Monday 27 March 2023

Don't feed the grifters

 


In a world in which people make money from "clicks," there will always be grifters who are happy to be live clickbait. 

On Saturday, down in Queen St, we had Profit Brian Tamaki and his mob of followers bravely telling passersby not to allow poofters, paedophiles and "child groomers" to be out in public (by which, I think, they mean transgender folk). But his chief message was: "Click on Me!"

Up the hill in Albert Park, we had a mob full of "tolerance" and "love" summoned by trans activist Shaheed Lal, there to fight Nazis, howl down the main event, and to get people to "Click on Me!"

And the Main Event there at Albert Park -- or at least the woman who had come halfway across the planet to be "The Main Event" -- was a woman who calls herself The Posie Parker (it's a pun, you see), who has made her living in recent years ("Click on Me!" "Click on Me!") by telling people who like to hear it that penises shouldn't be in women's spaces.

Yes, that really is what she came here to say, as she tried to tell Kim Hill last week. (And as you'll hear, she didn't make a very good job if it.) But she didn't get to say it at all, not at least in Albert Park or Wellington, where she was due to say it next, because the mostly peaceful mob summoned by Shaheed Lal (who makes his living, it seems, by advising govt ministers on "rainbow issues" and writing columns about those issues for the Herald) fought off the twenty or so old people who had hobbled there to hear her. Fought them off bravely with their fistfuls of love. (Shaheed's mob had come there to "fight Nazis" they said -- "so ready to fight Nazis"! -- but of jackboots and German helmets there were none. Just a few old folk who never got to hear their speaker.)

"We won!" said the mob, in a self-described "victory for free speech," when The Posie Parker scuttled off with a headful of tomato sauce, heading for the nearest international airport.

But at the same time, The Posie Parker herself was tweeting her supporters, telling them the fight is clearly bigger than they all thought, for which she will need more cash -- and lots of it.

And meanwhile, down in Queen St, Brian Tamaki was sending around the collection plate to pay for his next Harley.

There are grifters everywhere, on every loud and voluble side. Making a living by making themselves live clickbait.

This is all very exciting to the protagonists, I'm sure and to the newscasters who need them, because it fills up their news broadcasts and column inches with colourful but undemanding fare. Because it's issues played out simply for live clickbait. Activism theatre. "Activists" observing an issue out there, and discovering how to make clickbait out of it. 

There's a certain genius to this kind of activism. To make an important stand and to discuss the issues in order to come to a reasonable and rational conclusion about them? No, not at all: in order to attract more followers. And more clicks.

So instead of discussing the issues, on Saturday we saw lots of people shouting and throwing fists, but nobody listening. Lots of heat, but no light. 'Cos mostly what they were all shouting anyway, effectively, was not much more than just: "Click on Me!"

Cancel Culture meets Clickbait Culture. Everyone's a Winner!

These people all need each other. They are part of a mutually reliant ecosystem. Without each of them shouting out their bumpersticker slogans, none of them would be making any kind of living at all. But without any of them, we might be able to have a decent chat about the issues they all say they stand for (or against).

RELATED:

Bryce Edwards: The Ugly stoking of a culture war in election year
Saturday’s clash of cultures is a sign of where politics is heading in New Zealand – towards a fully-fledged culture war. This is something normally more associated with American politics – but also increasingly in places like the UK.
    There was an element of pantomime on both sides over the last week. Posie Parker thrives on controversy. She might be complaining now about her treatment in New Zealand, but by holding her rally in a public place like Albert Park she was provoking opposition and stoking tensions, hoping to become something of a martyr.
    She won. She made global news, fuelling publicity in the UK and US markets where she carries out her main fundraising....
    Likewise, those opposing Parker were rather opportunistic in arguing that she is a fascist and that her beliefs were such a danger to the public that she had to be banned from the country.
    They must have known they were giving the previously-unknown visitor huge amounts of free publicity and therefore helping get her views out to a wider audience. As broadcaster Heather du Plessis-Allan argued yesterday, “Parker’s opponents made sure that she was in the news most of the week”, and “They helped her spread her message. They played right into her hands.”
    The Greens represent one side of the polarised divide. MP Golriz Ghahraman tweeted on her way to the rally: “So ready to fight Nazis”. Co-leader and Government Minister Marama Davidson put out a video to say that she was “so proud” of the protesters. And obviously wearing her hat of Minister for Prevention of Family and Sexual Violence she used the event to declare that only “white cis men” commit violence. Such messages will go down very well amongst the party’s support base, which is increasingly sensitive to the need to make progress on gender issues. 
[>>READ MORE]

 

5 comments:

Mark Hubbard said...

However, Peter, Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull's visit ends up very important; Saturday was a watershed day in New Zealand highlighting:

We have serious issues regarding the role of our police (I've written about that in my blog, but I won't grift with a link :) ). They are not upholding a rule of law in NZ, and they look to be compromised politically (compare treatment of Wellington protestors to Saturday where there's not going to be one prosecution out of all the violence).

Those above problems highlight further serious issues we have in NZ with our media and free speech and bias.

More importantly, MJK came to say that men won't let women speak (quite apart from the importance of safe spaces and the gender ideology war). And a bunch of hairy arsed, violent men showed up and stopped her speaking. Can't think of anything more important than all the issues involved in that.

It's shown me, frankly, the T and Q have to be taken out of the LGB (as many of those members want them to be taken), because transactions in its MO is fascist and toxic. The political arm use fascist tactics to shut down and erase and that's important because Shaneel Lal, chief instigator of the protest, writes for Herald and has the ear of the PM.

Perhaps she's a grifter, I just think that's a silly term in these circumstances, but tell you what, if she'd just put up a blog post or written an essay I wouldn't know of her, and none of these issues would have been highlighted so succinctly. Thank god the grifter came.

And we're all grifters is you want to expand the definition.

[Posie Parker is simply a handle that has followed her and she's become identified with so it's handy to use, but it was simply the handle she used in a mother's club she once belonged to (like a book club I guess).]

Mark Hubbard said...

... typo: the above should read ..' because transactivism in its MO is fascist and toxic'..

Libertyscott said...

There are legit issues, but Posey Parker shows zero depth for anything other than hitching herself (her background is not clear) to a bandwagon and inflating it. Her claim that "big pharma" is promoting transgenderism, backed by "billionaires" to make money out of puberty blockers is classic conspiratorial fiction, but it plays to a segment of people who think there are conspiracies everywhere.

I'd like sane discussion about the issues, without her over-simplistic cracked record and without the baying mob of "you're a Nazi" if you question anything (for fairly obvious reasons).

Anonymous said...

Totally agree with this post PC. Tiresome nonsense from attention seeking nobodies. Across all political spectrum I might add.

Rick said...

Well, bang on. She's a grifter for sure.

But then what's the difference between this grifter tourism and the domestic economy? Scale?

What do you call ACT when it has just 1 MP? Or when it has 10? Is Sean Plunket a grifter and would he not be if he scaled up? Was Today FM? Is New Shub? [Insert lines here from Rand re. horror not being a matter of numbers. Insert lines here about Alexander the Great and pirates.]

Strip away the mainstream media and the political spin-wonkers and who remains who is real? Who is really patriotic about New Zealand and cares about liberty and solving complex social problems? If there were anyone like that in 'the arena' they would be the enemy of all. And not get payola either.