The big news on both TV Breakfast shows this morning was that it's been a year since the North Island was ravaged by Cyclone Gabrielle - and it was apt that Chlöe got to speak on both channels about how we need co-operation to bring down emissions and adapt on a scale never seen before while this Government is pouring oil and gas on the climate fire.
"She's so sound bitey, rom nom word salad", mocked David Seymour, an alumni of the Atlas Network, a network of think tanks around the world who had cultivated messages to limit any progress that might impact BIG OIL profits from pesky governments and democracies over the past decades.
Increasingly academics who research the Atlas Network advise the resistance to their messaging tactics ( like flooding the zone ) should involve putting back to the likes of Seymour that his words are from the Atlas Network and why is that?
It's clear how linked Seymour and Act are to the network but this matter has not had any broad "aeration" in New Zealand media.
At this stage in New Zealand the only journalist to squarely ask Seymour about his long term connections to the Atlas Network think tanks has been Mihingarangi Forbes on RNZ.
In that interview on Waitangi Day Seymour denied Act had any links to the Atlas Network when it was clear he had been groomed and trained via the network, the Gibbs family were major Act party donors, Act advocate Ruth Richardson is part of the Mont Perelin Society ( the parent think tank ), plus the Act Party founders are directors on Atlas Network think tanks that Seymour had worked for in Canada etc.
Seymour had previously told everyone in his 2021 Act Party State of the Nation that the Atlas Network were his old friends, headed by New Zealanders Debbi Gibbs - so to call this all a crazy conspiracy theory to Mihingarangi was just another messaging tactic.
Deny deny deny.
Atlas Network Alumni are trained to deny their links, and the portrayal of a conspiracy theory is the chosen method, so people will not even engage in the first place.
They all did the same with Nicky Hager.
But I want to draw your attention to another Atlas Network rhetoric tactic we are seeing in the media coverage this morning - when Chlöe was interviewed.
The headline over the NewsHub AM interview between Chlöe and Seymour this morning read :
"ACT leader David Seymour says 'a lot' of customs, traditions at Waitangi designed to 'intimidate'"
Seymour wanted us to think of Māori as dangerous radicals unable to have civil debate and to make that the centre of our thinking.
Play on white fright, radicals are disturbing the peace, extremists and terrorists are infringing on your universal rights and freedoms.
This is itself a global key Atlas Network tactic, about how radical and terrifying the "terrorist activists" are - and you may have noticed how this morning Mel on AM raised how Chlöe may not be radical enough for some Green Party radicals.
That was 100% deliberate and Atlas Network framing.
Chlöe hit back about how excited she was about Green internal democracy - but she also hit back by saying she described herself as a "well researched radical" and mentioned being "necessarily radical" when we face the dual crises for climate and inequality...and Mel tried to Atlas Network all that into...
"You won't be radical but realistic?"...said Mel but repeated how some members don't like your style.
Seymour loved it - but diffused Chlöe cos what about the health crisis, the crime crisis and any other crisis you care to name...but back to people trying to prevent Oil and Gas in a climate crisis and how they are too radical and extreme.
The fixation on whether or not climate activists are “radical” makes a lot more sense in the context of the Atlas Network’s history.
Just look at the way in other countries - climate activists have glued themselves to roads ( and in Wellington ) which gets them named "terrorists" but farmers slowing traffic with tractors are pretty cool.
Climate radicals throwing tomato soup at paintings in Europe makes us shudder about "terrorists and mobs" - and gender rights protestors throwing the same tomato based liquid at Posie Parker is utterly scandalous and soap box unacceptable - cos right now in every public toilet a woman is being attacked by a Trans woman ( okay that's a myth ) - but the same folks who are upset about tomato juice - are relaxed about driving a motorbike into some protestor's legs - cos it was Brian Tamaki's henchman and that's okay cos well white cis males never cause violence and "she deserved it" on some level.
