10 November

Most of what looks like 'community concern' in public debate today is really 'astroturfing'. Corporations, political parties, elected members of councils, and think tanks target a handful of loons in local communities who they can fire up with fury at anything at all really, right now it's wind farms. That furious group of loons is then called 'the community' because they make a lot of noise, even though they're tiny in number. The objective is to block action on things. The gall of the people who organise this knows no bounds. Like I posted yesterday, right now the Nats are firing up local councils against wind farms, to try to get them to do their dirty work for them, including taking things to court and paying all the legal fees. And those 'long distance objectors' are just these same organisations, mobilising to 'flood the zone with shit' (a Steve Bannon phrase), to bog everything down in inaction. You'll often hear politicians at all levels today talk about how they're in touch with 'the community'. Usually it just means a social media group they set up themselves, full of only people who agree with them. Everybody else is blocked.