In Parliament last Wednesday, Te Tai Tokerau MP Mariameno Kapa-Kingi said the government “will not waver in its mission to exterminate Māori”.
Tad hyperbolic, don’t you think?
In Parliament last Wednesday, Te Tai Tokerau MP Mariameno Kapa-Kingi said the government “will not waver in its mission to exterminate Māori”.
Tad hyperbolic, don’t you think?
I do think you’re right, it’s all theatre and they don’t actually believe what they’re saying.
It does make it difficult to take them seriously though.
As a minor party, they need to do something to pull attention to themselves and the issues they care about.
But you are correct, there is a fine balance between getting attention for the issues you care about and becoming a parody of yourself.
Ask yourself the question, would we be discussing this and thinking about these issues if they had been less extreme?
If they had been less extreme, we’d be discussing the message, not the messenger.
Maybe. Or would it just fly under the radar of public consciousness?
I think this particular instance has moved into the parody territory. But it is so easy to miss the mark, what gets reported on is not decided by what issues we care about, but by what will generate interest.
You always bring up the messenger and ignore the message. No-one else here does that so regularly.
This is why formal logic should be taught in schools. Saying that the way the messenger gets their message across is the reason to ignore the message is the very definition of Ad Hominem.
The message was that the government is trying to exterminate Maori, did you not read the article?
If you think that’s the message TPM is trying to get across, then you are dumber than I gave you credit.
That is literally what they said.
You know full well what their intent is with this rhetoric. You know full well the point they are trying to raise. The fact that you insist on arguing about the messenger and tone of message shows you don’t want to engage with the problem being raised in good faith.
Do you think TPM is engaging in good faith with a statement like that?
You are discussing the messenger, everybody in this thread is discussing the message. That’s because you are obsessed with identity politics.
It’s not like you guys would take them seriously if they didn’t say it. You didn’t take them seriously before this statement, you won’t take them seriously after this statement. They are not talking to you. You are unreachable to them. You have already made up your mind about the Maori in this country.