<
https://sanjanah.wordpress.com/2025/09/03/a-patina-of-hate-the-targeting-of-academics-in-new-zealand-january-to-june-2025/>
"Throughout the first half of 2025 (from January to June), academics in
Aotearoa New Zealand were subjected to a systematic and escalating campaign of
harassment designed to silence scholarly voices in public policy debates. This
research – based off the daily study of the country’s far-right, violent
extremist, disinformation, anti-establishment, and anti-vaccine information
ecologies – documents a sophisticated, multi-platform, multi-media strategy
that leveraged social media networks to create networked cacophonies of hate,
hostile environments, discourage academic participation in democratic
discourse, and reinforce a wider anti-intellectual sentiment. The campaigns
were waged by a diverse coalition of actors, including social media
commentators, religious leaders, and conspiracy theory networks, and culminated
in an unprecedented abuse of governmental authority, with the Deputy Prime
Minister personally leading coordinated social media attacks against named
academics.
The analysis reveals a consistent playbook of tactics deployed across multiple
platforms and perpetrators. A dominant pattern was the use of pathologisation,
which framed policy disagreement as a form of mental illness through metaphors
like the “Regulatory Standards Derangement Syndrome.” This was frequently
combined with intensely personal attacks, where academics’ photographs were
weaponised to invite ridicule based on physical appearance, and their personal
histories were exploited to undermine their credibility. The targeting was
systematically underpinned by anti-intellectualism, which characterised
universities as “woke indoctrination centres” and dismissed scholarly expertise
as disconnected from the reality of “ordinary” New Zealanders.
A particularly disturbing pattern identified is the prevalence of
technology-facilitated gender-based violence, with female academics facing
significantly more intensive and personalised abuse than their male
counterparts. Wāhine Māori, in particular, were subjected to vicious
intersectional attacks that targeted both their gender and ethnicity, with
culturally specific abuse mocking practices such as the moko kauae. These
strategies were often amplified by conspiracy theories that sought to
delegitimise academic expertise by alleging corrupt funding from foreign
entities, such as USAID or the World Economic Forum, thereby portraying
scholarly criticism as part of a broader, malevolent plot.
Ultimately, this research demonstrates more than a series of isolated
incidents; it reveals a coordinated political strategy with profound and
corrosive outcomes. By normalising the harassment of experts and systematically
delegitimising academic institutions, the campaign has successfully created a
chilling effect on academic freedom. The tactics documented herein represent a
significant erosion of democratic norms, threatening the foundational role of
the university as the “critic and conscience of society” and creating lasting
damage to the quality and integrity of public debate in New Zealand."
Via Violet Blue’s
Threat Model - Covid: September 4, 2025
https://www.patreon.com/posts/covid-september-138093061
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
