Why I fear for Aotearoa

We are not a very happy country but we are still a complacent one.

- STEPHEN DAVIS

After five years of studying, writing and speaking about mis- and disinformation, and sounding the alarm, it would be nice for me to think Kiwis were taking the threat seriously. We are discussing it, it’s true, but we are actually doing very little.

Many people think it can’t happen here when it is already happening here.

We could be the Finland of the South Pacific, teaching critical thinking to our children, but with better weather. Instead, we may end up as just a colder version of Queensland, where I once had to explain to a popular radio host that the moon landings were not faked.

To leave the university city of Dunedin for a trip around the South Island is to encounter evidence of information disorder everywhere anti Three Waters signs every few kilometres by the roadside and, in one town, protesters holding placards saying “The media lies” drawing raucous support from passing motorists.

There are genuine questions about the plans for new water authorities, but the debate is our version of critical race theory; opposed by people regardless of the facts.

This is my last column in this series. I have a new book to write, and a TV documentary and podcast series to make. To be honest, it will also be a relief to spend less time thinking about Conspiracy World.