The point is whether it's Greta being arrested for being too radical as older white men shout at her in complete anger that she needs to get back to school - or whether it's about fishing rights or Covid or a new marina built on Tapu areas where bones lie and penguins breed - it's always about the "radical" Māori blocking the road - and it's these radical extremist people protecting the environment and protecting sustainability that are - the crazy radicals.
The Atlas Network promoted the "Mother of all Protests" via the Taxpayers Union and Simeon Brown was honking his hooter with Chris Bishop - god we love those good old boys etc.
The same Chris Bishop the ex tobacco salesman who said we'd be creating a black market for cigarettes if we phase them out with only one store in Northland as Luxon nodded and agreed.
Don't get me started about exploring drilling for oil again, but some radicals like Jacinda tried to ban it and here we are in a year where we hit 1.5 degrees average global temperatures as defined by that Paris Agreement.
Radicals are the problem not the conservatives who urge us to do nothing - or at least to say doing nothing is merely a different approach.
Shane Jones on TVNZ Breakfast this morning said ...
"The Green Party is a far left socialist party no longer interested in sustainability, but I am a meat pie and a Steiny sort of fella" - said Shane Jones.
Positioning anyone doing anything pragmatic about reducing emissions as far left and radical - or even intimidating and terrifying - is Atlas Network rhetoric and you'll see it from Luxon too - as he is constantly talking about civil debate while saying his Atlas Network oil and gas policies are merely different and he is "committed to Climate Goals".
There's no plan to build up adaptation from this Government and they are doing nothing about cutting emissions.
The $63 Million ear marked to clean up a million cubic metres of silt sits inside the wider context of Treasury's Estimate of 9 to 14 Billion worth of damage ...and yes Luxon is taking photo ops for media about this today while pouring oil and gas on the climate fire.
Luxon was advised about the economy by Atlas Network Alumni Matt Burgess. Burgess was Bill English's economic adviser and he is also ex NZ Initiative - specialising in Climate Change non action and the ETS excuse.
That whole spiel about how Luxon "does not believe in corporate welfare" so he's not going to carry on with GIDI projects that partner with industry to bring down emissions is Atlas Network policy - in order to prolong and protect oil, gas and coal interests.
This morning David Seymour deployed the "whataboutisms" he has been trained to use to justify why like every other small nation in the world - there is no point in all of the world's countries doing anything to bring down emissions.
"Chlöe has a point ( about wide scale co-operation ) ...the government spent a large amount of money to stop Oil and Gas but the rest of the world did not get the memo, so what do we do? ...the reduced climate emissions were cancelled out by the rest of the world" - said Seymour.
That's text book Atlas Network rhetoric - nobody should do anything because nobody else is doing anything and if you do - you are wasting money and being far too radical.
What we need is sensible people who do nothing but say they are committed to our climate goals...and all that.
Luxon, Seymour, Willis, Peters, Jones - these people are pulling the wool - and New Zealand is no better prepared for another cyclone or flood than they were a year ago.
People on the right voted for change back to the Atlas Network.
It's all a crazy conspiracy theory says David Seymour - as we remember the way "radical protestors" defaced the English version of the Treaty in Te Papa - and the single and only poll amplified across media tells you - you are mistaken, people love Seymour and his message about the Treaty Principles Bill.
According to Atlas Network media - Seymour's Treaty Principles Bill may have resonated - but as Chlöe pointed out - polls are not destiny - take them in the context of the broader trend of polls.
There are no other polls around apart from that Roy Morgan one which said Seymour was taking a hiding and going backwards.
You won't find Thomas Coughlan, Claire Trevett and Audrey at the NZ Herald referring to the last five polls right now - they are all talking exclusively about the one and only Atlas Network Poll which has their "push poll" favourite agent on the make - just when the Atlas Network need to build momentum.
In closing we are likely to hear how it's the angry radicals making noises again as calm Act Party and National Party politicians lead the way backwards so that Big Oil, Big Tobacco and that free market can get on with things without Treaty Principles in the way...cos look there's an Atlas Network poll - standing out like a beacon after Waitangi day...all alone by itself.
Crazy Conspiracy Facts
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