Your Daily Ten@10 - 2026/104

This is edition 2026/104 of the Ten@10 newsletter.

Hi all,

This is the Ten@10, where I collate and summarise ten news items you generally won't see in the mainstream media.

Enjoy!

1. The “Far-Right” Deception.

Chris Trotter

• 🪧 A 2017 Morrinsville placard calling entity["politician","Jacinda Ardern","New Zealand Prime Minister"] a “communist” became a memorable but largely mocked campaign moment during “Jacindamania.”

• 🤔 The label was widely seen as exaggerated, as Ardern’s politics aligned more with modern Labour figures like Tony Blair and Helen Clark than true communism.

• ⚔️ Political name-calling has deep roots in New Zealand, with both Right and Left historically using emotionally charged insults to discredit opponents.

• 🐎 In 1913, left-wing activists branded William Massey’s strike-breaking forces as “Cossacks,” invoking Tsarist brutality.

• 📰 By the 1970s, accusations shifted to “fascism,” with critics of Robert Muldoon warning of “creeping fascism,” often inaccurately.

• 📚 Terms like fascism and Nazism have specific historical meanings tied to figures like Adolf Hitler, but are frequently misused as rhetorical weapons.

• 💬 Today, “Far Right” has become the dominant political insult, especially among elites, often used loosely without clear definition.

• 🧑‍💼 The essay argues that this language is driven by the Professional-Managerial Class (PMC), a powerful group positioned between capital and labour with its own ideology.

• ⚖️ The PMC blends progressive ideals with technocratic, often authoritarian tendencies, opposing both free-market neoliberalism and populist movements.

• 🎯 It reframes political conflict by labelling both elite-driven reforms and grassroots dissent as “Far Right,” presenting them as a unified threat.

• 🏛️ In New Zealand, the PMC is portrayed as resisting a National-led push to shrink the state while also suppressing populist opposition from below.

• 🚫 The essay claims this could lead to increased restrictions on free expression, driven by institutions like universities and the public sector.

• 🧩 Ultimately, the “communist” label aimed at Ardern is portrayed as missing the real issue: the rise of a self-serving intermediary class consolidating power between rich and poor.

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