Double standards

As humans, I think we can intuitively identify double standards and sadly, we are surrounded by many in society. Our young are beginning to call this out, but are the adults in the room?

I recently was giving a talk to a large group of young people, taking their questions and thoughts on a wide range of topics from cultural to political, ethical to philosophical. It was thoroughly enjoyable and the nature of their questions gives me hope for the future.

An early question from the floor was how to tell if an argument or perspective is correct. The answer is surprisingly simple in my opinion, for a key factor is consistency. If a particular moral or ethical position is true, it will be consistent. If you are pro-life, then you will oppose the death penalty as well as euthanasia, for example. If you are someone who believes you can change your biological sex, then for consistency, you would also have to accept that you can change your age, race, and so on.

But watching the news and listening to political commentary this consistency is, unsurprisingly, lacking. It is probably one of the key reasons that once again, trust in New Zealand’s mainstream media has fallen even lower. The annual AUT university research shows trust in media is now at 32%, and one of the lowest across the world where the average trust level is 40%. I think most humans have an innate sense of when they are being told a lie or when things are not quite right.

A few examples illustrate the lack of consistency, both in politics and media. Green MPs continue to explore new levels of insult, attending a parody of the sacred Jewish Passover meal – called the seder. Wearing keffiyeh and kippahs looking like watermelons (a protest symbol for Palestinians), they culturally appropriated Jewish symbols and then actively distorted them. All of this during one of the most significant religious/cultural events for the Jewish people.

The double standard is obvious for the Greens and their friends are usually the first to scream about cultural appropriation by others. If this had been anyone else appropriating another indigenous culture’s symbols or religious traditions, the Greens would be crying from the rooftops.

To be fair, it’s not only the Green Party being inconsistent. ACT took a cheap shot at Christians in the lead up to Easter, publishing a cartoon of Jesus and the Easter Bunny drinking, advocating that more alcohol can be sold on Good Friday, Easter Sunday, and Anzac Day. Not only is ACT inconsistent around respect, but we also know, they wouldn’t dare publish cartoons mocking other religions.

Back to the Greens, their defence of their mocking cultural appropriation was that they were invited by an ‘anti-Zionist’ Jewish group. It’s the equivalent argument – that the Greens often attack – of the “oh, I have a friend who is [insert relevant group here]” and therefore able to pass comment or be offensive. Secondly, Passover is explicitly about the Jewish people returning to Israel. The inconsistency of celebrating Passover while being anti-Zionist is almost impossible to fathom. The cognitive dissonance required to balance these two mutually exclusive concepts is, well, unfathomable to anyone who is consistent and reasonable.

We can then point to the double standards by those complaining that Associate Health Minister, Casey Costello, has instructed Health NZ to stop playing games and understand that only biological women give birth and that language should reflect this.

It surely must concern kiwis, with all the issues we face in health, that at the heart of the bureaucratic and medical system are people who do not understand biology or have the ability to comprehend intuitively what every other human has effortlessly done for thousands of years of recorded history.

The double standard is clear though when you note how the usual media suspects lose their mind over this ministerial request. They indulge the usual creative linguistic acrobatics required to defend the absurdity of gender theory, yet are mute on a recent landmark judgement in Australia. The federal family court decision eviscerated those involved in so called ‘gender affirming care’. The judge slammed the medical professionals for putting ideology over medicine, noting they misled the court. The judge also noted the child did not have any dysphoria issues and yet the mother and medical staff sought to medicalise the child. It’s beyond damning and yet silence here in New Zealand mainstream media.

An editorial from The Australian newspaper

A final double standard to consider. The mainstream media are continuing their campaign against National MP, Hamish Campbell and a fringe religious group he is associated with via his family. A reporter in the NZ Herald has run another hit piece of sorts, by continuing to associate the activities of others with the MP who himself, from what I can see, has done nothing more than have visitors come to his house.

As I noted to someone recently, what if the media looked in the mirror and reflected on the various criminals within it’s ranks and then judged themselves according. Imagine if you will, every reporter having to prefix their reports that their industry is associated with some who have been involved in abuse, violence, and other criminal or morally questionable behaviours. Of course this is absurd, nor warranted, but it illustrates the double standard and glaring lack of consistency.

The reporter even asks people to get in touch if they have more information or allegations; in effect, a fishing expedition. Now to be fair, I don’t see this as a problem in itself – it’s actually an important way to discover what may be hidden.

But as you will anticipate, we don’t see this same approach to many other stories including scandals confronting other MPs. The NZ Herald and others never ran a ‘get in contact if you have more information’ around the far more concerning behaviours of Green MP, Benjamin Doyle. While a National MP continues to come under heavy fire by association, other reporters continue to run interference for Doyle. It is important to stress again, that these are only allegations – but usually, when there are allegations, reporters ask questions and not run puff pieces based on identity politics.

To illustrate the double standard, one reporter has written a piece drawing on views from a former member of the disgraced ‘Disinformation Project’, now supposedly a ‘security expert’, who opined that there is an increased chance of violence against the MP.

The National MP is guilty by association and reporters fish for more information, always ensuring to associate the wider problems with the particular MP. For the Green MP, media continue to run stories defending what the MP has said and written based on who he is and what group he identifies with.

Trust in society is breaking down, but we should not be surprised when daily, New Zealanders are faced with double standards and inconsistencies. The young people I mentioned at the start however, give me hope. They are seeing these double standards and are increasingly willing to call it out or at the very least, not play along. We adults could learn from them.

* for those curious, this Substack’s cover image is Double Standard by Ed Ruscha (1969)