I hate personal attacks, always will, always have. And yet sometimes, when you’re attacked you have to fire back. In the case of Australia’s favorite Censorship loon Deborah Robinson, that’s pretty much what happen. A week ago I’d never even heard of her site, let alone met her, but she decided to make it personal, and I responded.
On some levels I wish I hadn’t. She obviously craves attention, but as I mentioned earlier sometimes you just have to respond. I wrote an initial post and thought that was the end of it until she came back for more, and more, and more. She then started quoting hate loving groups such as the Australian Family Association under the context that they represented the Australian Family. OMFG is all I could say.
Deborah Robinson contacted me and asked for a cease fire, she was supposedly upset that OMG someone would fire back at her insane rantings. I’m not an unreasonable bloke, and given that I hate playing the man and not the ball, I agreed. But apparently Deborah Robinson’s word is as shit as her views, because she has now broken our agreement by labeling me, and those who believe in free speech as the “lunatic fringe.” She claimed via email that it wasn’t aimed at me, but as a member of those who would fight to defend free speech in a democratic country it included me, and many of you reading this took offense as I did via Twitter.
As far as I’m concerned, go hard, go good. Loons like Deborah Robinson should have no place in our country. In believing in free speech I defend her right to exercise that, but only to the point where she argues that I shouldn’t have that right as well. It’s the ultimate challenge for anyone who believes in free speech, but it is one that should be expressed in strong words against those who would deny our freedoms.
One last word. Deborah played the Jewish card on me when it came to her support (via posting on her blog) of groups like the AFA who join street rallies in Australia with proto-nazi groups. Deborah: If Nazi Germany had free speech, they may well have known what was happening, and the holocaust may never have happened. Censorship is the favorite tool of any totalitarian regime, don’t let it happen in Australia.
I disagree – I think loons like Deborah DO have a place in this country, as a constant reminder that we should not allow ourselves to become complacent and to fight censorship and any other form of suppression of rights and free speech in case we forget the historical lessons of Nazi Germany and similar instances.
As Edmund Burke said, “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing”.
Through inaction you can be guilty of putting power in the hands of the governing authorities – and do you trust them to use that power wisely and responsibly?
Watch out Duncan – according to AWO supporter, Frank Calabrese, you my friend are a cyber bully and should be dealt with accordingly: in this case a letter to your ISP!
Frank Calabrese on Jan 9th, 2008 at 9:41 pm
I cannot believe how Vindictive Duncan Riley is, plus thin skinned, and to think he has the appeal of all those Americans to boot (via Techcrunch), to me he has all the hallmarks of cyberbullying, and in my opinion, a complaint should be made to his ISP (which can be found out via the mail headers).
Mike
I don’t even know who Frank Calabrese is, but how me simply responding to a complete loon who started attacking me in the first place is beyond me. See once again how its ok for them to attack me (and everyone else I might add who supported me), but OMFG if someone responds in kind they’re a cyberbully.
Funnier still is that she begged and begged me to back off, we had a written agreement that this would all stop, and then she turned around and started sledging again. She honestly thinks that she can do and say as she pleases and not be challenged by anyone in return.
As I noted in those emails I honestly don’t think she’s 100% up top and she needs to get help. I actually feel bad about the whole thing now, if I’d known from the outset that she had issues I would have let her be, it’s not wise to make fun of people like that. Bad karma. I’ll have to start doing some random acts of kindness to fix it.