Posts by Danielle
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You do all know that you can talk about two or more things at the same time, right? I'm sure moaning about "identity politics" makes perfect sense to you if you're not, y'know, one of the people with an "identity". You want to talk about economics? Go right ahead! Just don't tell the people feeling othered that racism isn't the "real issue". BOTH OF THE ISSUES ARE REAL ISSUES.
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Polity: House-buying patterns in Auckland, in reply to Yamis,
Which points? The consistent misrepresentation of everyone else's nuanced arguments about data analysis, non-resident property speculation and racism? That great moment when he said "so what?" to Tim feeling othered in his own country? Um, OK.
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Polity: House-buying patterns in Auckland, in reply to talkie_toaster,
That was a bloody long flounce. Could have done with some judicious editing, I reckon.
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Polity: House-buying patterns in Auckland, in reply to Katharine Moody,
But to do nothing in the face of the Government’s refusal to collect proper data .. is that what you see as a more appropriate response to the Auckland affordability crisis?
But it's not an either-or! "Instead of doing nothing, we should do the only other thing available: a racebaity thing!" I refuse to believe that those were Labour's only options.
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Polity: House-buying patterns in Auckland, in reply to talkie_toaster,
Do I need to provide examples of the things that were actually said and done in the “yellow peril” era? Do you actually seriously think this is (your words) “the same”?
As you keep telling us, you're new here, so I'll answer this honestly by saying that I make my living by doing historical research, so no, you don't need to provide examples for me. And no, I don't think this is *exactly* the same, because people are now cannier with their rhetoric, and don't use carpet sweepers, and are less likely to be open eugenicists, and don't put the equivalent of a small line of cocaine in every bottle of Coca-Cola, and all manner of other things which are rather different than they were a century or more ago. But if Labour is going to explicitly frame this as some sort of unwanted Chinese colonisation of New Zealand - and they have, in this instance - then they're using a variant of the same political rhetoric that's been used ever since the White New Zealand era to whip up fear and resentment. It's called a "dogwhistle" for a reason.
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Polity: House-buying patterns in Auckland, in reply to talkie_toaster,
Yes, because Swan’s usual neoliberal bollocks is completely representative of the general tenor of the arguments about Auckland’s housing market in this thread. C’mon!
You’re grasping at straws with Lilith’s quote: it doesn’t say that demographic data collection is bad, just that THIS is bad.
what’s the alternative?
Not doing the same old "yellow peril" shit? That's an alternative.
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Polity: House-buying patterns in Auckland, in reply to Marc C,
PC in overdrive
I feel like I’m losing my goddamned mind reading this thread.
1. NO ONE is saying that there is not a problem with overseas non-resident investment/speculation in the local property market.
2. NO ONE is saying that collecting demographic data about this issue is a Bad Thing, per se.
3. What people who object to this move by Labour ARE saying is that:
a) The data is suggestive but inconclusive, particularly as the government isn’t really doing diddly to collect *actual* data;
b) Labour has framed the suggestive data in a really racist dogwhistley way. Not the Nats. Not the Crazed Social Justice Warriors of the Left. Not the sheeple. LABOUR.
c) This is objectively not helpful, undermines the principles of the party, and is basically a Dick Move.
4. Saying “this isn’t the real issue” as if we’re all being fooled is pretty annoying, because we KNOW it isn’t the real issue. Labour did this! Not us! -
Polity: House-buying patterns in Auckland, in reply to talkie_toaster,
"There aren't any posts about [thing]!"
"There are heaps of posts about [thing], have a look --"
"NOPE. But why aren't you talking about [thing]?"Weak sauce, dude.
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You do it for them by focussing on the method
I haven’t mentioned jack squat about the method (statistics: not my thing). I’m saying that if you know *any* Australian and NZ immigration history this is a dogwhistle that’s been periodically used for over a century in politics and handwaving it away with “that’s just what they WANT you to do, sheeple” is really insulting to the victims of that racist dogwhistling. If you don’t want us to talk about how shitty this is, Labour, DON’T PLAY THE DOGWHISTLE CARD. It’s pretty fucking simple.
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Polity: House-buying patterns in Auckland, in reply to talkie_toaster,
you uncritically accepted this framing
The first thing I read on this was Rob Salmond's piece here, yesterday, and I became uncomfortable straight away because the whole "yellow peril" schtick was there, immediately. I felt the vibrations of a dogwhistle coming from Labour before I read anything else, because there are so many historical precedents for this. No one framed it for me; LABOUR did their own framing. The Nats didn't have to do any work.
Here's the thing: you can think that non-resident foreign investment and our lack of regulation are a problem AND, ALSO, AS WELL AS THAT, think that this is racist dogwhistle politics. The two are not mutually exclusive, at all.