Not only are arguments not allowed in the comments on Tim Blair's blog, it is one of the most uncivil places in Australian blogspace. The rest of this post is below the fold because it contains quotes from his comment section. Please do not read if you are offended by obscenities.
Some examples of the sort of comments you find there are:
"pimply pus-sucking facist-licking Saddam defending son of a syphallitic cock-sucking whore"
"You are a fuckwit lying scumbucket."
And directed at me:
Do you jack off at the thought of 100,000 Iraqi deaths caused by eeeeeeevvvilllll MerriiiKKKaaannss?
Hardly some you would like to be an educator since and Iv never seen him admit to screwing up (and there's been a few) but Oh! does he insist on standards from others that he himself could not possibly aspire too even if he was so inclined. Friggen!! Hack
You're a smelly whore.
That last one was from Andrea Harris, who bans people for dissent, but cheerleads abusive comments. (For an example, see this post, where Blair orchestrates a five-minute hate directed at Tim Dunlop and Harris eggs them on.)
Which brings us to this Blair post, where he objects to comments by uncivilised "leftists" directed at Zephyr Teachout (who made some careless comments that were exploited by two unscrupulous reporters to create a controversy, details of story here) and Michelle Malkin (a conservative columnist). Now I think some of the comments directed at Teachout and Malkin are vile and inexcusable, but why does Blair object to such comments made by leftists but approve similar comments made by right-wingers on his blog? There is not a lot he can about comments on other blogs, but if he wanted to promote civil discourse instead of abusive insults he could set a good example by cleaning up his own comment section.
And a gentle reminder to anyone who wants to comment here: the quotes above are examples of comments that are not allowed here, no matter who they are directed at.
Update: Robert Corr dives into the cesspit:
Gee, it'd be hard to find racist or abusive comments around here. How about:
"Ayad, just because you live in Ohio doesnt mean that your not a fucking raghead. You and Moore can burn in hell and take that cock sucker allah with you"Or:
"some raghead ... some ugly slag who hates her own country"Or:
"evil bitch ... a stooge and ally of these raghead vermin. ... these goat buggering camel lovers."Oh, here's a good one:
"towelhead towelhead towelhead towelhead towelhead towelhead towelhead towelhead towelhead towelhead towelhead towelhead towelhead towelhead towelhead towelhead towelhead towelhead towelhead towelhead towelhead towelhead towelhead towelhead towelhead towelhead towelhead towelhead towelhead towelhead towelhead towelhead towelhead towelhead towelhead towelhead towelhead towelhead towelhead towelhead towelhead towelhead towelhead towelhead towelhead towelhead towelhead towelhead towelhead towelhead towelhead towelhead towelhead towelhead towelhead towelhead towelhead towelhead towelhead towelhead towelhead towelhead towelhead towelhead"To which one response was:
"'towelhead' is a silly word because nobody where's towels on there head's. i think the word's 'cameljockey' or 'brownsandmonkey'is muchs better and more despriptive."Andrea's only objection in that thread was that somebody spelled "toewl head" incorrectly.
More like this
And that is why Blair is no longer required reading for Ozbloggers, way better stuff elsewhere, Spleenville is now Trollville. Interestingly enough he never seems to participate in any serious discussion of issues elsewhere, I suspect he and his readers are skin deep and too thin skinned for real argument..
Yeah, some of the stuff, the personal attacks, directed at Zephyr Teachout were well beyond the pale.
Full disclosure: I've been pretty tough on Zephyr myself, Zephyr appears to be able to take pretty well, and I've not noticed her banning anything.
He misspelled syphilitic.
I don't think you can count the "smelly whore" one; after all, to someone with Andrea's intellect it must've seemed a very funny joke.
Later down the thread, a commentor makes an interesting point. Which is worse: an obnoxious right-wing arsehole who knows he's being offensive but doesn't care because, hey, he's non-PC; or an obnoxious left-wing arsehole who doesn't even realise how bad his comments are, because he's just fighting for the cause of Tolerance and Mutual Respect? Personally, I'd say the leftie's sin is the greater; after all, it's expected of right-wingers to be dickheads on occasion. When a leftie makes a comment like the racist crap directed at Michelle Malkin, not only is he being an arsehole, he's betraying (after a fashion) everything he's supposed to stand for.
Well Mark, you might have to accept (as well as prove) the point that being a dickhead crosses all ideological lines.
Yassir Arafat used to wear a towel.
A tea towel, to be more specific.
This is off topic, but is there some rule that Aussie bloggers
have to be named "Tim"?
Quote - "'towelhead' is a silly word because nobody where's towels on there head's. ...Andrea's only objection in that thread was that somebody spelled "toewl head" incorrectly.
Oh dear.
Miss Harris has a keen eye for errors, doesn't she? Will she produce the upcoming movie-ducumentary "Which Blair Project [is the most asinine]"??
I'm not sure what anybody, apart from a RWDB, would bother with Tim Blair's blog. I can't see what it offers other than snide (and frequently pointless) remarks and the worst comment section since LGF.
Mark, I agree. Strongly.
Yobbo, you're all confused. That was Rob Sitch's impression of Yasser Arafat on the Late Show, not real life.
You be the judge