Aussie Politician Threatens To Contact Employers of Satirical Article "Likers"

Chuq writes "Tasmanian Liberal candidate for Bass, Andrew Nikolic, was the subject of a satirical article by NewExaminer on Facebook. Nikolic didn't like it, which is understandable. However he then went to considerable lengths to identify the people who liked the article, find out their employers (via their Facebook profiles) and 'name and shame' them on a follow-up post on his own page. Andrew Nikolic has a history of poorly handling conflicting views on his Facebook page, resulting in creation of another page, 'Andrew Nikolic blocked me.'"

Comments

Not much of a politician

[crazyjj]

Doesn't he know that a real politician gets his enemies back in *secret*?

warning: don't post!

[Trepidity]

NOTICE TO SLASH DOT USERS

All posts on this article will be taken to constitute mockery of Tasmanian Liberal candidate for Bass, Andrew Nikolic, and the Slash Dotters in question will be dealt with accordingly.

Re:warning: don't post!

[DigiShaman]

FUCK HIM!

Re:warning: don't post!

[Anonymous Coward]

Be more specific. With a Cucumber? Broom Handle? Butternut Squash? Live Squid? What?

Re:warning: don't post!

[OzPeter]

FUCK HIM!

Well .. given he's from Tasmania .. that's a job that probably best left to one of his relatives.
 
(For the US readers of /. Tasmania is the "West Virginia" of Australia. For foreigners of other denominations I'm not sure what the equivalent is. However in the spirit of an open discourse I would love to hear suggestions of similar designations from other countries!)

Re:warning: don't post!

[_8553454222834292266]

Chainsaw

Re:warning: don't post!

[BluBrick]

Perhaps, but gently, m'kay?

Re:warning: don't post!

[realityimpaired]

In Canada, it'd be Quebec. Literally. There are towns in rural Quebec with one surname. Something like 2/3 of Quebec's population is related as 2nd cousin or closer.

Re:warning: don't post!

[fustakrakich]

Hmm, I thought it would've been Buckingham Palace

Not even a politician

[dontclapthrowmoney]

He's not even a politician - he's preselected to run as a candidate in the as-yet-unscheduled federal election, which isn't likely to occur until 2013.

Get this guy out of politics

[Anonymous Coward]

As far as I'm concerned, any politician who gets in a hissy fit over political satire simply doesn't have the balls to be a politician, regardless of any actual policies. Move over and make way for someone who can take a bit of criticism.

Re:Get this guy out of politics

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

In his defense, a childish sense of spite, narcissistic fury in defense of self-image(ideally delusional), and spiteful vindictiveness in the face of criticism are very strong qualifications for most positions of authority...

Combine that with running on the 'war hero with strong ties to extraction industries' platform and a dose of good, old-fashioned Values, and we could have a real winner!

Re:Get this guy out of politics

[nomadic]

"I hear ya.....tell that to Obama...I've never seen a guy with such thin skin."

Actually, a non-biased observer would consider Obama even-tempered in the face of criticism to an unusual degree. Certainly doesn't have the kind of vitriolic defensiveness his predecessor had.

Cyberstalking ?

[redelm]

I don't know what qualifies as cyberstalking under 'stralian law, but this looks like it might qualify. I don't know any law that limits cyberstalking to just one target. Digging out an employer is quite an intrusion, obviously intended to intimidate.

Of course there will be some Parlimentary Privilige, but I believe that applies only to comment on the floor, not elsewhere.

Re:Cyberstalking ?

[sg_oneill]

My best suggestion is to tell him on his Facebook page. He probably doesn't read slashdot!

The handlers are using handcuffs...

[samazon]

Having worked on a political campaign.... It's getting more and more difficult to keep the "nastygrams" away from the candidate and his/her family these days. When you're on the trail especially, it's important to make sure that (a) your candidate stays focused and (b) your candidate's family and friends know that lashing out against these attacks makes the candidate look worse. It's hard to do that when everybody's Facebooking away at home with private accounts (and fake accounts... sigh...) - suffice to say, if any politician reacts like that to something so petty on Facebook, what other unreasonable reactions will s/he have?

