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[tewaharangatahirealist]

COMM515_2022_S2 Assignment 2: Blog 2

Anyone on here ever wonder what it means to be the other guy? Some of you probably are to be honest. I've always grown up believing that looking at all situations through the eyes of others is the most empathetic and best way to understand the issues we all face. I bring this random thought up because covid has me thinking about this constantly. Whether it is just wearing a mask, or wondering why other people aren't socially distancing. There are so many different scenarios that run through my head daily. I Often question if some people have empathy, do they ever see things from the perspective of others.

I bring up covid and empathy due to the large number of kiwis that got locked out of New zealand during the pandemic. I'm mainly reflecting on the tweet left by FankNZ ``Being locked out of my country last year as a New Zealand citizen because of Jacinda Ardern’s border policies means that ‘being a kiwi’ means nothing. What a shame. #nzpol”. FrankNZ. (2022, September 15). I wanna say the decision to lock people out of their home country is a safe one, for the people, the right decision or whatever crap the government sends us. Let's be real, people live here, they grew up here, they have a birthright to be a citizen of this country. Why are they being locked out? Sure it's safer to stop transmission, so let's not save everyone on the sinking ship, let's be selective, how is that fair? You can probably tell I'm frustrated by the choice to lock people out. My view on this is strong because my own mother was locked out of the country for 3 months. I lost three months of time with my mother. Thanks Jacinda for that, she taxed more than just money from me and I'm sick of it.

So let's sum it up then. This random tweet, from FrankNZ opened up such a large debate, his political views shared by a lot of people too. Hundreds of comments attached to his tweet, saying how much of a shame it is. I mention the sum up because it's crazy how many people have empathy for the government. There are comments talking about the stress they must be under, how hard it is to run a country at such a time. Lest we forget it's not just her running the country, there are thousands of people working behind her. This decision was made by hundreds of people running a perfect democracy. It's horseshit, I'm sorry if this offends you but the thought of people choosing to lock families away from each other is crazy. I again hit you with empathy, do they understand what it means to be the other guy? Is this all just for the greater good of the country? Were run by a bunch of utilitarian bastards. But then again I'm 19, I didn't vote and I refuse to read the news. My understanding of the world is little, the understanding of political parties is even smaller. The only thing I hold onto is my connection to family which basically runs all of my decisions. At the end of the day these small rants and blogs are meaningless, FrankNZ quote is just a message of frustration. At the end of the day we are all human and empathy should always be there in that sense.

I guess that brings up another point? How much does the average person know about our government, is it enough? Being a citizen of this country I'm affected by most decisions they make. I guess what I'm trying to say is maybe the route of all this hate speech and frustration comes from a  lack of knowledge about the processes and actions taken by the government groups and corporations. Why are they kept from us? They shouldn't have anything to hide from the people, we give them hard earned money and resources(people) to achieve the great life we all aim for. I'm going off track, what I want is a translucent government, one where we can see, watch and comment on everything being done. I want to know what thoughts go into the decisions they make, is jacinda really the best person for the Job? These are difficult questions that could quite possibly never get answered. Just look at the Uk, two prime ministers in 4 months both resigning from too much publicity. Both doing secretly vile and illegal actions. I want to know what happens inside our government despite me having zero control over them.

I guess to summarise this blog, the tweet brings up a good point, why are we so restricted by our government? In no way am I anti vax nor do I seek a rebellion. I am in no way a nazi or crazy. I'm nearing a young man questioning the world. I'm uneducated, mainly overwhelmed and eager for change. Whatever happens to New Zealand in the future I believe we can be better than this. In that sense maybe it's time I look at my own less empathetic views and change them, and care more. Life is hard, this blog is hard, see you next week.

[tewaharangatahirealist]

COMM515_2022_S2 Assignment 2:Blog 1

I'm not one to sit and watch the daily news, or read articles online. Let's be honest most people my age get the news through TMZ or other social media based news sites. It's simple and reliable right? Stumbling across those large captions about a semi famous celebrity is much more joyful then the political nonsense that crowds the news.

Well I was scrolling twitter and found myself reading media watches article Mediawatch: Mounting fake news prompts calls for action. Quite frankly it has me stunned. Mainly at the behind the scenes being done to fix misinformation and I'm all for it.

