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I've been thinking a lot about justice over the last few years, and what real justice requires. I started musing on this in regard to domestic and sexual violence am starting to think it might apply more broadly. Bear with me please 1/n
Real justice isn't necessarily delivered in a court or through prison. It certainly isn't in a lot of cases currently, but I mean it doesn't actually have to be either, not always. Justice isn't really about what the state does, it's about what the perpetrator does next 2/n
(which is partly about what the state enables the perpetrator to do next, requires them to do next, but I'll get to that). At its heart, justice requires accountability. Proper, true accountability, not working out who did the deed that crossed the line & caging them. 3/n
And see I'm getting it wrong already, talking about "the perpetrator" as if there's only one person responsible, when these are crimes of white supremacy, racism, sexism, trans- and homophobia, bigotry. Because injustice doesn't happen in a vacuum. 4/n
There are crimes of need (eg I steal to fund my life) and crimes of hate (eg I hit you because I should have more power than you) and probably crimes of other types too, and of course grey areas, but for this I'm focused on the crimes of hate. 5/n
I'm thinking about #MeToo and of course what has happened in Chch, and how these are crimes, injustices, that have come about because of a view by perpetrators of entitlement, even permission to do what they did 6/n
So to get justice, actual proper justice, for those injustices we need to address the culture that has created that entitlement, that permission, that has enabled the hate and the violence, and that is beyond the perpetrator. 7/n
The perpetrator should be held to account too, absolutely - they took that permission and still did the terrible hateful thing, or the smaller harmful hurt, and plenty of others exposed to the same permission didn't do it. 8/n
But if we don't examine what enabled the crime, the injustice, and CHANGE that, we don't get proper accountability, full justice. Justice for these types of crime requires change, and rarely just from one person either. 9/n
Because abusers of power, be that power from a gun or from money or from their job or just from brute strength, don't spring fully formed from the head of Zeus. Abusers of power do it because they think they can, think its ok. 10/n
How do they get to thinking they can abuse people? Because "they" are part of a much bigger group that gives permission, and that isn't held to account when an abuser is punished, and that, sadly, is the dominant and acceptable face of bigotry in our society. 11/n
And that's where I come back to accountability, justice and change. Trump tweets his support of NZ & ignores his complicity, makes no change to spewing hate.. Also Dutton, Morrison, so many others. Bridges you could add specifically on the global migration compact too imho. 12/n
There's a culture of bigotry that empowers and enables these heinous acts like in Chch, and people need to really truly examine how they are part of that culture, how they are contributing, in small ways and large, to giving permission for abuse. 13/n
And that's hard to do for yourself, and hard to do for those close to you - to call out particularly I think those around you with soft power, like bloggers who host hate, in their content or their comments. We hold the perpetrator accountable... 14/n
... and not necessarily in a way that actually makes them accountable (ie our criminal justice system and prison) but we let those who enable and empower off the hook, so we never get proper justice, we never get the CHANGE we need. 15/n
We hope that justice, that change, will happen slowly and painlessly (for us) as we pat ourselves on the back that at least we don't ban Chinese NZers from voting anymore, don't have legal rape within marriage anymore, don't cane people for speaking te reo at school anymore..16/n
Don't have a political elite that talks openly about building a wall to keep out migrants and citizens with more melatine than our leader. (On that specifically, see also refusing to take refugees that come by boat, is the same thing for an island nation, AUSTRALIA) 17/n
But change doesn't come for free, you've got to give to get it back (props to @TBWMusical) and change is coming too slowly by waiting and seeing. It's too deadly, too harmful. Too injust. 18/n
Years ago I (somewhat inadvertently) took on Paul Henry during what became known as MoustacheGate but should have more accurately been known as StupidHatefulBigotGate. Lots of the criticism I got was that I wanted him fired. I actually didn't. 19/n
I wanted CHANGE, I wanted justice and accountability, I wanted Henry, and his employers, and his boosters (but that was probably hoping for too much) to recognise that what he did by belittling people who weren't straight white men of means, with his huge platform... 20/n
... was injust, to acknowledge that & stop doing it. (I would have settled for just the stopping tbh.) There is no justice, no accountability, without change. Change by the perpetrator AND change in the culture that enabled them, whether it be rape culture and misogyny... 21/n
... , racism and xenophobia, or some other kind of bigotry. Otherwise we just stop one person, or one small group, and don't stop it happening again. We perpetuate injustice, because we don't make a big enough change. 22/n
Which is possibly all a v v long way of saying I want to work out how to hold accountable people in our culture, Aotearoa NZ, who give permission, who enable, who empower this hate and violence. Actually we know how to do this, we just have to do it #GiveNothingToRacism 23/n
So when you host hate on your website, your blog or your FB page or whatever, whether it be in the content you publish or the comments you host, you need to stop. You need to actively moderate. And if you can't you need to turn off comments. 24/n
You need to be accountable for what you create; the culture you create, the bigotry you enable. Because this is where it goes. This is where it ends up - with violence and death for those deemed the other by the subtle digs, the dog-whistles and the hate disguised as humour 25/n
The internet is a wide vast imaginary place. If you are worried about free speech please rest assured that the bigots you want to host for clicks and ad revenue will find somewhere else if you stop, for now anyway. You can host debate without hosting hate. 26/n
I'm not going down the rabbit hole of examples. If you genuinely don't know what I'm talking about do some research, there's heaps of stuff, especially at the moment, about radicalisation of straight white men especially by online sites - eg incels, white supremacists. 27/n
But I am going to give one very specific and personally deeply felt call out. He may not ever see this (I don't have a blue tick) and the consequences for me may not be nice if he does. But to be accountable, to help get some justice, I'm going to say... 28/n
... @dpfdpf you need to seriously examine what you do, what you have done for years on Kiwiblog. You are not "fomenting happy mischief", you are hosting, sometimes directly whistling yourself, hate and lies. If you won't change, if you won't moderate it PROPERLY... 29/n
... then you need to stop doing it. It's just too harmful. It's too injust. Be accountable for what you host, what you do, by changing it. And this goes for heaps of other people too, but you are the one that's hardest for me to call out so I'm doing it now. Fin. 30/30
