Who are the real peddlers of hate?

The black musician Daryl Davis may beg to differ. Daryl is the author of “Klan-Destine Relationships”, a book in which he recounts his friendships with KKK members and which was featured in The Nation of October 3. But this is beside the point. Ordsall helpfully lists Dr Frank, Eric Bahrt and Ian Martin as those who are “never afraid to tackle” what he regards as “hate peddlers”. These four writers are the distortion boxes of Have Your Say. They seize an issue raised by the more serious contributors – issues such as the curtailment of free speech, Islamic terror, the balance of reporting on protests, or absolutely anything that Trump says or does – then fail to advance the issue in any way, misquote and twist the argument around, personalise it, weaponise it, and then mount hate-fuelled attacks against the writer. “Shoot the messenger-ism” at its worst. After several iterations through the keyboards of this Fractious Four, the original issue ends up so mangled as to be unrecognisable. 
And so it is with this accusation of “white supremacy”. Back in August I pointed out that it was in fact the left-wing fascists, Antifa, who attacked a legally permitted KKK protest, and that Trump condemned BOTH sides. Those were the facts. So here we are several months later, original event forgotten, and I am somehow portrayed as one who wears a pointy white hat, or worse, a grim-faced chap with a black toothbrush moustache who is busily packing his bags to invade Poland. 
Enough of this mendacious extremism! Hate peddling? Just review Dr Frank’s THREE diatribes against me in less than a week to identify the real hate peddler. And please note that these writers make sinister hints that The Nation should apply stricter censorship on incoming letters. No thanks. If a ban on supposedly “extreme” letters were to be evenly applied to both sides of any debate, Have Your Say would be a pretty empty place. 
Nigel Pike 
Phang Nga