Countersunk?

Yesterday evening I attended an interesting Counterspin Media event in Wellington. Counterspin, for those not in the know, is an “alternative” media organisation in NZ run by Kelvyn Alp and Hannah Spierer. They have a small studio from which they create long videos about conspiracy ideas, and post these videos to places like Rumble, Telegram and GTV (because they keep getting banned from more moderate platforms such as YouTube and Facebook).

Over the last few weeks Counterspin have been touring the North island, running speaking events in towns where a few people have been invited to speak each evening - usually people who are opposed to our government's policies on vaccination (such as the mandates). Last night was the turn of Wellington, and the event was held in the “Alex Moore Park Stadium”. I've used quotes here because the venue is not a stadium in the popular use of the word - it's not a multiple thousand capacity venue. Rather, it's a newly built, small “Sport and Community Hub” called Waiora Hub, a part of Alex Moore Park in Johnsonville, as stated on their website - it's a local sports clubroom, not a stadium. Although small, I'll give Counterspin credit for at least filling the room upstairs, with maybe 150 people in attendance.

The speakers for the evening included:

Dr Matt Shelton, who spoke about his suspension by the Medical Council and subsequent reversal of the suspension when he took his case to court. We were privy to exclusive first-hand information that the Medical Council has recently chosen to re-institute their suspension, as they consider they have adequate new reason to keep Dr Shelton away from patients.

Heker Robertson, a Destiny church pastor, who talked about how the parliament protests brought people together. He was there to ask people to “lease their vote” to Brian Tamaki and his new political party. We were told repeatedly to text the word SUPPORT to a phone number.

Mary Byrne, head of Fluoride Free NZ, who gave a surprisingly rousing speech about how everyone should work together. Mary's not the most dynamic of people, but she's a tireless worker and seems to avoid the internal politics that many of the conspiracy minded get wrapped up in.

Kelvyn and Hannah spoke at the beginning and end of the evening. Honestly, for all the talk of a need to come together before the next election, and a rallying call from most of the speakers to work on becoming a formidable political force, these people are their own worst enemy. Kelvyn likes to ramble on about his favourite old-man gripes, and on this particular night this included the existence of transgender people, Māori rights and feminists (which is also one of Hannah's favourite topics - she talked about how women should give up their career aspirations and be content to be “domestic goddesses”). Although there was some agreement in the crowd when he went on his rants, by the end of the evening he'd started an argument with a Māori woman and left a sour taste in many people's mouths. Hannah tried to salvage things, but by then the damage done by Kelvyn was already done.

My sincere hope is that this nascent “freedom” movement will implode under the weight of personalities like Kelvin Alp, Brian Tamaki, Chantelle and Leighton Baker, Sue Grey, Damien De Ment, Brad Flutey, Karen Brewer and Claire Deeks. If that happens, they'll be doing our job for us!