It’s amazing the things we get outraged about – Ryan Bridge

THE FACTS

• Brian Tamaki’s protest sparked calls for hate speech laws.
• Police and the Ministry for Primary Industries have been alerted about a video with bikini-clad women and a cow.
• One of the women quit banking to go pro on OnlyFans, earning her previous annual salary in three months.

It’s just amazing, the sheer breadth and diversity of things we get outraged by in any given week.

Whether it’s Brian Tamaki, who, after literally decades taking to the streets and stirring the pot, nobody should be outraged by.

Or if it’s a bunch of chicks in bikinis rolling around in cow’s milk trying to make a buck on OnlyFans. The police were called.

Yes, I kid you not. A couple of lasses, bikini-clad, making some wholesome, down-on-the-farm country-style content. And Safe gets involved. Then the Ministry for Primary Industries contacts the police.

What on earth are the police going to do with three girls and one cow? Who on earth would they arrest? Some might say the cow was lucky to be milked.

Besides, what’s more indecent? Girls in bikinis or the naked cow?

The answer, of course, is rather simple. The police will do nothing. The ministry will do nothing. Because there’s actually nothing to do anything about. From the videos we saw this week, there wasn’t much in the way of animal welfare abuse on display.

Aside from the shock factor and the hilarity of the videos themselves, the most outrageous thing about this story was the money the young women were earning. One of the girls quit her professional job in banking to create OnlyFans content fulltime and now earns her previous annual salary in just three months.

A few flags were burnt and signs waved about during the protest. Photo / Alex Burton

The outrage over Brian and his gang of thugs is more understandable. To be fair to him and them, I didn’t pay any attention to their protest at the weekend. I was too busy enjoying my long weekend.

But from what I’ve read, a few flags were burnt and signs waved about. People are calling for hate speech laws and restrictions on speech and all sorts of things.

Guess what? That also won’t happen. And nor should it.

The bar for criminal charges is rightly high. People must be free to air their views – no matter how distasteful or wrong.

Boils must be lanced, so long as they’re lanced peacefully.

Besides, you don’t have to look too far into the world section of your newspaper this morning for a glimpse at why we should value freedom of expression. Russia, Iran, anybody?

So long as nobody’s been hurt and no animals are being harmed, there really wasn’t all that much to feel outraged by at home this week.