Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Andrew Bolt, and the dangerous elitism of the slippery slopers ...


The most curious thing about Stephanie Bolt's piece Bolt: I want marriage equality for all is this sideways note:

Last Monday, my brother Andrew Bolt published a column presenting his views in opposition to same-sex marriage. I belatedly attempted to post a contribution to the lively blog debate. When it wasn’t published, I knew I didn’t want to leave it there — being a lesbian in a committed relationship I want to participate in the conversation happening across the country, tell my story and, in doing so, hopefully make even the smallest difference to the long-running campaign for marriage equality.

It wasn't published?

The lesser Bolt's column - now that news of another Bolt surfaces - was a standard bit of baiting, rabbiting on about the slippery slope, dragging in abortion and Dr. Philip Nitschke, and Koori courts, and polygamy of course ...

It's the reason the pond can't bear to report on Bolt's world, full as it is of reductio ad absurdums and paranoid illogicality.

In recent times, much has been made of the censoring of Bolt and its unfairness.

You can race off to read Bill Meuhlenberg's giant sized rant about Elite dictatorship in Quadrant - if you've got a cast iron stomach - and discover it's full of the usual mumbo jumbo about the dangerous dictatorships of the elite that's been doing the rounds since Bolt got done over in a court action:

... haven’t such clampdowns on the media been tried before? Think Nazi Germany. Think Communist Russia and Eastern Europe. Think Muslim-majority nations. Evidently the lessons of history have not been learned. The truth is, our leftist elites have always had a totalitarian streak.

Indeed, we refer to them as the “coercive utopians”. They want to usher in their version of heaven on earth, but it can only come through the heavy hand of the law and by state suppression of dissenting points of view. These elites simply have no trust in ordinary citizens to govern themselves.

It all sounds very grand. Why there's Nazi German and Communist Russia, and Muslim-majority nations, perhaps like Iran (and who knows perhaps even theocracies like Israel) ...

And then there's Andrew Bolt refusing his sister space in his blog ... in the comments section ...

Well it gives you a fair idea of the elites at the HUN, and the way they conduct themselves.

The pond was most impressed with the way Bob Katter's gay brother broke his silence, and now another brave soul has broken the silence as she reports getting married in Canada:

It may seem naive, but having that certificate in my hand made me untouchable, secure, normal, and for those wonderful few weeks, I could drop the shield. It’s disappointing beyond measure that my brother and others who share his views don’t wish that for me and everyone else like me.

I want marriage equality. At the very least, I wish for a rational and respectful debate.

I trust that more thoughtful consideration of this issue will prevail and, whether under this government or another in the future, my wife and I will finally see our relationship legitimised.

Yes, it's a bloody long way from abortion and polygamy and Philip Nitschke and Koori courts.

But will the HUN's and Bolt's readers ever get to hear about it?

Muehlenberg ended his rant "Power to the people!"

Amen to that, and even more power to the sister ...

(Below: the Bolter's slippery slopism routine led to First Dog's cartoon, already segmented and featured here, still available to Crikey subscribers here, so we'll have to settle for another example of slippery slopism).


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