Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: The academics need to harden up here

Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive

Have you caught up on the drama between the academics and David Seymour? Can I just respectfully suggest that the academics need to harden up?

They are upset because David Seymour has published a 'Victim of the Day' on social media, and he seems to be doing it reasonably regularly. It's featuring academics who are upset about the Regulatory Standards Bill - and then it's mocking them for that.

Now, they're not happy. They're accusing him of breaching the Cabinet Manual. They say that his posts are unethical, unprofessional, potentially dangerous to those who are targeted, and that he's trying to silence them.

Thereby proving his point that they really are victims, aren't they?

Now, I'm surprised at how thin-skinned these academics are. Let's be honest about it, none of us like to be skewered. It can sting. But it kind of comes with the territory, doesn't it?

If you are in public, and especially if you choose to put yourself in public - which these academics are doing by choosing to, for example, pen opinion pieces criticizing the bill - then they are inviting a response, and they cannot dictate what that response is.

And actually, I could be wrong, but what I've seen doesn't seem that harsh. It just seems like a right of reply, but tongue in cheek.

Context is important here as well, because this David versus academic spat has actually been going on a fair bit.

David Seymour, in my personal opinion, has been given a bit of a rough time by some academics - one in particular who I think is the worst offender.

She has, in the past, said that she hopes he doesn't have kids, and then called his Government a fascist white supremacist Government, which certainly makes his response look adult.

Now, if academics - and I'm not saying it's the same academics here by any stretch - but collectively, if they want to hand it out, they have to also be prepared to suck it up.

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