Where do guys like McIntyre come from and what causes them to get so twisted and out of shape about the world? It bewilders me. Islamic State could always use another propagandist.Maybe he should throw his lot in with them. He would be right at home talking about imperialist invasions and the rape, pillage and plunder of the middle east by “white drunks and gamblers”. One can only imagine the utter outrage of the left had someone described non-anglos in the same sort of terms. What is it about people like Scott McIntyre who rages about the perceived injustices heaped on minorities by white imperialists that he thinks that he should be able to get away with racist comments directed the other way? Ignorant fool.
Up until this weekend past I had never heard of Scott McIntyre so he has certainly made a spectacle of himself. The first I saw of his rant was when I checked my Twitter account on Saturday evening and noted a re-tweet someone had published from that grand old man of Australian football reporting Les Murray who was attacking Mr McIntyre’s comments in no uncertain terms. Well done Les! I quickly flicked onto McIntyre’s profile and found derogatory rants about terrorists bombing Hiroshima, Australians soldiers in the middle east raping, murdering and thieving en masse and the cultivation and celebration of the invasion of a foreign land by “white drunks and gamblers”, obviously a reference to the invasion of Turkey during the First World War and the commemoration of Anzac Day.
I am not going to dignify his comments by talking about them on this forum but let me just say his warped, extreme and bias view of history is easily repudiated with balanced argument and a proper research of history. But it begs the question-why did he think Anzac Day was an appropriate time to air such grievances which are obviously deeply felt?
No one suggests that we should all be flag waving nationalists who get up and go to a Dawn Service on Anzac Day every year but we should also be mindful that what we say may cause offence on Australia’s greatest and most solemn national day if we feel that military campaigns should not be commemorated. Someone once suggested to me that you should use social media as if you were at a dinner party with an eclectic group of people. If you wouldn’t say it there, don’t say it online! It’s a rule I try to live by. If I have a point to make I use my blog. Even then, I try not to offend.
It’s interesting that a number of notable people have defended Mr McIntyre and suggested that his free speech was being curtailed. Another fantasy. Mr McIntyre is quite entitled to post his hateful nonsense online and he is entitled to do it again today. No one is stopping him. No one is pointing a gun at his head and telling him to stop. His rights have been maintained. Unfortunately, all of us who are gainfully employed have to understand that we must follow our employers code of conduct. Social media policy is now a big part of such things. SBS were within their rights to terminate him under thier workplace code of practice. They really had no other choice. We are responsible for our own comments online and we should know where our limitations lie within the world of social media. Mr McIntyre well and truly crossed the line. He has no one to blame but himself.
I find it sad that many want to look at the Great War through the prism of the 21st century and judge the actions of men who went away to fight by their own opinion on what is right or wrong in our contemporary world. It is unfair on them and wrong of us to do so.
I have met people like Scott McIntyre before, on both sides of the political and social divide and he is not likely to be persuaded by anyone else’s opinion or by bare facts which are thrust under his nose. He is irrelevant in any case. Let him go back from whence he came, to a place where his opinion doesn’t matter. He is not fit to spit on the graves of the men he so insulted on Saturday.
Lest we forget.
Strange Notations From a Laborious Life 