When the Labour Party looks at reasons for its defeat this year, the role of Limbaugh-like right wing attack sites in setting the agenda of the debate has to addressed. It seems any cursory reading of the musing of political editors and op-ed writers in our major daily papers would indicate that they are no longer just interviewing their typewriters – they have web browsers and they often are regurgitating right wing attack talking points. The use of Cameron Slater and David Farrar to launder sexual smears and whispering campaigns into the mass media is now documented. David Farrar has managed to use his blog as a launching point to pass himself off as an independent commentator in the wider media, and if the web stats are to be believed the sleazy Slater has one of the most read blogs in the land.

The general online “left wing” response to all this has been tardy and a lot of the leftists frankly come across as a lot of intellectually elitist pussies. A good example would be the over-intellectualising tosh served up by Deborah over at “in a strange land” that saw her end up voting for the Maori Party. Another would be the flaccid and half hearted political energy this time round of Russell Brown over at Public Address.

The left – that is, the left that rolls up its sleeves and gets involved with real workers at trade union and party activist levels – has to develop a far more vigorous and street fighting response online to set the agenda of opinion makers, and that is why I think pseudo-left’s general nose holding reaction to Trotter’s aggressive and thematically cohesive writing is symptomatic of how and why the right came to dominate the op-ed agenda on the internet and onto the mass media.

You can be correct every day and people will hate you for debunking their personal myths and challenging their prejudices, preconceptions and ignorance.

Welcome to the Internet. Prepare to be boarded.