The Media Are The Problem!

I'd never heard of Posie Parker until the ugly ruckus unfolded last weekend. Since I like to form my own opinion and have a healthy distrust of legacy media, I went and did some research. Here's what I found. Kellie-Jay Keen, known as Posie Parker, is a woman's rights advocate.

She's not "anti-trans" nor a "neo-Nazi". That was irresponsible legacy media and politician slander. "Malicious falsehoods" designed to whip up an ugly, unhinged pitchfork mob spewing hate. It put Parker and her supporters in danger!

Mediocre, ethics-free media and politicians of poor character, having misrepresented her and her event, must have been thrilled when, unsurprisingly, individuals with those beliefs then turned up to her event, as did the violent mob determined to silence her. As far as our political and media cretins were concerned, she was guilty by association in a volatile situation of their creation.

Since our New Zealand media are so, so mediocre, here's some articles published by more informed and critical writers overseas. The ever brilliant, Brendan O'Neil writes on The Persecution of Posie,

Next time you’re reading a history book and find yourself wondering how Salem came to be consumed by such swirling hysteria, watch the clips of Posie’s persecution in New Zealand. This is how it happens. This is how the fear of witches can overrule reason and unleash the darkest, most punitive passions of the mob.

And what is Parker’s crime? What did this witch do? She said, ‘A woman is an adult human female’. That’s it.

It's a great article, especially his clarity around censorship. He writes,

To see where censorship ends up, just look at those grimacing agitators in Auckland, hatred spreading like a current through their number, as they fight with every fibre of their being to prevent the expression of a critical idea. Censorship begets bigotry. It begets violence itself. For the more we tell people that certain words will hurt them, the more we witlessly incite people to hurt those who dare to utter certain words.

That mob was drunk on sanctimony.

Tom Slater warns that We Must Confront This Woke Misogyny.

Men forcibly stopping women from speaking in public. Men chanting that women who dare disagree with them should shut up and kill themselves. Men punching women in the face. There’s a word for all this: misogyny. Unbridled, violent misogyny, at that. And yet this vile behaviour has been indulged in once again in recent days by those who think they are the foot soldiers in a new civil-rights movement, by those who besmirch the mantle of anti-fascism by claiming it for themselves, by those who somehow still manage to call themselves ‘progressives’.

Or how about this article from Jo Bartosch, who details how the Nazi slur came about.

Politicians from across the spectrum have rushed to tar Keen, a women’s rights activist, as a ‘Nazi’. This is because a group of extreme right-wing thugs from the National Socialist Network were spotted near one of Keen’s rallies in Melbourne, Victoria last weekend. The black-clad men, who had no identifying insignia, were led by police to the steps of Melbourne’s Parliament House, where they proceeded to give a Nazi salute. These fascists had nothing to do with Keen’s rally. As Victoria Police have since made clear, the neo-Nazis were one of six groups to be holding protests at the same time as Keen’s.

Having an opinion that others disagree with isn't against the law nor is it 'hate speech'. Threatening violence is. Punching an elderly woman in the face is assault as is throwing a liquid over someone. Slander and defamation is also against the law and I do hope Posie Parker is looking at her legal options for recourse? Financial penalties for dangerous defamation is the only way to stop this bad behaviour from our media and politicians!

Published in the NZ Daily Telegraph is a public letter to the PM, Ministers and Police from the LGB Alliance. They call for condemnation of the violence towards women and girls. They write,

Kellie-Jay Keen, a visiting women’s rights campaigner, alongside various NZ women’s, lesbians’, children’s, education, and disability rights activists, were violently assaulted and intimidated out of their designated, council permit location where they sought to exercise their freedom of expression.

