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Reality Check Radio needs a reality check

Written By: - Date published: 2:50 pm, July 6th, 2025 - 64 comments
Categories: covid-19, health, jacinda ardern, making shit up, politicans, spin, the praiseworthy and the pitiful, you couldn't make this shit up - Tags:

It is strange that Jacinda Ardern should continue to live rent free in so many right winger’s heads.

This thought came to me when I discovered a petition run by Reality Check Radio demanding that Jacinda Ardern, Chris Hipkins, Ashley Bloomfield and a host of others be summonsed to appear at stage two of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Covid 19.

The advert is really cute and gives the impression that they can be charged and tried by the inquiry.

This is clear from the picture used depicting Ardern, Hipkins and Bloomfield standing in a Court dock.

The language reinforces the message. Reference is made repeatedly to “offenders” and there is a list of bullet pointed charges against them. To highlight the reference other experts who supported the Government’s Covid response are also referred to. These include Siouxsie Wiles, Michael Baker, Shaun Hendy and Rod Jackson, all experts who informed the country’s response. And people from the Disinformation Project gets a mention, presumably because they pointed out the level of disinformation that had been engaged in.

The petition is not only disingenuous but it is also dangerous. This is Trumpian level attacks on public figures who have pushed for a proper scientific approach to formation of public policy

As I type this 28,808 poor souls have signed.

It makes you wonder why a media entity would engage in this level of disinformation. The advertisement is begging for a complaint to the Advertising Standards Authority.

This led me to do some digging into the entity.

Reality Check Radio is owned by Clair Deeks, Alia Bland and Elizabeth Jonson.

They were also the founders of Voices for Freedom and the two entities appear to be joined at the hip.

The funding of these entities is a mystery.

In 2022 I noted that at the Parliament occupation food trucks were spontaneously appearing and handing out free food seemed more than a little suspicious. And the billboard campaign waged by Voices for Freedom was not cheap, nor is distributing 2 million pieces of information.

VFF claims on its website:

Voices For Freedom is the trading name of the not for profit organisation legally incorporated and registered in New Zealand having three directors and shareholders Claire Deeks, Alia Bland and Libby Jonson.

VFF is funded through individual donations from thousands of concerned Kiwis. Funding is put towards the various projects we facilitate and the general running costs and overheads of the organisation.

It’s website stated “we intend to provide basic information on finances such as to provide accountability and transparency at appropriate junctures and at least annually.”  I still cannot find any trace of how VFF or RCR is funded.

RCR’s line up of presenters is impressive. Rodney Hide is there as is Cameron Slater. New Zealand First MPs are regular visitors. As well as railing against vaccinations the site hosts a healthy amount of climate change scepticism.

It ran an aggressive fundraising campaign in 2024. Joel MacManus at the Spinoff wondered if its threatened closure was nothing more than an attempt to maximise donations.

He said this about its approach:

Like most fringe media, [Reality Check Radio] thrives on paranoia and fear. It repeatedly ingrains its listeners with the idea that powerful forces are trying to control them, and that government and mainstream media can’t be trusted. Its fundraising page says this explicitly: “Censorship will control what you can say…15 minute cities will control where you can live…. Mass migration will devalue your place in society.” Then, it asks: Are you prepared to face those challenges alone?

Everything about Reality Check Radio raises concerns. Pushing clearly misleading claims and suggesting that Ardern and others could be locked up is beyond reprehensible.

I have not previously analysed the terms of reference of the second Covid inquiry but having now done so all I can say is that it is a cheap political stunt.

The original terms of reference wanted to avoid analysis of vaccine efficacy. This is something that should be left to medical experts.

The terms of reference for the second inquiry listed vaccine mandates and vaccine safety as well as the use of lockdowns and testing and tracing technologies as matters to review. This was despite the fact the first inquiry had considered the use of vaccine mandates and although generally endorsing their use the Commission stated that “occupational and other vaccine requirements were applied too broadly and remained in place for too long”.

It stated that lockdowns were an effective elimination tool initially although thought that the second Auckland lockdown could have been terminated earlier.

