A friend’s teen drew this for our kids. She’s not going to be one of the sheeple! We need more people like the yellow shirted woman below!
This Kid Gets It
Mainstream Propaganda and the Embarrassment National has Become
For a long time I’ve been aware of the role media has in shaping public opinion. I remember the lead-up to the anti-smacking bill, civil unions and the more recent homosexual ‘marriage’ law and the cannabis referendum in 2020. Mainstream papers and television news blatantly promote their views and fashion their reporting to create their desired narrative. What’s more disconcerting than this fact is that so many Kiwis are hoodwinked by it, thinking they are getting largely unbiased ‘news’.
Unfortunately, our prostituted media have outdone themselves through the Covid ‘pandemic’. The insistence on calling anyone opposed to the covid vaccine or the government’s no jab no job rules ‘anti-vaxxers’ and almost daily smears against the unvaccinated combined with their attempts to underreport numbers at anti mandate protests or describe the protestors as far-right or white supremacists has, unfortunately, had its effect on the compliant Kiwi population. Sometimes the claims are just plain ridiculous. Just why the Maori ‘community’ would be interested in white supremacy I fail to understand. Perhaps our leaders are insinuating Maori are stupid and need a maternalistic state making sure racists don’t encourage them to make medical decisions for themselves. But the only stupid ones are those who believe and take on board these ridiculous smears without investigating for themselves.
Which brings us to the National Party of New Zealand. What a disgrace. You would think that we would have leaders intelligent enough to see through the government propaganda. But no. Men like Luxon seem to promise nothing more than more competent authoritarianism. “Labour is driving New Zealand over a cliff at 100km/h. Vote for us, we’ll spend less on the car, slow things to 50, and make sure everyone has their seat belts on!”
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Lessons from the Gulags – Part 3
Introduction
Just before Solzhenitsyn was exiled to the West, he left his motherland with a world-class essay called “Live Not by Lies”. It was his parting exhortation to his Soviet brethren, imploring them to refrain from cooperating with the lies of their leaders. This bold and confronting piece has some brilliant lessons to teach us today. The lesson I learned from Solzhenitsyn here was that the first and most basic step towards our liberation from tyranny is to refuse to participate with the lies.
What Lies?
Over the past two years, our nation has been bombarded with lies from our government and its media. Back in September of 2020, our Prime Minister said that there would be no forced vaccinations and that those who chose to opt-out would face no penalties. Newshub even said that it was “conspiracy theorists” who were promoting the idea that there would be mandatory vaccines.[1] In August of 2021, Auckland went into a “one-week” lockdown in order to “go hard and go early”, in response to one COVID case in the community.[2] That “one week” was a lie. It actually ended up being more than fourteen weeks before restrictions were lifted. Then in November of 2021, there was the secretive passing of COVID legislation without consultation[3] and the complete curbing of the Bill of Rights.
While all this is happening, throughout the past two years, there has been vicious censoring of any and all dissent. World experts are being banned from Twitter and we are unable to even link to their material,[4] doctors are fired and punished for rejecting the mainstream narrative.[5]
Now, I know enough about human nature to see what is going on here. Every other time I see one side trying to viciously silence opposing views, it is always because the ones doing the silencing have no ability to respond to their objections. This is why the Critical Theory loonies want to label all conservatives as racist, homophobic bigots, and why our government wants to pass its Conversion Practices Bill. This is why the doomsday climate folks want to cancel any scientists who challenge their false prophecies. This is why the elites want a monopoly on the narrative regarding everything from elections down to gender.
People in power always find it easier to silence their opposition through the exercise of force. The last thing they want is for everything to be exposed in the light and for people to make up their own minds. If that isn’t what is going on here, then why are they acting like it is?
The Problem of Cowards
In New Zealand in 2022, human nature is not so different from that of Russia in 1974. People are much the same. Like them, people here have willingly gone along with the foolish mandates and become state actors. Punishing and disciplining the non-compliant. Out of cowardly self-preservation, men have abandoned principle and embraced the lies. They have thrown people to the crocodiles, hoping to be the last ones eaten. Men have capitulated and compromised hoping that they would not have to pay the price. But there is always a price to be paid. The cowards of our day won’t pay the price of straying from the herd, or social exclusion, or losing their job. However, they will pay the price of losing any strength of character that they might have had. They will squander the liberty and freedoms that their ancestors fought and died for. They will pay the price of diminishing their own soul.
