Comments on: Reclaiming Fascism: perspective please, people!

By: Stilgherrian · Silly Newtown Kiddie-Socialists

Stilgherrian · Silly Newtown Kiddie-Socialists — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 23:35:22 +0000

[...] Now you must understand that I’m not playing that right-wing commentators’ game of always prefacing “left” or “socialist” with “loony” or “silly”. That’s just name-calling and a very old propaganda technique indeed. That’s why I think Christian Kerr should grow up and stop using it in Crikey — calling his publication’s commentors shrubhuggers and Stalinists really is childish. After all, would we take a left-wing commentator seriously if they always referred to people anywhere to the right of themselves as Nazis or Fascists? [...]

By: Jim

Jim — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 19:00:35 +0000

OOh good point. Then why don’t they use these at airports to help them profile?

Answer: Because they WANT to hassle people indiscriminately, it helps the anti-government globalist agenda!

By: craig

craig — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 02:05:01 +0000

the point of the drug-sniffer dogs IS the false positives – it gives them an excuse (“probably cause”) to search anyone they like. all they have to do is “interpret” the dog’s behaviour as indicating that their target may have drugs on them.

to avoid claims of prejudice or biased profiling, they set up the dog as an impartial expert and ignore the fact that in the end it boils down to subjective interpretation of the dog’s behaviour. it wasnt the cop who picked out the long-haired freak, it was the dog. honest.

By: Stilgherrian : More OTT political rhetoric

Stilgherrian : More OTT political rhetoric — Tue, 17 Oct 2006 01:44:00 +0000

[...] With the ABC’s new editorial guidelines announced yesterday, it’s given the right-wingers an excuse to engage in some over-the-top rhetoric — proving that hyperbole isn’t the preserve of the left calling everyone a fascist. Best effort so far has to be this one from Murdoch-land: [...]

By: Stilgherrian

Stilgherrian — Mon, 25 Sep 2006 21:04:44 +0000

@Richard: I don’t remember that scene from The Young Ones, but I do remember Rik Mayall’s character screaming “fascist” at virtually everyone and everything. I decided not to mention The Young Ones in the original post because it might be too old a reference for some of our younger readers.

However I do seem to recall Jennifer Saunders also muttering “fascist” from the couch in an episode of Absolutely Fabulous — perhaps the DVD-equipped Snarky Platypus can confirm that?

@Rico: Thanks for the comment.

By: Richard

Richard — Mon, 25 Sep 2006 20:24:37 +0000

Remember the party scene in ‘The Young Ones’, where a very young Jennifer Saunders mutters ‘Fascist!’ at a ho-ho-hoing Father Christmas?

By: Rico

Rico — Mon, 25 Sep 2006 19:37:21 +0000

Thanks for writing down my thoughts after reading Dan Russell’s blog
You should just not deal with some catchwords too mindlessly.

By: Stilgherrian

Stilgherrian — Sat, 23 Sep 2006 22:34:04 +0000

Oops, let me say that in the more modest way. I make the same point Mike Godwin does. He was there first.

By: Stilgherrian

Stilgherrian — Sat, 23 Sep 2006 21:29:41 +0000

@Zhasper: Try saying “Stilgherrian’s Corollary” three times quickly!

Godwin’s Law is worth reading about, because he really just makes the same point as I do. Perhaps if we’re doing a corollary it could be:

The less informed the political debate, the sooner Godwin’s Law takes effect.

By: Zhasper

Zhasper — Sat, 23 Sep 2006 15:36:26 +0000

Could it be that mentioning Fascism is the new Godwin’s Law?

Actually, given that Godwin’s Law only states that the probability of mentioning the Nazis tends toward 1 over time, I don’t think it’s a good analogy — these people are jumping the shark pre-emptively by mentioning Fascism immediately; perhaps it should be considered a Corrollary to Godwin’s law — no, let’s call it Stilgherrian’s law…