I have now been back in Wellington for two weeks, after a fairly lengthy stay in the South Island. One of the things I desperately wanted to do was catch up with family, friends and a few clients. Some of these are the clients who like to meet up in person at least once a year. I never mind that; it is always nice to see people face to face and many of them are people I have known for years. Some of them are people who share my political views; some are not and many, particularly clients, are people with whom I never discuss politics. The idea is not to cause offence; I would rather have them as friends or associates than force my political views on them, which can often result in my having to bite my tongue but I believe in free speech and the right to hold one’s own opinions above all.
I have made the mistake of shooting my mouth off in the past, sometimes inadvertently, and it just isn’t worth it. But now, I am thinking that maybe it is worth it… because, over the last two weeks, just about everyone – EVERYONE – wants to talk politics.
There are my neighbours whom I know used to be Labour supporters who say they cannot stand to watch the news anymore because they are sick of all the propaganda. There is my friend who has voted Labour in the past who is horrified at all the money being thrown at Maori and is terrified of the divisions being caused by this Labour Government. There is another friend who is worried about the economy and cannot understand why the Government seems intent on destroying so many small businesses. There is the client who said, “Welcome to the New World” as we were asked to show COVID passes to gain entry to an office. Then there was the client who openly admitted that she has voted Labour for the last few elections but says she doesn’t feel she could vote for Jacinda anymore because of the damage this Government is doing to our society.
My conservative friends all want to know what I think of Christopher Luxon and do I think that he could win an election? A family member, who is generally a left voter, told me not to worry and “they can’t last forever”. An ex-cop is horrified at the politicisation of the police and says that morale under “Cuddles Coster” has never been lower. Many are very worried about the enormous debt accrued by this Government. Interestingly, my die-hard socialist friends suddenly don’t want to talk about politics at all, although one of them, possibly the most staunch of the lot, admitted that she is prepared to “wait and see” how Christopher Luxon turns out.
I did not initiate any of these conversations. In some cases, I have never talked politics with these people at all. Not ever. Everybody wants to talk about politics, and not one of them is praising the current Government.
Without exception, these people were not blaming the Government for their failures over the pandemic, vaccinations or COVID restrictions. Mostly, they seemed to accept the need for restrictions, even if the attitude nowadays is one of resignation rather than tacit approval. They are all vaccinated, and accept the need for COVID passes. I found it was time to start talking about the folly of relying on vaccinations, of how we were promised freedoms when we were vaxxed but that has not happened and of how Omicron is nothing to panic about, even though the Government and the media seem determined to whip us up into a state of frenzied fear over it. A few months ago many would have argued back. This time the only one who did is a member of the Labour party and she is still trying to use the pandemic to keep people onside with the Government. I haven’t told her that it clearly isn’t working, but I think she knows. It was the first politics-free conversation that I have had with her in a decade.
Our beloved team of $55 million is losing the public. People now recognise them as the media arm of the government – like the media in China and Russia. And all the Maori words in news broadcasts are hacking people off too. Nobody hates Maoris – they just hate having the language rammed down their throats. It seems that many Maoris don’t want it either.
Wait until inflation really hits us all next year, and the pandemic starts to recede, which it will. Already, the media is trying to hype up Omicron as even deadlier than Delta but overseas experience proves this to be incorrect; and gradually people will come to realise that they are being fed lies. Once no more fear can be wrung out of the pandemic, the truth about this Government will be laid bare and, for most New Zealanders, who are fair-minded people, that truth is ugly indeed.
So my experience is anecdotal and of course, it can always be argued that I am surrounded by people similar to myself and that my findings are not unexpected. That may or may not be true. But when Cameron Slater writes an article describing Jacinda Ardern as evil and the site goes down because of more traffic than it has ever seen before, you know you are onto something. Hang in there, friends. The truth is out there, and people are seeing it for what it is.
