There are a lot of rural Irish lads here (and a few urban I think) who have a sort of Walter Mitty like existence and genuinely think they are American, specifically the type of overweight gormless eejits who queue up for hours for Trump rallies with their little miniature flags and red baseball caps.
As you say, they can’t make up their mind whether the country is doing great or doing terribly and being besieged by “spongers” and “dolers” and “layabouts”. It seems to change from post to post. This is why corporate media runs with these sort of manufactured lines of division like public v private, “strivers” v “shirkers” etc. To create out groups. A lot of these lads have retreated into some weird imagined fantasy world of the 1950s where any sort of irrational prejudice can be indulged. Not only do they think that no progressive change can ever be achieved in society, they seem actively hostile to to even the idea of it and actually want to reverse any progressive change that has been achieved, while poo pooing the things that actually were good in the past.
They’re absolute fodder for the propaganda of corporate owned media like the Denis O’Brien stations, INM and further afield Rupert Murdoch etc. and it’s obvious that this is where they get all their views.
It’s absolutely bizarre and you’d have to say these lads have a fierce want in them.
I think at the heart of it all, like with so many things in right-wing idelogy in general, is begrudgery, miserable begrudgery.
That’s the bit the simpletons don’t understand. The country has come on leaps and bounds every decade since the 1980s, even the collapse of the Celtic tiger only brought people back to about 5 years earlier, and quickly recovered for most. It’s a remarkable country now compared to ten years ago. You only realize that when you live outside Ireland and visit.
The sign of a good economy is lots of rich people. They are the ones who create wealth, expand markets, develop and offer new products, hire people to make and market them, etc. All of this is lost on the economically illiterate, the layabouts and the insane leftists. The leftists think you should make the successful the enemy and punish them. How dare they have more than me? They have no problem with Mo Saleh making millions to kick a ball though.
Sinn Fein have a chance to grow a pair and attempt to govern, they claim to have the answers. Yet you have clowns like @anon61878697 suggesting they tactically stay out of government. So much for civic duty.
People also forget that during the Celtic tiger the people that had to leave to find work were usually extremely highly skilled. It wasn’t like in the 80s were people left for England to go shovelling. We’ve a great country in comparison to most others but I’ve little doubt Sinn Fein would fuck it up.
You’ve also lads crying for an increased minimum wage and also wanting to increase tax on the people providing jobs to those on a minimum wage. Absolutely bizarre
In fairness, this sits uneasily with a lot of people, not the republican activities, but the perceived paramilitary/violent end of it. Its the perception that SF have rightly moved on which has allowed them to poll so strongly. Evidence that policy is being dictated by the paramilitaries won’t help them, or republicanism. It will be detrimental. It’s the ballot box, not the gun that will achieve a united Ireland. Any concrete evidence that they are not solely a democratic organisation will decimate their vote.
They also need to be extremely mindful that a border poll needs to be won in the North. Singing IRA songs openly, and waving tricolours, is perceived by the protestant community in the way we perceive Drumcree. They need to tone it the fuck down.
Sure they don’t have notion. Most restaurants operate on very fine margins and a high percentage go out of business. Waiters and waitresses make a fortune on tips here, yet the nutters like @anon61878697 say they should get a higher hourly wage. Which has the knock on effect of putting more restaurants out of business. These are the people who think they can run an economy.
Most people on both sides of the divide just want peace. They’ve no stomach for anymore for trouble. You’ve idiots on here that think Because they know the words to Sean south they understand the complexity of the situation.
Everyone needs to tone the fuck down. Maybe if cunts stopped wearing the poppy on Irish soil or stopped marching on the 12th it would set a good example. Otherwise it’s just hypocritical hyperbole.
I couldn’t agree more mate, hence my point about Drumcree. I would suggest that for many who wear the poppy however, it is solely for them as it was originally intended, a commemoration of WW1, and the utter barbarity and stupidity of it, rather than the political statement it has been latterly twisted into. In its true sense, the poppy is anti war.
I neither wear nor buy one, but don’t judge anyone who does.
A united Ireland will have a lot of citizens to whom the poppy is sacrosanct. I’d be a lot unhappier at unionist politicians waving a poppy flag and singing about King Billy, than I would about someone wearing one. In fact, I’d find it far more interesting to engage in conversation with someone wearing one in Ireland, and ask them why they are.
I’d also not be overly troubled with orange marches. A price worth paying for a United Ireland. Nonetheless, none of this was my original. Point, but you are the ultimate strawman builder. I think it makes you feel clever or summat
You don’t understand what a straw man argument is, I am replying to your original point.
It may be a commemoration of WWI for some, but the reality is the poppy is a commemoration for everyone who served in the British forces, including those responsible for Bloody Sunday in 1921 and Bloody Sunday in 1972. The British legion make no distinction based on where British forces served.
If you believe people have a right to commemorate these events and those that perpetrated them, then as an Irish Republican I reserve the right to commemorate Warrenpoint 1979 where the murdering cunts found justice.
You have to admit though flatty the lads most passionate about a united ireland aren’t going to accept the poppy or god save the queen. In fact it probably hadn’t even crossed their minds what a united ireland really looks like.
