Cheers Brett, just about spat my coffee.

Good to see Trotter has figured out that he doesn’t need an “Executive High Commissioner Blog Producer In Cheif” to do this stuff.

Chris splashed onto the scene, attempting to make as much noise as possible. I think he deliberately chose targets to get as much attention as possible. His early posts railing against IdiotSavant, for example, were purely flame.

His subsequent posts, justifying corruption (we needed to do it to keep the Right out, so that’s okay), suggesting anybody who didn’t like Labour should leave the country, attacking anybody who did leave the country to pursue other economic opportunities as “treasonous”, attacking the Right generally (everyone who votes for National is scum!), expressing nostalgia towards old-style union thuggery and violence, and then railing against the Maori Party–all these approaches, in my view, did the Left no favours.

I look at some of the writers here at the Standard. Some of them tend to write thoughtful, insightful posts that stimulate civilised debate (Dancer, and mostly Irishbill, for example). Other posters tend to stimulate division and antagonism by making wild, ridiculous observations based on extremism and hyperbole (I won’t mention who). I think Trotter almost invariably fell into the latter category of writers.

I hope he has learned the lesson and matured.

Chris does seem to be taking the electoral defeat particularly badly. Spoilt teenager badly.

My own experience suggests that it’s not too hard to maintain a civilised discourse with such an approach. But in the meantime I think that it’s probably prudent for him to moderate, until people adjust. This is assuming that he can keep up his more “ruminative” style

But it was frustrating to see how much his posts became inuandated with right wing vitriolic responses, that seemed to often swamp any useful left wing discussion. Look at his last post. It is still getting a continual stream of right wing, punitive comments, spinning the same old lines. Strange, seeing as the right-wing parties are actually forming the government.

Some of his posts/columns were pretty abusive so he may have reaped what he sowed. Look at the ones on uppity Maoris making choices.

How old are you, Tane?