Posts by Neil
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Access: Fighting seclusion with…, in reply to Rosemary McDonald,
It could that the Govt - now in power - now have to own the consequences of a difficult and potentially dangerous decision.
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Whose policy was this again?
Not NZF’s presumably. Mental health might also have faired better if that was an area NZF was concerned with.
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One significant factor we know very little about is the regime’s internal dynamics. KJU is performing to two audiences - those outside NJ and those within the regime. He maintains power like any dictator - playing any potential opponents off and killing anyone who poses any threat. That creates a lot of enemies.
The nuclear program was part of his strategy for remaining in power and staying alive. What he’s doing now will be an extention of that in some manner.
His biggest threat has always been from those closest to him, not the US.
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Hard News: The remarkable rise of…, in reply to Moz,
“Dissenting Narratives”
A friend went down the rabbit hole over Syria – all based on material from social media.
It’s s bit chicken and egg, there’s an audience that has a willingness to believe but absent of these new sources of other peoples’ views I’m sure my friend would have just had a generalised skepticism of everything.
It’s a fascinating thing – the hyper skeptical wind up believing the craziest stuff.
It’s perhaps too easy to catastrophise as it’s not a new phenomenon but I get the sense that the internet is giving this sort of thing much more influence.
Never new til today what Incels were.
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Hard News: The remarkable rise of…, in reply to Russell Brown,
I’ve been watching US cable news shows on YouTube over the past few nights…
I think the rise of social media has exacerbated the problem. Not sure why but it lends itself to arguments of the form – “I spend my life attacking Hillary but I’m not pro-Trump”, “I spend my life denying there’s a moderate Syrian opposition but I’m not pro -Assad”. It’s a weird form of fascism.
The US has always had the fringe militia/conspiracy element but what with Putin and Trump it seems to be getting more influential.
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The tragic case of Vivienne Wright highlights amongst other issues the problem with Body Corp management.
Nikki Kaye has been one of the few MPs to recognise the significance and scale of this issue and try and push through legislative changes.
Perhaps now Twyford might pay some attention.
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Hard News: Paying for the storms to come, in reply to Sacha,
It’s the problem with hindsight- every system is at the mercy of innumerable risks, trying to protect from them all would make the service prohibitively expensive.
People have to make choices and sometimes they’ll get it wrong because the future is complex.
But the desire to blame individuals is strong – otherwise we’d have to acknowledge we have less control than we like to believe.
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The majority of votes Labour has shed has gone to NZF not the Greens. I’m not sure how progressive Labour supporters would interpret that.
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Lots of people had various reasons to
not want to know:A health board boss says problems at Middlemore Hospital were "spelt out succinctly" in papers handed to the Health Minister [David Clark] before he claimed not to know about them.
I think a general denial of the full extent of the problem. Leaky buildings were just a thing of the past.
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With Labour all too willing to plough billions into the construction industry without getting on top of the problems there, and not pay teachers and nurses adequately, it’s a bit disheartening.