The Woke virus

Wonder if the judge considered how one of his/her kids got sent to a foreign speaking county with a basic understanding of that language.

Would they come out nigh on fully fluent in 6-12 months?

from RCR Bites
Disinformation Project shuts down
The Disinformation Project has announced that it is closing down. Run by Sanjana Hattotuwa and Kate Hannah, it was established in 2020 during the Ardern government as a way of tracking voices who were at odds with government messaging about COVID. Since then, the terms “misinformation” and “disinformation” have been frequently deployed to suppress opinions disapproved of by the powerful, particularly on social media.
Many considered that the Disinformation Project wasn’t only tracking “disinformation”, but also running interference for the government by casting aspersions on people who expressed different views. Others said the project was itself a sower of disinformation in that its standard for truth and falsehood was whatever the government’s “experts” said they were.
Expressing disagreement with government policies is not sinister. It is a normal and essential part of political debate. The idea that a sitting Prime Minister would declare her daily press conference the “Podium of Truth” while monitoring anyone who disagreed using proxies like the project will go down as a sad, dark and Orwellian chapter in New Zealand’s history.

Has Te Mehdia Parti done any stories on this?

Sean's Eulogy For The Nazi Hunters At The Disinformation Project

theplatform.kiwi/podcasts/episode/seans-eulogy-for-the-nazi-hunters-at-the-disinformation-project

A nicely worded 'far kew' by SP about how terrible TDP were, it's worth a listen, he rightfully slams them for the sham they were.

Here is their closing statement, keep a paper bag handy... (my 2p in red)

www.thedisinfoproject.org/

3 October 2024: After nearly four and a half years of pioneering research, analysis, and reporting on the growing landscape of disinformation in Aotearoa, The Disinformation Project is closing as our small team moves on to new things. (fuck it guys, this racist govt has cut our funding!)


Please be assured that our public reporting will always remain available for public access. (Liars, it never was and it never will be)


When we started the project in 2020, our focus was on the COVID-19 pandemic and how false information contributed to people’s responses to public health interventions. Since then, we have charted the descent of many New Zealanders into more extreme conspiratorial beliefs. These include widespread vaccine refusal, climate change denial, opposition to immigration, reductive beliefs around gender, anti-Māori racism, and hatred towards the LGBTQ+ community.



In 2024, it’s clear that the disinformation networks established or expanded during the pandemic are deeply connected to far-right, neo-Nazi, and accelerationist networks and actors – both domestic and foreign. (good fucking lord, get a grip lady) 

Disinformation has become both more mainstream, and more connected to wider issues of political and social division, violence, extremism and national security.  (she left out gnashing of teeth!)


Domestic and foreign influence operations have grown more sophisticated, while gaps in legal, regulatory and policing frameworks allow for harmful, polarising narratives to (conservatively) reach hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders daily. (Kate hanna 'what we need are more rules and less free speech, Jacinda, we beg you go come back')


At the same time as disinformation grows, social platforms like X (formally Twitter) and Meta (Facebook and Instagram) are part of a larger trend of companies preventing independent researchers from accessing the open-source data they need to study disinformation growth on their platforms. Generative AI is now front and centre to disinformation spread, and it continues to be an emerging threat to Aotearoa New Zealand’s democracy.



We want to specifically note the marked increase in polarising and dehumanising rhetoric we have studied since our research began, specifically anti-Māori racism. We witnessed a shift from relatively amateur, individual or small network-based tactics, to polished, technical strategies for spreading disinformation at scale.



These challenges to social harmony, democracy and the maintenance of a shared reality in Aotearoa New Zealand require urgent, meaningful responses.



We are proud to have served diverse communities with our research and commentary, and we’d like to thank all those who’ve supported us over the last four years.



Director of Research, Dr Sanjana Hattotuwa continues to maintain an in-depth daily study of truth decay trends, and signatures building on analysis going back to 2021. He is available for client services including expert or confidential briefings on influence operations, institution, community or sector specific analysis, future scenario planning, and disinformation’s growing all-of-society, and all-of-government impact in New Zealand via contract.  (in his spare time he'll be sticking to his routine of showering 15 times a day to clense himself...)


