Take the tsunami of bilious mockery around the hashtag #MalcolmWasSoPoor. This was invented by a leftie tweep who, like so many of them, won't use his real name. Instead he goes by the handle "John Wren", who was a powerful businessman from early last century. He was the basis of a character in commie writer Frank Hardy's Power Without Glory. (Well, at least we know the tweep is well read! Maybe he's a leftist quackademic?)
Anyhoo, he clearly came up with the hashtag in response to Malcolm Turnbull's latest promotional video, in which he talks about his tough childhood and love for his dad, who raised him alone for much of his childhood.
As you can see by the retweet count above it went gangbusters. Hepcats galore had a ball portraying Turnbull as a tragically deluded fat cat born with a silver spoon in his mouth, who is now trying to make out he was actually a sad, beweft wittle urchin.I'm going to just throw this hashtag out there and see where it lands;#MalcolmWasSoPoor that...#auspol #ausvotes— John Wren (@JohnWren1950) June 6, 2016
Now, while I think the video was ill-considered and might even do the PM harm, he was not trying to portray himself as a victim. Yes, he does say that his mum left his dad, who "struggled" and "didn't have much money". But his main message is how much love his father had for him and how supported and fortunate this made him feel. Not only that, he actually says his dad eventually did well for himself financially.
It's hardly a sob story. See for yourself.
That said, it's prolly true that Turnbull over-egged it with the financial hardship angle. He did come from a line of silvertails and his dad was never truly skint. But he was by no means born into a life of power and privilege like, say, Kerry Packer. (Even the union funded New Daily validates the claim that his father "had very little money".)
So, what the lefties have done is fixate very selectively on his passing references to struggle, blown them up into false claims of abject poverty and laid the boot in. They've also completely ignored the emotional devastation wrought by his mum leaving suddenly and without explanation.
An event like this will scar a kid deeply no matter the historical context. But it could be argued that it was more traumatic back in the sixties than it is now since it was so much rarer then.
In any case, the obvious lack of compassion for young Malcolm shown by the gleeful hashtaggers is notable -- especially given their claims to be so full of lerve for humanity.
Basically, they've looked at all the wealth he's amassed as an adult and retrospectively damned him as a child for it. Nasty stuff.
The double standard is revealing too. If Turnbull had gown rich and powerful as a unionist and ultimately become the leader of the ALP, then you can be damn sure his claims of early hardship would be seen as a huuuge plus by those same hashtaggers.
But you can't be too hard on the poor little pinko poppets. Eternally child-like, they are ruled by their emotions. So dogpiling onto Turnbull was not a conscious choice. It was just them shoehorning a hate figure into their precious Narrative.
Resist it in the most minor of ways and it triggers them into a flurry of abusive class war rhetoric. Take this endearingly direct response from another of Twitter's countless leftist intellectuals, for example.
— 93+ Seats Gusface (@Gusface_Redux) June 6, 2016
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