“We have so hopelessly ceded our humanity that for the modest handouts of today we are ready to surrender up all principles, our soul, all the labors of our ancestors, all the prospects of our descendants—anything to avoid disrupting our meager existence. We have lost our strength, our pride, our passion… We hope only not to stray from the herd, not to set out on our own, and risk suddenly having to make do without the white bread, the hot water heater, a Moscow residency permit. We have internalized well the lessons drummed into us by the state; we are forever content and comfortable with its premise”
The price one pays by making himself complicit with the sins of the state is not worth it. What does it profit a man to gain the world and forfeit his soul? This is not the time for cowards. Our children are watching us. They are learning from us. Unfortunately, many men are teaching the next generation to have spines of jelly.
No Excuses
“We cannot escape the environment, the social conditions; they shape us, “being determines consciousness.” What have we to do with this? We can do nothing… Some will counter: But really, there is nothing to be done! Our mouths are gagged, no one listens to us, no one asks us. How can we make them listen to us?”
Counterfeit masculinity excels at making excuses whereas true masculinity voluntarily takes on responsibility. In our climate, there is no shortage of excuses. “This shouldn’t be the hill to die on”, “It’s not a gospel issue”, and “It’s the law, we have to obey”. Oh, and let’s not forget the ol’ faithful “but Romans 13”.
Weak people love excuses, and they love pointing to the fact that they have not been given any specific command to address this specific injustice. Many who recognise the wickedness of the vaccine mandates will glibly go along with them, reasoning to themselves that it is not their problem to deal with. Or hoping that it will pass before too much damage is done.
This mindset is the exact opposite of what was modelled to us by our Lord. From his example, we see that men are called to imitate him by willingly giving of their strength for the sake of others. Christian men should voluntarily spend themselves, give of themselves, face harm for the sake of others. Christian leaders should be the first to face retribution for the sake of their people. This is the example given to us by Christ. Yet today, countless churches and Christian institutions have played ball with the state. Countless good people have lost jobs and faced social exclusion while their leaders have folded and bended to meet the ever-changing standards.
If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small. Rescue those who are being taken away to death; hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter. If you say, “Behold, we did not know this,” does not he who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not he who keeps watch over your soul know it, and will he not repay man according to his work? (Proverbs 24:10-12)
By God’s common grace, there are many everyday people who are doing the right thing and refusing to participate in the two-tiered discrimination of our government. Gym owners, café owners, and restaurant owners. In God’s kindness, many non-Christians have seen through the deceit before our church leaders. At this point, there is no excuse for Christian leaders to be participating with the lies.
“And therein we find, neglected by us, the simplest, the most accessible key to our liberation: a personal nonparticipation in lies! Even if all is covered by lies, even if all is under their rule, let us resist in the smallest way: Let their rule hold not through me! And this is the way to break out of the imaginary encirclement of our inertness, the easiest way for us and the most devastating for the lies. For when people renounce lies, lies simply cease to exist. Like parasites, they can only survive when attached to a person.”
Don’t be Cattle
For anyone wishing to live by principle and protect the integrity of their soul, life will be difficult. If you have principles that you have resolved to live by, then severe punishment can always be right around the corner. Those who have such principles will know exactly what I’m talking about when I say this. If you have resolved never to support or promote the LGBT agenda in any way, then your career could implode when HR asks you to wear the rainbow badge for all of June. If you have resolved never to discriminate in your church or Christian institution, you are now stuck facing the wrath of the state. A thousand other examples of potential danger exist for those of us who seek to live by our principles. Compromised men know nothing of this for they will constantly bend and mould their principles to fit their current situation so that they too never “technically” violate them. In reality, they never violate their principles because they have none.
Yes, at first it will not be fair. Someone will have to temporarily lose his job. For the young who seek to live by truth, this will at first severely complicate life, for their tests and quizzes, too, are stuffed with lies, and so choices will have to be made. But there is no loophole left for anyone who seeks to be honest: Not even for a day, not even in the safest technical occupations can he avoid even a single one of the listed choices—to be made in favor of either truth or lies, in favor of spiritual independence or spiritual servility. And as for him who lacks the courage to defend even his own soul: Let him not brag of his progressive views, boast of his status as an academician or a recognized artist, a distinguished citizen or general. Let him say to himself plainly: I am cattle, I am a coward, I seek only warmth and to eat my fill.
