political polls show.
I find it interesting that when you read articles lie this, there is a comparison to what has occurred in America, that with -
- the Black Live Matter (BLM) riots (yes riots not a protest) and how they were 'mimicked' both in the UK (Bristol is a prime example) and also here in NZ/ Hamilton with local Maori protesting over a statue, that was in recognition of an English Gent from 'way back'. In Bristol ,they took a statue (relating to a person of British past history) and 'tossed it in the harbour', here the Hamilton City Council 'bent a knee and removed it'.
In both instances, the statues where deemed 'racists'. Strange how Maori all of a sudden "took a leaf out of the BML actions"!
- 'student protest', again America 'developed the action plan' and what made it convenient was the Israeli response to Hamas. If you watch any News on You Tube you will see similar actions across the world.
- 'student voices on campus' in listening to the people (as mentioned in this article) being interviewed on The Platform, having read both opinion posts here in NZ and also America, which I can add the conservative Media (similar to The Platform) have covered this topic as a well, along with similar outlets in Britain, the topic being 'those who have a different thought process, speak a different language ( applying words that are both
hurtful, hateful potential racist ) - the reactions and action of our current student to such opines is both stupid and miscalculating - but encouraged by Academics on the respective Universities.
Mind you an Academic (of Australian origin) at Massey University, Palmerston North stopped Don Brash from speaking to a student group (who had invited Don to speak on Campus) on the basis of his interpretation of the TOW - you may recall the back lash, the said Academic then left NZ. So it is not just students, who 'are out of step', but also the Academic body of all Universities.
I wonder what would happen if the NZ Taxpayer, instructed the Govt, to stop paying out money for student loans?
Bruce Moon too was prevented by Nelson City Council from speaking at public premises on the most spurious of grounds and the assumption he was the problem, not the person threatening violence.
Lesson - violence/ suppression is superior to a knowledgeable, sophisticated and well articulated presentation on the ToW.
Becoming an entrenched and acceptable premise of NZ social behaviour.
My conclusion is that Universities are now quite unsafe places for any of our precious children to attend.
They are controlled by ideologues who will not allow any alternative views. Why would you pay good money to attend such places and be indoctrinated into thinking as bigots like them.
There are quality lectures on line for most subjects.
Maybe stick to the STEM subjects and stay well clear of the social sciences and many arts. They are dangerous.
I too heard the interviews and had expectation of some intellectual rigour from the interviewees….. sadly my expectations “bit the dust” with alacrity!
Shortly the collapse of global economies will force the closure of most of these institutions and the need for the students and professorial class to scrabble for a living…. now that will bring them all down to earth!
Lack of government funding would see their demise even sooner methinks….. I’m liking that idea.
Those 2 students being interviewed is just a reminder that they are Woke thinkers, and that is how woke thinkers roll, and are totally lacking critical thinking or objectivity. It is like a siege mentality and is a big handicap, so we need to get them out of public service, cos they are like cancer.
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