It said that “[t]esting, contact tracing and masking requirements were reasonable, but their implementation could be improved in a future pandemic”

Hearings will take part in the next couple of months starting tomorrow. The August hearings will involve key decision makers and will be held in Wellington. Details of who is appearing have not yet been released.

But I expect Reality Check Radio will be reporting on the issue. And expect this to be a circus. Judging by the quality of its petition it will make an absolute meal of the issue.

Perhaps Voices for Freedom and Reality Check Radio while they are reporting on the Covid Royal Commission could also report on how they are funded. That way we can make an informed decision on their quality and reliability.

64 comments on “Reality Check Radio needs a reality check ”

  1. PsyclingLeft.Always 1
    6 July 2025 at 3:47 pm

    Aye MS ! Thankyou for your clear diligence shown in this Post. An interesting Inquiry would be the connections behind……

    Reality Check Radio is owned by Clair Deeks, Alia Bland and Elizabeth Jonson.

    They were also the founders of Voices for Freedom and the two entities appear to be joined at the hip.

    And re "a petition run by Reality Check Radio"

    This is clear from the picture used depicting Ardern, Hipkins and Blomfield standing in a Court dock.

    Nuremberg 2.0 ?

    Nuremberg 2.0's strange path to New Zealand

    https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/300917125/nuremberg-20s-strange-path-to-new-zealand

    I sure hope someone is hard out looking into who are NZ's Reality Radio funders

    And again, onya MS !

    Reply
    • Visubversa 1.1
      6 July 2025 at 9:26 pm

      Libby Jonson is a knitting pattern creator. Trade name "Truly Myrtle". Not exactly a well paid career.

      Reply
    • Stan 1.2
      11 July 2025 at 5:40 pm

      Why is it more important who funds VFF and Reality Check Radio than that those who made decisions that affected the whole country undergo public scrutiny for the information they provided and the decisions they made? Are you just portraying an example of "look, over there"?

      Reply
      • PsyclingLeft.Always 1.2.1
        11 July 2025 at 7:17 pm

        those who made decisions that affected the whole country undergo public scrutiny for the information they provided and the decisions they made?

        Stan. Have you read any of this Post and its links? It has been well established here..and elsewhere, that our NZ decisions were informed by NZ and other EXPERT Scientific,Medical and Health advice.

        These people are well known, and well respected by their peers, and IMO also by far the majority of NZ

        Unlike….

        As to why its important we look who the shadowy figures are behind VFF, Reality Check Radio etc, etc….?

        Who are they? We can see the conspiracist loons….but who funds and supports them?

        IMO it is extremely important for NZ to know who these people and organisations are.

        Reply
  2. ExpertCant 2
    6 July 2025 at 4:34 pm

    Interesting how the Jacinda government exposed public servants to this level of scrutiny by making them prominent during covid. This voids the principle of public sector neutrality by portraying the public servants as the experts and the ultimate deciding factor of covid policy. This lifts accountability from the shoulders of the elected, and exposes the public sector to criticism for decisions which were ultimately made by the politicians.

    Reply
    • PsyclingLeft.Always 2.1
      6 July 2025 at 4:44 pm

      portraying the public servants as the experts

      Who exactly are you referring to? The Professors, Doctors, Scientists, Medical Experts ?

      This was a pandemic. Those mentioned ( and many others) freely gave of their Knowledge…and themselves.

      Were/Are you a Plan B proponent?

      Reply
      • ExpertCant 2.1.1
        6 July 2025 at 4:52 pm

        I am referring to public servants, aka Ashley Bloomfield.

        "This was a pandemic. Those mentioned ( and many others) freely gave of their Knowledge…and themselves." – Noted, cheers.

        Plan B? What exactly are you referring to?

        [lprent: Ashley Bloomfield is medical doctor and has had various roles in the Health boards. He was also the Director-General of Health during the pandemic response. That is the position in charge of ordering all medical pandemic responses under the various Acts, including isolation events like lockdowns, use of vaccines, border control, etc. Plus an advisory roles on economic responses.