$0.02 - Nikolic needs a better campaign manager, if s/he is letting him do this kind of crazy shit.

This guy's a liberal?

[GameboyRMH]

I'd hate to see what Tasmania's conservatives are like 8-(

Re:This guy's a liberal?

[Anonymous Coward]

he's a "big L" Liberal.

Confusingly in Australia, the Liberal Party are the conservatives and the Labor Party are the liberals (with the Greens to the left of them).

Of course, our Liberal Party would probably be to the left of the US's congressional democrats on most issues..

--Q

Re:This guy's a liberal?

[tgd]

he's a "big L" Liberal.

Confusingly in Australia, the Liberal Party are the conservatives and the Labor Party are the liberals (with the Greens to the left of them).

Of course, our Liberal Party would probably be to the left of the US's congressional democrats on most issues..

--Q

That's the real issue. The US is so conservative, our labels don't sync up well with the rest of the world, especially in the last 25 years. Case in point: Reagan's positions would make him center or left of center in the *Democrat* party these days. The US right has more in common now with the Taliban than what was traditionally considered "conservative" for most of the US' history.

Looks like we all have an article to 'like'....

[A Commentor]

Since the satire story is not directly linked.. just go to the "On Facebook" link above and down to May 3rd... It's the only post that day... Lets see if we can get it over 100,000.... It's only 67 right now....

Re:Typical neoconspam

[caffemacchiavelli]

Don't care about the troll, but for anyone who doesn't want to look it up:

"Liberal" in Australia's Liberal Party refers to economic liberalism, not center-left politics. They're pretty firm in right-wing territory, including the obligatory hate against homosexuals and women's rights. Add gun crazies, religious zealots and Birchers and you'd have the GOP*.

*I'll refrain from making the obvious "Remove gun crazies, religious zealots and Birchers from the GOP and you're left with nothing" joke. Well, maybe not.

Re:Typical

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

It's a bit of a shock, I know, but those strange and barbarous foreign people are allowed to use words in a way that is different than their use in the US. I'm not sure why Jesus allows it; but it happens.

In this case, the Tasmanian Liberals are more or less similar to those American 'Conservatives' who are still pretending to endorse the 'compassionate conservative' label.

Note key phrases such as "We believe in the importance of the family and that the standards of a free society should support family ideals.", "We further believe government should not compete with an efficient private sector", "We believe that Australia has a constructive role to play in maintaining international peace in alliance with other free nations", and "We further believe that competitive enterprise, the free choice of consumers in the marketplace and individual effort will maximise economic growth and national prosperity.".

You'd need a local observer to say to what degree these reflect genuine classical 'Liberalism', in something resembling the 19th century sense, and to what degree they reflect the rhetorical coating of a group of privatization-crazed crony capitalists with strong ties to local extraction industries and an enthusiasm for foreign policy adventurism; but these are not the 'liberals' in the American sense of the term...

Free speech cuts both ways

[Hentes]

You are free to express your opinions, but there are a few things to keep in mind. If you support an opinion by 'liking' it, you are basically supporting it with your name. It's like signing a petition: you surrender your anonymity in order to give more weight to the statement. But that will also mean that others disagreeing with you might like you less in the future, which is why you should only give your name to something you really agree with. This guy basically just republished the data others made publicly available on Facebook, which he is also free to do.

Who else?

[Daetrin]

"Tasmanian Liberal candidate for Bass, Andrew Nikolic"

So who do the Liberals have running for lead singer, guitar and drums?

Whining like a little bitch

[Rogerborg]

Wow, nice way to bust "macho Australian" and "tough vet" stereotypes in one fell swoop. Please let him be a "defence of marriage" type as well, those are always the funniest when they get busted trawling for trade in airport bathrooms.