Last week I blogged about Steffan Browning and his signing, and sharing, of a petition to get the WHO to support the use of homeopathy to combat the Ebola outbreak in Africa. I still doubt the story that was being advanced by Steffan and the Greens about it being an automatic posting.
There has been a development today:
Not only have the actions affected him, and resulted in the loss of his role as natural health spokesperson, but they also appear to have caused the Greens to rethink the existence of the role of natural health spokesperson:
The Greens have been putting a lot of effort in over the last few years to try and combat the view that they are just a group of hippies. Overall they have been doing a good job of that. However the actions of Steffan reconfirmed the views of a lot of people, as highlighted by LewSOS. By his actions Steffan has provided National with something the can use to throw back, not only at Steffan but at the Greens as well, for the next three years whenever the issue of health treatments comes up. The Greens may be using this instance as a way to remove the natural health spokesperson role to help combat the view that they are a bunch of hippies.
The Guardian in London picked up the story:
This happening probably didn’t help Steffan’s position on the issue. This instance should serve as a reminder to Members of Parliament. They may see social media as something of an add on to what they do, but actions on social media can have far reaching consequences. You may think it is just something among friends, especially on Facebook, but it isn’t. Social media is for public consumption. What you do there reflects not only on you, but on your caucus colleagues and party.