The author Colin Peacock, Mediawatch Presenter  spoke about behind the scenes, Commenting on what the government is doing to prevent us from ‘harm’ - and how the digital platforms are diving into new ideas about the reduction and eventual removal of hate speech online. He references this podcast which I find extremely boring about the prime minister and her ex flatmate. RNZ Audio Player.(7th.August.2022.).

Using the podcast to bring about an example of misinformation. As if any of the public care about that. He doesn't realise the extremely graphic misinformation being shared about all kinds of celebrities and politicians. Sure the article is relevant to the prevention of hate speech, so I guess he's okay in that sense.

There are plenty of articles showing how to be safe online, explaining what fake news is. Netsafe has a Q&A on spotting fake news which seems helpful for the older generation.D, S. (2021, September 12). I think in  today's day and age, I merely speak for people my own age. I WANT FAKE NEWS. The world is so boring and although it's so easy to spread, it ruins politicians lives, celebrities are hurt.

To be realistic the average 19 year old could not care one bit. I'm ranting on here, but the majority of us don't even vote, why would we care about what they say? I was talking to an old pal of mine and we spoke about a quiz that tells you what political party you are most aligned with. We both got the green party and that was it, Doesn't mean we will vote. It's a big issue in the eyes of the older generation and I guess it's something I should start doing but for now it seems uninteresting, doesn't seem to affect me. I can't speak for anyone else, only myself but today's teenagers would rather watch some kid beat another kid in a Walmart than watch Jacida cut more taxes. This blog is not informative nor do I want it to be.

I want this blog to accurately represent my age group, a voice for older more serious generations to understand why we don't care. I really want to relate it to the Woodstock documentary. TV Guide Commented on the documentary saying it's odd that the young person's “idea of fun is committing crimes with a mob of dehydrated, drug-addled frat boys.”Mathews, L. (2022, August 2). Although he was commenting on the absolutely F–ked Vibes of Woodstock 99, I guess what I'm saying is that the young person's attitude in 2022 is very much like that. We frankly care much less about the world than previous generations and it's because we have so much more of it. Fake news or real we sit here for hours a day watching what other generations never did.

I'll put the question to you: Is it the fake news ruining our online sphere, or the attitude towards modern politics? Targeting those in charge has gotten so much easier, it's not secluded to the press like the old days. Anyone can tweet at any time about anything, target anyone and we rely on those social media companies to manage hate speech. Seems odd doesn't it? Let's go back to Colin Peacock's blog.

Peacock Quoted Tova O’Brien in the podcast with reference to the implementation of a misinformation minister. “It is time now for a government ‘misinformation minister',” she said - acknowledging the job title could be misconstrued. I personally think it creates an even larger divide between ourselves, the people, sub groups of the young people and those in charge. I can acknowledge that's partly my fault with not “being involved”. But if I don't vote I should be excluded. I can't remember the last time I was personally affected by any government. Is there a Declining political interest/involvement? There is a massive decrease  with Young people who are disengaged from party politics. In the NZ 2017 election the voter turn-out was 79.01%. Voter turn-out for the 65-69 age bracket was 88.21%. Voter turn-out for the 18-24 age bracket was 69.27% and for the 25-29 age bracket it was 67.56% (NZ Electoral Commission. DeSilver, D. (2021, May 28). So you can see my point. We're all disconnected to the main news points And arguments are boring or interesting. You've probably seen countless ads with young people beingAll cheerful to vote, most people our age skip them, more nonsense that blocks our day. It's rebellious.Us young people are rebellious. We have a large grudge to the older generations who have “run our country into the dirt”, or “killed our planet by fixing it”. It's the same attitude for all of us. I wanna know: Was it always this way?

The woodstock documentary i mentioned earlier had some good points about the feeling of young people

In the 90s. The hate towards the wars, or Bush. the race debate, heaps of issues. The documentary also

Mentioned that the concert was attended by a large number of young white men, men who did not have

Many issues to be worried about during that time. This anger that ruined the festival was formed from

What? Maybe it's the rage that makes us enjoy targeting those in charge, our way to get to them? I'm just

Waiting to find out like the rest of us.