Posts by plum
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plum, I don't see any connection between smacking and climate change. And if you're worried about perceptions of people who espouse progressive causes, you should stop that patronising "socially enlightened" bullshit.
Stephen-- Thanks for proving my point. You say the govt shouldn't intrude into the home, but don't they already do that in domestic abuse cases?
Is it just me, or have people forgot that we're just extending to children the same rights adults have?
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Thank you for your post, Damian. I've kept half an ear on this debate, and freely admit to being conflicted on this one. I agree with your point about the rhetoric becoming unmoored from the fundamental point of the Bradford bill.
A larger (political) point is that we're getting hammered perception-wise. With 80%-85% of the public against the bill, this serves only to sink the brand of the Greens and Labour even more. A tendency on the part of Sue Bradford to demonise her opponents hasn't helped, although the misinformation campaign from the right is even shriller.
I fully understand that, with things like smacking, civil unions, global warming, it's pretty much up to progressives to lead the country by the nose. (Can you see National taking a lead on climate change or gay marriage? Nup. Me neither.)
The trouble is, whenever we try to move forward on socially enlightened issues, we get roasted over the coals by conservatives. So what if time proves us right? In the meantime, they'll be winning elections and dismantling the social contract.
The short and curly is: message-wise, we've screwed ourselves inside out. The right is now seen as standing up for family values, while we're out-of-touch patronising socialist bullies who think we're so smart.
How can we change that?
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I haven't got to the bit in Altemeyer where he talks about right wing authoritarian leaders, but one fascinating finding he's thrown up about RWA followers is that they're vulnerable to the posse comitatus mindset. IOW, all it takes is someone to organise a lynch mob, and they're first to leap up on their horses. They'll mob up to hunt down all sorts of dangers to society -- gays, immigrants, commies, even RWAs (laugh!).
Seriously, I get the feeling the right wing in this country is organising on the net in a major way. Cyfswatch is just the tip of the iceberg. Am I alone in this?
OT, can anyone recommend tools or a site that can rank blogs in terms of popularity (unique hits, links to, etc). I'm looking to study the mobilisation of blogs in NZ and need basic stats to help fence off a research sample. I know about Technorati but would like to try out others.
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I've been reading Robert Altemeyer's excellent The Authoritarians (it's being released for free chapter-by-chapter download -- a great read for the social psych layperson), and it occurs to me that a large section of people opposed to the bill are authoritarian in a specific way.
They see smacking as an essential tool to child-rearing because it teaches that actions have consequences. (They clearly have an authoritarian belief in the transformative powers of violence, and Altemeyer would probably say that belief in smacking would track with support for capital punishment and preventive wars in foreign countries). The point here is that smacking is for them is an educational staple.
For other parents, smacking is rare, something that happens when they're at the end of their tether, and they instantly regret it.
The strategy of the bill's opponents is to appeal to the uninformed moderates, pulling them to the right. That requires keeping mum on how integral they believe smacking to be.
The Greens' messaging on this has been abysmal, with Sue Bradford coming across on National Radio the other day as whiny and threatening to take her ball home if Chester didn't play by her rules. She clearly has been rattled by the oppo (e.g. the death threats on cyfswatch), so I don't hold that against her. But someone else needs to come off the bench and sub for her.
Also, has anyone noticed how effectively the right has leveraged the Net on this? Look up smacking bill bradford on Technorati and gape in awe at the vitriol marshalled against Sue. While rude bloggers tend to be liberals in the US, they're social conservatives in Aotearoa.