Things that aren’t the point: John Key’s fucklist edition

Inspired by comments on the relevant Standard post.

It isn’t actually relevant that your wife is totally cool with you finding Jessica Alba hot.

It isn’t actually relevant that your wife thinks Brad Pitt is hot.

It isn’t actually relevant that you don’t mind your wife finding Brad Pitt hot.

It isn’t actually relevant that “most guys think [celebrity X] is hot”.

It isn’t actually relevant that “men naturally look at attractive women” (it’s also a bullshit evo-psych excuse for not being decent human beings!)

It isn’t actually relevant that heaps of other Manly Males talk about which celebrity women they wish they could fuck with no actual consideration given to whether those women would ever want to fuck them.

It also isn’t about being “light-hearted” and it’s not about “having a sense of humour”.

It is about the Prime Minister of New Zealand going on a radio show hosted by a basically unapologetic violent abuser in order to make himself look more “ordinary” by reinforcing the idea that women are valuable for being young and hot and sexually available.

Not sure why that needed explaining, but there you go.

14 comments

  1. Armchair Critic

    Why the fuck would:
    1. The PM (any PM) want to look ordinary, and
    2. Anyone vote for an ordinary PM?
    I’d prefer an exceptional PM, personally.

    • QoT

      It’s a mystery to me too, AC, but that’s the current dominant narrative. Compare with Dubya. We seem to be in a time of rising anti-intellectualism where a fair chunk of people feel actively threatened by leaders who can use big words.

    • Draco T Bastard

      By being “ordinary” they’re trying impress the idea on people that they’re “mainstream” rather than a minority clique.

      • QoT

        Where “mainstream” is of course a purely subjective notion defined by everyone as “just like me”.

  2. Armchair Critic

    It also doesn’t matter that Tony Veitch has completed his sentence. He still has a criminal record.
    We are not required to “forget it ever happened” once the sentence is served.

    • QoT

      Absolutely. It’s like the “innocent until proven guilty” principle – it applies to the justice system, not the rest of society. As far as the police and the courts are concerned, he’s paid his dues.

      As far as society is concerned, he’s still a fake-apologetic man who has made no attempt to actually own his shit and let people know he realises it was way beyond unacceptable behaviour.

  4. Pingback: Tweets that mention Things that aren’t the point: John Key’s fucklist edition « Ideologically Impure -- Topsy.com
  5. Pascal's bookie

    A interesting series of posts on this ‘ordinary bloke’ business, starting
    here , with the rest on the front page.

    Blogger is that Puddleglum that shows up at TS occasionally, but not enough.

    Couple of wee, (by which II mean to say, long) quotes from the second post which nail it, IMO:

    It might seem odd to say that (pakeha) New Zealanders gain their identities principally by commitment to an ideology. Few New Zealanders would call themselves ‘ideological’. In fact, the ideology to which they are committed has as a central idea (and value) that being ideological is a problem, not a solution; something to be avoided….

    …If you’ve ever thought that New Zealand has the feel of a ‘suffocating’ culture it’s probably this process you’ve been experiencing – the day to day ideological purging of those insufficiently committed to the dominant New Zealand (pakeha) ideology. You can ‘achieve’ anything you like out in the public world but you have to be, and clearly show in your day to day life, that in doing that you’re actually just an ordinary Kiwi.

    Even more tellingly, when it comes to being ‘aspirational’ you’ll get the message completely wrong if you think that means you can aspire to be something other than an ordinary Kiwi rather than aspiring purely for external achievements. You can conquer Everest but, if you do so, you better say ‘We knocked the buggar off’ rather than, for example, quoting a suitable line from Shakespeare.

    If you feel like quoting Shakespeare then you should take a deep breath, conjur the quintessential Kiwi attitude, suppress Shakespeare and say something ruggedly pragmatic and understated. To do otherwise is to suggest that, just possibly, it was the added insight into life given through immersion in great literature that poured itself into your motivation to conquer the world’s highest mountain. That would be betrayal of all those New Zealanders who think you got there through manifesting something they share with you – your ordinary New Zealandness.

  6. Pingback: Bloke-ing up | A Bee of a Certain Age
  7. Benno

    John Key is the biggest Douche in the universe. Tony Veitch is the lowest form of scum on the planet and never deserved a second chance. I cringe everytime i hear his overbloated ego on the radio…