Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Predictable witch-hunt begins on Jamie Whyte

It was never going to take long for the media to find Something in new ACT leader Jamie Whyte's past writings to sensationalise.

New Act Leader Jamie Whyte is standing by his comments that incestuous relationships between consenting adults should not be illegal and says it would be "intellectually corrupt" of him not to be honest when asked such questions.

Of course he is right. And in a modern world where so many more people produce children casually, where there are so many broken or unknown familial relationships, where the chance that related people (unaware of that status) may enter into sexual relationships, the idea that incest is illegal and punishable by the state is inhumane and hopelessly outdated.

11 comments:

Judge Holden said...

This is a defining issue that Act should make a centre-piece of their campaign. It would be intellectually corrupt of them not to have as a make or break part of any coalition agreement that fathers and daughters can get married.

This guy's great. He's not as weird as John Banks, but he's sure trying.

Lindsay Mitchell said...

Only you are saying, "...this is a defining issue".

It's not.

Mark Hubbard said...

I've been fielding debate on Twitter over it. All the predictable, infantile behaviour from the haters who wouldn't know a principle if they thought about it, because they lead their whole lives emoting over every issue, with no ability to analyse like adults.

Anonymous said...

Labour just appointed McCarten as Chief of Staff & campaign manager.

They've put an avowed econo-terrorist and actual declared communist at their top table - bring along with him ex-terrorist Harawira and his MANA party including convicted terrorist Tame "Mandela" "Kill Whites" Iti.

The election should have been over today.

Prebble should be wiping Labour out over this.
Hell given half a chance Prebs would have even got the Greens to dump labour and at least offered to abstain from the next National/ACT/Conservative government (a government I fervently hope will actually be Right wing - unlike the last 6 years, or the 9 years before that, or the 6 years before that…)

Instead of which, we're debating whether Jamie Whyte should be allowed to marry his sister.

Even Cunliffe took longer to show he was totally unsuited to lead a party in an election campaign.

I just hope Prebs is on the phone to Whyte, reciting Tucker's Law:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5p27Lr8y2s

Psycho Milt said...

...the chance that related people (unaware of that status) may enter into sexual relationships...

This is an aspect of the increasing number of people who don't know who at least one of their parents are that I hadn't thought about.

Judge Holden said...

It's not (a defining issue)".

Au contrare. Why are only certain aspects of a free society important? It's not just about the freedom to get rich by destroying the environment and exploiting other people, there's so much more to it than that. There's the right to own a machine gun, sell drugs to school kids, marry your son and so on. Embrace it all!

Lindsay Mitchell said...

Psycho Milt, There is another related issue. With many more second marriages and subsequent formal adoption of each other's existing children, some individuals raised as 'siblings' or 'step-brothers and sisters' may form 'normal' attachments that are actually illegal. All of this stuff is not only worthy of debate, but vital.

The Veteran said...

Understandable from someone who I understand comes from the Libertarian Wing of ACT but dumb politics as it muddies the water in respect of the key messages that ACT needs to get through to grow its support.

Not quite so dumb though as Cunliffe's appointment of McCarten as his CoS. Perception in politics is everything and this will be perceived as a further lurch to the left ... and elections ain't won on the left.

See the fallout has already started with Anderton saying he won't be campaigning for Labour this year.

thor42 said...

@The Veteran - "dumb politics as it muddies the water in respect of the key messages that ACT needs to get through to grow its support."

Exactly right.

If he hadn't screwed up, Whyte *could* have been talking about ACT's tax policy.
Instead, he puts both feet in his mouth and completely stuffs up any chance of an ACT comeback.
They might as well give up now.

Grant said...

No one has asked "why is incest illegal?". From a biological viewpoint animals avoid incest because of the greatly increased risk of birth defects and associated problems. In the modern world this translates to "incest is illegal to keep medical and welfare costs down". It is a fence at the top of the cliff.

Anonymous said...

elections ain't won on the left

except in NZ. In NZ, elections are won by the party that is most convincingly communist.

If he hadn't screwed up, Whyte *could* have been talking about ACT's tax policy.
Instead, he puts both feet in his mouth and completely stuffs up any chance of an ACT comeback.



Right. How hard is it only to talk about party policy? How hard is it to say "we have no policy about {incest, dope, guns, flags, republics, } or whatever else you don't have policy about."