We’ve literally had a war which started 50 years ago and went on for 30
The 20 years since have been fraught with difficulty even though largely peaceful
And yet you have such paucity of imagination that you literally cannot even begin to comprehend the notion that violence could ever start again
Such historical ignorance is breathtaking
Sure just yesterday we were told here by somebody who actually lives in Derry that half of Derry is controlled by dissos, and you say there are no “strongholds”
Who was there to fight in 1968
Young, radicalised hotheads, that’s who, the people who will fight or be prepared to fight are largely people who are children or below voting age now
The mistake people like you and others here make is that you think economics is more important than people’s national identity in the north
In an atmosphere of high tension brought about by rabble rousing referendum campaigns on both sides, logic goes out the window and people descend to base tribalism
Have a look at Brexit
In December 2015, 1% of Brits believed the EU was the most important issue regarding Britiaain, or England, because the EU was only ever an English issue
Now it’s 60%
That’s a demonstration of how whipping up hatred of the other changes people, and that campaign of hatred was an astro-turf, top down, elitist project run by spivs and toffs, and built from scratch, not on a deep seated suspicion like already exists in the north of Ireland
The same people who tell us economics is more important than national identity in Ireland spectacularly miss that economics has nothing to do with Brexit, it’s victimhoood, paranoia and national identity
The DUP’s behaviour was consistently misread on this forum by those who thought they would be bought off, they weren’t
Of course England doesn’t give two fucks about the north, it never has, to them the north is a colony
It doesn’t give two fucks about Scotland or Wales either, those are also colonies to the English
The same people who don’t give two fucks about these places are the ultimate unionists when it comes down to it
That’s how colonisers think
The Tories are quashing any further prosecutions of butchers in the British Army ranks, they’re glorifying slaughter
And you now tell us to trust them, that the likes of Boris Johnson and Dominic Cummings and Johnny fucking Mercer supposedly have the best interests of the people of Ireland north and south at heart, jaysus, talk about naivety
Ironically a lot of the same people who push the united Ireland NOW line have the exact same colonising mentality against unionists, i) in that “they can shut up and lump it” and ii) that they can be bought off
I’m all for an actual conversation about the practicalities of future unification
Sadly many people who claim to want a conversation want no such thing and just want to rabble rouse about how unionists will be “put in their place” once and for all
Every single post I’ve read on this forum which calls for a border poll in the near future is full of rabble rousing and rhetoric about “bouncing” unionists into a simplistic vision of a united Ireland against their will
That isn’t a conversation, that’s the mentality of an ethno-nationalist coloniser and it’s a recipe for disaster