Attack, the Green-left too often seem to think, is the best form of defence. Especially when they, as they so often are, are defending the indefensible in their own ranks.
Case in point: Benjamin Doyle.
Doyle may well be an innocent fool – after all, what aspiring MP wouldn’t stop to think that people would trawl his socials? – or he may be something much worse. Either way, anyone who posts photos of children with suggestive captions has, at the very least, something to apologise for. If a straight, white male, conservative MP posted photos of underage girls, captioned ‘pussy galore’, their career would be over in an instant.
Not the Greens, though. Not only have they not issued anything resembling an apology, the Greens went straight on the attack. Worse, the media joined in: having first run silent on the matter, the first response of the media was not to report the posts but to attack everyone who did. The mainstream media unanimously refused to even post the screenshots of the hurriedly deleted posts to let their readers make their own judgement.
All in all, the collective actions of the media and the Greens resembled far too closely the decades of cover-up and enabling that so damned the church.
There are, though, some brave exceptions. One of them is Ani O’Brien.
O’Brien is rightly ‘furious’ that the Greens and so many of her colleagues are not just attacking anyone who questions Doyle’s post, but using homosexuality as a shield – and smearing all gays and lesbians in the process. In the same breath that they huff that ‘not all gay men are paedos’ (which no one has even suggested), the Greens argued that such sexualised language referring to children is ‘normal’ in the gay community.
Really?
I found myself close to tears of rage as I watched the Green Party media stand up. Chloe Swarbrick effectively tossed gays and lesbians under the bus to try to save the skin of her MP.
She characterised what I and others view as sexualised and inappropriate behaviour as “normal” in our communities and thus gave legitimacy to the people who spout the worst about homosexuality. In my view, she announced that we think it is okay to use sexualised language in connection to children as Doyle did.
As O’Brien points out, many members of the so-called ‘rainbow community’ agree that it is simply not appropriate to use disturbingly sexual language in relation to children. I’ve shown the posts to gay men and women, whose jaws collectively dropped when they saw them. ‘Oh, no… no… that’s… wrong.’
I believe that most New Zealanders, including those of us who are gay, should be disturbed by this. I think many would want the leadership of the Greens to be demanding answers from their MP as to how on earth Doyle thinks any of it is appropriate. I would like reassurances that Doyle will be stripped of the Early Childhood and Māori Education portfolios, at the very least.
Instead, the Greens have come out swinging. They appear to have decided attack is the best form of defence and are alleging, among other things, misinformation, disinformation, death threats, homophobia, transphobia, and attacks on the rainbow community.
The screenshots of Doyle’s Instagram account are there plain as day. The truth, as I said, is an inconvenience. Chloe Swarbrick didn’t appear to be aware that she followed the “BibleBeltBussy” account. As I write this, she still follows it. As do others in the Green caucus.
So, they knew – and they said nothing. Until he got caught.
O’Brien also notes another staggering hypocrisy from the Greens. Last week, they were all in on ‘defund the police’. This week, they’re demanding police protection for Doyle.
They claim ‘immense’ ‘death threats’, without any evidence, at the same time as they try to bury the evidence of his socials.
I argue that very, very few people would deem using sexual language of any kind to caption a photo of a child appropriate.
It seems to me that Chloe Swarbrick would like everyone to think that the criticism of Doyle’s Instagram account is from far-right outsiders who are simply discriminating against minorities, but that is a baseless conspiracy. Plenty of the criticism of Doyle and of Swarbrick’s own defence of the situation has come from “inside the house”. From gays and lesbians such as me.
Perhaps, just like the Greens will find out that most Kiwis quite like having a well-funded police force to keep us safe and most Kiwis think it is reasonable for businesses to make a profit, I believe most Kiwis do not accept that it is normal to use language in the way Benjamin Doyle has.
If, as the Greens insist, Doyle’s posts were entirely innocent, why did he delete them and why are they refusing to repost screenshots as a defence? If they’re so innocent, let everyone see for themselves and make up their own minds.
Screencaps courtesy of Holyhekatuiteka on X. The Good Oil.
The Greens and the mainstream media are, instead, giving every appearance that Doyle has something to hide – and disgracefully using every homosexual New Zealander as human shields.
