Hi,

How are you doing? How are things?

Things are a little chaotic for me at the moment. To be fair, things are always a little chaotic. It’s just a little more so at the moment. I’m a little stressed out.

I’m getting ready to head to Philadelphia this weekend for the Philly Film Festival, then pretty shortly after that I’ll be flying the 12 hours back to New Zealand for a month — for Webworm, Arise!, and to release Mister Organ back home. Flightless Bird will carry on weekly as per normal. So will Webworm: my writing may just be a little more chaotic.

The subject of Mister Organ — Mr Organ — has begun various machinations to make my life difficult in Aotearoa. It’s taking up a lot of time. I can’t talk about most of it right now, but there’s one small aspect I wanted to share today.

Organ appears to have gotten the ear of New Zealand broadcaster Sean Plunket. If you are not familiar with the New Zealand media landscape — it’s small, and it can be feral. Sean occupies a strange, angry place there (I’ve written about him before) — platforming conspiracy theorists and anti-trans rhetoric. His website/online radio show is backed by millions of dollars, care of rich lister Wayne Wright.

Last night, the man with millions behind him sent out this incorrect tweet about me:

To be clear, this is a defamatory statement. Him framing it as a question (the “I’m just asking questions!” technique) is his attempt not to be defamatory. But it is. I have not been ordered by any court to go to any “violence courses” lately — or ever — mainly because I have not carried out any violence.

Mr Plunket’s insinuation is that I am violent. That I have carried out violence.

But his followers listen, and now a bunch of people in New Zealand believe him:

I know for a fact this “court ordered violence course” is the latest piece of disinformation being propagated by one Mr Organ, the subject of my documentary. It will make sense when you see the film.

And Organ appears to have found an ally in the multi-million dollar backed Sean Plunket.

Journalist and Webworm contributor Hayden Donnell tweeted this very dry response back at Sean, which sums the situation up fairly well:

Sean sent another tweet — also incorrect:

The trailer to Mister Organ not been removed by YouTube, and I don’t see a reason it would be. Let’s just say that like Michael Organ, Sean Plunket is not exactly in the truth game.

Why does this matter? On one hand, it doesn’t. I have a thick skin.

But also — it’s tiring. I’m tired.

I think a lot of people see Aotearoa as this beautiful, Lord of the Rings-eque wonderland. And it is. It’s my favourite country. It’s home. But it’s also full of the same filth we see in places like America, and so when Sean tweets — and I reply to the defamatory statement with simple “no” — a bunch of kiwis will believe him.

And replies will come in, Trump avatars on display — and the homophobia begins:

As Sean — and others like him — go around proclaiming “I’m just asking questions”, I often wonder what they think of their fans. When they look and see what their fans are saying. Is there a part of them that goes “Oh, people who seem to love my work also love saying faggot a lot. I wonder if that is a reflection of me in any way.”

Also, just briefly:

I’m bisexual I’m bisexual I’m bisexual Tickled is not about tickling it’s about a New York millionaire conman wrap your Goddamn fucking heads around that you fucking brussel sprouts.

That’s just a mini update from me.

To anyone that pays for Webworm, thanks. I may not have the millions of dollars Sean Plunket has behind his enterprise, but I have you. And you’re fucking cool — thanks to you, the walls close in a little less. To those that don’t pay, thanks for reading and sticking with me — you’re rad too.

David.