The PC and Perpetually Offended Brigade

[ldj]

Bit of a bad thing to say but thank christ the Armed Response Unit didn't mistake it for a real gun, a lot of people in this country would have creamed themselves if a black guy got killed by the Guards  .

https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/courtandcrime/arid-40063517.html

[astfgyl]

Can you fucking imagine the uproar. Wholly unjustified, which would be copped by most but still there'd be some knobs somewhere saying it was racist. Could flip it and say black man attacks white gardai, maybe?

[astfgyl]

Have the sides of Left and Right been flipped lately?

Leftists looking for more oppression, Righties looking for more freedom? Sometimes, because other times it seems the other way round. Have traditionally had a centre-left outlook myself, but would be loath to ally myself with either side of the coin these days. Especially since I keep finding myself agreeing with the right so often lately. Anyone else find themselves thinking along those lines the last few years? Not so much in this country, thankfully, but just as a general outlook.

[Emphyrio]

I'd traditionally have considered myself a bit left of centre too. And similarly, I now find myself agreeing with more right leaning policies. I don't know if that's more due to me changing or the world around me. I'm no political expert either, of course.

[astfgyl]

Good point about whether it's oneself or the world changing. There is a train of thought which says one gets more conservative with age, so there is that to consider as well. It might be a case of youth equating to a desire for change and upheaval of the old ways, regardless of what it is they are railing against.

[Eoin McLove]

I'm in the same camp. It seems the centre right are saying the things the centre left used to say.

[Trev]

When I was first in college I joined the socialist society, because they were playing RATM and giving out loads of free stuff at their booth, and the probably the whole teenage rebel against the mainstream cliché. Went to the first meeting and they were going on about wanting to ban Coke from campus, can't remember why exactly, might have been something to do with workers in South America.

My suggestion of not banning it because that takes peoples choice away of whether they want to buy it or not didn't go down well and I was asked to leave, politely by the head guy, being screamed at for being a fascist by another. Never felt much affinity or sympathy to the hardline left since then

[Kurt Cocaine]

Yeah, the left are barking mad.... 

https://youtu.be/n_awsp7QZuE

[Black Shepherd Carnage]

When I was first in college I joined the socialist society, because they were playing RATM and giving out loads of free stuff at their booth, and the probably the whole teenage rebel against the mainstream cliché. Went to the first meeting and they were going on about wanting to ban Coke from campus, can't remember why exactly, might have been something to do with workers in South America.

My suggestion of not banning it because that takes peoples choice away of whether they want to buy it or not didn't go down well and I was asked to leave, politely by the head guy, being screamed at for being a fascist by another. Never felt much affinity or sympathy to the hardline left since then

There is really no shortage of reasons for wanting to take a pop ("Eh, where's me washboard!?") at Coca-Cola and their relentless, ubiquitous marketing machine:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Coca-Cola

Finding ways to essentially "take people's choice away of whether they want to buy it or not" has been Coca-Cola's marketing MO for about 80 years now! 

[astfgyl]

I once had the pleasure of going into the Sin é for a quick pint and ending up in a full blown argument with a gang of feminists. Started when they came in to watch a video about the Riot Grrrl movement and I, in my thickest Tipp accent combined with jeans and Chelsea shirt, asked them what they were watching.

Them:  "It's about the Riot Grrrl movement, you wouldn't understand"
Me:      "Well, yeah I don't understand. That's why I'm asking. Is it a sort of feminist thing, or a musical movement, or sort of a combo?"

To each other: "Fuck sake, there's always one"

Me:       "That's not very fair, I was only showing an interest while I'm being subjected to it here having my pint. I was only wondering if it was a
                feminist thing"
Them:   "Well yeah it is in a way, but not really. it's more about the empowerment of the female and the political and musical movement around it"
Me:        "Ah, right. Any of the bands any good?"
Them:    "You wouldn't have heard of them"
Me:         "Sure try me, I have a fairly keen interest in all sorts of music"
Them:     "Look, you obviously haven't a clue, so piss off with yourself"
Me:          "Well, I think that militant feminism is no better than chauvinism in its' own way. Shouldn't we be striving for equality rather than
                  dominance? Is this a militant thing?" red rag to the bull

Token soft bloke stands up

Him:       "look man, you can see you're not welcome, so why don't you just go back to wherever you came from"
Me:          "Fuck off, Token"
Them:      "You're an ignorant pig, what are you even doing in here?"
Me:           "Having a pint, and trying to take an interest in this video ye are putting on"
Them:       "Well you've been told you aren't welcome, so why don't you just fuck off with yourself?"
Me:            "Yeah, you're right. No point trying to discuss it with ye fucking dykes anyway" - Uproar

I left at that, to a volley of abuse about how I was a thick fucking culchie and who the fuck let me out of the farm etc.

All in all, a sad story about trying to have a discussion with the militant wing, and my own weakness in falling down to their level after about 5 minutes of it. Sort of a microcosm of how I see a lot of the world working today.

[Kurt Cocaine]

Did ya get de roide?

[Trev]

There is really no shortage of reasons for wanting to take a pop ("Eh, where's me washboard!?") at Coca-Cola and their relentless, ubiquitous marketing machine:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Coca-Cola

Finding ways to essentially "take people's choice away of whether they want to buy it or not" has been Coca-Cola's marketing MO for about 80 years now! 

Eh, I just thought they could throw a few posters on the vending machine and shops instead, let people make their own minds up, and not be such aggressive cunts. And its not like the alternative companies are squeaky clean. Never went through in the end anyway

[astfgyl]

Did ya get de roide?

Token looked like he might have been up for it, but I had to meet my wife in a few minutes

[Black Shepherd Carnage]

There is really no shortage of reasons for wanting to take a pop ("Eh, where's me washboard!?") at Coca-Cola and their relentless, ubiquitous marketing machine:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Coca-Cola

Finding ways to essentially "take people's choice away of whether they want to buy it or not" has been Coca-Cola's marketing MO for about 80 years now! 

Eh, I just thought they could throw a few posters on the vending machine and shops instead, let people make their own minds up, and not be such aggressive cunts. And its not like the alternative companies are squeaky clean. Never went through in the end anyway

You're kinda putting your finger on the core of the problem here though, that's what I'm getting at; the left was not originally centered on freedom of choice, and so on. That's libertarianism. The left was originally about a resource based, economic leveling out of the playing field. It's just that, as it happened, historically, the opponents of the left also happened to be extremely fond of censorship, so that got thrown into the mix, but contingently. The problem, as the left see it, is that corporations sanitize their image in the west, whereas behind the scenes they're the real "aggressive cunts". Hard to know how to tackle that, but it is pretty ironic to go against one of the inventors of, basically, mind-control marketing with the argument "let people make their own minds up."

[Black Shepherd Carnage]

In short, there's nothing inherently "unsocialist" or "not left" in wanting to strip a corporation of a given marketplace, even if that constitutes a trivial slight to people's supposed "freedom of choice." It sounded like you were trying to make the point that these people were idiot socialists because they were trying to remove people's freedom of choice, but it doesn't hold up.

Pretty sure UCD managed a democratically voted Coke ban at some point, no? Tyranny of the majority!