New Zealand experienced two very important events this week that are more closely related than you might think. First, the chairman of the social housing ministry was sacked for making political statements in public. Second, right-wing protesters shut down a Drag Queen Storytime event in Auckland.
Both point us to a truth that many refuse to admit: there is no value-neutral society.
The sacking of Rob Campbell over his comments on co-goverance had to happen because public servants are supposed to be neutral actors who implement the policy of the people's elected representatives. In reality, the public service is filled with left-wing ideologues of which Campbell is simply one who went public. The National Party especially is OK with this, and they spearheaded the removal of Campbell because they would never commit to what is necessary for a right-wing government to govern effectively: a purge of the institutions. Instead, career bureaucrats have a very strong influence over New Zealand public life—more so than politicians—because National and Labour are committed to maintaining the lie of a value-neutral public service.
Rob Campbell has done us all a service in bringing this issue to the forefront and highlighting how important the worldview of our public servants are and the need for them to be more transparent about their politics between elections so that new governments can act accordingly.
This brings us to the brave heroes who managed to shut down a Drag Queen Storytime event. There has been much whinging about "American culture wars'' from the left, but that's because the war is due to the progressive Americanisation of everything. It's only a matter of time before the worst of the filth you can see on LibsOfTiktok comes to New Zealand. The usual figures of course support doing absolutely nothing in response, including every single MP in Parliament (go ask them if you doubt me—you'll be lucky to get a murmur out of National's muzzled MPs).
The impossibility of a value-neutral society is on full display here: if you allow everything, for some strange reason you will end up with the most degenerate left-wing activities known to man fill the public space.
Most people have a pretty normal reaction to men dressed as sexualised caricatures of women performing for children: that should be illegal and people should go to jail over this.
The Free Speech Union has had a bad week. First they defended incitement to anti-white racial violence and today they defended the sexual grooming of children. Their false belief in a value-neutral society leads them to compare drag for kids to religious freedom for Christians. Now for some reason every public institution in the country is geared towards spreading anti-white hate and degeneracy while engaging in attacks on Christianity. I wonder if there's some connection there that people with value-neutral blinders can't see.
“That’s abusive + harmful to young minds. Think of the CHILDREN!!!” Who am I? Members of LGBT community who decry christian schools teaching traditional marriage, or those opposed to drag queen storytime?
— 🗣 Free Speech Union ✊ (@NZFreeSpeech) March 2, 2023
Funny how they borrow each others lines. Maybe they could share signs.
"Perverts sexualising kids is just like Christians teaching the Bible to their kids" is the argument of those who have left the realm of reason via a suicidal commitment to an imaginary value-neutral public square.
Ah yes, the classic "conservative case for sexual grooming of children" https://t.co/KL8Zc1gLay
— Dieuwe de Boer (@rightmindsnz) March 1, 2023
Even Liam Hehir, the most conservative man allowed on TV, fully embraced his inner David French and came out of the closet in support of Drag Queen Storytime with (I kid you not) a libertarian argument against using state power to enforce a basic moral framework for society. "Well I wouldn't take my kids there" is the ultimate copout of someone too lazy to fight for basic common decency.
The debate about the use of state power is perhaps the key distinguishing difference between libertarian and conservative thought, but the sexual grooming of children is perhaps not the best place to deploy that argument in defence of doing nothing.
These events also take place in public libraries, so it is most certainly a matter of public interest when it is arranged and funded through council infrastructure.
The real question is if enough disaffected conservatives believe they can win this through both direct action on the ground and through political pressuring and voting. Much progress has been made in America by protests organised by Chaya Raichik and the political action of Ron Desantis and other conservative governors.
The landscape is different here, where our political system is geared for minoritarian groups to wield disproportionate power in their interests.
Does New Zealand's conservative minority have the political will to dispel the myth of a value-neutral society?