Why do North Americans laugh at the famine so much?

bodice ripper

Scannal wrote: »

Who said all Britons are responsible for the famine?

Sorry, you keep saying they. They who?

Scannal

Imagine Nazis making a laugh of the holocaust.

Scannal

bodice ripper wrote: »

Sorry, you keep saying they. They who?

Who do you think? The Mexicans?

Macavity.

I enjoy racial humour and it irritates me when people get all pissy about it. Thankfully, most of it is allowed on the subreddits where I'd go looking for it.

bodice ripper

Scannal wrote: »

Who do you think? The Mexicans?

Answer the question. Who are you holding responsible en masse for the suffering experienced 170 years ago by strangers who are related to you, which seemingly stains you to this day?

Scannal

bodice ripper wrote: »

Answer the question. Who are you holding responsible en masse for the suffering experienced 170 years ago by strangers who are related to you, which seemingly stains you to this day?

If people refer to the nazis as they, saying something like 'they killed 6 million jews', do you think that refers to every German person past and present?

keeponhurling

Doc wrote: »

I don't think Americans laugh at the famine much if at all. Most of them wouldn't even know about it to laugh at it and if they did know about it wouldn't find much to laugh at.

They laugh at the stereotype of a drunken Irishman who eats potatoes. Or at the Frenchman who stinks of garlic and will surrender at the sound of a cork popping. Or at the Englishman in a three piece suit drinking tea his butler has made for him getting upset at the people having fun. Or at the Mexican trying to sneak across the boarder in his sombrero. Just like people might laugh at the fat loud American tourist stereotype.

Something for everyone in the audience there !

bodice ripper

Scannal wrote: »

They never lost half their population in the space of a few years anyway, although they did cause that sort of suffering on many others.

You know, this they.

bodice ripper

Scannal wrote: »

If people refer to the nazis as they, saying something like 'they killed 6 million jews', do you think that refers to every German person past and present?

So if the blame doesn't carry down generations, why does the now absent suffering fall upon the well fed current denizens of this island?

Tordelback

Qualitymark wrote: »

Because they haven't experienced famine themselves for a few hundred years.

Can I ask where you think 'Americans' come from? I'm pretty sure most of the source countries and ethnic groups that make up the current population of the USA have experienced either famine, persecution, slavery, wars of invasion, occupation, civil war and economic collapse, or all of the above. All within the past 200 years.

And that's not even considering Native Americans. Or Irish Americans.

This island has no monopoly on suffering.

Scannal

bodice ripper wrote: »

So if the blame doesn't carry down generations, why does the now absent suffering fall upon the well fed current denizens of this island?

It was a major event in this countries history that has effected many things afterwards. The reason people go on about it is not because the Irish are still starving but mainly because there's a denial of what happened. A revisionist tale of our past, usually told with a pro British slant. We see it in this thread. I'm repeating myself but imagine a nazi supporter coming out with some of the statements we've seen in this thread when discussing the jews.

Gummy Panda

Links234 wrote: »

Are you taking the piss? This is reddit we're talking about, where subs such as /r/whiterights and /r/greatapes are a thing, the admins will not remove anything unless it's illegal and even then they're not too quick to do so. They're all about free speech, and stay out of most subs business most of the time.

I like /r/chubby. Its the best sub to start and finish the day with

Fratton Fred

Scannal wrote: »

Imagine Nazis making a laugh of the holocaust.

Who is laughing about the famine and what's it got to do with the Nazis?

Scannal

Fratton Fred wrote: »

Who is laughing about the famine and what's it got to do with the Nazis?

We'll say mocking instead of laughing then. Well the nazis wiped out many jewish people just like the British wiped out many Irish people. It's a fair comparison in what is allowed to be mocked and what isn't.

Tar.Aldarion

Go to 7:30 here and it will show how much a person in the US can know about Ireland

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0IiVyFM4yo

Let alone know about the famine, they don't know what our currency is on a financial segment, they don't know we are not connected to Britain by land etc.

"I dont quite follow your logic"

DarkyHughes

I bet the guy recording this video (who sounds like a plonker "take it easy lads, ah come ffs) isn't very tolerant at all, good thing he was wasn't at the NICRA protests. All their chanting is "God is great" & "Down with USA" <- which isn't something exclusive to Muslims anymore

J Mysterio

Tar.Aldarion wrote: »

Go to 7:30 here and it will show how much a person in the US can know about Ireland

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0IiVyFM4yo

Let alone know about the famine, they don't know what our currency is on a financial segment, they don't know we are not connected to Britain by land etc.

"I dont quite follow your logic"

:pac:

Oh lord, what a ****ing tit. How some people become successful is beyond me.

Mantis1234

Because we're not over-sensitive ninnies.

Fratton Fred

Scannal wrote: »

We'll say mocking instead of laughing then. Well the nazis wiped out many jewish people just like the British wiped out many Irish people. It's a fair comparison in what is allowed to be mocked and what isn't.

