Absolute Genius

Kia ora and welcome to AbsoluteGeni.us. As the tag line says this is a blog of politics, satire and absolute genius. We’re just two guys who think that people take a lot of things too seriously. Especially politicians, the media and especially especially bloggers.

Jackson James Wood

A philanthropist at heart and a devil in the sack, Mr Wood is the current editor of the Victoria University of Wellington student magazine Salient. He recently ran in the Mount Albert by-election as an independent candidate.

Disclosure: Jackson works for Satan and has vaguely left-wing liberal leanings. Politically promiscuous, Wood has in past been a member of Labour, National, NZFirst, Green party and ACT but is not currently a member of any party.

Goals

To provide ludicrous opinions on politics, the media and current affairs. Report on and analyse political events. Conduct interviews and post video and transcripts. Fact check other bloggers, politicians and the media. Be the journalist the world needs, not the journalist the world wants.

Think Huffington Post + Daily Show + The Onion.

For Jackson’s full profile, slaughter a newborn child and read the entrails.

Daniel J Miles

A melancholy, morose man, Mr Miles aims to lighten the absurdity of life by trying to laugh at it. He tries to live life vicariously through those poor unfortunates unlucky enough to meet him, most recently managing the campaign of fellow author Jackson James Wood in the Mount Albert by-election.

Disclosure: Daniel doesn’t believe in Satan, works for the NZX, and has vaguely right-wing liberal leanings. Politically celibate, he has never been a member of a political party.

Goals

To be more ludicrous than Jackson. To get mad. To get angry. To not take it lying down when other bloggers spin away. To not accept it when a right blog or a left blog ignores half the story to make things work their way.
“I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore!” — Howard Beale
But all the time to remember that it’s all a bit of a joke in the end.

For Daniel’s full profile and contact details, pray.

Why does the blog exist?

The blogosphere in New Zealand has become highly blogospherical—it centres mainly around itself and only hesitantly networks with other forms of media. This is insular and problematic because it has meant that you get three types of blogs, detailed below:

Partisan Hackery: You have the big right wing blogs versus the big left wing blogs. Both side taking great pleasure in trying to prove the other wrong. You also have x amount of other blogs out there dedicated to pushing a front of agendas.

Teen Angst: I’m going to go cut myself. Life is so hard. I’m telling the world because my parents don’t listen to me. Here is some poetry I wrote the other night when I cried myself to sleep after seeing a dog get hit by a car et cetera et cetera.

Corporate whore: Blogs which aren’t actually blogs but cunning marketing ploys by companies like Fairfax, APN and others, to make you think that their writers actually have lives. This is a lie.

This situation was allowed to develop for a couple of reasons. Journalists are underpaid and under appreciated. It is a sad unspoken truth that many stories come directly off some of the most partisan blogs. People want to be spoon fed with spin, conflict and entertainment.

People are constantly presenting things wrong. Whether this is because their opinions get in the way of facts, their misguided world view skews the truth. We don’t know why this is. We really don’t care. What we do care about is that people are wrong. We will correct the wrongs and we will ridicule those who get things wrong.

We are never wrong.

Target

While goals of the two absolute geniuses seem divergent, they are complementary. Mr Wood will be catering to the newsy side, Mr Miles will be providing the ranting side of blogs that you’ve grown to love.

Our target audience goes further than the normal left/right paradigm that has developed in the New Zealand blogosphere. We hope that the information, opinion and satire we deliver will be non partisan, free from spin. Or at least, will spin both ways, because we know that’s how you like it.

Path

Provide painfully digestible information about our opinions on politics, media and the blogosphere without actually dipping our feet in the terrible waters of partisan politics.

Try and go beyond the conception of what a New Zealand politics blog currently is by providing actual reporting, not just opinion, interviews, video snippets and guest posts.

Mission Statement

To provide incisive satire and amazing analysis of politics, media and current affairs in a way that makes unintelligible dialogue fun and easy to engage in.

Trust us. We’re absolute geniuses.