Getting chills listening to a 3-years-younger version of myself, back in 2017, talking about how significant social pressure is in our current political paradigm, and why we must resist conforming to it
"We cannot expect the systems of control to allow us to triumph through their own channels and methods. Wherever possible we must seize the opportunity to subvert their channels, to tell the truth and to get the message through that we so often are prevented from doing so"
A significant portion of the giant piece of long form journalism that I'm currently working on, details the true history and journey of the Internet Party, in a way that has never been done before. Expect myriad revelations about the way media and politics, truly function in NZ.
"I learned this year not to mirror the priorities of the system but to set our own priorities and our own benchmarks for success. We can't allow others to define our motivations or our successes... "
"Survival in a system that is designed to kill us is the ultimate act of resistance."
"You can fight and have a voice and make change regardless of whether you have a foot in the door of the established system. You can act to alter that system outside of merely the electoral process."
"Make having a voice 52 weeks a year your motivation. Make building outside of the system your definition of success. Never allow the established system to define your success or your failure."
"So long as the media are the gatekeepers of public opinion, they are the ultimate meddlers in any election. Certainly that's what I've experienced in New Zealand. Media actively meddle in electoral outcomes."
"We have been targeted by the Bush Administration, the Obama Administration, we *will* be targeted by the Trump Administration... because no matter which administration is in power, left or right, they will target activists, they will target journalists."
"If we lost Julian or if we lost WikiLeaks... the system is going to come and systematically dismantle journalism and activism across the board in a way in which we have never seen before."
[If those tasked with taking down WikiLeaks are successful]... "they will be unleashed upon the rest of the international journalist and activist community."
