I started An Onymous Lefty so I could stop boring my then wife at the dinner table with politics. I started BoltWatch so I could stop boring my then readers at An Onymous Lefty by inflicting the ranting of Herald Sun columnist Andrew Bolt on them. Subsequently, of course, it’s turned out that there are plenty of people who, far from being “bored” by such discussions, actually thrive on them…
It was February 2005. After a week in which retorts seemed to be required to four silly Boltesque diatribes – against feminism (Desperate Housewives is popular because it bashes men!), global warming (it flooded in Queensland, ergo the warmenistas have been proven wrong!), racism (imprisoning a white woman, Cornelia Rau, proves Australians aren’t racist!) and greenies (cyclists deserve to be hit by cars!) – setting up a separate site, where the columnist’s deranged polemic could be quarantined and laughed at without infecting public discourse any further, seemed like a sensible option.
If “drawing Bolt’s readers to your site so they can swarm abusively in defence of their maligned leader” is sensible, anyway. Funny thing about the more provocative and unreasonable of the mainstream opinionistas – on both sides of the political fence – they attract some very angry people to their cause. People thrilled to have their prejudices and half-baked worldview expounded in print. “He’s saying what I’ve been saying – only everyone I know groans and tells me to shut up when I say it! Well, he gets newspaper space to argue these things. My extremist view on the world has been legitimised! WHO’S LAUGHING NOW?”
Which makes them very difficult to ignore. Some crazed loon rants in the street, and you walk past shaking your head. The same crazed loon gets a page of the Herald Sun to himself once a week, and nurtures a vicious little community on the newspaper website – that’s harder to just let go. You know you probably should, but… if no-one says anything, won’t the madness spread? Won’t damaging, offensive, illogical, ridiculous arguments start to be taken more seriously if left alone to build momentum?
And that’s just when it’s badly thought-out attacks on policy or spiteful swipes at political groups in society. When they go after individuals, particularly far less powerful individuals without an equivalent forum for reply – when they pull a Landeryou or a Duncan – well, turning your head and walking on by seems even less defensible. If everyone just stands back and lets them intimidate easy targets from their keyboards, then they’ll keep doing it. Taking them on might be personally unwise, in the sense of offering an alternative mark, but it’s better than leaving them unchecked. Look the other way while they ravage Czechoslovakia, and bullies will soon have a go at Poland…
Anyway, sometimes their victims just need to know that they’re not alone, and that the anonymous hooting monkeys on these sites do not represent the wider community – even the wider online community. Most people are decent, and having an obvious place for them to congregate and reassure victims that others can see through the smears, can be an entirely constructive thing.
Which is another reason why BoltWatch gradually evolved into a group blog, the first being time. After it became apparent that I (since this had nothing to do with my job) didn’t have the free hours (nor, to be honest, the inclination) to keep up with the entirety of Andrew Bolt’s prolific output (he should bind it together and turn it into an unreadable book one day!), and after the success of a few guest posts from readers, it became obvious what should happen next. The site was relaunched in early 2008 as The Blair/Bolt Watch Project, with more writers and an extra target – Andrew’s News Ltd colleague Tim Blair.
(Tim and Andrew share a worldview, an employer, a single mind… the main difference is that Tim is a bit more cunning in how he goes after his targets. He posts one or two technically non-defamatory but provocative sentences at the end of a quote, and then leaves his commenters to do the dirty work for him. And boy, do they! I’m sure you’ll see some examples of it covered here soon.)
The Blair/Bolt Watch Project writers have been kept busy ever since.
And you know what? It’s not just a duty – taking these guys on is actually a pleasure. The columnists we’ve been watching – and the ones we’ll be adding to the roll at Pure Poison, from both the left and right – produce volumes of the stuff each week. A lot of it is so disingenuous, misleading, nasty or simply nonsensical that it’s extremely satisfying to send up. All that’s needed is a space in which to do it, and an audience that’s been looking for an antidote to this sort of malevolent intellectual dishonesty.
Welcome to Pure Poison.
22 Comments
Bravo!
Sorry. That just sounded a bit ‘elitist’.
You Beaudy!
I must say that I just cracked myself up when I discovered this blog, especially the title that you have given it.
“Pure Poison” hey? sounds like a good description of what the authors have been producing about the writings of Andrew and Tim for ages.
The day I see you lot criticise say Phillip Adams with the same sort of eye that you cast upon Andrew bolt will be that day that you gain a tiny bit of credibility. Until then it will be just more of the same one eyed commentary it is itself full of “malevolent intellectual dishonesty“
Why no link to your own entirely laughable blog, Iain? Ashamed?
I just want some examples of our “malevolent intellectual dishonesty”.
By the way, Iain, care to debate any of the points raised in our posts or would you rather just drive-by snipe?
Oh well, at least Iain’s got that one entirely obvious joke out of the way. Not that I expect it’ll stop other BoltStrokers and BlairBears from making it, mind you.
Let’s keep tabs of the number of times it’s rehashed by people who think they’re being devastatingly original. Bets, anyone?
Scott
Certainly not Scott, but as you have to register for this platform I thank you for inspiring me to find and adjust my profile.
Jeremy
I would be
careful what you wish for If I were you Jeremy because You may not like the result at all.
Scott again
What is there to debate here as Yet? so far all we have is a bunch of “howdy folks” efforts.
Would either of you like to say when you are going to scrutinise a left wing commentator with the same vigour that you expend on those from the right?
Because as laudable as Jeremy’s mission statement sounds, none of you have any track record for even-handedness.
Why am I still being moderated BTW?
Re moderation: still fine-tuning the blog setup, Iain. Only your first comment was supposed to be moderated. Working on this now.
“I would be careful what you wish for If I were you Jeremy because You may not like the result at all.”
Fear the limp lettuce leaf, Jeremy!
Why have you added me to the moderation list on the old blog Scott?
Golly! The site launched an hour ago and already we’ve been
fistedfisked. It’s like my first day at high school all over again.I haven’t, Iain. I don’t know why you ended up in the spam bin.
It has happened again so how about fixing it?
No more comments at Pure Poison about the admin of the other site.
Oh wow. There is poison, and then there is pestilence. Nice work with the new blog guys. And y’know it’s great that you’ve brought some old fans with you.
Im so glad you have expanded the BBW project “mission statement” to include all manner of dishonest arseholes.
Looking forward to some robust debate!
Now that you guys have broadened your targets, this is going to be a lot of fun!
Aha, Jeremy, this makes us coworkers, of a sort. Welcome to Crikey.
Jeremy, my owner used to exult in his narcissism, and look how he ended up. You might want to learn from his mistakes. Or pick up a cabbie’s license, just in case.
Congrats on the new blog looking forward to robust debate
Great new blog guys
This is going to be fun….now we can have a go at all the right wingnuts lol, not just Blair/Bolt.