Local Rag 22 Full Exposure

Jared Ipsen (He/Him)

Well, it’s been a while, hasn’t it? While you’ve been off vaping, watching Netflix, subsidising John Lawrenson’s hedonistic lifestyle, and spending 5 hours a day on TikTok, the constant dull screams of our dying planet have been going on in the background. And who better to let the cancerous news cycle make holes in their brain than me, some random dude that works for student media? Luckily, the mental health system in our country is so good, so when I inevitably have a breakdown from how grim everything is, it’ll only take me 12 months to see a therapist.

At the Beehive, Aunty Jacinda has been overseas on a PR run, Luxon is creating his own circular media ecosystem by saying incredibly stupid shit and then apologising for it, and David Seymour is still saying incredibly stupid shit and then doubling down on it. New laws are being passed to try and curb the ‘excessive profits’ enjoyed by our tyrannical supermarket overlords, and Chlöe Swarbrick’s local council-backed alcohol harm minimisation bill is picking up momentum after being pulled from the biscuit tin. Closer to home, the local body election cycle is about to begin, with Hamilton City Council hopefuls set to drop thousands of dollars on non-recyclable signage to destroy the planet with, both aesthetically and environmentally. What a joy!

The overruling of Roe v. Wade proved to be a deeply unpopular move on the world stage, with world leaders Macron, Johnson, Trudeau, and our own Ardern expressing their disappointment, with Jacinda saying that ‘personal beliefs should never rob another from making their own decisions.’ The move seems to be motivated by religious beliefs in America, which I am hesitant to describe as ‘Christian', as the Christian bible never actually forbids abortion at all (in fact, the only punishment for an abortion according to Exodus 21:22 is a fine), and 70% of women who have had an abortion in America describe themselves as Christian. Christianity itself has never had a consistent view on abortion either, with some early Christian writers believing that abortion was morally permissable. Those behind the prolife movement in the US can probably be more accurately described as Christian facists, because despite only 60% of Americans identifying as Christian, they still believe that everybody should follow their own skewed interpretations of scripture. Around 2000 years ago, a very nice Jewish man in the Middle East told everyone that they should be a little bit nicer to each other - perhaps those who want to take away the rights of women need to ponder on that a little more.