Hello

This week I’ve got a few topics to cover - there’s been quite a lot happening recently! And, I’ve also got a guest article from Al Blenney about the origins of the anti-abortion movement.

We’re rapidly approaching the end of the year - with Christmas and New Year celebrations just around the corner. I think most people in Aotearoa New Zealand enjoy a bit of rest and relaxation at this time of year. Of course, most skeptics won’t be putting much stock in the religious aspects of Christmas (was there actually a baby Jesus? was he born on December 25th?, how do Christian myths line up with existing pagan myths and celebrations?), but it’s usually an opportunity to spend time with family and friends, if you’re so inclined. I’m personally heading down to Mahia Beach (with the hope of good weather) to spend Christmas with my mother, brothers and all our offspring.

If you’re a regular reader, you’ll know that Mark, Bronwyn and I have written the weekly newsletters this year, with occasional (and gratefully received) content from others in the community. We hope you’ve enjoyed the topics we’ve written about. They’re sometimes controversial, but we enjoy engaging with our readers.

This is going to be the last newsletter of the year. We’re taking a well-earned two week break, and Mark will be writing the first 2023 newsletter in the second week of January.

2023 is going to be an interesting year. This week it was announced that scientists in the US had achieved a nuclear fusion breakthrough, with the potential to completely disrupt energy generation in the future. I'm sure we'll have some interesting items to write about next year.

Whatever you’re doing this holiday season, I wish you safe travels, good weather, happy times, good health, and above all, that you remain skeptical.

The Baby blood case

You would have to have been living under a rock for the last couple of weeks to not have heard about the case of the 4 month old baby at Starship Hospital needing heart surgery and, as part of that, donated blood products.

The parents of the baby have anti-vax and conspiracy theory views. It’s been reported that the mother is a midwife, but objected to the Covid vaccination (which was mandated as part of her job) so had to leave that employment. They objected to blood supplied by our excellent New Zealand Blood Service from being used as some of the donors have had Covid-19 vaccinations. (Indeed, given our high rate of vaccination, probably most donors would have been vaccinated.)

The parents wanted “pure blood” for their baby. The parents have an irrational belief that being vaccinated against Covid somehow taints the blood, and will endanger the baby’s life in the future. They claim that blood products will contain the so-called spike protein about which anti-vaxxers have whipped up an irrational fear.

The case came to the attention of the conspiracy theory community, with now-familiar Voices for Freedom, Counterspin Media, Liz Gunn, and Sue Grey getting in on the game.

Liz Gunn, who we’ve written about in the past (and was one of our nominees for this year's NZ Skeptics Bent Spoon Award) has been “advocating” for the parents at Starship Hospital.  Reportedly, she was in meetings with medical professionals, but agitated them so much they ended up walking out of a meeting.

For background, Liz Gunn is a former TV presenter and investigative journalist from about 20 years ago, and has designs on running for parliament under her Free NZ party (of which she seems to be the only candidate). She’s posted a number of increasingly unhinged rants (in my opinion, at least) online. She seems to have delusions of grandeur, claiming support from millions of kiwis and people internationally (though curiously her political party doesn’t register on any of the polls!).

The case has now been the subject of court hearings, with the Te Whatu Ora/Health New Zealand seeking medical guardianship of the baby so that the potentially life-saving surgery can go ahead as planned. Last week, the judge in the case granted this, and the medical professionals will be able to make decisions in the best medical interests of the baby until late in January 2023.

All this has been upsetting to Liz Gunn, who set up a lightly-attended candlelight vigil outside the hospital, and has now, reportedly, been trespassed from entering the hospital. She even arranged for her and the parents to appear on Alex Jones’ InfoWars show, in an attempt to garner international attention.

In another of her video rants, she went on to blame our Prime Minister, Jacinda Adern, for the outcome of the case, and even claimed that she’s in fear of being murdered, regularly checking her car to make sure it’s not been tampered with. (Obviously, advanced mechanical skills are part of her repertoire!)

The legal representative for the parents in the case was another familiar persona - Sue Grey, who is a darling of the conspiracy theory community and go-to lawyer for anything conspiracy theory related. Sue can chalk up another case lost. It would seem her record of wins isn’t that great! Incidentally, and unrelated, she spent a few hours in custody last week after being held in contempt of court for arguing and talking over a judge. She wasn’t involved in the case, but showed up to “help” the defendant, who ended up asking her to shut up.

Sue Grey is the subject of a hearing with the disciplinary tribunal of the New Zealand Law Society, with complaints about her stretching back over at least the last two years. Perhaps foreshadowing the hearing, the judge in the unrelated case told Grey:

"You demonstrated a lack of professional judgement in the manner in which you dealt with matters today and arguably those matters bear on the issue of your fitness to practise as a lawyer."

Let’s hope that the Law Society can actually appropriately discipline Grey for her behaviour.

