Wednesday, June 28, 2006

Can a slippery slope made up of the bodies of straw men actually be slippery?

Is that the longest post title ever? Possibly.

And, all I'm going to do is link to another post.

There is a conservative columnist in Australia named Andrew Bolt. His arguments are ridiculous to the extent that reading them ends up being a side-splittingly comedic experience. In fact, if Bolt wasn’t writing for a decidedly Right-leaning newspaper, one could be excused for thinking him to be offering up some sort of deliberate political parody. In a recent column, he's made the 'slippery slope' argument, that allowing gays to marry will eventually lead budding polygamists to stake their claim.

Now, there is an antidote to Bolt's madness, and it's a blog called 'Boltwatch.' Boltwatch replied to Bolt's recent column with one of the funniest dissections of an argument that I've read in all Blogsylvania. What's funnier - the columnist in question reads Boltwatch and goes into paranoid paroxysms of fear when he realizes his disingenuous arguments have been revealed to the world in all their naked horror. He even attempts to respond to Boltwatch. Boltwatch's return of fire is something akin to the response I'd get if I tried to pass Roger Federer with one of my weak forehand shots on the tennis court.

5 comments:

Unknown said...

not so sure if i will understand much of the australian politics, but i like "Blogsylvania"

TimT said...

I admire people who can write good political satire; humour and good political arguments, combined, can be a powerful thing. But I don't think Mr Lefty is one of them. He tries, but the satire never really hits the targets. He can write, but not well.

Tim Blair occasionally does good satire, and, on the left, perhaps Tim Dunlop would be a good writer.

The best Aussie satirist would probably be Tim Sterne (so many Tims! Believe me, I'm not ranking myself with them), but he doesn't do political satire, much.

Don Quixote said...

I'm sure Mr. Lefty would be the first to admit that he's no Pushkin, but that article was damn funny, especially the imaginary dialogue between himself and Bolt.

I find that Tim Blair's posts often consist of one or two lines, which are sometimes witty. I think he avoids tackling issues at any great length in order to avoid opening himself up to debate.

But I'm hugely biased.

Boysenberry said...

Is it just me, or reading articles by the likes of Andrew Bolt cause everyone to say "Fuck me..."?

Don Quixote said...

His articles certainly do that. The other thing you end up saying is, "what the fuck???"