Graham. To repeat, I sincerely hope you will persist with this important enterprise. Too drastic, I suppose, but to foster rational debate and encourage those intimidated by the ideologues who swamp OLO, you might just publish their nom de plume, as regulars can predict their "contributions". Tristan is to be complimented on his attempts to respond to ignorance, unlike the many propagandists who exploit OLO and never reply to critics.

It's not often that I am proven so right, so quickly, Tristan.

>>But it would be so much cooler just to let it through to the 'keeper. Giving him the dignity of a response is simply feeding the troll.<<

And haven't they been having fun.

There was another reason for my advice, too. You replied as follows:

>>Hundreds of thousands of readers means Bolt's opinions need to be responded to.<<

There is not, I can guarantee you, one single Bolt-groupie who will take a blind bit of notice of your attempt to correct his Boltship's windbaggery.

Let's face it, he is not read for his bipartisan approach to... well, anything, actually. His words are lapped up by his faithful followers, since they accurately reflect their own secret fears and loathings. He knows very well which buttons to press to achieve the necessary pavlovian nodding-dog response, and to engender that mindless devotion and sycophancy that are so necessary to feed his psyche.

>>You can't just assume that by ignoring him he will disappear.<<

I don't assume that. Not for one moment.

But, given that you stand exactly the same chance of making him disappear through taking him on in this fashion - using facts, for goodness sake! - ignoring him is actually an entirely valid approach.

What you have done, quite simply, is to put yourself in front of the Bolt-junkies and say here, take a few free shots. Net impact on world+dog? Zilch.

This is the contemporary "Radical Right" view of Fascism:
What Is Fascism? Richard Spencer & Paul Gottfried
http://www.radixjournal.com/vanguard-radio/2014/1/3/what-is-fascism

Tristan, this old folk song sums up clowns like you:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQtKVnp7aQM
Seriously, 120 million dead and counting and we're still tolerating this garbage.

I remember in 1986 being given a reference to a what was supposed to be a deep book on Marxist Leninism ... "The Fundamentals of Marxist Leninist Philosophy" edited by F. V. Konstantinov, Progress Publishers, Moscow 1982.

Having been a member of no fewer than seven different political clubs at university, between 1979 and 1982, and having invested hundreds of hours rubbishing Marxist Leninism with chalk and leaflets and direct action, I was persuaded to feel a little bad that I've never read any of their serious literature ... So I ordered this book ... and read it!

To summarise, this 480 page book (well, the English edition), has dozens of well written medium sized chapters. Apart from two brilliant and quite deep and telling chapters on the philosophies of the lapsed Marxist Karl Popper, and of the French leftist Jean Paul Sartre, every other chapter was vacuous and essentially just said nothing, as though the whole work was but variations of the theme "We Have Nothing To Say!"

That persuaded me that that was true too! That Marxist Leninists have nothing to say, to me, to anyone, to the universe, nothing to add to the socialist project! Etc, etc ...

On the other hand, Fabian socialists, anarchists, anarcho-syndicalists, environmentalists, Christian socialists, feminists, social democrats, Maoists all publish conversion literature to try to recruit impressionable young minds! What really surprised me in 1986 was that, well, Marxist Leninists don't!

Maybe internally they'd learnt a valuable lesson from Stalin's regime, and given up on converting people ...

Nevertheless I do wish that Marxist Leninists would change their minds ... Go on, publish some conversion literature and have a go! ... And, Andrew Bolt, stay out of their way! ... And, if they do publish some deep literature, I'd like to hear about what they're on about! ... I've really got no evidence that Marxist Leninists still pursue any outcomes! ... But, given their record, I'd predict that I'd have no time for them, even if I did know what they are on about!

cohenite denialism will get you nowhere.

America, the epitome of capitalism, was born out of racist mass slaughter. For example, During the California Gold Rush, the state government between 1850 and 1859 financed and organized militia units to hunt down and kill Native Americans in the state. Between 1850 and 1852 the state appropriated almost one million dollars for the activities of these militias, and between 1854 and 1859 the state appropriated another $500,000, almost half of which was reimbursed by the federal government. American capitalism also built its empire by setting up puppet regimes right through Africa, South East Asia, the Pacific and Central and South America, policed by CIA assassination squads (partially exposed by Senator Church) or by thugs trained by United States Agency for International Development?

Nazis were not socialists, as anyone seriously interested in these questions would know.

How many died (or disappeared) under:

Videla's regime in Argentina?
Ziaur Rahman's regime in Bangladesh?
Hugo Banzer Suarez's regime in Bolivia?
Ernesto Geisel's regime in Brazil?
Michel Micombero's regime in Burundi where UNICEF jeeps were used to carry away thousands of corpses to mass graves?
Jean Bedel Bokassa's regime in Central African Empire?
Pinochet's Chile?
Romero's regime in El Salvador?
Francisco Macias Nguema Biyogo Negue Ndong's regime in Equatorial Guinea?
Haile Selassie's regime in Ethiopia - then the largest recipient of US "Aid" in Africa?
Carlos Arana Osorio's regime in Guatemala?
Papa Doc and Duvalier's regimes in Haiti?
Suharto's regime in Indonesia?
Shah's regime in Iran?
Somoza's regime in Nicaragua?
Stroessner's regime in Paraguay?
Marcos' regime in Philippines?
Kriangsak's regime in Thailand?
Mendez's regime in Uruguay?
Mobutu's regime in Zaire?
South Africa?
Spain?
Greece?

How many trade unionists and reporters are our capitalists killing or torturing in Philippines, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico and Columbia today?

http://www.ituc-csi.org/colombia
http://www.ituc-csi.org/honduras
http://www.ituc-csi.org/philippines
http://www.ituc-csi.org/mexico
http://www.ituc-csi.org/guatemala,86

There would be no reason not to teach Marx as a historical background to the present state of politics, were it not such a rallying point for the academic Left.

But deprived of Marx in their curriculum, they would soon replace it. All we can do is detect the Left, wherever it manifests, and expose it to the ridicule it deserves.

Andrew Bolt does this very well, and this article reminds us of Bolt’s commendable efforts, and the puerility of his opponents. Thanks, Tristan, for this useful piece of fertilizer.