I have many reckons on this. Many. But I can’t write them down because it makes me so mad.
One thing I will say, as a Kiwi living in Australia, I wasn’t surprised by the Voice result. But a lot of my lefty Brunswick bubble were. And that’s the problem.
We as progressive people who stand against racism, colonialism, rich c**ts who want to destroy the planet, need to start taking to people who aren’t in the same bubble.
I joked about it to you, Josh, that I only talk to terminally online people. And it’s kind of true. But if the pandemic has taught us and The Voice has proven is there are a large portion of socially isolated people who are susceptible to the heavily focus grouped right wing lizard brain messaging that will be turned on like a fire hose from now in order to build support for this referendum. Shit. We saw it three years so with the cannabis referendum. Fear and finance won.
The only way to combat this is to talk to people outside our bubbles and to show up and be good allies. Cos fuck me, the boring dystopia we live in doesn’t need to be spiced up by sliding into actual fascism.
That documentary is brilliant - needs to be required viewing country-wide, and especially in secondary schools so the upcoming generation of voters know exactly how they're being manipulated and by whom. The Atlas Network can really only be described as evil, wrapped up in soft soap and a great deal of money. Presumably the name derives from the appalling Ayn Rand and her equally appalling 'Atlas Shrugged'?
Josh, thank you for this. As an American living in NZ for the past 6 years I have so many thoughts on the Atlas Network and without looking I would bet everything I have (except the dog) that the Heritage Foundation and ALEC are members. Their messaging is so insidious but powerful because it speaks to fear and tells people it's okay, they aren't to blame for not being a gazillionaire by the time they are 30, that the brown skinned person over there is to blame instead. I've always said Aotearoa is lucky not to have Rupert Murdoch and his minions on the airwaves but now I see in his place an abundance of lobbyists and academics posing as unbiased sources of news. Short of all news media in the country adhering to your suggestions - what can we do? Jackson's suggestion of talking to people outside our bubbles is an excellent start. I almost feel like it's 2015 in America and we are sitting around laughing about the idea of a trump presidency and thinking Americans aren't that gullible.
This is exactly what we needed out there before the election, I was trying to warn people Atlas was doing the same here with all their Astrotrufs and now Atlas has all their lackeys in government. After looking into their network for years, I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Atlas call themselves “the freedom movement” either, they’re behind Advance NZ, Advance Australia and if not funded, they definitely inspired the fake “freedom movement” we see globally destroying democracies so destructive industries and continue to exploit our planet.
This has to be one of the sadder pieces I've read. At it's strongest, it's a guy jumping up and down shouting "correlation shows causation!!" At its weakest it's eerily similar to Qanon level conspiracism.
The only two pieces of evidence you actually manage to marshal are the claims "People of a certain political leaning tend to work for groups that share their political leanings" and "Groups that share political leanings tend to support similar ideas". Perhaps at a stretch you're also saying "Political organisations like to associate and share ideas with similar organisations in other countries."
All seem so painfully obvious that they border on truisms and subsequently are correct no matter where you look on political spectrum. The rest of it just isn't far removed from the "trust me bro" attitude that resulted in nasty rumors about a local celebrities soft spot for white powder.
I guess the really upsetting thing is that for your audience you're using your association with the fourth estate to present this as some sort of truth telling exercise, but your claims (where they aren't tautological) don't hold up to the slightest scrutiny. I mean I totally agree with your four points about lobbyists, but to pretend that this is a problem solely on the right of politics is just dishonest.
I think the easiest and most obvious indictment of the whole rationale of this piece is that I could whip up an eerily similar obsidian map for former employees and associates of action station, the greens, the labor party, etc. Importantly, I wouldn't pretend like that's a bad thing, or some kind of secret! I think it's perfectly normal that people with shared political ideas would end up associating with each other
Where the Qanon streak really comes through with the idea of the Atlas network as some sort of malevolent Soros/Gates/(insert favorite punching bag of conspiracists here) entity pulling the strings of New Zealand politics. Not only is this abjectly untrue, the only way you get away with presenting it as otherwise is to rely entirely on the most simplistic observations and a refusal to engage in any sort of actual journalism (which might involve actually doing serious research). The unfortunate truth for you I suppose is that Atlas has as much control over these groups as the Global Climate Action Network has over NZ Greenpeace. To claim otherwise on nill evidence just shows shoddy work. But hey, it makes a good story and satisfies your pre-existing biases, so what the hell.
Will this have a broadcast release? Or has it already? The audience this should be squarely aimed at still watches good old TV, and need to know how the wool is being firmly pulled over their eyes. But what really pisses me off is the inertia of all this. As someone who campaigned on the left I was constantly asking why all this wasn't being made obvious BEFORE the election? Appreciate the work of Annabelle and Mihi Forbes, but it really is all crumbling around them with so many vested interests.
I have many reckons on this. Many. But I can’t write them down because it makes me so mad.
One thing I will say, as a Kiwi living in Australia, I wasn’t surprised by the Voice result. But a lot of my lefty Brunswick bubble were. And that’s the problem.
