Kirsten Johnstone speculates idly about “good” and “bad” prisoners (Nov. 26, 2019)
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Kirsten Johnstone speculates idly about “good” and “bad” prisoners Song Crush, RNZ National, Tuesday 26 November 2019
On this episode, listeners chose their favorite songs, and host Kirsten Johnstone had a brief chat with them before playing each one. Duncan Allan of Wellington chose a poignant song about a man being released from prison on the Fourth of July. Sadly, and infuriatingly, Kirsten Johnstone entirely missed the humanity and beauty of the song, instead choosing to make a shallow and crass speculation about the moral standing of the prisoner, thereby staking out her moral superiority over these unfortunates.
Back in June, listeners were inflicted with a similar casual, patrician disdain for theuntermenschen from another one of RNZ National’s pop music pontificators.* These people clearly think of themselves as “woke”, but in fact are little different from the most intolerant and judgmental right wing boors.
KIRSTEN JOHNSTONE: Yeah, these songs where a guy is getting out of jail for some unknown reason just MAKE me-e-e-e VERY CURIOUS—ha hn-n-n!— but I mean, y’know, that question is never going to be answered. Like, why were they in jail? Are they a BAD guy, or are they a GOOD guy? I dunno. “Hometown Hero” by the Felice Brothers….
Song Crush, RNZ National, Tuesday 26 November 2019
https://www.rnz.co.nz/audio/player?audio_id=2018723706