Written By: - Date published: 12:11 pm, August 30th, 2009 - 111 comments
Categories: scoundrels -
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The Sunday Star Times reports that Sue Bradford’s security has been stepped up following a series of death threats being made against her via blogs, email and twitter.
I’m not surprised. Just about every poster at the Standard has had threats made against them by the thuggish elements of the right. Generally we don’t pay them too much heed as they are unlikely to have the spine to creep out from behind their keyboards but they are out there and what concerns me is they have had tacit endorsement from some members of the the established political right over issues such as section 59 and the EFA.
Now before our regular right-wing commenters start screaming I’ll make it very clear that I don’t think the Nat’s are in direct contact with these loonies (although I’m certain some elements of the Act party are) but I do think that they were getting pretty desperate after three terms in the wilderness and that they saw that they could garner activist support on the ground (something National has always struggled to do) by pandering to the kinds of far-right groups that produce these thugs. Thus you saw Bill English make absurd comparisons between Helen Clark and Mugabe in parliament and senior National Party activist David Farrar push the same messages through his Free Speech Coalition and provide an unmoderated forum for angry right-wing nutters to work themselves up into a frenzy.
Add to that the fact that there has been serious money put into some of these front groups by the same far-right US interests that are helping fuel the “death panel” lunacy over there and a media that has decided the answer to stalling its economic decline is to go more and more tabloid in an attempt to attract readership and you get the perfect environment for enabling the kind of behaviour seen in the death threats made toward Bradford.
“Political” nutters of the Left and the right will always be out there but we don’t need to feed them. I note that despite covering nearly every other policital story in today’s SST, Farrar has avoided this one. I’d like to see him post a piece making it clear to his huge right-wing readership that this behaviour is unacceptable. If political voices from across the spectrum don’t speak up against this kind of thuggery it will only grow.
Correction: As Dave points out in the comments the story was featured in the Sunday News.
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Is that not obvious enough for you felix? If I am suggesting IB apologise for suggesting Farrar edges these people on, then I obviously do not feel that Farrar edges them on. I personally think Farrar is quite careful in his posts to try not stir up the looney far right.
[lprent: Bloody hell - there are nutters to the right of the sewer? People stupider than big bruv, nastier than expat, .... Ummm the world (the worst ones are always expat's) is more dangerous than I'd thought. ]
Have you ever actually read a comments thread at Kiwiblog?
You might think it’s ok for Farrar to spend years breeding an online army of goons as long as he does his “don’t shoot me, I’m just the piano player” post whenever his carefully manufactured ugliness spills out into the real world as criminal violence, but I don’t.
I/S put it well:
Yes I have read a comments thread at Kiwiblog. I would prefer if Farrar continued posting but turned his comments section off, as he does put forward the views of the right very well. The comments section is often filled with trolls however I don’t think you can attribute the disgusting opinions to what Farrar is posting, as his posts are often not written in highly emotive language, and tend to be well thought out. Do you not think that if Farrar banned the trolls at his blog, that they would simply vent their anger on some other right-wing blog?
Do you not think that if Farrar banned the trolls at his blog, that they would simply vent their anger on some other right-wing blog?
Yes of course. And that’s what he should do if he wants to disassociate himself from them.
He’s choosing to provide a safe haven for these freaks. It’s not something that’s happened to him which he can’t control, it’s something he chooses to allow every day.
And if he continues to choose to allow it, why would anyone think he disapproves?
That’s a bit rich coming from someone who banned all comments on his blog a long long time ago, a person who believes no one should be able to challenge the views he posts on his blog.
Actually it’s totally consistent with his actions.
Thanks Bill,
I have for years been trying to reconcile the actions of the wool store union rep who threatened to “accidentally” drop a dumped bale of wool on me if I didn’t join the Union as a holiday student and later the bullet hole in my office window which appeared during a wage round with the peace-loving, warm and cuddly left. Now I know that the perpetrators were really nasty thuggish right-wingers in disguise. ….. whew!
Name the Union, the worksite and the rep you prick or consider yourself tagged as a bullshitter.
Seems there is a history of Henk van Helmond not knowing who is responsible, even though the events are closely connected to him:
Thanks, Dave C, for that.
Your viewpoint on this issue appears to place you away from the mainstream of political expression in NZ, definitely heading somewhere out onto the radicalised end of the left wing. That is for anyone who appears not to understand why the Electoral Finance Act was an attack on free speech and that as the catalyst for the formation of the Free Speech coalition. The EFA has been repealed yet it seems there is still a few percent of the electorate who believed in it.
When we hear a lot about “democracy under attack” supposedly in Auckland it’s worth remembering what happened before the last election, the Electoral Finance Act as a piece of pure Labour ideology, disconnected from reality and public opinion – along with a number of other laws.
“Add to that the fact that there has been serious money put into some of these front groups by the same far-right US interests”
Just the usual xenophobic bogeymen.
Right now it’s about time for every political group on the left in NZ to tell us how much support they get from overseas.
“what i couldn’t help thinking as i read the piece was the different willingness to threaten and use violence between the right and the left.”
What difference is that?
At best there is no difference at all. I think you would be best to get off your hobby horse and admit this before you get your foot stuck any further inside your mouth.
So called “peaceful protestors” in various left wing causes use physical force and violence fairly often in their protest actions. Sue Bradford herself is no stranger to this having been arrested numerous times in such kinds of protest. Ditto for Hone Harawira and others.