It don't matter if you're left or right

Earlier I posted about Charlie Gilmour, an idiot that decided to put himself in the crosshairs of the authority, antagonised police, riled up protestors with rhetoric to break the law, attacked (however feebly) a royal convoy, allegedly threw paving stones at police, and caused property damage, all while on LSD and Valium. He got 16 months for a portion of this, and within the law got exactly what could be expected.

The thing that was a little unexpected for me was just how right wing the left wing could be. There are, of course, several tactics in the blogging/discussion world to try and undermine or derail an argument. Reductio ad absurdum, where you try and make too simple a case about something in order to disprove another's point; whataboutery, where you almost accept that the other person has a point but aim to "disprove" by talking about something similar as if it's more important; and hyper-comparison (for want of a real term), where you take two points made and attempt to portray them as something the other person has linked much more closely than they have and then use that strawman (false argument set up to be burnt down) to claim to disprove something else.

*phew*

These are all tactics I see over and over again with vehement right wingers on issues such as Climate Change, crime rates, immigration, over-eager legislation (on subjects like Terrorism), internet freedom, etc, etc.

I guess I just didn't realise that these kinds of comments, Daily Mail-esque in their simplicity and lack of objectivity, aren't really the purview of "The Right" anyway, but of people in general that are unable to distance the realities of the world from what they wish to be true.

Yes, I don't think Charlie Gilmour should have got 16 months, however the point of contention for that view is not this particular case but the oversight of the CPS and, to a greater extent, how fit for purpose some 25 year old laws are which are now used by the CPS.

Does what the police also did on the day matter to this reality? No. Does it mean I agree with the police action of the day? No. Perhaps this is too multi-faceted and complex stance for those in the UKuncut movement to comprehend, I'm not entirely sure.

What I am sure of, and now glad to know, is that in reality it is just heavily partisan people that get down and dirty with the tactics of not engaging with the real subject, and skirting around the facts of the matter, regardless of whether they'd describe themselves as Left wing or Right wing.