Anyway, as of late last week as I write this, the baby’s operation was successful. Gunn, and other anti-vaxxers went on to claim that the baby was secretly given unvaccinated blood - a claim for which they have no evidence - not that that’s ever stopped that lot.

If you’d like more background on this, during our last Yeah…Nah! podcast, we covered the case. Bronwyn and I, along with our guest Anke Richter, talked about this in detail. It’s worth a listen, if you haven’t already. Incidentally, surrounding this is a court order protecting the name of the family and the baby. We’ve been very careful to not name the baby or his parents, though it seems that the names are easily available due to all the public commenting that anti-vaxxers have done.

And speaking of Anke Richter, she’s the author of the excellent Cult Trip book, which covers cults in Aotearoa New Zealand (such as Centerpoint, Gloriavale and ISTA). It’s available in both paperback from usual physical outlets (as well as online e.g. Mighty Ape), and also electronically, via Amazon.

Queensland killings and far-right links

Last Monday (12th December) there was a tragic incident in Wieambilla, Queensland, leaving six people shot dead.

Four young police officers were attending the property for a routine matter (the exact nature hasn’t been revealed) and came under fire from the occupants of the property. Two of the officers - Rachael McCrow and Matthew Arnold - and a local member of the public - Alan Dare - were shot dead, and the other two officers received gunshot wounds but were able to make it to safety and raise the alarm.

After a lengthy police operation, the three occupants of the property were shot dead. The occupants were two brothers, Gareth and Nathaniel Train, and Gareth’s wife Stacey Train (who, bizarrely, it’s reported, was previously married to the other brother!)

The relevance of this to kiwis, apart from it being just across the Tasman, is that the occupants of the property were ardent conspiracy theorists, heavily involved in the alt-right community, and regularly posting on internet message boards.

Wieambilla is a tiny community of blocks of cheap land, which has attracted people wanting to exit society. Reportedly, a lot of people have migrated to the area, seeking to escape the “Covid madness” in the city and establish a cheap lifestyle away from it all, and the motivating factor has been the Covid vaccination mandates in Australia. It would seem the community had become a magnet for anti-vaxxers, with the local motel owner running a support group.

The Trains (who were the occupants of the property and fired on the police officers), it would appear, were fairly conventional “normal” people (I’m struggling to find the right words!). Nathaniel Train was a former school principal. But then, we probably all know “normal” people who’ve gone down the rabbit hole, and become anti-vaxxers and conspiracy theorists, espousing the most outlandish theories.

Prior to the killings the Trains had recently posted videos on YouTube, one of which mentioned the Baby W vaccination case. I guess this goes to show the dangers of misinformation, which we’re seeing spilling out into real-world violence.

And that is a worrying potential here in Aotearoa New Zealand as well, with some experts, such as Dr Sanjana Hatatoua of The Disinformation Project, stating such publicly.

https://twitter.com/sanjanah/status/1603693025284292609

Tony Wall, the reporter at Stuff, followed up with Liz Gunn, asking for comment about the fact of the Queensland shooters referencing the baby case. Gunn, probably rattled by the likelihood that her actions, at least in part, contributed in some way to the tragedy, went off on another unhinged rant, which I’ve included below.

“Most Kiwis are now awake to the unpalatable fact that Stuff is a very dark and evil media organisation intent on twisting the best and most loving aspects of good and brave and ethical Kiwis into headline grabbing stories that bear no resemblance to the Truth.

Of course, it would break any good human heart to hear a news story claiming that someone patently insane has been so twisted as to misuse a story of a baby whose parents wanted one thing only -unjabbed blood to reduce the risks in their baby's heart operation.

I cannot be responsible for the insanity of either that person or of you, Tony of Stuff, whipping up this piece of human insanity into a piece of stuffed media insanity. I can only hope you have a conscience somewhere buried deep under your hubris, that tells you that what you are a part of here is wrong, morally, ethically and journalistically.

Please print my statement here in full -otherwise you will be guilty of disinformation about me as you set about to crucify yet another loving and caring Kiwi.

I can almost feel you salivating as you send this salacious and ugly message to me. Shame on you.

Be a better man.

Lay down your poison pen and walk out of Stuff. Do something honourable for once Tony. You and I both know this is a nonsense beat up story, done to please your brutish government overlords.”

It would be great if these people, particularly the most extreme ones, and those profiting from conspiracy theories, come to their senses and see the harm they’re causing. I’m not hopeful though.

Billy Te Kahika and Vinny Eastwood guilty

In the good news department, Billy Te Kahika and Vinny Eastwood, professional conspiracy theory grifters, who organised protests during the Covid lockdowns in August last year, have now been found guilty of intentionally failing to comply with the Covid-19 Public Health Response Act.

The protests seem a little quaint now, considering the events outside parliament in February this year. Nevertheless, it’s good to see justice prevail against the idiots who risked public health.

They’ll be sentenced in March next year.

