There’s a lot of ‘name-calling’ going around at the moment in the silly season of politics. It’s taking the form of an ironic meme, whereby one political group is describing the names that they believe others use against them. Bear with me while I follow the meme around for a few paragraphs, then I’ll make my point!
The first one I can track down was on Liberal Conspiracy complaining about immature constructs such as ‘ZaNuLabour’ which get thrown about by people who don’t like the Labour Party1.
Iain Dale followed that up with an invitation to come up with words which Labour supporters use to describe Tories, throwing up predictable implications that the political ‘Left’ are Stalinists and class-envious (incidentally, nobody on that thread mentioned Eton nor Bullingdon, which I confess surprised me a little).
LabourHome concurrently managed the (almost) definitive guide to anti-Labour online comments which Tom Harris picked up on as well. Tim Ireland also managed a low-key, smug reaction to the Liberal Conspiracy post. I’m sure there were others.
I have two things I think somebody needs to point out to these people:
1. It’s the Internet.
Seriously. Guys? It isn’t ‘right wing commenters’ or ‘left wing commenters’ who come up with lame, supposedly funny contortions of names brands and slogans. It’s just people who comment on the internet. If you ever have a delve through comments on sites like C|NET, you’ll notice that there’s two types of people there, too – there’s the people who can’t refer to Microsoft without describing them as ‘Microsuck’ or Windows as ‘Winblows’, and there’s the people who can’t mention Apple without the word ‘cult’ appearing somewhere (these are, of course, toned down versions…)
Somehow this whole meme (and the smug reactions to it from some) is predicated on the basis that if you accuse your opponents of a specific behaviour, you ipso facto are excused from exhibiting it yourself. The ‘Left’ claim that the ‘Right’ are immature on blog comments, and because the Left said so first they gain some kind of illusion of moral high ground. What is going on in the World?!
2. You Can’t Judge A Party By It’s Supporters
Since when was a political party responsible for the people who decide to support it? When a Manchester United fan hits a Man City fan with a broken bottle (or vice versa), is it Alex Ferguson’s fault? Better yet (but sticking with football) when England lose to Poland and Polish pubs and restaurants around the country are attacked, do we blame Michael Owen? So why are people judging the merits of ‘left’ and ‘right’ by the immature idiots who happen to support either ideology?
I don’t see how any ‘points’ are scored off this at all. Long has the cry of the ironic comedian been ‘you weren’t supposed to agree with me!’ By insisting that those supporting right-wing politics are all just immature, you distract from the substance of the occasion. When you can’t be bothered to attack the argument any more, attack the arguer instead2. You also call attention to your own failings.
Anyway. Enough with the name calling already. Yes, Guido would do well to reign in his commenters, who make the blog a far less savoury place to be. Equally, LabourHome could do with shedding a few barnacles. It’s my belief that all decent comment and discussion sites ought to operate a no-swearing rule, and enforce good behaviour in comments. Letters From A Tory pitches this just about perfectly. Proper discussion ought to be suitable for adults to read.
Above all, the internet just needs to grow up.