We as progressive people who stand against racism, colonialism, rich c**ts who want to destroy the planet, need to start taking to people who aren’t in the same bubble.
I joked about it to you, Josh, that I only talk to terminally online people. And it’s kind of true. But if the pandemic has taught us and The Voice has proven is there are a large portion of socially isolated people who are susceptible to the heavily focus grouped right wing lizard brain messaging that will be turned on like a fire hose from now in order to build support for this referendum. Shit. We saw it three years so with the cannabis referendum. Fear and finance won.
The only way to combat this is to talk to people outside our bubbles and to show up and be good allies. Cos fuck me, the boring dystopia we live in doesn’t need to be spiced up by sliding into actual fascism.
That documentary is brilliant - needs to be required viewing country-wide, and especially in secondary schools so the upcoming generation of voters know exactly how they're being manipulated and by whom. The Atlas Network can really only be described as evil, wrapped up in soft soap and a great deal of money. Presumably the name derives from the appalling Ayn Rand and her equally appalling 'Atlas Shrugged'?
Josh, thank you for this. As an American living in NZ for the past 6 years I have so many thoughts on the Atlas Network and without looking I would bet everything I have (except the dog) that the Heritage Foundation and ALEC are members. Their messaging is so insidious but powerful because it speaks to fear and tells people it's okay, they aren't to blame for not being a gazillionaire by the time they are 30, that the brown skinned person over there is to blame instead. I've always said Aotearoa is lucky not to have Rupert Murdoch and his minions on the airwaves but now I see in his place an abundance of lobbyists and academics posing as unbiased sources of news. Short of all news media in the country adhering to your suggestions - what can we do? Jackson's suggestion of talking to people outside our bubbles is an excellent start. I almost feel like it's 2015 in America and we are sitting around laughing about the idea of a trump presidency and thinking Americans aren't that gullible.
This is exactly what we needed out there before the election, I was trying to warn people Atlas was doing the same here with all their Astrotrufs and now Atlas has all their lackeys in government. After looking into their network for years, I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Atlas call themselves “the freedom movement” either, they’re behind Advance NZ, Advance Australia and if not funded, they definitely inspired the fake “freedom movement” we see globally destroying democracies so destructive industries and continue to exploit our planet.
Thank you Josh. I will share far and wide.
This has to be one of the sadder pieces I've read. At it's strongest, it's a guy jumping up and down shouting "correlation shows causation!!" At its weakest it's eerily similar to Qanon level conspiracism.
The only two pieces of evidence you actually manage to marshal are the claims "People of a certain political leaning tend to work for groups that share their political leanings" and "Groups that share political leanings tend to support similar ideas". Perhaps at a stretch you're also saying "Political organisations like to associate and share ideas with similar organisations in other countries."
All seem so painfully obvious that they border on truisms and subsequently are correct no matter where you look on political spectrum. The rest of it just isn't far removed from the "trust me bro" attitude that resulted in nasty rumors about a local celebrities soft spot for white powder.
I guess the really upsetting thing is that for your audience you're using your association with the fourth estate to present this as some sort of truth telling exercise, but your claims (where they aren't tautological) don't hold up to the slightest scrutiny. I mean I totally agree with your four points about lobbyists, but to pretend that this is a problem solely on the right of politics is just dishonest.
I think the easiest and most obvious indictment of the whole rationale of this piece is that I could whip up an eerily similar obsidian map for former employees and associates of action station, the greens, the labor party, etc. Importantly, I wouldn't pretend like that's a bad thing, or some kind of secret! I think it's perfectly normal that people with shared political ideas would end up associating with each other
Where the Qanon streak really comes through with the idea of the Atlas network as some sort of malevolent Soros/Gates/(insert favorite punching bag of conspiracists here) entity pulling the strings of New Zealand politics. Not only is this abjectly untrue, the only way you get away with presenting it as otherwise is to rely entirely on the most simplistic observations and a refusal to engage in any sort of actual journalism (which might involve actually doing serious research). The unfortunate truth for you I suppose is that Atlas has as much control over these groups as the Global Climate Action Network has over NZ Greenpeace. To claim otherwise on nill evidence just shows shoddy work. But hey, it makes a good story and satisfies your pre-existing biases, so what the hell.
Will this have a broadcast release? Or has it already? The audience this should be squarely aimed at still watches good old TV, and need to know how the wool is being firmly pulled over their eyes. But what really pisses me off is the inertia of all this. As someone who campaigned on the left I was constantly asking why all this wasn't being made obvious BEFORE the election? Appreciate the work of Annabelle and Mihi Forbes, but it really is all crumbling around them with so many vested interests.
As per https://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2024/01/taxpayer_funded_conspiracy_theories.html
I'm curious why YOUR conspiracy theories get state funding but mine don't.
Does he have a "right" side. I think he "left" his analysing brain behind.
What an amazing article. Thank you Josh. I feel sick. How do we know whom to trust. I don’t want to become a conspiracy theory junkie but......
I miss The Civilian Party
Thanks Josh. Money makes the world go round and all that. Hideous.