        If you wish to troll here, then please ensure that you actually know your basic facts. Try reading the legislation, which since you are obviously too ignorant to look it up, the relevant pandemic related legislation is linked to here. basically the 2006 Epidemic Preparedness Act, and the 1956 Health Act.

        You certainly Cant from something. Is it the Troll Book of Untruths? It does sound like a religious book like that. ]

        Reply
      • Patricia Bremner 2.1.2
        6 July 2025 at 5:17 pm

        You don't buy a heading dog and run round barking. That would be silly!!

        Bloomfield and the Health team studied the reports, suggested action, Cabinet approved, Jacinda announced. We complied. Unless you were anti vax, sovereign citz or bloody minded opposition of the Day whining wildly.

        Reply
    • Drowsy M. Kram 2.2
      6 July 2025 at 5:44 pm

      This voids the principle of public sector neutrality by portraying the public servants as the experts…

      Imho, public servants with expertise in public health giving the public advice about appropriate community health responses as a novel pandemic unfolds is preferable to listening to the gut feelings of politicans who cry 'test less', 'inject bleach, 'let her rip' and 'FREEDUM!' Kiwis dodged a bullet there – my sincere condolences to the friends and relatives of those who succumbed to the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

      https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/


      The Washington Post described Trump's pronouncements as having "evolved from casual dismissal to reluctant acknowledgement to bellicose mobilization" over the course of the pandemic. Though Trump "occasionally adopted health officials' more cautious tone", the optimism that dominated his early response "hadn't completely disappeared", Trump having downplayed the threat of COVID-19 over 200 times.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communication_of_the_Trump_administration_during_the_COVID-19_pandemic

      Contesting state expertise after COVID-19 [29 June 2025]

      Reply
  3. Susie Vincent 3
    6 July 2025 at 4:56 pm

    Reality Check Radio provides a useful window into what conspiracy folks are actually embroiled with right now, for those who otherwise would not have a clue.

    RCR is a seamless offshoot of Voices for Freedom, which was a refuge initially for 20-something flowerchild mothers scared about vaccines, then rapidly became all about ‘medical coercion’. While it has largely run out of steam, I heard VFF groups are still planning to go off the grid when the WHO's demonic forces start their dawn raids and force them to have identity cards.

    So we have the desperately politically naïve as the audience, and it’s still a lot about the vaccine, with some reference to various QAnon memes I think – – and a LOT of the influences that this group espoused a few years ago were straight out of US far right think tanks.

    However, what's alarming is the line up of influencers who have leapt onto RCR now to take up the slack and brainwash these impressionable bunnies. Yes, Mr Whale Oil jumped onto it awhile back, and Rodney Hide, along with the odious former ACT MP Muriel Newman. Now I’m seeing all the prominent Mont Pelerin Society members of the NZ Initiative, Roger Partridge, Bryce Wilkinson and Eric Crampton there in lights. If they didn’t think it was worth their while, presumably they wouldn’t bother.

    I dipped into what they’re saying on the ‘Blog’ page. The influence is anti-Maori, pro Regulatory Standards Bill, etc. They don’t need to proselytise against the Labour Party, this lot already hate the Labour Party and Jacinda the evil witch.

    Thanks, MS, for flagging this. I have no doubt that this is a recruitment drive and that it is finding fertile ground. Deep deep sighs.

    Reply
  4. gsays 4
    6 July 2025 at 5:00 pm

    What is the point of yr talk of food trucks handing out food and cite an article that mentions a single donut trailer distributing freebies?

    Is this the proof of foreign money funding?

    C'mon, after nearly 30 months there must be more evidence than a 2 1/2 year old article from Stuff. (Hardly renowned for balanced reporting in all things Parliament Protest).

    Reply
    • weka 4.1
      6 July 2025 at 5:31 pm

      there was plenty of investigative journalism at the time making the connections between homegrown groups and international resourcing.

      Reply
      • gsays 4.1.1
        6 July 2025 at 5:45 pm

        That is at odds with " I still cannot find any trace of how VFF or RCR is funded."

