by frog
The Waikato Times editorial today says:
If Dr Brash was really serious about eradicating political correctness Wayne Mapp would be called the bloke in charge of banning bullshit.
As you can see, the Times is hardly a hotbed of Helengrad liberals, but they make the point that:
If Dr Mapp insists on coupling political correctness to “mainstream values” he will be as guilty as his party accuses Labour of being in promoting social engineering. In fact no one describes themselves as politically correct and using the term pejoratively is as common to left-leaning politicians as is to right.
They then finish with:
Here’s our view on political correctness: No one in their right minds would entertain the idea of reverting to calling blacks niggers, but neither do we want a ridiculously sterile society that alters defining national characteristics because everyone’s too scared to call someone else mad. Which, in this instance, exactly defines Dr Brash. Absolutely barking in fact.
Clearly the straight-talking provinces are still calling a spade a spade and aren’t averse to giving the doctor some medicine. Looks like Brother isn’t as Big as Wayne Mapp claims; he should get out of Wellington more.
Published in Parliament | Society & Culture by frog on Sat, October 29th, 2005
Tags: environment
on the trolls and those who are unable to keep on topic
Dr. B seems to think that it is still election time and that there is some point in stirring up the rednecks among us. Maybe trying to look tough is his idea of maintaining his position as #1, but I don’t think it will work.
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I think the interesting question is how can we effectively convince the “anti-pc” crowd that being anti-pc is an empty cultural statement reinforcing a belonging to a certain group rather than a rational stance.
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It will all blow over, like so many teacup storms.
If National takes de-PCing seriously, they will start with themselves. But they won’t do it, because insulting minorities loses their support. Being chauvinistic loses female support, and the Nats have already had a taste of that. And if they keep going on about PC without removing it from their own dialogue they open themselves up to endless jokes from the other side of the house. Clark could put Peters in charge of hacking into that, he’d love it.
It was a joke, in poor taste, and will quietly disappear, like a smelly fart at a dinner party.
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Just caught thursday’s Campbell Live where Mapp was mentioned, and Mr Campbell makes great play of a statement made by Dr Brash, which gets rerun a few times and quoted by Campbell directly, which was (and this was describing why Mapp was suitable for the job):
“… because he’s married to a Maori person.”
So in this land opf political uncorrectness, what Campbell (and many other commentators) heard was:
“… because he’s married to a Maori person.”
And then proceeded to rag on abit about this.
Those of us who have spent a few years in countries that have (searching for the right sort of term here) more political correctness heard in Don’s short quote a perfect example of political correctness at work, ie:
“… because he’s married to a Maori person.”
Note the gender inclusive term “person” rather than the gender exclusive term “woman”. Thats the perfect example of PC.
What appears to be going on here is that the good Doctor having had a bit of a go at defining (or maybe re-defining) “mainstream” is now having a go at re-defining what “political correctness” means. If he carries on like this than a German will be a person who is a national of PNG or something. Someone please slap Don about, he’s being silly.
For a bit of a giggle about what political Correctness really means in practice, try these links.
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,17027882-13762,00.html
http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=29&art_id=iol1129539584298A551
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Much, much more to this story than mere “fart at dinner party”, Ben Wilson;
the tendancy of the National party to deepen it’s profiling of “mainstream new zealand” towards a back-country gully inhabited only by white men, employed in primary industries, with a love of gun-sports and breeding more white men, is a somewhat alarming proposition (yes, I’m hypothesisng here, Ben) – each time one of these howlers makes it to print, we get a better view of where the grounding of the National policy lies.
First it was the Orewa manifesto speech, then the Exclusive Bretheren campaign funding, now Dr Mapp’s spurious portfolio; do we need to give these “white supremacists” their airtime on any more ways of excluding and demonnising minority groups in our country? The noun is in quotes deservedly, as the real purpose of Brash’s outrageous statements is to get disaffected redneck minorities to buy in to his less objectionable policies, not to espouse any view that the National Front (true white trash) would agree with.
Having become bored with handling the nations Banking Reserve, the Don has tried to come up to speed on political diversity in a manner that sugggests cliff notes, rather than any fluency with standard political texts (heard of Machievelli yet?) and we see bumbling attempts to foment opinion in those whose apathy or unwillingness to engage in the issues kept them on the sidelines of this election – that nearly 20% of non-voters in the NZ population.
Wayne Mapp is merely the latest tool, bluntly weilded, in this ideologically sparse campaign. OK, National, you don’t like uppity Maori, Women as Leaders, or linguistic solutions that the rest of the world have developed over the past 50 years, so what do you have to shout about??
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…do we need to give these “white supremacists? their airtime on any more ways of excluding and demonnising minority groups in our country…
Perhaps not, but when the overwhelming tone of the public response is ridicule, anger and a call to common sense, maybe some good has come of it?
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Very fine post, Katie. This is the “Mainstream” meme again, it’s all about cultural hegemony. However I believe that
the tendancy of the National party to deepen it’s profiling of “mainstream new zealand? towards a back-country gully inhabited only by white men, employed in primary industries, with a love of gun-sports and breeding more white men
makes it a sunset party, if it carries on in that direction. They have already established that “mainstream NZ” weighs no more than 40% electorally; the anti-PC thing will most likely offend just about everyone who didn’t vote National, and quite a few who did. If Brash continues in that vein, they will want to get rid of him sooner, rather than later.
Yet one can admire him for trying. Last-ditch defense of Boy’s Own values. … and a terrifying glimpse of what we escaped from.
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