Posts Tagged ‘debate’
Criticism or demonisation? Thoughts about The Standard’s treatment of the Paganis
I personally still don’t buy the ‘left wingers making death threats’ spin promulgated recently with faux ‘outrage’, ‘sympathy’ and ‘concern’ by certain right wing political propagandists. (see: ‘Wailing about death threats, forgetting what they’ve written themselves‘) They’re just exploiting the evident divisions between some on ‘the left’. As they do. Making hay while the sun […]
Wailing about death threats, forgetting what they’ve written themselves
MOCK outrage from local right wing bloggers (the usual suspects) at left wing criticism of left wing activists appears disingenuous. At best. A RWNJ blogger and chorus have been wailing about some public criticism (blogged) of some left wing activists by some LWNJ activists/bloggers and their anonymous feral commenters … even breathlessly interpreting references to […]
Quick and easy reach for allegations of mental illness
I read (devoured) Bob Woodward’s State of Denial — Bush at War, Part III while on holiday last week. I spotted the book on a shelf, plucked it down and thought, This may interest me. Boy, did I misunderestimate. It’s a really great read. Woodward’s story is an extremely detailed and well sourced hatchet job […]
The Simon Lusk stigma?
In defence of the National Party’s right to determine WHO holds positions of influence in the Party, and to exclude those it sees as ‘negative’… It seems the judgement by those in the National Party higher echelons that Hawkes Bay’s Simon Lusk is a Danger To The Party persists. I mentioned earlier that leaked National […]
Bad behaviour online – NetHui
These notes (by Nat Torkington @gnat — available as google doc here) are from discussion/part of Judge David Harvey‘s presentation at Nethui underway now in Auckland. They directly touch on some of the recent discussion we’ve had on the topic of online free speech and harassment. [Harvey:] This session looking at bad behaviour online. Law […]
Declaring where you’re coming from
Like most people (I think), I find it interesting, at times fascinating, to speculate about WHY people do and say what they do … WHY they might express views that they hold in the way they do … and WHY they enter into discussions or debates (and sometimes flame wars) on the internet. But I’ve […]
The curse of hypervigilance
Recent angst-ridden discussion about comments published on the internet have reminded me of a conclusion I reached when I was myself the subject of scurrilous anonymous comment: It can bloody hurt. But some of the pain is, sadly, self-inflicted. We’ve seen again and again how anonymity seems to loosen people’s grip on civility. Some of […]
Speaking up for Madeleine Flannagan
The following is an anonymous comment in support of Madeleine Flannagan, who features in my recent post, ‘Implications of recent internet gagging attempt‘. UPDATE: The comment is now in the comment stream of the relevant post.
Some useful cyber citizen guidelines
It’s funny how even from people’s intended blows you can learn something valuable. A couple of years ago when I was blogging about the dubious operations of a gaggle of ‘internet marketing experts’ (cough) somebody, by a remarkable coincidence, set up a number of blogs linking my name to keywords like ‘scam’ and ‘ripoff’ (see […]
Implications of recent internet gagging attempt
UPDATE June 2013 — There have been developments on this. See this post: Is this what we want? Internet ‘take down’ and indefinite gagging orders? The decision in a recent court case involving allegations of harassment by blog post is instructive on all sorts of levels for what it tell us about the state of […]
‘A loathsome piece of filth’
That’s actually something I said about somebody. And I meant it, as harsh as it sounds. I didn’t say it to them, I didn’t say it publicly, nor did I post it online here or elsewhere. It was my personal opinion at the time, provoked by their actions. They stand out in my mind as one of […]
Responding to criticism can be tricky
Ha! No win situation? “If you ignore criticisms people make of you, you’re arrogant & elitist – if you engage them, you’re thin-skinned & overly-sensitive.” Glenn Greenwald For my own part, I tend to take the risk and engage. Others don’t. No worries. – P
Young ACTOIDS are revolting.
(‘Civil war’ or simple Generation Gap?) (1) Is ACT entering a Winter of Discontent? (2) Does anyone care? (Zero percent, remember.) Joan of Arc oops, Cactus Kate seems to think so … apparently exasperated that John Banks isn’t adhering to the ‘principles’ of the ACT Party. (Well, we sort of agree about that, then. But […]
Oops. What? He wants us to LISTEN to the murderous ultra-right nut job? Er, well, gee. OK.
In my experience, sometimes when one is interviewing someone in the news, particularly a LIVE interview, things can take an unexpected turn. Your subject says things that you didn’t expect. This morning, roused very early by an insistently affectionate cat (still getting over her spell in the cattery while we were at the beach last […]