        Reply
        • Drowsy M. Kram 4.1.1.1
          6 July 2025 at 9:58 pm

          I still cannot find any trace of how VFF or RCR is funded.

          There are some traces – maybe MS didn't look, which would be unlike him.

          On 17 April 2024, Reality Check Radio released a plan to shift towards a donor-funded model and set a goal of increasing its subscription base from 3,500 to 10,000 paying members. As part of "The Plan," RCR plans to introduce new features including talkback functionality, documentaries and a press gallery presence. On 28 April, Reality Check Radio announced that it still needed NZ$480,000 to return to the airwaves. The station claimed that it had received thousands of messages of support, with some cancelling their Netflix, Sky and Spotify subscriptions to support RCR. The station restarted a few weeks later having reached their fundraising total of almost $500,000.

          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reality_Check_Radio

          Wikipedia's RCR entry seems well-researched, although it might be 'fake news'!
          The VFF advocacy group and RCR have no redeeming features, imho, but their leadership knows what it’s doing.

          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voices_for_Freedom#Alleged_front_organisations

          Reply
  5. Ad 5
    6 July 2025 at 7:18 pm

    Ardern. Hipkins, Bloomfield and the entire health system staff did everything required of them and more.

    Maybe I should go onto that station and tell them.

    Reply
    • Patricia Bremner 5.1
      6 July 2025 at 8:09 pm

      yes 100%

      Reply
    • Susie Vincent 5.2
      7 July 2025 at 12:12 am

      Good luck with that! Refusal to accept this is not about logic or evidence. All the evidence including all the infection rates worldwide is cooked up by the CFC who are hooked up with Big Pharma and all the doctors and nurses in NZ are too, don't you know this? Jacinda Ardern was working for the demonic World Economic Forum, who will usher in the New World Order, and are plotting to eliminate 90% of us for economic reasons so that the elite can prosper. Etc etc etc etc. This is Rabbit Hole World. Those Wikipedia entries are very good!!

      Reply
    • Phillip ure 5.3
      7 July 2025 at 10:28 am

      I am tempted to do that…

      The biggest hurdle would be getting through their screening process…

      But it could be a useful use of time…

      .and they may want adversial callers…as part of their mix..

      Reply
      • Phillip ure 5.3.1
        7 July 2025 at 10:55 am

        I used to comment on whaleoils blog…

        He had a poll of his readers at one stage..on whether or not he should kick me off..or not .

        I can't remember if I won the popular vote..or if he over-ruled that popular vote..

        But what that says is that he does not shy away from adversial voices..

        Reply
        • Patricia Bremner 5.3.1.1
          7 July 2025 at 4:44 pm

          Hi Phillip, I recall that Whale Oil is a cousin of "watch my eyebrows " and "we give back double" Judith Collins no less. devil

          Reply
          • Phillip ure 5.3.1.1.1
            7 July 2025 at 5:05 pm

            There is a physical similarity..

            But we can't blame the actions of either on the other..

            'am I my (cousins) keeper?'..

            But they do both hang in the same ‘bad crowd’..

            Reply
            • Francesca 5.3.1.1.1.1
              7 July 2025 at 6:37 pm

              They're not related .But Slaters father was at one stage president of the National party.They were close friends. .But they might just as well be cousins,…similar modus operandi

              Reply
  6. PsyclingLeft.Always 6
    7 July 2025 at 8:29 am

    Nuremburg 2.0….Very disturbing. Strange, twisted people.

    on the day Ashley Bloomfield resigns.

    We know where you live you little weasel, you are a targeted lowlife. You can’t run and hide, justice will get you. Vile disgusting creature. – MM

    He probably knows his days are numbered. When people start to wake up he will indeed be targeted. I expect he has scurried underground like the (rat emoji) he is. – VFF coordinator.