In sum, the third vital lesson from the gulags is this; don’t be cattle, don’t be a coward, don’t seek only self-preservation. Live not by lies. Let the rule of lies hold not through you!
[1] https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2020/09/coronavirus-jacinda-ardern-confident-enough-kiwis-will-get-covid-19-vaccine-for-herd-immunity-without-being-forced-to.html
[2] https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/coronavirus-go-hard-and-early-than-light-and-long-new-zealand-pm-on-snap-lockdown-2512930
[3] https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/audio/2018822626/rushed-laws-a-constitutional-disgrace-law-prof
[4] https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10364679/YouTube-Twitter-delete-Joe-Rogan-interview-scientist-helped-invent-MRNA-vaccines.html
At Least We Aren’t In North Korea
Introduction
During these crazy times, there is one objection that has been made to me on several occasions. It is an objection that I have been thinking about a lot lately. It normally comes up when I am voicing my objection to the current state of affairs regarding the COVID hysteria or criticising the incompetence and wickedness of the fools running the show. The objection normally goes something like this, “Well, at least we aren’t in North Korea” or “Things aren’t as bad as they were during the time of the early church. If you were complaining like this, you’d be dead”.
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Wisdom and Gravity
Introduction
Government permissions are not the same thing as freedoms. In a Christian worldview, our freedoms are natural rights granted to us by God, and civil governments are obliged to recognise these rights. In the modern secular worldview, our freedoms are gifts bestowed upon the obedient by government. The state gives and the state takes away.
The only time one person grants freedom to another person is when one of them is a slave. Since I am a citizen and not a slave, I do not wish to concede my freedoms so easily.
Read MorePfizer Side-Effects
In recent weeks it seems that a few people have begun to talk about adverse reactions to the Pfizer covid vaccine. A US court has ordered Pfizer to release a damning document that highlights over 100 different adverse reactions to the vaccine from around the world. Curiously there were a few others that were not listed which I think are common enough. Unlisted side-effects of the Pfizer covid vaccine are self-righteousness, stupidity, heartlessness and the loss of critical thinking skills.
Let’s take Duncan Garner as our first example. Having just received his second dose of the vaccine, he gets covid. Initially surprised he assumed it couldn’t be covid because he was already vaccinated. His religious faith took a hit when he discovered it was, but he managed to overcome this spiritual attack and move to comfort himself with the thought that things would have been far worse had he not been vaccinated. Conclusion? Get vaccinated says Garner. So he thought the vaccine prevented him from getting Covid. It didn’t. And now he expects us to get this marvellous vaccine because he thinks it will reduce the effects of the virus. Don’t take up a job in sales mate.
Then there are the clowns who complain about the protests. Newmarket’s retail boss Mark Knoff-Thomas labelled those protesting by marching down Broadway as ‘utter dickheads’ because it apparently ruined one of the busiest shopping days of the year. I wonder what he calls the people who shut down the shops for about a quarter of the year and who now are banning unvaccinated people from many shops around the country.
On a related note, we have Inangahua Community Board chair John Bougen frustrated with supposedly irrational attitudes of anti-vaxxers. Let’s leave the ‘anti-vaxxer’ slur alone this time. People who haven’t got the Pfizer vaccine are not all anti-vaxxers. If you don’t know this, it’s probably due to the little known adverse reaction of stupidity.
So what’s Bougen’s problem? Why are those choosing not to take the vaccine irrational? Well, unfortunately for him, it’s a case of the pot calling the kettle black. The only irrational one is Bougen. He is annoyed because those who have refused the vaccine are having a negative impact on business. Cafes have apparently lost staff and can’t open on certain days of the week. Chefs are no longer working at restaurants. The worst of all for Bougen is that employers have to foot the bill for four weeks pay for the staff who have refused the vaccine and are losing their jobs. How dare these people get four weeks pay? They’ve only been pushed out on their arse because our ever benevolent overlords have decided to mandate an experimental vaccine before they can continue in their employment. Why should they get four weeks pay as they begin to look for jobs that will allow the modern-day leper to apply? How dare we give them anything? They should be dismissed immediately. Who do they think they are trying to make their own medical choices? Bastards. They should be tossed on the street without a cent. Better still, they should have been held down and forcibly vaccinated so John Bougen can enjoy a flat white at the cafe of his choice.
