What’s your most controversial opinion? **Read OP** **Mod Note in Post #3372**

Look, controversial opinions are not expected to be liked or respected by others.

Myself for instance I find it offensive and deeply worrying how many Palestinian flags I find in and around Dublin. Ever since that experience I've seen Ireland and the Irish in a very negative light. Especially Ireland, a country that is so proud of neutrality in conflict takes sides with terrorists, rapists and murderers.

Others obviously do have a strongly different opinion, otherwise the Palestinian flags wouldn't be there.

What worries one is normal to others.

One thing you should be clear about: None of us do have the right not to feel offended, - is more than true on our society of today.

Controversial enough, I take it?

But what kind of government did they vote for? They are certainly not innocent here.

If only the Hammas attack last year would have led to a victory over the Israeli army, I'm sure Hammas thought they could have pulled it off.

Of course there was previous, if a stray firework went into Israel there would have been an over reaction. As far as I'm concerned the civilian deaths since then are considered an acceptable risk by Hammas and the various cave men that provide them support.

None of the children murdered by Israel voted for anyone.

I think it's the obvious importance that's put on a tragedy when the person is extraordinarily wealthy. Like its noteworthy because they were wealthy and wouldn't be noteworthy if they weren't wealthy I.E. we wouldn't run this story if you drowned, dear reader, but you should care when the wealthy bloke drowns.

There's also a schadenfreude built into the story because he was only on his yacht because he's so wealthy, and it was on his yacht that he died. Of course, a normal person could have died in the sea on their normal person holiday to Spain, but then we just wouldn't hear about it. Irish news certainly wouldn't cover a normal English bloke who drowned on holiday and certainly wouldn't be talking about it a week later.

So, I think it's all part of the story as it's being presented. It's designed to inform and infuriate at the same time. Not the fault of the people who died. They didn't write the headlines.

If people in the marine industry are interested then I'd expect it to be a big feature in the marine industry newsletters and journals. Not the mainstream media.

A quick Google suggests about 600 Brits go missing abroad each year. I can think of 3 this year. 1 famous and beloved tv presenter, one young lad who was portrayed as a thug who maybe deserved it, and a billionaire. There has to be an angle for it to be news, simply going missing or dieing isn't enough. So the schadenfreude is built into the story to help it sell. If every brit who went missing was worth a week's coverage in Irish news, there would be about 12 'Brit missing on holiday' stories in the news every day of the year.

I haven't followed the day-by-day updated to the story at all. I read a summary of the guy and what happened at the I figured I'll just read a smmary when they actually know what happened in a couple of weeks.

I didn't ask for a maritime industry journal. I presume the story would feature there, that's appropriate.

I pointed out the discrepancy between the coverage of the 600 British tourists who go missing each year and this guy. You didn't comment on that.

Go figure that out for yourself captain obvious.

I have a Teac cassette player, bought in 1995 along with other separates. Still works fine.

A cursory look at Teac's website shows that they're still being manufactured.

https://eu.teac-audio.com/en-CH/audio-hifi/audio-players/cassette-decks/w-1200/p/156318

I rarely bought albums on cassette (always preferred LPs and CDs) but have thousands of taped tapes that I still play.

….

I wouldn't be against introducing massive penalties for phone use in cars.

I drive a bit and every 2nd car is now texting or viewing their phones. It will only get worse and I have no doubt it is the main reason road deaths have spiked.

Give people 6 points + or land them with hefty fines north of €500.

That'd put manners on people.

In much the same way I'd have my guard up in cities with a reputation for pick-pocketing, or I'd be wary engaging with tracksuited youths in Dublin at night these days, I also get a sense of worry when I see an arab/muslim looking person in the middle of a Western styled gathering. Or on a busy train or whatever.

Can't help it if I automatically stereotype. I'm sure a lot of it went on when an Irish accent was picked up in the UK in the 70s/80s, but at least that was politically motivated, not ideological backwardness.

IF they also brought in much heavier penalties for using the phone whole driving. Yeah.

Ah yeah, fair enough. Some people are just easily frightened or anxious.

Sure. You could do that. The more successful way to get behaviour change is to offer a facility to change behaviour.

I don't suppose anyone will need to pull in EVERY 10 or 15 minutes. But you know you can call someone back in 15 minutes when you get a call.

Maybe you prefer the authoritarian hard line, but I usually prefer voluntary compliance backed up with law, rather than simply relying on threat of law.

Each to their own. Are the government suggesting increased penalties for using the phone while driving?

I think you missed the point of the post, insofar as you didn't respond to it at all.

I presume there are already lots of filling stations, and laybys which could be used. Probably not much change needed, which is great.

Why do you want to police the laybys now?you're made for being policed.

I’ve driven from Cork to Dublin and other similar distances and never had any problems not physically interacting with the phone whilst driving….

Facebook, twitter, TikTok, WhatsApp… your life won’t crumble if you are inactive and can’t read messages or interact with people or those services for a few hours….

Yeah you missed it.

It was about voluntary compliance vs just relying on punishment.

You seem to favour the pure positive reinforcement of a negative stimulus. I think it's sensible to facilitate compliance rather than just punish.

Not to worry.