    There are posts about sending politicians to the gallows, sharing of QAnon conspiracies and endless sharing of covid misinformation from sources like Robert F Kennedy Jr’s anti-vaccination Children’s Health Defense.

    https://interactives.stuff.co.nz/2022/08/circuit/inside-voices-for-freedom/

    Reply
    • Drowsy M. Kram 6.1
      7 July 2025 at 9:29 am

      Anti-vaccination and anti-hygiene advocacy during pandemics is simply advocating for increased death and illness. If I was (more) susceptible to conspiracy theories, then I might wonder if pandemic FREEDUM groups received instructions and support from 'elites' who want to cull the human population of spaceship Earth. Just joking – or am I?

      Wellness communities and vaccine hesitancy [7 August 2024]
      The mix of wellness and self-help discourse with extremist ideas was also on display in the ‘freedom convoy’ protest in Aotearoa New Zealand, which one reporter described as a ‘leaderless mass of harmless hippies, Hari Krishnas and homeopathy believers on one side and angry anti-vax and maybe incipient assassins on the other’. A 2021 Report from The Disinformation Project notes that ‘Covid-19 disinformation was being used as a Trojan Horse for norm-setting and norm-entrenchment of far-right ideologies within Aotearoa New Zealand’. In sum, wellness influencers like Evans, and the disinformation they share, are increasingly intertwined with theories and groups that pose different, but equally significant, threats to society.

      Although it seems as if disinformation is the source of many current political and social issues, the journalist James Ball argues that it is more a symptom than a cause. Factors contributing to the generation and spread of mis- and disinformation include long-standing societal issues such as misogyny, racism, nationalism, hyper-partisanship, distrust in government, and anti-intellectualism. For example, Jennifer Reich, a professor of sociology at the University of Colorado Denver, says that ineffective treatments like ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine are popular among vaccine sceptics ‘precisely because those treatments haven’t gone through the same process of scientific and expert review that they distrust.’

      Reply
      • PsyclingLeft.Always 6.1.1
        7 July 2025 at 9:39 am

        Yep, its so strange…and bizarre. So quick to leap down the rabbit holes. If not able to Critical Think..where is their inner voice of..Reason?

        The one that should be saying yelling "This makes no sense" !

        Reply
    • I Feel Love 6.2
      7 July 2025 at 7:07 pm

      (rat emoji)

      https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c365ernrnlyo

      "Lineker apologises for sharing 'offensive' Zionism post with rat image." – British football broadcaster lost his job because he posted a video with the rat emoji.

      Reply
      • PsyclingLeft.Always 6.2.1
        8 July 2025 at 12:28 pm

        I found those images…physical and mental (nooses, gallows, rats), of Jacinda Ardern and Dr Bloomfield et al; to be very disturbing.

        Dr Bloomfield in his updates, always struck me (and IMO many thousands of other NZers) as the least rat-like person I could imagine…

        Anyway…hope you are good..take care.

        Reply
  7. Bearded Git 7
    7 July 2025 at 9:57 am

    Wonderful post Micky and fantastic thread from TS contributors. It has taken all of breakfast to absorb.

    Speaking as somebody who has just had his ninth COVID jab with no adverse effects, two points:

    1. It appears to me that, in general, the COVID inquiry is vindicating the Ardern government's actions. That is making the conspiracy theorists incredibly angry.

    2. People like Winston Peters, who backed Ardern at the time and quickly got vaccinated himself, should not now be lying through their teeth by questioning the Ardern government approach in order to get votes. Shame on him.

    Reply
  8. Georgecom 8
    7 July 2025 at 11:38 am

    All i can add is these fers need to stop living in the past. The world has moved on, seems some right wing tin foil hatters haven't

    Reply
  9. Psycho Milt 9
    7 July 2025 at 12:34 pm

    I have so much anti-vaxxer/Bill Gates/WEF/chemtrails stuff turning up in my Twitter/X timeline these days I just assume it's a kind of omnibelief for those traumatised by the Covid years.

    Reply
    • Psycho Milt 9.1
      7 July 2025 at 12:40 pm

      Also just thinking, Covid seems to have largely driven it from popular memory but the big thing in 2019 was 5G. I suspect a Venn diagram of the people who were wailing about 5G transmitters pre-Covid and demanding Nuremberg 2.0 for Ardern et al post-Covid would be damn near a circle.

