tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post8656416338643328969..comments2024-03-29T03:41:12.499+13:00Comments on Bowalley Road: Why We (Don't) Fight.Chris Trotterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09081613281183460899noreply@blogger.comBlogger14125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-48366506779378332662021-03-28T11:49:04.727+13:002021-03-28T11:49:04.727+13:00In the first nine months of 2020 the wealth of Bez...In the first nine months of 2020 the wealth of Bezos (Amazon), Zuckerberg (Facebook) and the Alphabet/Google founders, increased by tens of billions of US dollars. Bezos went from $US 120 billion to over $200 billion.<br /><br />Because of lockdowns and myriad other social restrictions, a government response to Covid-19 that forced people indoors and online for everything from doing their work to ordering their groceries (and everything else).<br /><br />And who got destroyed by this? Little people who owned small businesses. The numbers of such that have gone down in the USA over the last year is astounding, and those that are left are barely hanging on.<br /><br />All this caused me to simply laugh when I read your missive several weeks ago, <a href="https://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/2021/03/when-it-comes-to-covid-little-people.html" rel="nofollow">When It Comes to Covid, the “Little People” Cast a Big Shadow.</a>, in which you did the usual casting of good and evil between the neo-liberal business people who you claim wanted open borders and business-as-usual and the "little people" who wanted to be safe.<br /><br />Let's stipulate that your assertion might have been true for New Zealand, since we have no Google or Amazon of our own(Trade Me perhaps?). But I'm suspicious of such a claim given that neo-liberals you target here are the same people as Bezos and company, and those people have profited from lockdowns more than anything else in their profitable history of big business.<br /><br />As one commentator noted, the ideal world of Bezos, Zuckerberg and Dorsey is a person who does nothing but sit at home attending to Facebook and Twitter while ordering all their stuff from Amazon.<br /><br />Perhaps online "fighting" is useless, despite the endorphin kicks. Perhaps this is why there's no real fight left in the Left for these issues.<br /><br />Tom Hunterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17840988228699338463noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-83974896813437802522021-03-28T05:36:10.429+13:002021-03-28T05:36:10.429+13:00Cooldude, I have some sympathy with your argument,...Cooldude, I have some sympathy with your argument, however the failure of OWS appears to me a result of it falling into an era of identity politics and being seen as another identity group.<br /><br />I went down to the Wellington occupy a few times, it really seemed incoherent in its demands, but very coherent in its attribution of blame to priveleged white males. Somehow all older white males fitted into the One Percent. No wonder they didnt provide active support, its hard to agree but be told that you too are the enemy. <br /><br />A parallel is BLM which has decreed the same enemy, expanded to all whites. It demands that whites "take the knee" and show guilt. This is a form of sadistic retributive thinking. To believe that you can advance your cause by application of massed masochism is indicative of a flawed concept.<br /><br />Chris mentions intersectionality. It demands all identities work together against the common enemy. Yet if you are an identity according to critical theory everyone outside your chosen identity is a potential or real oppressor. And you are supposed to stand in unity against thd biggest baddest oppressor.. straight white men. Who might just be your brother, father, friend, workmate. Theres one hell of a lot of incoherence here. What ever happened to "live and let live" and joining together en masse to force commonly agreed change? <br /><br />Nick Jhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12609312325425361413noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-39976418451392919662021-03-27T22:17:20.803+13:002021-03-27T22:17:20.803+13:00Commenting on my previous comment,'stingingly ...Commenting on my previous comment,'stingingly blind' about reality, not political sales of course. Why the Rogernomes still run Labour, all about selling in the immediate, never reality, where a party not just of professional activists would find its heart.sumsuchhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03133092096534660472noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-1497893661241108692021-03-27T16:24:43.570+13:002021-03-27T16:24:43.570+13:00I was looking at a story about Galileo the other d...<i>I was looking at a story about Galileo the other day. He was put under house arrest by the Church for daring to say that the earth revolved around the sun rather than the sun orbiting around the earth – which the powers that be said was true.