A far-right speaker whose planned speaking event in Auckland was cancelled at the last-minute has issued a desperate plea for money.
The Powerstation called off Stefan Molyneux and Lauren Southern's Friday night gig barely an hour after it was revealed as the pair's top-secret venue, after a backlash on social media.
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Mr Molyneux has now taken to YouTube, uploading a 12-minute video which oscillates between decrying the "demonic mob" that got their show cancelled, and asking for supporters to "like, subscribe and share" - and give him money.
"We lost a venue. Hundreds and hundreds of people who had come a long way and were very passionate to hear this conversation, to engage in what Lauren and I were going to discuss, we lost the venue and that's costly. It's very expensive, and I need your help," he said, staring directly into the camera in a sparse room with white walls.
"I would really, really appreciate it."
He said the funding is necessary for him to keep speaking out against the "encroaching mob and horde of mindless violence the left seems to want to unleash on the failing remnants of civilisation".
Without more money, Mr Molyneux fears "self-contempt, self-hatred and possibly incarceration or death itself", because "that's what happens when the left gains power".
He then took a shot at Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, who at the weekend said Kiwis were "hostile" to Mr Molyneux's views.
"The Prime Minister was the head of a youth socialist organisation not a decade ago, so that's what you get."
Ms Ardern was indeed elected president of the International Union of Socialist Youth in 2008, but since becoming Prime Minister in 2017 is yet to sentence anyone to "incarceration or death" based on their political views.
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Mr Molyneux's beliefs include that people of different races have different levels of intelligence - a view which has been widely rejected by geneticists.
Ms Southern's most famous for trying to prevent the rescue of migrants on overloaded boats at risk of sinking in the Mediterranean Sea.
Mr Molyneux says unless "free speech" is kept alive, "we are going to end up with bayonets pointed at each other's hearts".
"I am trying with all of my might and all of my rhetoric and all of my energy and efforts to stop the war that is coming. This feral escalation of abuse and violence and threats and deplatforming is going to escalate into war. History is very clear on this point.
"I don't know if the left knows how much it's going to escalate, I don't know if they want it, I don't know what the hell is going on, but I'm telling you, it's coming."
Around 1000 people gathered on Friday night in Aotea Square to celebrate the cancellation of the Friday night speaking event. A counter-protest on Saturday in support of Mr Molyneux and Ms Southern attracted about 30 people.
Newshub.
