Don't Be Mean To Maori Online Or You Could Wind Up In Jail

John Black
Opinion

Sometimes left-wing idiocy creeps into your bed in the middle of the night and whispers sweet nothings in your ear and sometimes it just tries to screw you.

This week it was the latter.

In two articles on the Spinoff website, the results of the recent People’s Harassment Report were outlined. This report co-authored by the progressive "campaigning organisation" ActionStation and market research company UMR makes many startling claims. Chief among them that "one in three Maori experienced racial abuse and harassment on-line in 2018."

What a persuasive indictmkeyboard-criminal.jpgent of our deeply racist nation.

Well, it would be if it was in any way true.

If you look at their methodology, their findings are about as trustworthy as Bill Clinton’s marriage vows.

In their quest to sniff out racism the report’s authors relied on a combination of self-reporting and spying. Surveys were conducted which asked respondents to detail whether they had experienced "sexist, sexually explicit, homophobic, transphobic, ableist, or racist language, comments or images (and whether or not they were directed at you or not), comments or images that insult a particular religion or culture, other abusive language, comments or images."

Well that covers a lot of ground doesn’t it? From a neo-Nazi ranting about reopening Auschwitz to calling Caitlyn Jenner "Bruce".

The survey was also hopelessly subjective. Exhibit A:

Do you think any of the following had to do with the online abuse you faced?

Your ethnicity, your gender, your sexual orientation, your religion, or your political affiliation.’

"Do you think?" What if you are a paranoid loony who takes anything short of full agreement with your insane ramblings as an attack on your race/gender/sexual orientation?

Like the internet is short of those guys.

The rest of the data was collated from volunteers lurking in online forums with the brief to try "educating, supporting and encouraging people to develop more caring, thoughtful and educated responses to Māori people, culture and language." Basically agent provocateurs. They recorded all the comments posted in response. They then chose one week’s comments to focus on and analyse. Just a random, arbitrary week? Nope – Maori Language Week.

Comments were deemed "racist" if they contained any of fifteen characteristics.

These included:

Denying that historical injustice to Māori occurred or that it is not as bad as it could have been or not as bad as it is in other countries or that is how things were done back then.

Claiming that inequality does not exist or that everyone has equal opportunities.

Denying white privilege and stating that it is actually Pākehā who are the victims of racism, discrimination or political correctness.

Maintaining that we are all kiwis, New Zealanders, immigrants or ‘mixed race’ and that acknowledging cultural difference is divisive or intended to cause trouble.

I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that along with vast swathes of New Zealanders most Right Minds readers think one, if not all of the above.

Did you know you were a racist?

So let’s sum up. Racism is rife on-line because some anonymous busy bodies prodded people during a racially contentious week and these complete Nazis reacted with ‘We’re all kiwis!’

Oh, the inhumanity.

The kicker to all this comes in the recommendations section. The authors want government to review and extend "hate speech" legislation, such as the Harmful Digital Communications Act, and to do so not with individual rights but "collectivist thinking at their centre".

Their socialistic anti-free speech agenda couldn’t be more transparent.

See what I mean about the screwing?

In the U.K., which is following the tougher approach that ActionStation recommends, nine people a day are arrested for "social media hate speech".

Is this where New Zealand is heading?

Not if I—and hopefully, we—can help it.

If would be hypocritical for a free speech advocate like myself to say so, but if any speech is worthy of suppression, it’s this divisive, tendentious, shoddily researched piece of progressive propaganda.

About the author

John Black