No matter what the statistics, the research, or the weight of public opinion say, Atkinson has his feet firmly planted in concrete when it comes to classification reform. His position is based on his personal opinions, not facts. What do you do to fight that? Today we’re wondering, would it be best to stop paying him any attention?
On Monday’s Good Game, as covered earlier here, he expressed his personal fear that his family is in greater danger from gamers than from outlawed bikie gangs. That gamers have stalked outside his home, slipping threatening notes under his door late at night.
It’s hard to deny the unfortunate idiots who might be doing such things. But idiots are idiots, and that’s got nothing to do with the pros and cons of classification reform.
Right now it seems there is no argument that could sway him, with statements that show he is pre-judging the nature of the discussion paper submissions and what the final slant of comments will be.
I’m wondering if ongoing attention simply strokes his ego, stokes the fires of his crusade, and makes him feel like the centre of the conservative universe? I doubt we would choose to do such a thing, but what do you think? Would it be better to encourage people to ignore him until he goes away?
Liberal Party Stooge
Thursday, February 18, 2010 at 3:37 AMPlease don’t ignore him. The more attention/pressure he gets the more of a fool he exposes himself as being to the community.
What needs to be done in addition to the status quo is to start putting pressure on the Premier, Mike Rann and all other Labor MP’s and candidates by saying that since the Premier wont’ sack Atkinson and the party won’t force him to, they all agree with Atkinson.
Nevermind the fact he’s safe because of factional backroom deals, with enough public pressure on all Labor people he soon won’t be because they’ll see what a liability he is, and if he isn’t forced out then hopefully Labor won’t win the election and he won’t be the Attorney-General anymore.
I’d also suggest forwarding any correspondence with Atkinson that is crazy in response to your reasoned questions to SA media outlets, other political parties and even other Labor MP’s and candidates so that everyone is aware are just how crazy he is in case they’ve been living under a rock and arent already aware of that.
Marty
Thursday, February 18, 2010 at 8:31 AMthe way i look at it, the more attention we give the more chance that the rest of australia who dont surf the web as often as gamers do will actually get exposed to this argument about classification.
what really needs to happen is that we get main stream press to start writing articles about this issue. arguing, and pondering about whether to keep giving this nimrod attention may (from my point of view) be a negative thing.
as long as this issue is still in peoples minds regardless of whose time it is wasting the more likely something will actually be done about this. I really do hope that G4C can actually make a difference, but the reality are they are a new independant group on the political scene, and they will need all the help they can get. If they get even 1% of the vote thats a plus.
MrSpaceCowboy
Thursday, February 18, 2010 at 12:50 PMThis whole situation would turn on it’s head if some religious nutjob sent a threatening note to the G4C candidate.
It’d give G4C something they could wave in Atko’s face too.
Nutjobs and Pranksters aren’t just limited to gamers.
Broken code.
Thursday, February 18, 2010 at 2:43 PMOf course we shouldn’t just ignore him. In the past few months, he’s made some blatantly ugly political decisions, such as the R18 DVD laws, regulating political comments leading up to an election, and of course the land grab scandal.
The more he’s put under the spotlight in a bad light, the more the voters can see his true nature.