No accounting for taste

It’s been a while since I’ve written about the former president of the US, Donald J Trump, but he’s recently announced his candidacy for the 2024 presidential elections, likely in an attempt to shield himself from potential legal consequences of investigations into his involvement with the January 6th insurrection, and the Mar-a-Lago classified and top-secret documents case (and likely many other crimes).

After his announcement he went quiet for a time, not actually performing any campaign activities, but late last week he hinted at an announcement, which some suspected would be a major political move such as announcing his running mate.

With bated breath I waited, and it was finally revealed that he was releasing a set of collectable cards, in the form of NFTs (which Mark’s written on extensively in the past - spoiler alert, they’re pretty much a scam!), featuring questionable art of his career and presidency.

Priced at $99 (USD) he claimed they’d sell out quickly.

But, there’s no accounting for taste, and despite the images being tacky and unrealistic, all 44,000 NFTs listed sold out within a day, raising him around $4.4 million dollars. There are plenty of Americans who still hold Trump in high regards, so I guess they're the target market.

There's been speculation online about what happens to the money, and whether it might be a money-laundering scheme to be able to receive payments from foreign interests in exchange for classified documents supplied to them. I'm doubtful of this - the limit for purchase 100 at a time, and this would make it difficult to use the scheme to make large payments. Still, the companies associated with the cards have pretty murky backgrounds, which is to be expected given Trump's previous track record.

The NFTs are now being listed on exchanges at prices significantly higher than their issue price. Economics 101 - Supply and Demand. But it's not a free market to sell the cards - there's fine print in the terms and conditions when means that any on-sale of the cards attracts a 10% payment back to Trump's coffers.

What one would do with the ownership of one of these dubious pieces of art is beyond me though! Wait to find a greater fool?

Interestingly, even prominent staunch republicans are voicing their distaste at this tacky venture.

I hope I’ve not breached copyright by including the images in this newsletter. But feel free to print them off yourself, and save yourself more than $99 per image! Don't tell me the NZ Skeptics Newsletter doesn't help you out.

If you need a quick refresher on what NFTs (Non-fungible tokens) are all about, check out this excellent explainer video:

The Dark Origins of the Anti-abortion Movement

By Al Blenney

Until relatively recently Christian protestants had no problems with abortion. The only reference to it in the Christian Bible indicates that an abortion should be attempted if a woman becomes pregnant as a result of adultery (Numbers 5:27) There isn't much wriggle-room in this verse, so latterly fundagelical Christians would rather pretend it doesn't exist, because a bunch of money-grubbing racists decided abortion made an excellent stalking horse.

In the 1970s the U.S. Federal government's policies against racial discrimination were gathering momentum. What galvanised the hard-core southern Christians as a political movement was a proposal by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to remove the tax-exempt status of Bob Jones University because of its racially discriminatory policies. Other racially discriminatory education institutions also came under IRS scrutiny.

The Christians needed political power to stave off the IRS. So they cast around for something that could mobilise their base into a political movement. They tried prayer in schools, pornography, the equal rights amendment for women. None of these seemed catchy enough to create a voting bloc.

Abortion was an unlikely last-minute suggestion since it was the province of their old enemies; the Catholics, but it was worth a try.

It took until about the 1980s, with the help of a well-funded and well-crafted propaganda campaign (complete with horror stories and graphic images) with the prominent Televangelist Jerry Falwell as a leader, that the fundagelical masses came on board. Indeed, so successful was the anti-abortion campaign that it swept the English-speaking (and other?) worlds. This was definitely 1984 stuff – apparently the fundagelicals had been anti-abortion since the beginning of time, even though (for example) a well-known conservative theology professor had published an opinion piece in Christianity Today in 1968 explaining the bible says that life begins at birth:

“God does not regard the foetus as a soul, no matter how far gestation has progressed. The Law plainly exacts: 'If a man kills any human life he will be put to death' (Lev. 24:17). But according to Exodus 21:22–24, the destruction of the foetus is not a capital offence…Clearly, then, in contrast to the mother, the foetus is not reckoned as a soul.”

The magazine Christian Life agreed “The Bible definitely pinpoints a difference in the value of a foetus and an adult.”– and subscribers thought these were not false positions. Indeed, the ultra-conservative Southern Baptist Convention (which split from the Baptists because the Baptists didn't like their racism) proposed in 1971 that abortions should be legal, not only to preserve the mother's life but also her well-being. All of these theological positions were hastily swept under the carpet, and the racist origins of the movement were conveniently obfuscated by a campaign that tugged at peoples' heartstrings.

This new anti-abortion dogma, along with tacked-on opposition to feminism, homosexuality, sex-ed in schools and contraception, meant that Catholics could join the fold, and so was born the Moral Majority.

The Republicans needed an issue that could counter the recent electoral gains of the Democrats. And so with a guaranteed voting bloc to hand and with a natural aversion to the freedoms of the sexual revolution, the Republicans jumped on the anti-abortion (etc) band-wagon. With consequences that are still playing out today.

The Guardian has a good piece which gives further background on the issue.