Referer does have legitimate uses. For example, back in the day people would use it to detect if someone embedded an image from their site on another site. SomethingAwful famously used to respond to any such requests with goatse, and forums I was on had very strict "don't link to SA images" rules as a result.
I think that using referer to try to deliver manifestos to users of another site is kinda childish, but so it goes. Every tool can be put to good or bad uses.
It's only slightly less childish than the current WP drama.