Saturday’s events can only be described as the result of a week’s-long, highly irresponsible and dangerous disinformation campaign between NZ Members of Parliament, NZ media, and trans/gender-identity-centric ‘Rainbow’ groups, to slander Kellie-Jay Keen and local women’s rights campaigners as ‘neo-Nazis’ and ‘white supremacists’. Kellie-Jay Keen was forced to flee the country out of safety concerns. Women, girls, seniors, and other attendees of LWS Auckland bear bruises, scars, and psychological trauma in its aftermath.

NZ Police’s inaction and ill-preparedness to ensure public safety and rights to freedom of expression and freedom of peaceful assembly is inexcusable. The counter-protest was widely promoted by media and politicians.

The unhinged mob in Albert Park last Saturday didn't score a victory. They simply damaged New Zealand's reputation. We're now viewed as intolerant and violent towards women and not a destination for young women. What a stunning fall from grace as the country who was first to give women the vote!

There's also an open letter along with a petition from the Free Speech Union.

Here's the petition link if you wish to sign.

she is in a public space. If she feels unsafe she needs to leave.

Listen to the interview above and watch the footage. If Posie Parker had lost her footing and been pushed to the ground, as the hysterical mob were trying to do, this could have been much worse. Let's not forget about the elderly woman who got punched in the face...by a man.

Parker had a permit for her event so the callous attitude of the police, displayed in the quote above, and their failure to step into what was clearly a violent and intimidatory situation, fast getting out of control, is deeply disturbing and needs investigation. Do we have a problem with misogynistic police officers who were happy to see a women's rights campaigner harassed and silenced? Is this problem isolated or systematic and wide-spread?

What the ugly fracas on Saturday showed is that Posie Parker is right. Women's rights are being trampled. Women's right to speak up for themselves is being taken away. Free speech in New Zealand has been eroded, dangerously so.

Since we're here...and this blog is my 2 cents worth...

I am a woman and proud step-mother to a beautiful and talented young man!

If my son came out as 'trans' I would not be telling him it's ok for him to compete against girls his age in sport. An excellent swimmer, at 15 he's around 6 2", size 14 - 15 feet and already well muscled. He would clean up for sure, but it wouldn't be fair.

I fully support women's right to not have to compete against biological men in sports. Already we're seeing female athletes leave their chosen sport for this reason and it's why sporting bodies around the world are now quickly moving to protect women's sport.

Let's not kill little girl's dreams, eh? Or should they not bother to aspire to a career in sports and national or international events?

Don't even get me started on chemical and/or surgical mutilation/castration of children who do not have the cognitive ability to make such unalterable, life changing decisions.

The link is here on why the UK's Tavistock Institute was recently closed down. These were the findings,

failed to collect data on puberty blockers for those under 16, refused to follow up the effects of its treatments and paid virtually no attention to other common factors such as autism, eating disorders or histories of trauma and abuse. It naively confused sexual orientation with gender identity, accepted at face value all declarations by children that they were born in the wrong body and treated all complex problems through the prism of gender.

A number of senior staff objected that the clinic did not follow established protocols for the safe use of life-changing hormone treatment. Unable to voice their doubts, many left. Whistleblowers were denounced as transphobic.

'Ideological malpractice and dogma...' Also known as child abuse of already vulnerable kids. I'm sure the legal cases are coming.

Recently we witnessed the contortions of political leaders like Scotland's Nicola Sturgeon, who supported the notion that a man only had to claim he was a woman for three months to be deemed a woman. This was how a transitioning male and convicted rapist was initially put into a women's prison...and only removed after a public outcry. The controversy was likely a factor in ending Sturgeon's political career.

I support women's right to use the words 'woman' and 'mother'. To call someone a 'menstruating person' or 'birthing person' is ludicrous and insulting. When a woman reaches menopause are they a formerly menstruating person? If someone referred to me by any of the above in a workspace I would be horrified and embarrassed! Do we call a man an 'inseminating person'? Perhaps we should just get rid of any distinctions and refer to all humanity as 'defecating people'...? That's absurd, of course. To reduce humans to our bodily functions is demeaning and offensive!