The past five years or so have been one disappointment after another. Firstly finding out that famous people I rather respected are complete dickholes. Of course, as a one-time music journalist, I’d long learned that a great many artists I enjoyed were utter turds. But it’s something else
David Jenkins University of Otago David Jenkins joined Otago in July 2020 as a lecturer in political theory. Previous to this he was a postdoc research fellow at Warwick, a teaching fellow at UCL and a postdoc at the IWM in Vienna. His current research centres on problems in contemporary
We’re all too familiar with the decline of free speech on university campuses. The scene could be any campus in Australia, New Zealand, or anywhere in the Western world: a speaker deemed (rightly or wrongly) “conservative” is invited to speak on campus. Student groups immediately demand for the event
How do societies slide into totalitarianism? One step at a time. You don’t go to bed one night in an open, free country and wake up the next morning to find yourself under constant surveillance with jackbooted thugs banging on your door and all your civil liberties stripped away.
Autumn Johnson newsbusters.org Autumn is a practicing attorney licensed in the Commonwealth of Virginia and the District of Columbia. When not working, Autumn enjoys reading, writing, playing video games, and spending time with her cats. Elon Musk says Twitter’s new speech policy is “freedom of speech,” not “freedom
Mark Angelides libertynation.com Mark Angelides is managing editor of Liberty Nation.com. Hailing from the UK, he specializes in EU politics and provides a conservative/libertarian voice on all things from across the pond. During the Brexit Referendum campaign, Mark worked to promote activism, spread the message and secure
After six proposals and tens of thousands of submissions, a revised hate speech law proposal has been announced, with now only one change to the Human Rights Act. In a press release, the Free Speech Union (FSU) is cautiously celebrating: This morning Justice Minister Kiri Allan announced on Newshub Nation
Justice Minister Kiri Allan has watered down Labour’s Hate Speech laws because Kiwis rejected Labour’s attempt to strip away their freedom of speech, but even in their current state they are not compatible with a free and open society and ACT will repeal them. Preventing freedom of expression
Thorsteinn Siglaugsson brownstone.org Thorsteinn Siglaugsson is an Icelandic consultant, entrepreneur and writer and contributes regularly to The Daily Sceptic as well as various Icelandic publications. He holds a BA degree in philosophy and an MBA from INSEAD. Thorsteinn is a certified expert in the Theory of Constraints and author
Defenders of free speech often argue that the best answer to free speech that offends is more free speech that offends back. Salman Rushdie famously said that without the right to offend, free speech ceases to exist. Right now, we’re getting a great lesson in that principle, thanks to,
Information Opinion It wasn’t so long ago that we saw Auckland’s mayor de-platform speakers who had views that he didn’t like by taking away the council facilities that they had booked. He did it at the last minute, making it almost impossible for them to find another
Oh no! It looks like poor Kate Hannah is now having to protect herself from knitting and handicrafts mums and white girls with braided hair! Those who study disinformation and online extremism are themselves increasingly the targets of harassment, abuse and threatening behaviour. The latest example came this week when
How do you know when the ABC approves of a campaign, and when it doesn’t? If it’s described as “grass-roots activism” or “community campaign”, it means the ABC approves. If not, it’s “a targeted campaign”, or an “extremist takeover”. When can you trust the ABC to report
Information Opinion Air NZ is celebrating World Pride 2023 with free trips across the Tasman under the banner ‘Aniwaniwa i te rangi’ (rainbow in the sky) with a RuPaul Drag Race Down Under celebrity on board for entertainment. Clever marketing to capture two very fashionable groups in one hit – Maori
