NO LEFT, NO RIGHT—JUST KIDS: WHY POLITICS MUST SERVE THE FUTURE, NOT THE PARTIES
“There’s no such thing as Democrat kids or Republican kids. There’s just kids.” - RFK Jr
I often wonder why, of all things, outside of my direct creative practice and consumption of creativity, I naturally gravitate towards checking in on American politics in my doom-scroll time.
Though my AI assistant provides me with a daily short summarised report updating me on political developments in the US, New Zealand and Samoa, it is the U.S. that I personally keep my finger on the pulse of most.
The ideological battle of 2025 is unfolding most vividly in the U.S., where reality outshines fiction. It’s the most gripping spectacle on Earth—wilder than any Hollywood script—yet with real-world stakes that extend far beyond the screen.
The opening quote to this blog is from a statement made by RFK Jr., a member of the Democratic political Kennedy dynasty, who in 2025, has now become Trump’s Republican nominee for Secretary of Health currently undergoing confirmation hearings at the time of writing.
Having watched some fascinating back-and-forth exchanges, I couldn’t help but feel that we were witnessing the political equivalent of a cool, calm, collected Kendrick Lamar dismantling the Democrats' Drake-like theatrics and antics tailored for the media cameras.
Even more so, I wondered if the Democrats—like Drake—had any self-awareness about how the general public actually perceives what is unfolding.
As an exercise, I urge anyone—regardless of political leanings or even general interest in politics—to look past the mainstream headlines and biased articles that saturate our mainstream news feeds, and set aside some time to watch mid-to-long-form videos or highlights of the confirmation hearings so far for:
RFK Jr. – Secretary of Health
Tulsi Gabbard – Director of National Intelligence
Kash Patel – Director of FBI
Listen to the questions and responses from all involved. Use your own judgment and discernment.
I guarantee you that the character, conviction, and integrity of those answering are painfully evident, revealing exactly where people’s trust should lie.
Tulsi Gabbard and Kash Patel
PORTAYAL VS REALITY
The greater point here is that two of the three appointees mentioned above—RFK Jr. and Tulsi—are prestigious ex-Democrats of high ranking and standing from their former party, and have faced the most severe criticism from their former colleagues.
Lieutenant Colonel Tulsi Gabbard is a former U.S. Congresswoman, military veteran of over 20 years service, of mixed Pacific Island heritage, and is a practising Hindu.
Kash Patel is of Indian heritage, a lawyer and former federal prosecutor who has held key national security roles, including Chief of Staff to the Acting U.S. Secretary of Defense and Senior Advisor to the Acting Director of National Intelligence during the Trump’s last administration.
These two nominees alone undercuts yet another Democrat mainstream generalisation that the political ‘right’ are racist white supremacists, anti women and anti LGBTQI++
Oh yeah…then there’s also this guy, Trumps Secretary of Treasury Scott Bessent, an openly gay hedge fund manager.
The discrepancy between media portrayal and actual reality couldn’t be more obvious in these three hugely important nominations, and I can’t think of a greater metaphor for the drastic idealogical shifts and widespread mainstream media mistrust we are witnessing in the world today.
The left, once dominant in controlling speech through centralized media control, is now losing its grip on public opinion—especially when forced into open debate with those they sought to demonise and silence.
They forget that, just as art has always been a reflection of the technology of its time, so too has the flow of information and the ability through non mainstream controlled media to be informed.
The Three States of Information
The laws of physics states: “For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.”
This principle seems to have played it’s natural course out in this battle of free speech and the control of media and information, evolving into three distinct states:
Information
Misinformation
Disinformation
If democracy relies upon an informed population, given the swamp of truths, half truths and fake truths we must wade through as citizens to inform ourselves and our families, is it any surprise that the U.S., Samoan, and NZ political state of affairs are currently in complete disarray?
As someone who actively oscillates between both sides of the idealogical spectrum across multiple online platforms in the rigorous testing of my own biases, I can’t overstate that the gap between each echo chamber is wider than ever.
CHECKING MY OWN BIASES
Over on X (formerly Twitter), I recently noticed a particular post gaining traction across multiple local pages.
NZ based pages on the right were rapidly circulating and reposting the above screen shotted poll of Trump VS Jacinda in celebration of another supposed win over Jacinda and the woke left, and obviously riding the nationalist populism wave that the US is directly influencing.
A big problem though.
I don’t think the article was real.
