David Harvey: What Should We Do About Bad Arguments

A Reply to Simon Wilson

I thought when Simon Wilson stopped writing his weekly column for the Herald on Tuesdays that he might fade from my consciousness. Not so. He now writes a fortnightly column for the Listener and ironically his articles feature on the page opposite mine. Even more ironically, his page is often positioned to the right of the fold, mine to the left. Go figure.

David Farrar: Harvey vs Wilson on western culture

Simon Wilson, like many on the hard left, sees the West as basically malignant, and that its achievements were based on oppression. This is not an uncommon view from the left.

David Harvey does an excellent lengthy response to Wilson’s assertions.

Read it all, but here are some key aspects:

David Farrar: O’Sullivan on Luxon

Fran O’Sullivan writes:

It’s been interesting to read all the repetitive columns predicting Luxon’s demise – either imminently as my friend Matthew Hooton reckons or at the endpoint of a long, slow march to oblivion as my colleague Simon Wilson avers.

To paraphrase an old joke about economists and recessions, Matthew has predicted the demise of nine of the last five Prime Ministers!

JC: Wilson and Trevett Come up Trumps

My congratulations to both of them.

In a week where, on Wednesday, I have a day in hospital to hopefully get a fourth stent inserted, having had a triple bypass in 2016, the old heart needed a bit of an uplift. It got one, two even, from the most unlikely of people, namely Simon Wilson and Claire Trevett. Both had articles published in the Weekend Herald. To give credit where it’s due, both articles were objectively written minus the usual bias and personal opinions that can cause palpitations in the old ticker that I can do without.

JC: Simon Wilson Well Wide of the Mark

I was browsing articles on the Herald website when I came across a headline: ‘Strong Leaders’, a ‘rigged’ economy and ‘poll of doom’. The writer was none other than our old friend Simon Wilson. Because the Herald holds Simon in such high regard (goodness knows why), it was a premium article. Now, because I don’t hold the Herald in the same high regard as they do Simon, I’m not a premium subscriber. That being the case, I was obliged to fork out the exorbitant sum of $4.20 if I was to devour the astute deliberations of a columnist the Herald thinks is worthy of such status.

Cam 'Slater: Simon Wilson Is the Last Person That Luxon Should Listen To

A vowed communist Simon Wilson keeps on offering up advice to Christopher Luxon and the National Party. He is literally the very last person Christopher Luxon should listen to. In his latest missive at the NZ Herald, thankfully behind a paywall, he opines that National needs a “man ban” and more diversity. Seriously… that’s his suggestion:

Wendy Geus: Contender Wayne Brown Fights Back

I don’t often burst out laughing during the rather dry current affairs show The Nation, but today I did. A rather naive Wayne Brown during recent media time with Newshub made a highly inappropriate, but hilarious, comment while he was ‘miked up’.

He called Simon Wilson, who has been on his case for the past year petrifed that Brown will win the mayoralty, a ‘prick’ and suggested when he became mayor he would stick pictures of Wilson to urinals so they could pee on him… Oops.

Of course this was gold to the largely liberal journalists at Newshub keen to make a hit on Brown, and the piece de resistance of the debate today when they presented the clip, which a rather naive Brown did not think had been recorded.