Thursday 23 February 2012

ACT on Campus on Censorship

Anyone who has even a passing familiarity with me will know that I vehemently despise ACT and its sycophantic youth wing, ACT on Campus. Indeed, it would be fair to say I've got something of a vendetta.
I'm not going to go into the reasons for why in any detail, but suffice to say that apart from seeking to further ruin our economy and nation, they're an odious bunch of hypocrites at the best of times (for more detail, please see here).

Anyway, ACT on Campus recently underwent a leadership transition from the candidate placed dead last on ACT's list outgoing President Peter McCaffrey to newcomer Hayden Fitzgerald. So far, so ordinary.

Of course it's what happened next that provides the entertainment value. ACT has always prided itself on being a "Party of Principle"; and looks set to continue to do so even with its Parliamentary Caucus composed entirely of racists and homophobes. Presumably because of this potential contradiction , ACT on Campus has always prided itself on being the more-ideologically pure Libertarian vanguard - keepers of the flame in the face of crusty paleoconservative contamination of the mother-party.

With any leadership transition you're going to get friction (and, frictional leadership transitions are something ACT is definitely familiar with), and this may well lead to criticism of either the outgoing incumbent or his incoming (designated) successor. Presumably, as staunch libertarians, free speech and frank discussion on this issue would be valued by AoC. They wouldn't want to censor or censure dissenting voices in internal debate - that would be coercive and against the principles of freedom they claim to hold so dear, right?

Well here's what's been happening inside ACT on Campus over the last 36 hours...

And here's what outgoing President Peter McCaffrey had to say in response to the allegation of censorship...

And, upon somebody pointing out that "Danny Libertarian" (geez these guys have imaginative Nom-de-Guerres don't they) definitely didn't leave AoC of his own accord (i.e. was kicked by an administrator ... of which there's precisely one, and guess who it was)...


So, apparently, ACTresses criticising President McCaffrey, his leadership style or his choice of hand-picked successor wind up being censored and "accidentally" expelled from ACT on Campus. Way to run a supposedly Libertarian organisation, Peter! 


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