DPF objects to my use of the term "Kiwiblog right" to describe the dickheads who vandalised Helen Clark's electorate office again. I have to say that the primary target of the term wasn't DPF himself (who, as he points out, condemned the first attack when it happened), but the hate-filled bigoted mouthbreathers who infest his comments. And I have to say that the comment thread on DPF's post is a perfect example of the group and the behaviour I was referring to. Quod erat demonstrandum.
At the same time, DPF can hardly plead innocence in this. For the past two years, he has driven his blog headlong into the sewer, whipping up hate and pandering to the worst elements among his commenters as part of a conscious campaign to radicalise the base for his party. Well, it's worked - he has attracted a strong following of enraged supporters. Unfortunately, they're the sorts of people sane people don't want to know. The sorts of people who threaten to kill MPs, threaten to rape other bloggers, run right-wing hatelists, and who think that photoshopping people's heads onto porn is the height of political wit (that is when they're not making spurious comparisons with Mugabe) (and yes, while much of this has been done on people's individual blogs, those responsible are all core members of the Kiwiblog community, who help set the tone for the rest and make it the sort of place people don't go without full biohazard suits. Unless they like rolling in shit, that is). Having whipped up the hate and established an environment which has encouraged this sort of lunacy, it's a bit rich of DPF to try and disclaim any responsibility now.
Lie down with dogs, get up with fleas. If DPF doesn't like his blog becoming a byword for a particularly odious strand of political extremism, then he has a simple option available: clean up his community. But if he continues to support and encourage such extremism, he can hardly complain when it begins to reflect badly on him.
