Halloween is upon us again

And boy do we have a scary induction for the Sick Phoque Club to round off October 2020: all you idiots that voted National in the NZ general election two weeks ago (along with all the shitheads that voted no to legalisation of marijuana, but we’ll cross that bridge once the special votes are counted). In what was marketed as the first “Leaders Breakfast” on NewstalkZB with Mike Hoskings, the leader of the National Party, Judith Collins, commented on the secondary education curriculum of Aotearoa New Zealand, stating; “The trouble with NCEA, Mike, to be frank, is there’s too many photography classes, too much media studies, too much woke stuff." The contempt for the creative arts and media studies expressed by Collins should be read alongside similar such attacks by the far right on critical pedagogy across the globe. That Collins places the teaching of media studies as “woke stuff” sheds light on what her problem with media studies really is – that she sees the discipline as teaching students how to ask critical questions, which I think is a good thing. In fact, being woke in general is a good thing. Stay woke, people, and if you’re in America and are eligible to vote, vote Howie Hawkins for president on Tuesday.