by Lushington D. Brady on the BFD
Here’s a thought. Call it a conspiracy theory, if you will: the real reason Jacinda sent the goon squads into the Freedom Village last week was because they were showing up the government.
Not just her government, mind you: government in general.
After all, in just three weeks, the protesters built a fully-functioning community. Housing, security, food distribution, childcare, schooling, even showers and sewerage. As more than a few people pointed out, the protesters built more infrastructure in just three weeks than the Ardern government has in five years.
Oh, and remember Jacinda Ardern’s other broken promises on homelessness? The protesters were onto that one, too.
Not that that’s how Stuff want to tell it.
Those known to be in emergency accommodation and some homeless people and rough sleepers were drawn into the the 23-day-long occupation outside the Beehive by the promise of free cooked meals at makeshift kitchens along with shelter in tents and free clothing, advocates say.
But more than any material comforts, the drawcard was a sense of community, welcome, belonging and purpose.
Well, that’s funny: for the past three weeks, the mainstream media were yammering non-stop that the protest was a hotbed of every “phobia” and “ism” you can name. Now they’re admitting that it was a welcoming community that provided free meals, shelter and clothing for any comers.
No wonder Jacinda wanted it shut down. They were embarrassing her government.
While it has not been quantified how many protesters at Parliament were from homeless or rough sleeping populations, both the Wellington City Mission and DCM Wellington confirmed they had recognised a small number of people the organisations worked with as attending it […]
It was an easy and lazy assumption to blame the chaos at the protest on those who were doing life hard, Wellington City Missioner Murray Edridge said. “They inadvertently got into something they [maybe] didn’t fully understand, circumstances outside their control.”
Which sounds an awful lot like he is blaming it on the homeless.
Then there’s this gem, presumably said with a straight face:
Classist commentary of protesters contributed to negative stereotypes of vulnerable populations, Turnock said, and it was important society had a “collective look in the mirror” to help those who had been systematically disenfranchised.
You mean, like people who’ve been ruthlessly, systematically disenfranchised by a two-tier society of the government’s deliberate creation? Yip, yip, that is what it is.
But there is more than a whiff of suspicion that it’s not just the government that was embarrassed by the can-do achievements of the protesters. The charity industry has been found wanting as well, it seems.
Which may explain their peddling of outrageous, unfounded nonsense like this:
Hutson was concerned that while anti-mandate protesters may have drawn vulnerable populations in to bolster numbers, they were more likely to become sick by their having attended the protest. Many already experienced underlying health conditions, and did not have the ability to self-isolate.
“Some [who attended] will experience some significant negative outcomes,” said DCM Wellington director Stephen Turnock.
That’s a pretty big claim: any evidence? Of course not: it’s the mainstream media and government-dependent quangos. Since when do they deal in such footling stuff as “evidence”?
At least I was honest enough to call my claim a “conspiracy theory”.
The author is confused between the role of government, parliament and the House of Representatives.
Government is the bureaucracy which runs the country.
Parliament creates the law.
MPs are elected into the HoR to supervise on our behalf.