Introduction
Auckland university is institutionally opposed to free speech and open academic enquiry. Last week I was leaked an audio recording from a lecture delivered on Campus. In this video I analyse it.
Below are a transcript of the lecture clips, the links I refer to in this video, a copy of the questions I asked of the lecturer who delivered it, and his response.
Lecture Transcript
so what I wanna talk about now is what I see as
in many ways the turning point of
of the uh
of the 2nd Adern government
and which eventually led to
I think probably was a large uh
contributor to her resignation and not going through to
to leading the Labour party in the
in the 2023 election
was the occupation of parliament by the anti-vax
or anti-vax mandate protesters
which obviously ended very
very violently as you see in these images
and what happened with that
quite apart from turning a lot of people against
against the the government because
you know quite frankly
they completely mishandled it
and my personal opinion
they should have just cleared them out in the first day
because yes
you definitely have a right to protest and
and protest the Parliament grounds
you do not have a right to set up an encampment in in
in Parliament's grounds and as it grew and and
and make more disruption
for the people who lived in central Wellington
it mean it was increasingly difficult for the police
to get those people out and when it happened
it was it was incredibly violent
um yeah
I have personal experience of this cause my
my brother's stepson
was actually one of the people
who was throwing things at the police um
and he he actually got off
charges of throwing a concrete block at the police
because in my opinion quite understandably
standably the police
were quite rough and arresting him and the judge said
oh poor you um you know
you should be let off well
he's a 6 foot 4 ex Rugby prop
who threw a concrete block at the police
I'm not surprised that the cops actually
you know dealt to him but anyway
that's just a little personal anecdote about it
there were some very bad people
involved in the occupation of Parliament um
and what was quite alarming about it is
they were motivated by some very nasty online sites um
it was disinformation and misinformation um
so you had what I regard now is the mainstream uh
social media sites Facebook
Twitter um uh Instagram
YouTube but there are these smaller ones
the fringe sites like Telegram
Rumble Odyssey
Gab and Gita um and
these were the ones that were really rarcking people up
and saying that that
you know
Jabcinda was a dictator and
and your rights have been trampled upon
which was total crap
so it's misinformation and disinformation
now
there is important difference between misinformation
and disinformation misinformation is false information
that was not created but yeah
it's just crap
it was not created with intent to harm people
but dsinformation is intent is
is intended to harm a person
community or organisation
and increasingly there in that sphere
there's more disinformation than there is
there is misinformation
so as you can see with these figures
this the the the disinformation on the fringe sites
both fringe sites and the mainstream sites
just took off um
so uh
Telegram um
just huge increase Facebook as well um
one of the biggest disinformation uh
disseminators is Chantelle Baker
whose father is Leighton Baker
who was leader of the new
of the Conservative than
the new Conservative Party
and then that spit off again
and he stood as the Leighton Baker Party
in the last election um
the the
all these little parties on the right just tend
they're like the left parties last century
they just continually splinter
um
but Chantelle Baker puts up some very poisonous stuff
particularly um
at the time of the parliament occupation um
attacking Jacinda Ardern
I was here for Wayne Brown and uh
yeah he was very entertaining
I'm I'm not gonna
try and rise to his level of entertainment
but I've gotta say that on two
two particular respects he is totally full of shit
the guy doesn't know what he's talking about
I I I
I majored uh
both in in my BA and MA in politics and Russian
so I speak Russian I visited Russian many times
the Russians and Ukrainians are are different people
they speak different languages
it is not a civil war
and that war is very important for democracies
all across the world
because it is a near totalitarian dictatorship
led by Vladimir Putin
that is trying to rub out a vibrant democracy
has its problems a lot of corruption
but there's trying to rub out a vibrant
vibrant democracy in in Ukraine
and that has implications all across the world
so I am totally at odds with Wayne ffff.. Wayne Brown on that
so I just want to put that on the record um
quite apart from the fact he's clearly a narcissistic uh
person but anyway
that's enough about Wayne
um but I just thought I'd get that in there
Links
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Listener_letter_on_science
https://www.thedisinfoproject.org/about
https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/news/2022/10/25/battle-against-infodemic.html
https://www.act.org.nz/universities_must_protect_free_speech_or_face_the_consequences
Right of reply enquiry to lecturer
Dear Dr. [REDACTED],
I hope my message finds you well. I've received a couple of audio excerpts from the lecture you delivered titled "New Zealand media and politics: How they work together and apart in the 2020s" on campus this past 22/v. I'm intending to cover it in a podcast and wish to afford you a right of reply. Below are the questions I have and the transcript is attached for your reference.
