Yesterday I discovered that Joe Hockey had called me a troll and blocked me on twitter. My dastardly crime that had caused Joe Hockey to call me a Labor Troll was the reposting of one of his own tweets.
I will say that again, my trollish crime was re-posting one of Joe Hockey’s own tweets.
Oh dear Joe Hockey, Oh deary dear. Is this what our politicians have come to? Reduced to name calling and public hissy fits because a member of the public questions their own words.
It was your own words I was responding to Joe, not Labors words, not a PR piece or a smear campaign designed to discredit you, but your own words, Joe Hockey.
Let’s start at the beginning shall we.
I posted this image onto my frogpondsrock facebook page knowing full well that it would also auto-tweet to my frogpondsrock twitter account
The caption that goes with the image is,
“Joe Hockey went too far with this tweet. He has since deleted it, but unfortunately for him, it doesn’t undo what he said. Kudos to the people who called him on it.”
As twitter is a tool for conversation, naturally a conversation ensued.
I was prepared to let the matter drop until my friend Zoey told me that Joe Hockey was now referring to everyone as trolls. So Of course I clicked over to Joe’s public profile on twitter and read his tweet.
Now I was grumpy.
My indignation most certainly was not faux Joe. My indignation is very real and it comes from the fact that I am a real live human being who has lost both her parents and I know first hand how desperately sad my first Christmas without my father was and how terribly sad my Christmases have been without my mother.
That is where my indignation stemmed from, from my humanity and my sympathy for our Prime Minister’s loss.
I take great offense at being called a Labor Troll and in my pique I went to retweet Joe’s tweet so that I could wail loudly about my trolldom, only to find that he had BLOCKED ME!
My indignation had spiralled from supposedly faux to extreme in 140 characters or less.
Look Internet, HEAR ME IN MY INDIGNATION, Joe Hockey has BLOCKED ME.
I then became very Hmphy and started a very loud conversation on twitter and facebook about wussy politicians who block normal decent VOTERS.
The different tactics and approaches of the LNP politicians towards women online compared to their labor counterparts is a wide gulf that needs to be closed.
The Prime Minister invites female bloggers to morning tea and Christmas drinks and shows herself to be appraochable and human.
Joe Hockey as a highly placed member of the opposition blocks women online and calls them names.
Good work Joe, good work indeed.
Comments on this entry are closed.
Well, his behaviour says more about his character than anything I could possibly say. But I’ll say it anyway. What an arsehole.
I honestly think some politicians don’t understand that social media is not this big, bad thing to be frightened of. Which means that despite what Alan Jones would have them believe (‘social media is full of dangerous bullies), that it is normal and natural to have people disagree with you, without it meaning they are trolling you.
It’s especially important to note that you need to be able to handle yourself well when someone does disagree with you, particularly if you’ve made a douchebag of yourself, as Joe has. He crossed a line, he shouldn’t have, but instead of blaming everyone else, he should apologise.
Aaaaargh. As far as I can see Joe Hockey and Tony Abbot believe that apologising demasculates them. Which is one of the reasons it would be a snowy day in hell before I could vote for their party. One of the reasons.
You were right Kim. For anyone (and sadly there are lots of us) who has lost a parent this is a vile thing to say.
Hello my dear,
thanks for your kind email, and I’m wishing you and yours a nice Christmas and a wonderful New Year too. Whomever you’re voting for 😉 Or is it whoever? Anywho… it seems there are sensible and senseless politicians all over the world. Ah well… what’s new. I’ve missed blogging, which is one of my windows on the world and what’s going on in it. So I’ll be back next year. In January to be more specific (which is also my ‘stok achter de deur’, which is a Dutch saying and I can’t think of a good translation ;-)).
So dear Kim, hope you’re well and I’ll ‘see’ you next year.
Carolina
I also responded to Joe’s tweet and politely told him I had lost respect for him and that he was just Abbott’s bully boy now. I haven’t been blocked. Very disappointed!!!
Let me say, that I am absolutely no fan of our Prime Minister, but that does not mean that I don’t agree with you in this instance, Kim. Like you, I am not a Labor lover and I do look for individuals who inspire more thought than rhetoric. Julia Gillard should be with her mother today, I agree. They as a family need to remember those lost to them and share a few memories. If Joe hockey can’t show compassion even at this time of year, he is more than a little callous and shows that he has little concept of when political point scoring is culturally acceptable.
A few comments:
Whilst I agree that it is cowardly of Jo Hockey to block you, I think it’s a stretch to link his tweet with Julia’s grieving mother. He was calling her out on the fact the ALP announced that a surplus was unlikely, right before the Christmas break to minimise the fallout form their stupid promise. Now this is of course hypocritical of him to point out but you can’t blame him for doing so – all sides do it.
Also, I am not sure why you have turned this into a gender war – have I missed something?
There is much to be critical of Jo Hockey and the LNP (e.g. lack of policy detail, lack of consistency, racism and corruption), but I think the reaction to this particular tweet is a bit over the top.
Just saying.
JK
Hockey also told reporters who doubted him about #Ashbygate they could,
“Go To Hell”
Here is one for Joe Hockey,
“If you can’t stand the heat get out of the kitchen.”
frogponds I am so so so very sorry that I am such a cock anyone can see it’s not really the real me commenting on that woman’s blog.
It is my alter ego the one with the Big mouth.
You obviously haven’t read my comment policy, Robert.
Joe Hockey and Abbott are doing nothing for anyone – all they do is whine “NO!” to everything and then try to dish dirt on opposition pollies.
Making others look bad to make yourself seem good is counter-productive, a waste of time and something that belongs back in kindergarten – and even then kinder kids know better!
Robbert – be nice or I’ll tell them where you live.
frogponds, cock is another name for rooster.
Dear frogponds I am sorry I am such a birdbrain, there’s no proof that I didn’t make those comments, I know I really should be more careful but I seem to have lost the art.
And as if Hockey, who is my absolute hero btw – or any other unintelligent person, – would care a damn what an imbecile like you or an imbecile like me thought/thinks. Have you seen my marbles? I seem to have misplaced them?
Speaking of roosters, I found three roosters dumped by the side of the road the other day RH. One lived to serve his flock of hens and two went into the pot. It is a hard life for an unwanted cock these days.
Is it wrong that I hope you get more trolls so I can enjoy your classic edits 🙂
As for Mr Hockey, what a shame he seems to have had his humanity removed 🙁