Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie

The twelfth is upon us again

1234568»

Comments

  • #212
    CrookedJack
    Registered Users Posts: 587 ✭✭✭CrookedJack


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119337525#Comment_119337525

    I think it's at least fair to say that Arlene has a very understandable reason for her anti-nationalist views, despite those views not being reasonable in themselves.



  • #213
    Fionn1952
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,629 ✭✭✭Fionn1952


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119337793#Comment_119337793

    Her anti-Provo views are very understandable, her anti-SF views to some extent......her anti all things Irish views are not.

    Not you personally, Jack (I don't know you) but often those who espouse this sort of understanding of anti-Irishness are the first out the gates to dismiss at any who express any sort of anti-British government views as horrendous bigots (despite the fact that many of us were directly affected by the British government and don't let that dislike fester into a hatred of all things British).



  • #214
    Seth Brundle
    Moderators, Politics Moderators Posts: 40,190 Mod ✭✭✭✭Seth Brundle


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119337771#Comment_119337771

    True but one should not be forgiven for being like Arlene simply because of the horrors one encounters. Arlene should never have experienced either of those events (they should not have happened!) but that does not give her or anyone an automatic right to punish those from the same community where the perpretrators came from.



  • #215
    CrookedJack
    Registered Users Posts: 587 ✭✭✭CrookedJack


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119337863#Comment_119337863

    I don't necessarily disagree with anything you say here - I'm just making the point that many people forget that Arlene had a horrendously scarring childhood which has legitimately caused her bigotry. I think it's unreasonable to expect her to be completely rational and logical about such a personality defining event. It doesn't excuse but it does explain her attitudes. In the exact same way that while I detest plenty of the actions of the IRA or other Nationalist fighters, I can't deny their lived experiences that led them to believe they were justified.

    Understanding does not mean acceptance, but it's a necessary step. I understand anti-irishness though I condemn it, in the same way that I understand anti-britishness and strive to reject that too - though that's a harder prospect as there is a certain level of anti-britishness ingrained in me.

    As I write that it occurs to me that maybe that is why those people you mention are quicker to condemn anti-British feeling than anti-Irish? Maybe they are trying to police their (and our cultural) prejudices in order to stop them festering into bigotry? Almost a form of over compensation. I don't know maybe I'm giving them too much credit, just a thought.

    And while I'm no supporter of Arlene at all I would say that there are many more extreme unionist bigots with much less justification for their bigotry, for whatever that is worth.



Advertisement