Friday, September 29, 2006

Pernicious (-shus) a. Destructive, ruinous, fatal

Given the anti-right hyperbole Chris Trotter has been using lately, his column, Pernicious right-wing blogs, in today's DomPost, really takes the cake. Here's an excerpt:

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9 comments:

Anonymous said...

As much as it pains me, I have to agree with Trotter on half of that except. Most blog commenters are sycophants to whom the art of debate is at best just a concept.

But then what do we expect, when we take our parliamentarians as an example? Personal attacks, cheap points scoring, picking at scabs and a complete lack of forgiveness for what makes us human: the occasional mistake.

Trotter is a sycophant himself - but he would be completely right if he said that left wing commenters on right wing blogs hold up their end in this debacle.

I have all but given up even reading the comments on some blogs, let alone participate, because you get set upon by people who I imagine literally foam at the mouth at the thought of having their false gods exposed to any kind of enquiry or criticism.

And let's not even start how evil, uncaring and selfish the right all are for wanting to build enough wealth so that we don't need others to look after us. That used to be something to be proud of, and now it's generally held against you as a serious character flaw by those on the left.

I wonder if they are genuinely so intellectually dishonest as to believe that the money they tax out of those bloody mindedly self-sufficient risk taking "rich" people forms the basis of the lolly scramble that is NZ today.

Woops, there's me getting poisonous and evil. Better go lie down and wipe the foam off my mouth before anyone sees it.

7:18 AM
Lindsay Mitchell said...

Belt, I don't entirely disagree either but Trotter's holier-than-thou attitude is just too much. Left-wingers who claim a monopoly on fairmindedness and compassion are, as you say, intellectually dishonest.

8:08 AM
Anonymous said...

I have noticed that often the level of debate in DPF's blog is of a low level. I do not offer abuse or insult people, and generally don't get any back. However I often get frustrated when people leaving comments don't debate the issues, but offer opinion not based on fact and then get personal. People can genuinely disagree - but let's keep to the issues guys!

9:18 AM
Cheezy said...

I'm not a huge fan of that ideologue Trotter myself, but I'd be surprised if that description of certain parts of the rightosphere didn't ring some very loud bells with a great many readers.

11:02 PM
Anonymous said...

Singling out just one side is what makes Trotter's observations objectionable (albeit predictable: I don't generally read what he writes - I know his utterances to be unbalanced and preaching to the choir).

The right Blogosphere does not monopolise the "Pernicious" spectrum when it comes to participants in the comments sections. The usual suspects generally appear on both sides.

I agree with the poster that some blog owners fall short on trying to keep the general quality of the comments sections a little higher than what they degenerate into over time if left to themselves. One popular blog seems to rate itself by the number of comments left, not the quality of the discussions within...

You can in fact add the repeat offenders on one hand, a hand for each side.

11:46 AM
Anonymous said...

I agree that the two blogs I spend time on, DPF and Sir Humphries are very much involved in personal politics rather than issues. There are some very good overseas forums in which people debate the issues. I think that blogs are different from forums in that they exist largely to push a single point of view.

3:29 PM
Unknown said...

Singling out just one side is what makes Trotter's observations objectionable

Agree completely belt - it would certainly be nice if people could just swear the insults to themselves rather than having to post them, but there is no way in which this is confined to any particular part of the political spectrum.

3:52 PM
Oswald Bastable said...

For my part, I've been on MSN groups for years before blogging came along.

I started with reasoned debate, well thought out aruments and taking the moral high ground.

That achieved zero when dealing with right-left issues.

So I just left the non-thinkers to their own devices, focused on airing my POV and generally left the loony-tune left alone, if they stayed out of my space.

Trying to teach a pig to whistle justs wastes your time & annoys the pig...

5:31 PM
Cactus Kate said...

Lindsay

I apologise in advance for forgetting to include you in my comment on Kiwiblog. Indeed I do consider you of the centre-right persuasion albeit of the mild caring, sharing mix :)

7:28 AM

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