The people of Britain built death camps where they mechanized the annihilation of 6m Irish people with a view to wiping the Irish off the face of the earth completely?

Are you sure?

Maybe it's not the famine people mock, maybe it is stupid analogies to the holocaust?

anncoates

Paulownia wrote: »

Most Americans know nothing of the rest of the world, the educational system is skewed towards introspection rather than a world view.
Ireland is green and it rains a lot and Saint Patrick,
This is the problem when they start to interface with other countries.
Many Americans believe all Muslims are terrorists for example, they have irrational fears of the unknown

Irish people certainly can't point the finger about navel gazing and insular sensitivities.

allibastor

The best response I have ever seen to Americans being thick was when Jay-Z and Beyoncé were in Dublin Zoo.

The Americans had great fun saying we didn't know who they were, so some lads posted up the clip that sure " they are on a day out with their kid, leave them be will you"
It was so funny and showed we can take a joke aswel as find the humour in our ability to give it back also

whisky_galore

Qualitymark wrote: »

Because they haven't experienced famine themselves for a few hundred years. And because they're a little dim.

People in Midwest USA were pretty damn close to famine within living memory.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dust_Bowl

Scannal

Fratton Fred wrote: »

The people of Britain built death camps where they mechanized the annihilation of 6m Irish people with a view to wiping the Irish off the face of the earth completely?

Are you sure?

Maybe it's not the famine people mock, maybe it is stupid analogies to the holocaust?

This is where Hitler and co showed they were just pretenders to the throne, they just weren't in the same league as those in power of the British empire. If you lock people up and gas them to death then that's it, there's no denying it, there's no way to muddy the waters, it's blunt.
While if you take food away from people when the opportunity arises then you have a get out. You can blame the land, you can say we were sending them food even if it was of horrible quality, you can muddy the waters, there's no smoking gun. It was a common British tactic, it wasn't just used in Ireland.
It was a smart way of doing it if you think about it. You don't have to waste money on weapons or waste lives in battles. You just take their food and use it to feed your own people and then watch the troublesome locals die. The nazis were a bunch of amateurs in comparison.

Scannal

whisky_galore wrote: »

People in Midwest USA were pretty damn close to famine within living memory.

I think the section entitled 'U.S. government response' explains how they avoided famine, while if people were to look into the British response in the 1840's in Ireland it would explain how many Irish didn't survive.

Fratton Fred

Scannal wrote: »

This is where Hitler and co showed they were just pretenders to the throne, they just weren't in the same league as those in power of the British empire. If you lock people up and gas them to death then that's it, there's no denying it, there's no way to muddy the waters, it's blunt.
While if you take food away from people when the opportunity arises then you have a get out. You can blame the land, you can say we were sending them food even if it was of horrible quality, you can muddy the waters, there's no smoking gun. It was a common British tactic, it wasn't just used in Ireland.
It was a smart way of doing it if you think about it. You don't have to waste money on weapons or waste lives in battles. You just take their food and use it to feed your own people and then watch the troublesome locals die. The nazis were a bunch of amateurs in comparison.

So the British created potato blight?

Then, whilst attempting to wipe out the Irish, they not only allowed millions in private aid to beraised and sent to Ireland, they also allowed tens, if not hundreds of thousands to move to British cities such as Liverpool, Glasgow and Wolverhampton?

Hardly a cunning plan was it?

fryup

Don't blame the British

blame Phytophthora infestans

LoganRice

Because they never had one and enjoy making fun of everything that isn't America, maybe

Scannal

Fratton Fred wrote: »

So the British created potato blight?

Then, whilst attempting to wipe out the Irish, they not only allowed millions in private aid to beraised and sent to Ireland, they also allowed tens, if not hundreds of thousands to move to British cities such as Liverpool, Glasgow and Wolverhampton?

Hardly a cunning plan was it?

There didn't happen to be potato blight in Britain at the same time did there? I'm sure that killed millions, didn't it? What's that? It didn't? How could that be?

Queen Victoria gave about as much financial aid as she wiped her hole with. What do you mean allowed Irish people to move to British cities? Oh thank you Britain for not shooting us when we arrived on your shores to avoid starving to death. I know we're only starving because you're taking our food but still, it's really kind of you not to kill us.

Scannal

fryup wrote: »

Don't blame the British

blame

Yet somehow a million English never died.

Fratton Fred

Scannal wrote: »

There didn't happen to be potato blight in Britain at the same time did there? I'm sure that killed millions, didn't it? What's that? It didn't? How could that be?

Queen Victoria gave about as much financial aid as she wiped her hole with. What do you mean allowed Irish people to move to British cities? Oh thank you Britain for not shooting us when we arrived on your shores to avoid starving to death. I know we're only starving because you're taking our food but still, it's really kind of you not to kill us.

There was potato blight all over Europe.

Are you going to tell us about Drogheda and the Ottomans now?