Director of Communications, Nicole Skews-Poole continues to specialise in strategic communications, countering disinformation and building organisational resilience at anchordown.nz. (I'm guessing she lives in a bunker, just in case...)


Founder and Director Kate Hannah is moving from focusing on disinformation to a wider portfolio of work in sustainability, social cohesion, and technology-facilitated gender-based violence. She is contactable on kate.hannah@thedisinfoproject.org.  (Lady - the only one contacting you will be your mum and Dame Jacinda, inbetween overpaid speaking gigs in 'merica of course)

Contact the gun registry, the one that's spent millions and millions yet still can't get basic off the shelf software to work, and you get told why you should use pronouns along with assorted links to pronoun guff. The only thing missing in the responses is an answer to the question you asked.

The government should abandon any requirement for the Reserve Bank to have "gender or ethnic balance" on its board, a former senior staffer says - and there should be stronger assessment of its performance.

Geof Mortlock has made a submission to the finance and expenditure committee on its inquiry into banking competition. He was formerly a senior member of the Reserve Bank's economics department.

The inquiry comes after the Commerce Commission's market study into the banking sector, which noted a lack of competition.

Mortlock said the Reserve Bank board needed to be "fundamentally strengthened in terms of the balance of knowledge, skills and experience required to perform its functions".

"It currently lacks directors with the requisite level of knowledge and experience in financial sector regulatory and financial stability issues. It is poorly equipped to do its job effectively, as has been only too evident in reading Reserve Bank annual reports over many years."

www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/530973/ex-staffer-wants-reserve-bank-to-dump-gender-and-ethnic-balance-requirements

if you want the best possible outcomes

you need to hire the most capable candidates

if the most capable are passed over in favour of 'diversity' hires

you will NOT get the best possible outcomes 

in medicine, patients will unnecessarily die and be maimed 

in finance, money will be pointlessly squandered

in education, students won't learn as much as they could

it increases the migration of capable kiwis

and decreases the average ability of immigrants

Quite enjoying baylonbee of late.

babylonbee.com/news/nasa-baffled-at-how-elon-managed-to-succeed-without-as-many-gay-non-binary-muslim-dwarfs-of-color-as-they-have

NASA Baffled At How Elon Managed To Succeed Without As Many Gay Non-Binary Muslim Dwarfs Of Color As They Have
Science
·
Oct 15, 2024 · BabylonBee.com
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HOUSTON, TX — As the world still celebrated the astonishing accomplishment of SpaceX catching its returning Starship, NASA officials were baffled at how Elon Musk managed to succeed without as many gay non-binary Muslim dwarfs of color as they have.

SpaceX's historic achievement occurred despite not making diversity and inclusion its top priority, leaving NASA in awe that such a feat could be pulled off without the mandated involvement of underrepresented people groups.

"Not a single transgender dwarf of color on the team! How does this guy do it?" one high-ranking NASA official marveled. "We devote all of our time and spend billions upon billions of dollars to put together the most intersectional and diverse team, but we can't even come close to the stuff Musk is pulling off at SpaceX. They caught a rocket, for crying out loud! And they didn't have any non-binary Hindu furries working on the project! How is that possible?"

Decision-makers at NASA reportedly held emergency closed-door meetings this week to discuss the widening gap between their work and the things being done at SpaceX. "It doesn't matter what we do, he just keeps pulling further ahead," a NASA insider said. "We're going to keep trying to incorporate more diversity, equity, and inclusion to everything we do, but it's like this guy has cracked some code where he just puts the most brilliant and qualified minds to work on his projects. That sounds crazy, but I guess it's working out for them."

At publishing time, NASA sources still expressed skepticism that Musk would be able to successfully land a human being on Mars without the help of any gender-fluid atheist amputees of mixed racial descent.