fatbongo

Exactly.

I see Fran has finally noticed that TPU's secret funding sources may make it less 'authentic'.

Does this say anything political lobbying in NZ? Are any their wider implications (beyond Willis' career prosects)?

Alas we'll never know. She's not bothered. It's obviously not that important

'Our little miracle': Baby who flatlined with whooping cough still fighting Eden Taylor-Gillespie flatlined after a full-body seizure from malignant pertussis.

This kiwi kid has suffered awfully from whooping cough and may now have a brain injury.

But you have to read down to the end of the article to find out they weren't vaccinated.

Meanwhile antivax cookers Voices For Freedom are busy marketing Xmas merch.

www.nzherald.co.nz/northern-adv...

My Trumper MiL approves of policies which, if enacted in our country, would see her grandkids' other grandparents deported.

She posts anti Maori comments on FB even though her daughter is one.

None of this really relates to or solves any problems in her life. It's right wing identity politics.

MiL started sharing sad stories posted by a far right group about animals being abused. Then anti Muslim and immigrant crime stories.

The pandemic completely broke her brian thanks to a Canadian qanon adjacent FB group. Now she's an antivax, NWO conspiracy believer

But she was always a bit racist

My mother in law, a NZ based Trumper whose substantial wealth comes from inheritance, property speculation and complicated ways of avoiding paying tax, bases her whole worldview on imaginary persecution by "globalists"/the wokes and the idea welfare claimants, Maori and immigrants have it too easy.

They don't think it's being destroyed. They think it's the crackdown that's needed to restore order and the correct social hierarchy.

Do you remember when 'John's not Mad' aired on TV in the late 1980s?

It caused quite a stir amongst my schoolmates at the time. We thought he was a hero.

So I'll definitely be watching this.

You say that, but a big chunk of them vote for Trump precisely because they get a kick out of the idea that he is going to put the boot into the people they don't like.

I think what unites the MAHA, Hayekians and racial & Christian nationalist wings of MAGA is belief in a 'natural' hierarchy which they are prepared to impose on society via state power.

In NZ we have a group of quack doctors who compiled a bogus list of 'suspected vaccine injured' which included stuff like 57 year old had a stroke a month after vaccination'.

'The vaccine made you sick' is seductive as it gives you an explanation that's less threatening than 'you were unlucky', 'we don't know what caused it' or 'your lifestyle may have contributed'

And having someone/thing to blame helps externalise nagging feelings of vulnerability and self blame.

Is there eg a research paper, article or book where you have presented these ideas in more depth?

When I first saw Trump's hair-do on the Apprentice I knew he'd created a situation where no-one gives him their honest opinion.

He sounds a like an evil version of Nigel Tufnell of Spinal Tap.

"I identify as an attack helicopter 'to own the libs' because I'm a bigot" has evolved into "But seriously, my bigotry has made me mentally ill"

Does she think the monkeys in 2001 A Space Oddyssey were real?

I remember when I realised that the reason one of their songs sounded familiar was that they were using samples from the soundtrack of Black Hole.

They don't care about that. They are pro Russia because they see Putin as an ally against woke degeneracy.

No tabloids. Stuffy tory broadsheets and talk radio not great but not UK bad and less obsessive. Some sympathetic coverage on tv. Social media bad.

Cooker entryism on a small conservative nationalist party currently in govt led to the ban & culture war rhetoric.

Kiwis aren't really political

I'm pretty sure all this started because she thought GCSE were too easy but teachers used to write in to say she was talking bollocks.

What do liberal/centrists do when eg Libs of Tiktok take *unrepresentative* examples of things some people find extreme/unacceptable and present them as the enevitable consequence of their policies?

They do (at best) minimal pushback, say "okay things may have gone too far" and then cave.

I realize this is just an anecdote and overall I would rather live now than in the 1960's.

And if I think about my daughter's opportunities vs my mum's back in the 1960's there is no comparison.

My dad graduated in the 1960s, walked straight into a job, was trained up and worked in the same company for 25 years.

I graduated in the mid 1990s, had to do unpaid volunteering to get a foot in the door and the longest job contract I ever had was 2 years

Lots of my friends have similar stories

I remember watching Quadrophenia and being jealous that they could say "you can take your job and shove it up your arse" knowing they could get another one next week or just go on the dole.

But then he did see that job as a kind of prison sentence so I don't think 'jobs for life' is a panecea.

I think insecurity has a big impact on our quality of life, which is not picked up by measures like GDP.

We've increasingly been forced to depend on the vagaries of the market (and our ability to compete) and society is more atomized.

Jobs for life may do your head in but at least you got security

RFK jr sexually harassed the nanny. Their boss Trump is an adjudicated rapist.

Jay is a political hack who's shown he's quite happy to share a stage with antivaxxers and rapists.

Is there any evidence (eg poll data) that shows that hardline anti migration rhetoric and policies reduce racial tension?

The only thing I can think of is an argument along the lines of 'Thatcher's approach weakened the NF'

'Brexit' worked in a similar way.

What seems to be on offer now is 'a strong leader who will do a general crackdown on the people you hate'.