"I would suggest that if you do not like the way a particular thread is going it may be more sensible to stay out of it. Perhaps one definition of a crazy person is one who keeps reading a thread that he or she doesn't like"
And allow the crazies to run the asylum - don't think so really.
This, for a Brit living in Ireland, has been one of the more disturbing threads on this forum.
When what is obviously (to me anyway) little more than a flippant remark resulting in an over-inflated ego receiving a slight dent, being blown up into an unbelievably misinformed discussion on British/Irish relations, something is rotten in the state of somewhere or other.
I repeat, in nearly 40 years association with this country we have never received anything but friendship and hospitality here - and this when the political situation between the two countries was at its worst. Yet we are told that the situation is really comparable to the relationship between the Nazis and the Jews and that we should "keep our heads down" - personally, I find this extremely depressing.
Given the history of the two countries (a history which, for some Brits seems to screech to an abrupt halt with Cromwell, but in fact lasted nearly to the end of the 20th century), it has always surprised me that there isn't more antagonism from the Irish, but as far as I can see - there isn't. It is interesting that, apart from The Cap'n's little hissy-fit (and his profound advice to the Irish nation on reforming their world outlook), this thread is devoid of any other example of anti-Brit rhetoric on the part of the Irish.
The ironic thing in all this is that over the last decade racism in Ireland has accelerated alarmingly. It has a long way to go before it reaches the proportions of the racism I encountered almost on a daily basis in the UK, which was extremely democratic and aimed at anybody regarded as foreign: Asians, Africans, French, Germans, Northerners.... to people from the wrong side of the Thames.
Here it is aimed mainly at asylum seekers and economic migrants - and of course, the old enemy - the Travellers. The Brits don't come into the picture; any hatred for them is reserved for the politicians and the military, and even then, appears to confine itself to pre-1922.
Racism is becoming a major problem here and nonsense like this, far from helping the situation, serves only to trivialise it as surely as WLD's odious comparison trivialises the Holocaust.
It really is time that some people took their heads out of their 'Land of Hope and Glory' arses and saw themselves as others see them.
Dave Polshaw
"The Irish are bad singers.... etc"
Your question - sorry, I thought I had answered it.
Taken as they stand all of your quotes are innocuously stupid enough to be dismissed as such and ignored. However, in the case of Blacks and Jews, taken in the context of the deep racism that already exists towards these people, in the UK and elsewhere, these can certainly be viewed as part of the problem and are therefore not acceptable - obviously.
Jim Carroll