      Reply
    • Nic the NZer 9.2
      7 July 2025 at 6:58 pm

      Maybe X thinks you enjoy it.

      Reply
  10. Bruce 10
    7 July 2025 at 12:44 pm

    Yes the world has moved on and lessons learned. But the mandates caused angst for some of the rational center who saw their livelihoods endangerd and this angst exerts a powerful pull from the rabbit holes of the loonies. By keeping this pot boiling the loonies can drawn on those anxious times.

    " Like most fringe media, [Reality Check Radio] thrives on paranoia and fear. It repeatedly ingrains its listeners with the idea that powerful forces are trying to control them, and that government and mainstream media can’t be trusted." Yes they are right and they need look no further than Atlas to find the source.

    Reply
    • Patricia Bremner 10.1
      7 July 2025 at 4:04 pm

      yesAnd their Poster Boy, with his deliberately divisive Bills, accusing our experts of Derangement Syndrome.

      Reply
  11. newsense 11
    7 July 2025 at 12:49 pm

    Mountain Tui posted about the amount of disinformation pumped into New Zealand around that time.

    New Zealand had been ignored by the Murdoch press and others, but we can’t have both the spirit which saw us fight off the pandemic and lying agenda and power pedaling media.

    I’d say if this lot get a second term most of what made NZ good will have been stripped down and sold for scrap. Public Good will be banished, with public housing. Healthcare will be provided by idiocracy style consults and suicide booth to the non-insured population. Anything referring to the climate crisis is censored and censured. Tobacco to be trialed in schools as a voluntary weight loss treatment.

    A foreign billionaire has his eye on the Herald as having acted too much in New Zealand’s interests and wants to be more active in editorial content.

    Cuts to RNZ and TVNZ.

    We can’t have the disinformation and NZ life as it was. And by the time the grinches that aren’t troll farms wake up to that councils will be broke and oligarchs rife, charging for every little thing and providing the worst service- particularly childcare.

    Reply
    • PsyclingLeft.Always 11.1
      7 July 2025 at 1:28 pm

      I’d say if this lot get a second term most of what made NZ good will have been stripped down and sold for scrap.

      Its my fear. Not so much for myself (always been pretty self sufficient/able to fix/make do/survive) but for Family..and those others who are not able to get by.

      Why I (we) must fight back !

      And absolutely Re MT , MS et al….

      Reply
    • Bearded Git 11.2
      7 July 2025 at 7:31 pm

      I think they are chanelling Trump too closely….he is widely accepted as being loopy now ..Canada and Australia has showed that ties to Trump loses you votes big time.

      Reply
  12. Susie Vincent 12
    7 July 2025 at 3:21 pm

    Hmmm . . . being reminded about this group makes me think of a ‘programmable army’.

    Of course the beliefs are space cadet material, and easy to ridicule, which I do. Yet among the group there’s some bitter hatred and resentment. Jobs (and therefore accommodation, etc) lost thru vax mandates. Friends/family ‘known’ to be vax- injured. Scorn from Labour leaders. Once you’re outside society’s mainstream, is there anything left but to join a gang? And in any group, belonging depends on espousing a belief set. This is sociological shorthand, obviously, but the phenomena are real.

    And once it is credible to you that vaccines are at best a device for social control and at worst, part of a depopulation project, there’s no reverse gear.

    The post-truth world dawned in about 2016. Labour was actively warned at least by the work of Jess Berentson-Shaw / Disinformation Project, with global evidence about how dangerous all of this would get, but didn’t change a single pronoun in the rhetoric. In face of a firehose of well-funded disinformation (Robt F Kennedy Jnr among the worst), and a wholesale rejection of science and ‘experts’, there was no insightful outreach, medical briefings were paternalistic/patronising (even reasonable questions dissed), and polarisation simply got set in a wall of concrete.

    And of course, along with the efforts of Mr Murdoch, it lost us a Prime Minister: In 2022, ‘Researcher Dr Sanjana Hattotuwa said that this year the (Disinformation Project) team had captured “the most significant increase in violent, vulgar, vicious, venomous commentary against the PM since the start of our study in mid-August 2021 … The vocabulary … has migrated from implicit and elusive references to her murder, assassination and rape now to explicit calls for it.” (From The Guardian).

