Life Archives - Witchdoctor

Media in crisis critical thinking misinformation social media elections

The Fourth Estate is on life support and we’re the poorer for it

September 30, 2026

A weakened press and a decline in critical thinking mean we're on the precipice of real danger, writes PAT PILCHER. Read this and weep.

Election tech kids' phones AI opinion policies

Life

Election 2026 – Who’s got a plan for our digital future?

September 10, 2026

Pat Pilcher

Algorithms, AI and kids’ phones. Our friendly pundit PAT PILCHER looks at the tech policies of those contesting the upcoming election.

Life·News·Thought Piece

How to survive election year spin

August 22, 2026

Pat Pilcher

Every pre-election cycle is the same. We're set upon by a dizzying array of decoys and bullshit that distracts us from the actual issues.

Life·Thought Piece

AI and the state – What could possibly go wrong?

June 29, 2026

Pat Pilcher

Are the government's plans to further slash the public service and replace it with AI realistic, or just austerity with a shiny digital sticker

Life·Thought Piece

Should our national airline be sold?

May 21, 2026

Pat Pilcher

Deputy Prime Minister David Seymour reckons our national air carrier should be sold. PAT PILCHER looks at the real cost of doing that shonky

English bill coalition fiddling while Aotearoa burns

Life·News·Thought Piece

Why the English bill is an absolute disgrace

May 14, 2026

Pat Pilcher

So English will become an official language in NZ. So what? PAT PILCHER lays into a government that prefers to fiddle while the country

Gutter politics election year NZ Aotearoa

Life·News·Thought Piece

Our politics needs an election-year health check

April 16, 2026

Pat Pilcher

We're being shat on from a great height by a system that allows us to be treated like idiots in election year, reckons PAT

PAT PILCHER traces the way so-called revelations from a private Facebook page were seemingly designed to damage Labour's leader in election year.

Life·News

The full story of the Hipkins allegations

March 19, 2026

Pat Pilcher

PAT PILCHER traces the way so-called revelations from a private Facebook page were seemingly designed to damage Labour's leader in election year.

Life·News·Thought Piece

How to use the COVID inquiry as a political weapon

March 12, 2026

Pat Pilcher

PAT PILCHER assesses the Government's response to Phase 2 of the COVID inquiry as a giant deflection of the real issues.

The proposed trade deal with India is a missed opportunity and a "bloody shambles" according to PAT PILCHER, who looks closely at the available intel.

Life·News·Thought Piece

India trade deal: a missed opportunity for Aotearoa

March 6, 2026

Pat Pilcher

The proposed trade deal with India is a missed opportunity and a "bloody shambles" according to PAT PILCHER, who looks closely at the available

Life·News·Thought Piece

Government’s “move-on” plan is a disgrace

February 25, 2026

Pat Pilcher

PAT PILCHER argues that the NZ Government's plan to get rid of the homeless from city centres around the country deflects from the real

Life·News·Thought Piece

Solar is the answer to NZ’s energy woes. So why is hardly anyone using it?

February 13, 2026

Pat Pilcher

PAT PILCHER takes a good, hard look at why solar energy isn't getting the government and regulatory support it desperately requires in New Zealand.

Life·News·Thought Piece

A letter to aspiring political leaders in NZ

February 4, 2026

Pat Pilcher

Frustrated at the lack of a clear and focused vision on how to fix Aotearoa's woes this election year PAT PILCHER writes a letter

Choose 2026 box of choices - a chocolate box

Internet·Life·Security

No more hand-wringing – Choose 2026

January 26, 2026

Anna Butterfield

Speaking for myself and about a quarter of a billion others, 2025 was a bit shit. A calendar of emergencies not of our making.

Life·News·Thought Piece

Trump’s Greenland gambit: What it could mean for NZ

January 21, 2026

Pat Pilcher

If Trump goes full-tilt on Greenland, no country - not even "New Zild" - will be immune from the economic fallout, prophesies PAT PILCHER.

Finance how to reboot New Zealand's economy part 3

Life·Thought Piece

How to break NZ’s cultural and economic treadmill

January 5, 2026

Pat Pilcher

In the third and final part of his analysis of New Zealand's economic decline PAT PILCHER prescribes a cultural reset that could save our

Life·News

NZ’s economic rut and how to dig ourselves out

December 18, 2025

Pat Pilcher

New Zealand is in one heck of a mess because we keep on doing things the same old way. PAT PILCHER provides a clear-headed

Taxpayers' Union unemployment economics coalition National government

Life

Even right-wing watchdogs don’t rate the coalition’s performance

December 10, 2025

Pat Pilcher

It's a worry when a conservative pressure group comes out swinging at a government they would traditionally support, writes PAT PILCHER.

Food & Drink·Life

NZ’s health prospects threatened

October 29, 2025

Pat Pilcher

The NZ Government's latest move to axe home economics from the curriculum is utter madness. PAT PILCHER explains why it's so dangerous.

EV fires, facts, disinformation, rumours, lies, the news

Internet·Life·News

Rumours, conjecture and lies (and a week of fires)

October 25, 2025

Gary Steel

Have we really got to the point now where facts just get in the way of convenient lies and news really doesn’t matter, only

Life

Authors