This is a clear case of the damage the Pfizer vaccine is doing to the critical thinking skills of a number of New Zealanders. We treat people abominably and then we blame them for the results of our treatment. We accept the government’s injustice like docile sheep, and then instead of blaming the government for its evil stupidity, we turn on the poor sods who have already suffered job losses and then blame them for minor inconveniences to ourselves. We say they are ruining the economy because now we don’t have enough workers. We blame them for putting lives in danger because they are no longer working as St John’s volunteers because of the mandate.
I’ve even heard this sort of stupid thinking even amongst some Christians who think unvaccinated people need to just resign and let employers get on with hiring someone else. There is no compassion, no love, no care, no sense of the great wrong that is being done right now. No desire for justice. No understanding that not only are brave people losing their jobs, but they are also losing their rights to be free citizens in their own country. No haircuts, no date nights, no clay shooting club, no weddings, no family Christmas and the list keeps going on and on. There is only a sense of frustration that these people won’t just disappear and stop ruining our society.
And finally to the mainstream media for their stupidity. The New Zealand Herald had a recent headline: Young girl gets virus after hug with unvaccinated adult. The lead paragraph reads. “An 11-year-old girl got Covid-19 after “a fleeting hug” with an unvaccinated adult at a family dinner, leaving the family’s lives “disrupted” for three weeks, her mother says.” Sounds absolutely appalling, doesn’t it?
So the story? A young girl hugs a young man who was unvaccinated and carried the virus. Interestingly he did not know he had the virus, so it can’t have been bad – not like Duncan’s version eh?! The poor girl contracted the virus and ended up with covid and had to isolate. It was very disruptive apparently. Then we get the usual self-righteous lecturing about how the mother always follows the rules like a good little sheep, as well as the obligatory throwing the unvaccinated family member under the bus and the altar call to accept the gospel of vaccination. Then we are regaled with the fact that poor Shakyra had a compromising health condition and was born premature.
By this stage I was truly worried, I can tell you. In typical mainstream media fashion, my fears were only relieved 3/4 of the way down. Shakyra only had a runny nose and a cough. One wonders how this made it into our supposed premier newspaper. Imagine trying this 3 years ago. My daughter was hugged by her uncle who hadn’t got his flu shot. She got a runny nose and a bit of a cough. That would have been front-page news that. Riveting stuff. The real question is, why isn’t the headline “Two unvaccinated young people unaffected by Covid”?
Keep your eyes peeled my friends. As you do, you will surely see that these vaccine side effects of stupidity, self-righteousness and loss of critical thinking skills are worryingly common.
Apartheid in New Zealand
Today is a shameful day for New Zealand. We now have two classes of citizens. Those who are permitted by Mother Jacinda to have a little bit more freedom for being good little boys and girls and obeying Mummy. Then there are those truculent and dirty children who have refused to do what they are told because they think of themselves as free people and not slaves. These remain in time out. No freedom for you.
Our media are celebrating this as ‘freedom day’. Somehow I think that we will look back on this day and it will be given another name. Once again our bought and paid for whore media prove to be utterly useless in holding an out of control and incompetent government to account.
Think carefully about how you act in these times. The courage or cowardice you show in your treatment of others will be remembered for a long time. Sadly too many Christians in positions of leadership have shown that pragmatism rules over principles as wide and easy roads of compliance have been followed rather than the difficult and treacherous path of justice and righteousness. While the road of compliance is endorsed and celebrated by the majority at present, the audience we ought to be thinking of is our king. Explaining away being complicit with injustice to him is another thing entirely.
Grant Schofield on the Vaccine Mandates
Taken from Professor Grant Schofield’s Facebook Page. He is Professor of Public Health at AUT University and director of the University’s Human Potential Centre.
This post has taken me too long to get up the guts to write.
You see I’m a Professor in Public Health. One of the most important things in public health is “to do no harm”. Or at least in a more practical sense, have the good by far outweigh the harms you cause with whatever intervention you choose.