    The cohort served by VFF/RCR feel to me like a military force ready for hire. And now the libertarians are in there, garnering support.

    Reply
    • Incognito 12.1
      7 July 2025 at 4:43 pm

      The cohort served by VFF/RCR feel to me like a military force ready for hire. And now the libertarians are in there, garnering support.

      I came across this absolute gem of analysis and insight that maps all too easily to this Post and many other topical conversations here on TS. As I type this comment, I have a distinct feeling of déjà vu all over again.

      https://medium.com/@mike.brock/the-libertarian-to-fascist-pipeline-30558ce03c92

      Reply
      • Patricia Bremner 12.1.1
        7 July 2025 at 5:08 pm

        Hi Incognito. Yes Two things, David Seymour blocking the label of Gang for the Far Right, and recently the loss of the terrorist tag for NZ Proud Boys, by PM Luxon letting it lapse.

        Those two "groups" may now be courted without penalty.

        Raw Shark has not been on for ages, but he/she often commented on the interconnectedness of surveillance and how Kiwis were being watched at home.

        Currently it is "Keep your friends close and your enemies closer!!

        Reply
        • Incognito 12.1.1.1
          7 July 2025 at 5:42 pm

          Investigative journalism is akin deep research that takes time & diligence. Thus, we should not expect regular updates from those sources necessarily.

          Through the media the spotlight tends to be on the more extreme and radical ends and the attention to fringe groups is no exception – the middle is boringly familiar and predictable, generally speaking. However, those fringe groups sometimes put on pressure through side attacks (e.g., in guerilla style) or, to stay with Covid terminology, they act as sheep dogs to manoeuvre the herd into a certain direction. This ‘herd effect’ is the one to watch out for, e.g., increasing and entrenched political support for harder RW parties and their policies and a shift of established parties such as NZ First to the Right and authoritarian positions. BTW, this is not unique to NZ by any means.

          Reply
      • Susie Vincent 12.1.2
        7 July 2025 at 6:46 pm

        Incognito: Based on a quick read of Mike Brock, I agree. Good catch. well found. Something in this mindset – I will not be coerced or have my 'liberty' put at threat (liberty in its definition per the RSB, and how Brock sees the notion of 'freedom' corrupted). The threads in all this knit up here into something quite horrific for society – including for the libertarian in the long run. Btw though have recently read a thing on how power, or maybe just hubris as a mental state, wipes people's mirror neurons. As they no longer experience others as connected to them at all, perhaps the desert island model feels just fine.

        Reply
        • Incognito 12.1.2.1
          7 July 2025 at 9:20 pm

          Who would want to be coerced? Nobody and no nation would. Such a statement has mass appeal – it fits snugly into the self-help culture where you’re considered to be the ‘master of your own destiny’, etcetera – and then slowly but surely, you’re converted to the cultish views of the likes of VFF. Unless, you integrate all of your core values and principles into a world view that also considers outcomes and consequences on a broader scale and more future-oriented approach to life.

          No man is an Island – John Donne

          Reply
      • Muttonbird 12.1.3
        8 July 2025 at 11:15 am

        The libertarian will of course be arguing that their political orientation could never be considered fascist, because they would claim vociferously that they are advancing a universalist conception of rights. That, all people have the same rights. That, these rights are about the maximization of freedom. That, these rights are inviolable, in principle, no matter how economically powerful someone is. But here in lies the rub: economic power does have something to do with freedom.

        I was interested in this. It seems obvious, plain to see that with the abandonment of protections, economic power, in practice, dictates who has what rights and freedoms. That promoting property rights above all others by definition grants rights to property owners over others.

        This version of universality is flawed but the nut jobs are running with it. Heather Duplicity-Allen referenced it this morning with reference to fawning over David Seymour's policies.

        Reply
  13. Incognito 13
    7 July 2025 at 4:24 pm

    As I type this 28,808 poor souls have signed.

    Damn, those soulless bots.

    Reply

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