{"id":374,"date":"2023-01-27T08:09:30","date_gmt":"2023-01-26T19:09:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/daveforcouncil.nz\/?p=374"},"modified":"2023-01-27T08:09:30","modified_gmt":"2023-01-26T19:09:30","slug":"nz-herald-whakatane-mans-roadside-stance-against-hate-directed-at-ex-pm-jacinda-ardern-27-jan-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/exposures.co.nz\/?p=374","title":{"rendered":"Whakat\u0101ne man\u2019s roadside stance against hate directed at ex-PM Jacinda Ardern"},"content":{"rendered":"

Source<\/a><\/p>\n

Whakat\u0101ne man\u2019s roadside stance against hate directed at ex-PM Jacinda Ardern<\/strong><\/p>\n

By Diane McCarthy\u00a0<\/span>Bay of Plenty Times <\/span>

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Whakat\u0101ne man Dave Stewart is demonstrating support for Jacinda Ardern as his way of standing up to the bullying she has faced as prime minister and to thank her for her public service. Photo \/ Troy Baker<\/p>\n

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Whakat\u0101ne man Dave Stewart has been spurred by the hate and vitriol directed at Jacinda Ardern to demonstrate his gratitude for her public service.<\/p>\n

Stewart has been seen every day, since Monday, standing on prominent roundabouts or roadsides in Whakat\u0101ne during peak traffic hours holding a sign saying, \u201cThank you Jacinda, best PM ever\u201d. He intends to continue for the rest of this week.<\/p>\n

He said the purpose of his stance has been to stand up to all the bullying and hate that Ardern had been subject to.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just thought, it\u2019s time to make a stand now and say that, actually, Jacinda, a lot of people do love you,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n

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It has been well documented that threats of death and violence have been amongst the extreme hatred levelled at Ardern, which has increased over the past six months or so.<\/p>\n

A recent article published on the University of Auckland website by senior lecturer in politics and international relations, Chris Wilson, appeared to bear this out.<\/p>\n

Wilson, who recently led a team of researchers looking into extremism and hate on internet forums Gab, NZ Telegram channels, 4chan, Reddit and 8chan – known to be homes to the \u2018dark corners\u2019 in terms of people\u2019s comments – compared seven public figures in New Zealand, politicians and bureaucrats, male and female, from the left and right of the political spectrum.<\/p>\n

The study showed that Ardern \u201cfaced online vitriol at a rate between 50 and 90 times higher than any other high-profile figure\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I saw Jacinda\u2019s resignation speech, I thought that I hadn\u2019t done enough to stand up to the bullying,\u201d Stewart said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d (previously) thought to myself how remarkable it was that she was doing the job and how she handles all of the hate, and in that moment, I realised, actually, she hasn\u2019t and that I should have done something earlier.\u201d<\/p>\n

What really sparked Stewart\u2019s demonstration was when he drove to Auckland on Friday and saw an example of the sort of hate Ardern had been subjected to as he passed a farm on the Bombay hills.<\/p>\n

\u201cEach hay bale had a letter on it that spelt out \u2018resignation accepted\u2019 and the farmer had put a stuffed horse … on a stake. I thought it was so horrible, I wanted to go and knock on his door and say, \u2018I really think that\u2019s nasty\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cI haven\u2019t done enough to counter that, and I think I needed to, for myself. I needed to stand on the side of the road with a sign saying, \u2018thank you, Jacinda\u2019. It\u2019s about spreading a whole lot of love over a whole lot of hate and every time you do that love will always shine through, I think.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stewart, who has lived in Whakat\u0101ne for 10 years, describes himself as a retired businessman. He has worked in farming and in the horse racing industry for 41 years as a photo finish operator.<\/p>\n

He said the response he had received to his demonstration had been overwhelmingly positive, although after the first day, Whakat\u0101ne Police had requested that he not stand on the roundabouts as he could cause nose-to-tail accidents.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne guy drove around the Eivers Rd roundabout three times and had a conversation with me. He said, \u2018good on yah, mate. I totally agree with you\u2019 then he came back and said, \u2018I wish I had the balls to do what you\u2019re doing\u2019, and then he drove around one more time and said \u2018I\u2019ve got to go to work now\u2019.<\/p>\n

I could sort of see from that, that the cops had a point, that it could cause an accident. I didn\u2019t want to do that.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was really expecting a lot of hate. On the first day I think I got four people swear at me, but overwhelmingly, 100 times more than that were tooting and waving and giving thumbs up and all the rest of it, and [Tuesday] was even better. So, the reaction was that a lot of people would like to acknowledge and say, \u2018thank you, Jacinda Ardern\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are a lot of people who are glad she\u2019s gone, and that\u2019s politics, that\u2019s how politics works but we don\u2019t need this vile politics that we\u2019ve got. There\u2019s just no place for it, I don\u2019t think. That\u2019s what this is about – standing up to it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

27 Jan, 2023 Whakat\u0101ne man Dave Stewart has been spurred by the hate and vitriol directed at Jacinda Ardern to demonstrate his gratitude for her public service. Stewart has been seen every day, since Monday, standing on prominent roundabouts or roadsides in Whakat\u0101ne during peak traffic hours holding a sign saying, \u201cThank you Jacinda, best PM ever\u201d. He intends to continue for the rest of this week. He said the purpose of his stance has been to stand up to all the bullying and hate that Ardern had been subject to. . . . → Read More: Whakat\u0101ne man\u2019s roadside stance against hate directed at ex-PM Jacinda Ardern<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7410,"featured_media":417,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"audio","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"NZ Herald - Whakat\u0101ne man\u2019s roadside stance against hate directed at ex-PM Jacinda Ardern - 27 Jan 2023","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[121,126],"tags":[],"series":[124],"class_list":["post-374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-from-the-press","category-nz-herald","series-dave-for-council","odd"],"episode_featured_image":"https:\/\/exposures.co.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/nats_04020807.jpg","episode_player_image":"https:\/\/exposures.co.nz\/wp-content\/plugins\/seriously-simple-podcasting\/assets\/images\/no-album-art.png","download_link":"","player_link":"","audio_player":false,"episode_data":{"playerMode":"dark","subscribeUrls":{"apple_podcasts":{"key":"apple_podcasts","url":"","label":"Apple Podcasts","class":"apple_podcasts","icon":"apple-podcasts.png"},"stitcher":{"key":"stitcher","url":"","label":"Stitcher","class":"stitcher","icon":"stitcher.png"},"google_podcasts":{"key":"google_podcasts","url":"","label":"Google Podcasts","class":"google_podcasts","icon":"google-podcasts.png"},"spotify":{"key":"spotify","url":"","label":"Spotify","class":"spotify","icon":"spotify.png"}},"rssFeedUrl":"https:\/\/exposures.co.nz\/?feed=podcast&podcast_series=dave-for-council","embedCode":"

Whakat\u0101ne man\u2019s roadside stance against hate directed at ex-PM Jacinda Ardern<\/a><\/blockquote>