Now, for the record, although I have supported Jacinda directly in the past on various occasions through various projects and kaupapa, I’ve personally lost a huge amount of respect for her after her management of Covid and the whole vaccine mandate and lockdown fiasco, a period that had huge impacts on myself, colleagues and family members who succumbed to the medical coercion and also unjustly lost their jobs and businesses.
However, although no longer a fan of hers, and personally, in such a binary poll choice would have voted for Trump over her, I checked my biases at the pause of my thumb and had to quickly search online and have AI scan ‘Stuff’ itself and the internet for any such poll…
Nothing.
I quickly called the NZ X pages on the right out, asking for proof or it never happened.
Nothing.
It was the most ironic thing ever, that the right, who like Trump, mock the ‘fake news’ and corrupt media reporting, are themselves engaging in the exact same behaviour, doctoring and creating fake images for their echo chamber and now engaging in the own form of ‘virtue signalling’ from the right!
As an aside to this, as an artist currently exploring programming Artificial Intelligence and agents, when you scroll through social media comment sections on certain topics, I guarantee you that many of those responses are AI-generated scripted bots automatically executing their pre-programmed algorithmic missions, optimised to piss you off and increase further engagement and screen time for the platform advertisers.
The long term effects of this on society can only be imagined….
NO ONE SIZE FITS ALL
As an artist and creative, my default being leans left—to push, explore, and progress human expression into new and unexplored spaces and ways of doing things. My portfolio speaks for itself.
As a New Zealand born citizen, I lean left on many issues, like concern for the most vulnerable in society, the environment, indigenous rights, amongst others. I respect and work alongside many fine people from all walks of life, irrespective of ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation.
As a New Zealand-born Samoan and matai (chief), I also lean left, in that my individual rights come secondary to the collective. We are here to ‘tautua’ and serve the village; that when we are metaphorically and literally blessed on a day out fishing, we must first distribute our catch out to the minister, our families, our neighbours and those in need first, and if there’s anything left over, we give thanks. Vi’ia le Ali’i.
And yet again, as as a New Zealand-born Samoan and matai, my default programming also leans right—to uphold foundational, fundamental family and faith-based cultural beliefs and core tenets, drawing clear lines in the sand on certain issues that cannot be crossed or deviated from.
Life is nuanced, complicated and complex, where two things can be true at once.
I asked AI where Samoa lies on the political spectrum. This was the response:
"Samoa's political system does not neatly fit into a traditional left-right spectrum as understood in Western democracies. The country's politics are heavily influenced by traditional Samoan customs and the fa’amatai chiefly system, which coexists with a parliamentary democracy."
Enough said.
It seems my own ethnic Samoan heritage has long experimented with finding its own creative combinations of different belief systems in its journey to date.
I reject any media narrative that tries to confine me to a single way of thinking or pressures me to conform to mainstream definitions of artistic quality or value.
I firmly believe in living and letting live—so long as our actions don’t infringe on others’ rights, enforce compelled speech, and, most importantly, ensure the protection of our kids at all costs.
as OL DIRTY BASTARD ONCE FAMOUSLY SAID WHEN CRASHING THE 2009 GRAMMY’S- “Wu Tang is for the children”
I urge truth-seekers to swap a night of Netflix for unfiltered interviews and hearings—step beyond bias and listen with an open mind. Watch as RFK Jr. confronts Bernie Sanders, exposing the open secret: Congress is bankrolled by Big Pharma, voting in the interests of the very corporations that profit from keeping people sick.
It makes me think about the parallel situational equivalents in NZ and Samoa, and it brings me back to the questions that ultimately matter most:
Are our kids safe? How can our kids be healthier to reach their fullest potential in life? How safe is the new technology that they will use, the incoming immersive audio visual haptic AI augmented reality media that that they will be consuming? How will the increasingly blurred line dividing the real life physical from their online avatar selves affect their lives?
The integrity of the people we vote in to who have direct control over these questions matters.
A LOT.
My prayer is that common sense prevails—that we can see beyond the left-right paradigm, put aside the financial and job security incentives that blur our judgements and just get back to focusing on what truly matters: doing what’s right for the kids.
USA: “There’s no such thing as Democrat kids or Republican kids. There’s just kids.”
Samoa: “There’s no such thing as FAST kids or HRPP kids. There’s just kids.”
NZ: “There’s no such thing as Maori, Labour and Green’s kids or National, ACT and NZ First kids. There’s just kids.”
Protect the kids.
-Faiumu Matthew Salapu | ANONYMOUZ
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