Both Christopher Luxon and Simeon Brown have a taste for the modern sort of Christian church. By this, I mean the kind that seems to be able to make a good dollar out of it; the kind that has found a way to put the Man of the House back at the head of the table; the kind that is less interested in the communistic ways of a compassionate forgiving Jesus and is more interested in some Old Testament scolding about pulling yourself together and lifting yourself up by your own bootstraps.
Ever tried that? Pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps? I defy anyone to overcome the problems of the laws of physics inherent in this challenge.
But these people aren't interested in any of that pedantry. It's plain enough that you'd be there all day trying to explain it to a plodding dullard like Luxon. The man struggles to get the thinking behind the simplest of soundbites right.
But anyway, a bit of Old Testament scolding, a bit of good old-fashioned scapegoating of the powerless and defenseless is what these righteous Christians on the campaign trail have unloaded this week. A few thousand young people whose great moral failing has been to not choose the right circumstances or parents are going to have their benefit taken off them and will this achieve anything meaningful or helpful?
Will it fuck. This is just another chorus of the same old song: indulge uninformed reckons and assumptions; nourish indignation and resentment; achieve nothing whatsoever.
The money involved is ludicrously little and will have precious little bearing on our fiscal position. But it suits their politics perfectly, which is to say you find yourself a scapegoat who can't defend themselves and you rough them up a bit and beat your chest.
So small, so dim, so heartless. So frustrating to see the money from the temples keep pouring in to enable them to keep making Facebook ads that stoke resentment and nourish delusions.
Anyway, I've made another quiz because I want to keep putting some simple and clear rebuttals to the bullshit they happily assert as fact.
Most of what they say doesn't bother with fact, it's all exploiting emotion. I do ask myself if rebutting emotional manipulation with facts is a waste of time but what the hell. Maybe if the rebuttal is clear enough it can become an emotional challenge: This is a lie. Where do you get off telling barefaced lies?
I do appreciate these quizzes being shared around. Not only do I give myself a headwind by making my argument about facts, I've also removed myself twice now from big platforms that gave me good visibility, that is it to say, Twitter and Substack. I just don't want to rely on Nazis and supremacists or the enablers of Nazis and supremacists for anything.
So here I am, saying: Thanks very much if you can pass it on. Mighty Christian of you, friend.
So now: here's the new quiz: What would you rather have to carry for an hour? A brick, or a grand piano?
And here's last week's one: Trainwreck Debt Quiz
