Thread by @NZWelshDragon

🧵So listen up #NewZealand - especially all of those who stood up for #TransRights yesterday. I need to tell you about a man named Sanjana Hattotuwa and some advice he had for the recent teaching union conference, where he was a Keynote Speaker /1

This man is an expert on Social Media, he spends hours every day researching and delving into the worst of the filth and abuse and horror online, and believe me, it's worse than any of us could ever know. Not all heroes wear capes. One of them works for Otago University. /2

At the conference, during the Q&A someone asked what country we could look to as an example of how to push back against this radicalisation and programming of hatred, fear and violence which is welling up online.

He looked at us and said 'You're living in it.' /3

Aotearoa is the last bastion against this kind of indoctrination, even though we can see it encroaching here. It's no accident that people like PP are beginning to target us. We are the country which has shown the greatest resistence, according to the expert in this field /4

The follow up question was 'why' and he was quite clear - the Māori perspective plays a huge role in this. The emphasis on community, on whānau, on responsibilities, on making connections with people who are different to you. This is a huge aspect of the Kiwi makeup /5

And it is NO surprise that these people ... these fascists, these fake Christians, these fear mongers, incels, anti-vaxxers, anti-trans, white supremacist forces, are often the people pushing back hardest against all of the evidence of Māori existence in our public sphere... /6

They are anti-Te Reo, anti-Tikanga, anti-Co-governance, anti-3-Waters... they push back against Te Reo lessons in school, dual language signage, the incorporation of karakia, waiata, haka, moko into our public life. /7

It's all connected. It all matters. And we MUST hold firm. Across the board. Don't lose sight of what makes us strong, what makes us unique. They want to remove sight of all things Māori because that vision, that mindset, is central to our protection. /8

This is why, school policy aside, and even though I am an immigrant, I lead karakia for my class (they aren't forced to join in, but I insist on silence while space is made for it). I respect and learn about tikanga. I know how to give my appropriate mihi without notes. /9

You can see them coming for us online now. We can see the spin, the focus from people like JKR, GL, PP, AOB... from organisations like VFF, Counterspin, Fox... We are the last bastion. We are the hold outs. The progressives. The people who say 'yeah, nah...' and 'jog on'. /10

Choose your battles wisely.
Don't respond in anger. It boosts their reach.
Don't give them your energy. They're trying to burn you out.
Don't sink to their level. We're better than that.
Keep speaking your own truth. Keep making noise. Keep drowning them out. It all matters. /END

SO many thanks to everyone who re-tweets this. If you retweet it, I'm going to take a look and follow you. If you care enough to get this message out, you're someone I want to listen to.

I have reached my follow limit for today but I will be back tomorrow!

Aaaaaand here come the quote tweets from the types of people the thread warns about. :) I will do some blocking tomorrow after Brexitland has gone back to bed.