Kick it in the guts, Trev.

Sometimes we look at the comments section on social media and we think that can’t be a real person surely? The things they are saying are so poorly informed, so racist or misogynist, blatantly wrong or just obvious lies.

You think maybe it’s a fake account being used to spread misinformation, to create noise around an issue, or to play to the basest fears and needs of those open to such messaging.

Yesterday morning I got a notification "Waiheke Aero Club mentioned you in their comment” so I clicked to find the message below. My first thought was - ok that's weird my comment they were responding to had nothing to do with Three Waters, it was on a completely unrelated news article. And secondly I thought in terms of "casual racism" that it was one laidback Aero Club.

You see dozens of comments like this a day, normally I'd just ignore it. You know if it’s “Jan Watson”, "Lonely Boy Jacinda Hater 69" or “Sue O’Neill” you'd think meh fake account, no real person would say things like that. But I clicked on the link to this one out of curiosity and sure enough it looked like an actual aero club not just a basement lurker.

So I replied as above and because I like to help out where I can I popped it in a review on their page to bring it to their attention. If Don Brash had hijacked my Facebook account and was spouting his appalling garbage under my name I'd want to know ASAP.

I was also kind of curious to learn more, New Zealand is a small place, Waiheke even more so, so I posted the following to my Facebook page:

I wonder if the racist troll hiding behind this account thought he'd logged into another account? Or is blatant lying and racism so ingrained that people think nothing of saying it publicly?

Does anyone by any chance know anything about the Waiheke Aero club? I feel like I'd like to find out a bit more.

I now found I was blocked from the Waiheke Aero Club (WAC) page, but it didn’t take long before the replies started coming in.

Someone provided the contact details for WAC, a mobile number and a website, the website was for a neighbouring business, the Waiheke Lodge (WL).

Someone contacted me and said the guy’s name was Trev, I asked how he knew and he told me:

His Waiheke Lodge has the airstrip next to it...and Trevor is mentioned as the host by a guest...companies office has his full name, and the pictures of him on the Aero club page match his personal Facebook profile

I was quite surprised as I used to work with Trev about a decade ago, coincidentally at the company that developed the Companies Office site. I did a quick look up of WL and there he was sure enough Trev and his wife as the two shareholders and directors.

The mobile number listed for the WAC is the same number listed for WL. So I thought I’d give him a call, I’d even prepared my little list of questions ready:

• Is this Trevor?

• Do you own or run the Waiheke Aero Club and/or the Waiheke Lodge?

• Did you post under the Aero Club account about Three Waters transferring money from rate payers to billionaire Iwi?

• Do you think that is true?

• Is it appropriate for an Aero Club to be posting things like that?

But it gave an out of service message.

I even tried calling the WL landline which rang for a while and then went to recorded message - can you guess who’s the voice was? Yep, our old friend Trev.

Finally I looked up his personal page, that wasn’t blocked, so I sent him a message asking if he might have time to discuss a couple of things to clarify.

In his about section Trev has a favourite quote

Public opinion is a weak tyrant compared with our own private opinion. What a man thinks of himself, that is which determines, or rather indicates, his fate.

Henry David Thoreau

Clearly a man not concerned with public opinion stifling his inner racist. He is out of the closet on that one - look at me I'm fighting Maori privilege and I'm fabulous living my best life doing it.

So what is there to take from this?

I guess that these people really are out there, they aren’t just fake accounts on social media. From a relatively small team at that company within a few desks of each other there were myself, Trev, Paul, and a lady who I’ve since learned is so far to the right she makes Nicola Willis look like a bleeding heart liberal. On the face of it these are normal professional people, middle NZ, but underneath they have ideas and views that would be considered pretty unacceptable to most people.

Oh I mentioned Paul? You remember the last lockdown there was a Destiny Church protest and it was announced on the News that one of Brian Tamaki’s lieutenants had tested positive for Covid after the protest - yeah that was Paul.

Is Trev a racist I’ll let you be the judge on that, I’m sure you can tell what I think.

Does Trevor think he is a racist - I’m guessing not.

Does Trevor know others might think his comments are racist - I assume the fact that he would block me from that page for asking a question probably means he has some idea it wasn’t appropriate and that he certainly didn’t want attention brought to it. 

Could it be that despite the bravery Trev feels in posting the Henry David Thoreau quote that he actually also recognises in some way that his publicly expressed opinions, especially when associated with his businesses or clubs, may not be the flashest idea?

Look I don't want to be unfair to the guy, I thought hard about whether to include his full name in the post. I tried to contact him to ask a few questions but was unable to do so. In in the end I've decided not to include his full name, I've just used "Trev".

Firstly the full name doesn't add anything to the story, secondly all the information is publicly available and anyone who is interested could find out very quickly, thirdly it’s not like we have a shortage of racists to look up out there if you want, and fourth - his name is Trev.