This is about vaccine mandates. It’s a complex and emotive issue.
The brutal truth is that there are no harm free choices here. All choices will have some harm.
But, deadlines are coming – here’s our Ministry of Health’s advice under public orders “Any health and disability workers (employed or voluntary, private and public) who fall under these roles must receive their first dose of the vaccine by 11.59pm 15 November 2021. They must receive their second dose by 1 January 2022.”
That’s Monday folks.
I’m not an “anti-vaxxer”. I’m fully vaccinated.
But some people will choose not to follow these orders for various reasons. Some of them may be logical based on the data that there is no protection beyond 200 days, and the data on reductions in transmission are limited, and they are concerned about adverse events.
We all make different decisions given similar data because we are all different and have different ways of weighing risks and benefits. They may see the futility of a public health system which would on current evidence have to boost every 120-150 days to maintain vaccine efficacy. Or maybe they just don’t like being told what to do, or have a more complex theory which may be spurious. Who really knows?
Anyway, the point is that there will always be a group who for whatever reason decides that, in this case, their bodily sovereignty, is sacred to them and they will refuse a public health order like this.
What this means is on Monday kids will turn up to school and their classroom teacher will no longer be there, that their mid-wife will no longer be working, that their doctor is no longer able to practice.
This will cause serious harm. It almost certainly will mean that our already overwhelmed health and education systems will not have the staff to carry out normal duties.
This debate has already caused substantial harm and division in our beautiful country.I believe in the context of the recent Swedish data showing vaccine waning, that it’s now obvious to any thinking person the futility of these mandates.
We can predict that the exact thing we are trying to avoid “overwhelming the health system” is exactly what we are going to do by firing health workers.
What government puts on its own handcuffs on and throws away the key?
This isn’t us.
So sorry I can’t stand by silently and watch this. I have to say something.
I’m sorry it’s taken me so long to pluck up the courage.
Sorry if this upsets you, but come Monday I know of real teachers, real GPs, real mid-wives, real physios, real people without jobs. Real communities without their beloved teachers and health professionals who are here to care for them. These are my communities, my friends, my school.
These are mostly not lunatic fringe anti-vaxxers. They are people often making their own rationale decision. Yes its different than mine, but it is theirs.
I fear we are choosing more harm than good, and in my field that’s just not acceptable. In fact it’s unethical and immoral.
Please think about what your thoughts are on this matter. It is really an important one for our society right now. Saying nothing when you think there will be more harm than good is complicit in supporting that harm.
Please comment, share, or do whatever you think is right here. Please if you do comment think about what you say and please confront the issues not the person.
Thanks for reading this,
Grant Schofield PhD
Professor of Public Health
*disclaimer – these views are mine and don’t represent those of anyone else, including those who employ me.
Ian Wishart’s Open Letter to The Media
This is why vast numbers of people think the government and health officials are idiots and we in the media are their mentally-challenged handmaid:
“The woman says from the outset the sick family relied on advice from a fragmented Covid-19 health response that allegedly never gave her father a directive to go to hospital, instead offering throat lozenges and paracetamol as treatment.”
The guy died coughing up blood because the “best” advice from officials was suck a lolly.
Where the frick was the advice on steroids, antihistamines, even scientifically proven (on human coronavirus, influenza and herpes) antivirals like Kaloba!? Or even something that at least has immune support like high dose vitamin C and zinc?
If this poor guy had tried ivermectin or hcq to stay alive the media would have smugly laughed at him whilst dutifully publishing a “warning” from Bloomfield and Hipkins reminding the public to “trust the experts”.
What an indictment on politics and health that the best official treatment for covid is a throatie.
Frankly, I have read the ivermectin studies and they’re underwhelming. However, I suspect that even ivermectin is light years ahead of a throat lozenge.
These incompetents at the ministry of health couldn’t run a Bunnings sausage sizzle.
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Lessons from the Gulags – Part 2
As I mentioned in the first installment, Alexander Solzhenitsyn was both burdened and blessed with the misery of the Russian gulags. Burdened because he was a victim and witness to horrors that most cannot begin to imagine. Blessed because he learned the lessons that the gulags had to teach.
I want to explore one such lesson here today. A lesson about the face of evil and the ways in which ideology gives evil the necessary fuel to really take off and soar into space.
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