1. Do you consider argumentum ab actoritate to be a valid form of instruction? Do you consider it to be an appropriate method at academic institutions?
2. Do you consider argumentum ad hominem to be a valid form of instruction? Do you consider it to be an appropriate method at academic institutions?
3. Do you consider expletives an appropriate form of language to employ in an academic setting attended by young people?
4. You assert that during Covid "your rights have been trampled upon which was total crap so it's misinformation and disinformation."
David Clark's response of 18/viii 2020 to the High Court's decision finding government breeches of the Bill of Rights, in his position of Governor-General in the Ardern regime, that "However the court did find that there was a breach of the Bill of Rights Act in the first 9 days of the Alert Level 4 lockdown, because the original oral request for people to stay home and in their bubbles was not put in a formal order until 3 April" would seem to contradict your argument. Do you think Mr. Clark's admission might be relevant to a discussion of the Ardern regime's approach to civil rights?
5. You assert that Mayor Wayne Brown is "totally full of shit" in two respects. What are these two respects?
6. In rebuttal, to what it's not clear, you assert that Mayor Wayne Brown is "clearly a narcissistic person" while refraining from example. Would you care to (a) provide examples now and/or (b) explain how such behaviour might invalidate the positions he advocated?
7. You assert that Chantelle Baker is "one of the biggest disinformation disseminators" and that Ms. Baker "puts up some very poisonous stuff" without providing evidence of the former or examples of the latter. Would you care to provide such now?
8. You assert that Ukraine is a "vibrant democracy." Was Ukraine a vibrant democracy prior to the Maidan Revolution of February 2014?
9. Your assertion that the Ukraine conflict is "not a civil war" is not broadly shared by the 30% of Ukranian citizens who are Russian speaking. Do you think their point of view is relevant to a discussion of the Ukranian conflict?
10. Are you familiar with Zbigniew Brezezinski's The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy and Its Geogrategic Imperatives?
11. There is some contention concerning guarantees the United States may or may not have made to Soviet President Mikhael Gorbachev in 1990 concerning NATO expansion eastwards. Do you think this issue might be relevant to a discussion of the Ukranian conflict?
12. You assert that Russia is a "near totalitarian dictatorship led by Vladimir Putin that is trying to rub out a vibrant democracy." A countervailing perspective might be that the Russian Federation is intervening in a civil war on behalf of a minority oppressed by a Western-backed regime committed to NATO expansion. Do you think this perspective might be relevant to a discussion of the Ukranian conflict?
13. Students attending this lecture state that failure to adhere to the prevailing orthodoxy is not tolerated by Auckland University. They believe that the consequences of offering an alternative interpretation or point of view to the material you delivered in this lecture or objecting to the manner in which it was delivered would have severe academic consequences. The consequences they anticipate include a failing grade in the course, academic censure, even their placements at Auckland University. What is your response to these concerns? Would you like to offer a guarantee that students will not face sanction for expressing them?
14. Are there any clarifications or other points you'd care to raise?
I look forward to your response.
Semper,
Simon.
Lecturer’s response
Kia ora Simon,
Thanks for your email. As with all recordings of lectures at Waipapa Taumata Rau-University of Auckland, the recording of the guest lecture I did to the Politics 107 class is for the convenience of students enrolled in that class, and not for general distribution.
I have engaged further with several students regarding material in the lecture, both during and immediately after it, and in the following days.
There is no record of a Simon Anderson enrolled in the class, so I have nothing to say regarding your questions.
Nevertheless, I stand by all comments I made in the lecture.
Regards,
[REDACTED]
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