</i><br /><br />Off-topic, but this pop-history interpretation of Galileo really needs to die. Galileo was pushing the Copernican model... which involved circular orbits, and as such had inferior predictions to the old Ptolemaic model (elliptical orbits would not come until Kepler). The Church (which really only cared about calculating the correct dates of Easter) told Galileo that he could teach the flawed Copernican model as a hypothetical. Galileo responded by not only teaching Copernicus as fact, but also wrote a pamphlet on the subject where he literally called the Pope an idiot.<br /><br />In short, Galileo was a dogmatic arsehole, who has been falsely turned into a secular martyr for science.<br />DShttps://phuulishfellow.wordpress.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-53694594552648118822021-03-27T11:09:53.176+13:002021-03-27T11:09:53.176+13:00I don't see identity politics as being a centr...I don't see identity politics as being a central problem with OWS, you need to provide some evidence for this claim.<br /><br />"Not only did it seem that they were being asked to give up their “privilege/s”, but also their sanity. They left the Occupy encampments as disgusted as they were disillusioned."<br /><br />This quote makes no sense to me, the core message as you know, was that the people in the movement were underprivileged, even well-educated people who had crippling student debt had no <br /><br />Who left on these grounds? Name some people and give quotes. <br /><br />Although not many recognize it, OWS introduced class politics to a lot of people that were previously unexposed to it and changed their whole world view. It certainly had a long-term effect on public consciousness. cooldude69https://www.blogger.com/profile/05385693213687214707noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-14416133064778374532021-03-27T10:32:31.863+13:002021-03-27T10:32:31.863+13:00It's been clear for most of this century that ...It's been clear for most of this century that the housing price and supply situation was out of balance with affordable demand. There are serious social consequences. What has caused it and why hasn't it been tackled effectively?<br /><br />We've had, since the GFC, the lowest interest rates in the 5,000 year recorded history of the idea of money. Cheap money driving purchasing ability and therefore prices.<br /><br />We've had a loose immigration policy driving lower wages and higher house/rental prices.<br /><br />We've got restrictive land use policies and broke councils unwilling or unable to upgrade and extend infrastructure.<br /><br />We've introduced the licenced building practitioner regime reducing reactivity and competition.<br /><br />We've an overly restricted system for approval of imported building materials with a cosy monopoly/duopoly in several areas on the supply side as a consequence.<br /><br />All of things could have been relatively easy to ameliorate, given the political will, without the potential for some seriously adverse unintended consequences inherent in the latest effort. Attribution of the problem to, and the ugly kulakisation of, the Kiwi landlord is misplaced; they are simply reacting to a situation not of their making and that should never have been allowed to develop in the first place. <br /><br />David Georgehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04883628159193125307noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-12408932888914977142021-03-27T09:00:33.397+13:002021-03-27T09:00:33.397+13:00One of your most perceptive columns. Identity pol...One of your most perceptive columns. Identity politics were created from the rib of neoliberalism and together they have marched hand-in-hand for 40 years overwhelming the old fashioned progressivism of Christianity and Fabianism. Today they underpin the woke fascist corporatism that has become the zeitgeist of the 2020s. As for the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, it is now being plucked apart by the Harpies of Intersectionality. Although its key provisions including freedom of expression are incorporated into New Zealand law through the Bill of Rights Act 1990, the government is even now preparing legislation will vitiate its liberal and fair-minded guarantees.Odysseushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04745489060434244478noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-42536726464071591182021-03-26T23:57:50.010+13:002021-03-26T23:57:50.010+13:00This is the point that Nancy Fraser made in her ve...This is the point that Nancy Fraser made in her very important essay in Dissent a few years back critiquing what she termed "progressive neoliberalism". It is also linked to the replacement of the idea of society with claims of community. In this, progressive collectivism gets replaced by sectarian interests. In this the echo chambers of internet silos and analytics continue to divide. What we need perhaps is a notion of a social covenant to replace the failed social contract.Mike Grimshawhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01806767454101371478noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-74989076451858498142021-03-26T23:46:26.990+13:002021-03-26T23:46:26.990+13:00Thank you Chris, profound and so relevant. Thank you Chris, profound and so relevant. Tony Richards - freedom advocate.https://www.blogger.com/profile/10672010479735049116noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-74408646959178416562021-03-26T22:48:34.260+13:002021-03-26T22:48:34.260+13:00You make a good case. I have contempt for the anti...You make a good case. I have contempt for the anti-nuclear movement for instance which advanced as social democracy retreated. They gave us everything but the fair go of the people's rule.