Then Trev blocked me on his personal account confirming he knew I was attempting to contact him beyond the message on the club page he’d blocked me from earlier.

A friend of mine, Tammie, contacted him about what he had said. Here are some of Trev’s replies (you might not want to read them all they are not short and these are just some):

Hello Tammie, I do not hide, because I am comfortable with the things I say, which are not racist and can be verified with facts. I am calling out the Maori racist agenda which if you understood this, is the OPPOSITE OF RACISM.

I do realise that it is like saying that the earth goes around the sun, when the Labour/Maori/Green government and vested interests are saying the equivalent of that the sun goes around the earth, but that does not make me wrong. Rather than shout "racist" at me which seems to be the standard nonsense, why not research the facts yourself.

First of all, read the Treaty of Waitangi in Maori signed on 6th February 1840 which is the real and only legal treaty in Maori, not the one made up in 1975 by Matiu Rata. Then look at the official and undisputed English translation in 1869, which all experts will agree is a perfect translation. You will not see any preference or special position given to Maori, we are all people under the crown - FULL STOP. If you did more than repeat the current racist nonsense, you would find that Maori elders were VERY KEEN for the crown to take control of New Zealand back then to protect them from the French who were seeking revenge for a slaughter and from each other. Iwi were regularly attacking each other, enslaving and consuming them for food. This is the Maori version of history, not in dispute by anyone.

The treaty industry is balancing on a pinhead of nonsense that has been elaborated on since 1975 and has now become a religion. When anyone says it is nonsense, thousands of vested interests are "offended" not because the person calling out the fraud is wrong, but because they will lose the benefit of what it does for them. Please check your own racism and if you do not like what I say, read the real history from the historical documents, I have. If you actually knew world history, you would know that because a lot of people believe something, does not make it true, this is as true of religion at it is for Nazism as it is for communism, aye comrade Jacinda...

FYI - throughout my life I have done heaps that part-Maori will and have benefited from. From implementing the diabetes system in Auckland Hospital (mostly part-Maori and pacific Islanders are customers) to thinking-up and organising to take 50 disadvantaged kids from South Auckland flying - yes the vast majority were part-Maori. I really do not care if you call me a racist Tammie, because I know I am not. The problem with you is, that you fail to realise how racist your own position is - it is entirely based on a racist agenda and those of us who think we should all be treated equally by our government are somehow wrong. What I am pointing out here is that as this escalates, part-Maori will be marginalised and will ultimately lose, just like apartheid anywhere else. I know this because I have travelled and worked all over the world.

At that point Trev thought perhaps he’d been a bit concise with his answer so he elaborated further with another outburst:

Sorry Tammie, I realise I cannot convince you with truth nor facts, no more than I can convince anyone out of their religion.

Throughout history people have fought wars to persuade others that their particular man in the sky is more important than the other person's man in the sky. Even though today we now know, there is no such thing, it does not prevent people for fervently believing it.

Perhaps one day, you might decide to read about New Zealand history, other than from some woke web site or someone pushing a racist agenda. You will realise how incredibly smart the Maori elders were at the time and what a great deal was done for all the people of New Zealand. This worked very well for 135 years until greed got in the way. This current fraud based on the 1975 fraud, could actually destroy New Zealand and that would be a real shame. You do not realise that Jacinda and her mob, are just using you to get what they want - divide and rule.

So at least Trev got to tell his side of the story after all, and what a story it is. Old Don Brash would have been proud. Funny thing is if I hadn’t seen that diatribe I probably wouldn’t have felt comfortable even using Trev’s first name.

I still feel kind of bad you know Trev was always perfectly pleasant to me and it’s a free country you know a man is allowed to use his later years, his (and this one goes out to Bomber) white privilege, to enjoy his passions. In the case of Trev that just happens to be flying private planes, I imagine an extensive collection of Garrick Tremain cartoons, and of course celebrating and sharing the works of Don Brash.

On the off chance you don’t think what old Trev had to say is so bad consider just one thing, his regular use of the phrase “part-Maori”, it is not ambiguous what he is saying by that.

The thing is this isn’t about this one guy, it’s about the fact that there are too many Trev’s out there still. How does someone get to 2022 and still think these sort of things are ok to say under your own name, let alone while representing an organisation?

There are a few organisations where that might be appropriate - Hobson’s Pledge, the Young Nats, or Kyle Chapman’s Aryan Brotherhood, but surely not an Aero club?

How do we let these people know it isn’t acceptable? It wouldn’t be if they were the drunk racist uncle some people felt compelled to put up with at a family event, it sure as heck isn’t to publish your lazy ignorant racism on a public platform where your possible customers, or your work mates, can see it.

I'm fortunate, Trev and I no longer work together, that’d be mighty awkward at the coffee machine in the morning. How do you handle it if you become aware of someone with views like Trev in your workplace, or worse in your family?

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