<br /><br />Oh boy, how the 30s Labour Movement would have torn to shreds the ramparts of unfair housing.<br /><br />But in the modern media it is difficult to ignore the bullshit prejudices all around. The unifying way is to thrust forward the great people's causes. Maybe Ardern and Robertson will learn despite their Blairite silliness till now. Describing climate change as our anti-nuclear moment was stingingly blind, like so many of their slogans. sumsuchhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03133092096534660472noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-5345104380991921102021-03-26T18:03:45.960+13:002021-03-26T18:03:45.960+13:00I was looking at a story about Galileo the other d...I was looking at a story about Galileo the other day. He was put under house arrest by the Church for daring to say that the earth revolved around the sun rather than the sun orbiting around the earth – which the powers that be said was true.<br />I thought that not much had changed since then. Today we have a thing called “Being cancelled” – for saying things that are mostly true but out of current favour.<br /><br />That lead me to consider the state of things today. The first political movement I recall is that of Womens Lib. I couldn’t help but think that this movement is eating itself. It was closely associated with what is now the LGB….. group and the consequences are that anyone can call themselves a female (now legal in some countries – self identify ones gender) and womens sport and women only places are all to be invaded by people who self identify as female . Its irrelevant that they have a penis. I feel that all these such groups will slowly attack themselves.<br />The world is now full of Politically inspired groups – many at each others throat. There is no social cohesion anymore. There are so many of these groups that its difficult to keep up.<br />I am 72 and own either directly myself, or via a trust, several rental properties. The recent brouhaha about home ownership gets no attention or sympathy from me. I purchased my first house using 4 mortgages (A first, a second, a lawyers loan and a family loan. Banks didn’t lend money for home ownership in those days). I didn’t spend money on a daily coffee or two, nor overseas (or even local )trips and holidays. I virtually rebuilt the first junk heap that I purchased.<br />I am described as an old white pale male by many in todays society. They think Im just a parasite. But I don’t care what they think. They wont sacrifice their morning coffee or their overseas holiday for a deposit on a first house. No they want a new house with multiple bathrooms and auto this and that and perhaps even a smart house.<br />But they will never get it – they haven’t got the character or the patience to even start out with less than the best. And they want all this their way – the way of their political tribe.<br />But I will use my resources – which I worked hard for and took a few risks on the way through – to help educate my grandchildren. They will be able to – almost – go to any school they want and will be able to go through university with building up a loan. And they will be made well aware that they have got the opportunity that most will not have.<br />An old white pale male – my arse – it’s the best sort of person that there is.<br />Barrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-42170132115539577742021-03-26T17:19:15.605+13:002021-03-26T17:19:15.605+13:00A medical professional was recently heard to speak...A medical professional was recently heard to speak critically of NZrs acquiescence with the rundown of hospital services and funding - If it was the USA people would be protesting but NZrs put up with it like sheep.greywarblernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-27634758161258298672021-03-26T17:03:56.098+13:002021-03-26T17:03:56.098+13:00Your final paragraph sums it up perfectly for me.Your final paragraph sums it up perfectly for me.Jack Scrivanonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3753486518085091399.post-23424870634620125842021-03-26T15:35:03.835+13:002021-03-26T15:35:03.835+13:00It was clear years ago that we had hit some sort o...It was clear years ago that we had hit some sort of rock bottom when there was much discussion in the business press about "getting more women on Boards". There was no discussion of whose interests Boards serve and whose they don't, or having employees elect Boards, etc. We were being told to care about the gender composition of elites - when the real problem wasn't women's unequal share of unaccountable private power, it was unaccountable private power itself.<br />To be able to fight we have to resist this evaporation of the whole notion of economic justice, while at the same time we have to acknowledge two things:<br />- that inequality and poverty have an age, gender, racial and disability gradient - they tend to be exaggerated in some groups<br />- that some of the most important 'progressive' gains have come from learning to imagine the lives of people quite unlike ourselves, and from standing in solidarity with them when they face discriminationABnoreply@blogger.com