"Homophobic attack on George"

professore

I've been seeing headlines like this all weekend. Shocked, I went to read the story. I thought jackbooted skinheads had broken in to the George and stabbed a couple of patrons. It turns out a man in his 20s dressed in a racoon onesie wrote some slang words for gay people and drew a swastika IN CHALK on the front of the George.

Meanwhile up and down the country elderly people are savagely beaten or worse ( to name one much more serious ocuurence - lots of really horrible stuff happening every day that doesn't even make the news).

I voted for gay marriage and have many gay friends including a couple of family members but I thought after reading this - get the **** over yourselves. This is not a nice thing that this lunatic did but it's hardly front page news.

There is a children's fable called the boy who cried wolf - people would do well to read it.

PARlance

Agreed it's not something that would normally make the news but I guess it's being reported as it's the 2 year anniversary of the referendum and we look set to have our first gay leader of the Country.

elefant

professore wrote: »

Meanwhile up and down the country elderly people are savagely beaten or worse

Is this really happening that regularly?

professore

It's irresponsible journalism. If next week an LGBT person is attacked, far less people will pay attention than otherwise would have.

Delirium

professore wrote: »

I've been seeing headlines like this all weekend. Shocked, I went to read the story. I thought jackbooted skinheads had broken in to the George and stabbed a couple of patrons. It turns out a man in his 20s dressed in a racoon onesie wrote some slang words for gay people and drew a swastika IN CHALK on the front of the George.

Meanwhile up and down the country elderly people are savagely beaten or worse ( to name one much more serious ocuurence - lots of really horrible stuff happening every day that doesn't even make the news).

I voted for gay marriage and have many gay friends including a couple of family members but I thought after reading this - get the **** over yourselves. This is not a nice thing that this lunatic did but it's hardly front page news.

There is a children's fable called the boy who cried wolf - people would do well to read it.

You realise that the fable is a lesson about claiming something that didn't happen did.

So I'm not sure how that applies to what happened to the George?

Homophobic text and a swastika was scrawled on the exterior, granted it was chalk, but it still did happen.

It's an odd stance to take as you have, i.e. "get over yourselves, ya didn't get stabbed".

professore

elefant wrote: »

professore wrote: »

Meanwhile up and down the country elderly people are savagely beaten or worse

Is this really happening that regularly?

Yes. Just last week a 94 year old man was hospitalised when intruders broke into his house and broke his walking stick off his skull. There are robberies like this on a weekly basis where violence is involved or threatened.

ThisRegard

professore wrote: »

It turns out a man in his 20s dressed in a racoon onesie wrote some slang words for gay people and drew a swastika IN CHALK on the front of the George.

You mean homophobic slurs? But I see you have different levels of homophobia, some acceptable.

professore

Delirium wrote: »

professore wrote: »

I've been seeing headlines like this all weekend. Shocked, I went to read the story. I thought jackbooted skinheads had broken in to the George and stabbed a couple of patrons. It turns out a man in his 20s dressed in a racoon onesie wrote some slang words for gay people and drew a swastika IN CHALK on the front of the George.

Meanwhile up and down the country elderly people are savagely beaten or worse ( to name one much more serious ocuurence - lots of really horrible stuff happening every day that doesn't even make the news).

I voted for gay marriage and have many gay friends including a couple of family members but I thought after reading this - get the **** over yourselves. This is not a nice thing that this lunatic did but it's hardly front page news.

There is a children's fable called the boy who cried wolf - people would do well to read it.

You realise that the fable is a lesson about claiming something that didn't happen did.

So I'm not sure how that applies to what happened to the George?

Homophobic text and a swastika was scrawled on the exterior, granted it was chalk, but it still did happen.

It's an odd stance to take as you have, i.e. "get over yourselves, ya didn't get stabbed".

There is all sorts of hateful graffiti scrawled (or sprayed) on pretty much every pub up and down the country. Didn't see any headlines about it.

Parchment

I dont know if its front page news but its not very nice.

_Brian

I'm not sure we should just ignore "small" attacks on minority groups because you think it's trivial.

Maybe it did get high level headlines, maybe news was just slow and so it made it's way up the ladder.

Don't think it's crying wolf either because it did happen.

Accepting small acts of antisocial behaviour just normalises them and leads to larger problems, the bar is then set lower and lower as a blind eye is turned to more and more because people don't want to be reading about trivial stuff.

Samuel T. Cogley

Papers (and other media outlets) in selling our product shocker.

professore

Delirium wrote: »

professore wrote: »

I've been seeing headlines like this all weekend. Shocked, I went to read the story. I thought jackbooted skinheads had broken in to the George and stabbed a couple of patrons. It turns out a man in his 20s dressed in a racoon onesie wrote some slang words for gay people and drew a swastika IN CHALK on the front of the George.

Meanwhile up and down the country elderly people are savagely beaten or worse ( to name one much more serious ocuurence - lots of really horrible stuff happening every day that doesn't even make the news).

I voted for gay marriage and have many gay friends including a couple of family members but I thought after reading this - get the **** over yourselves. This is not a nice thing that this lunatic did but it's hardly front page news.

There is a children's fable called the boy who cried wolf - people would do well to read it.

You realise that the fable is a lesson about claiming something that didn't happen did.

So I'm not sure how that applies to what happened to the George?

Homophobic text and a swastika was scrawled on the exterior, granted it was chalk, but it still did happen.

It's an odd stance to take as you have, i.e. "get over yourselves, ya didn't get stabbed".

There was no "homophobic attack​".

professore

Samuel T. Cogley wrote: »

Papers (and other media outlets) in selling our product shocker.

This one I will agree with. It's terrible journalism. Donald Trump would approve of the technique.

Samuel T. Cogley

professore wrote: »

There was no "homophobic attack​".

Yeah, yes it was.

professore

_Brian wrote: »

I'm not sure we should just ignore "small" attacks on minority groups because you think it's trivial.

Maybe it did get high level headlines, maybe news was just slow and so it made it's way up the ladder.

Don't think it's crying wolf either because it did happen.

Accepting small acts of antisocial behaviour just normalises them and leads to larger problems, the bar is then set lower and lower as a blind eye is turned to more and more because people don't want to be reading about trivial stuff.

Plenty of antisocial behaviour and "attacks" on minority groups (and majority groups) every day and there are no headlines.

Samuel T. Cogley

professore wrote: »

This one I will agree with. It's terrible journalism. Donald Trump would approve of the technique.

Terrible journalism is the norm in English speaking countries tbh. Best to just realise they're peddling a product and try and get your news from a number of sources.

For example looking for a picture of what was done to the place and making a decision on whether it was homophobic. :pac:

Guy Sajer

You're right OP. The media is following its agenda and not really representitive with what is happening. Such as those attacks on the elderly not getting much coverage.

And they are only serving the idiots who do those drawings, putting them up on stage.

professore

PARlance wrote: »

Agreed it's not something that would normally make the news but I guess it's being reported as it's the 2 year anniversary of the referendum and we look set to have our first gay leader of the Country.

I hope he succeeds in his bid as he's the most competent politician we've had in a long time.

professore

Guy Sajer wrote: »

You're right OP. The media is following its agenda and not really representitive with what is happening. Such as those attacks on the elderly not getting much coverage.

And they are only serving the idiots who do those drawings, putting them up on stage.

My point exactly.

professore

ThisRegard wrote: »

professore wrote: »

You mean homophobic slurs? But I see you have different levels of homophobia, some acceptable.

For the record I don't think it's in the least acceptable. Is it front page news? Absolutely not.

professore

Also I used the elderly as an example. I'm sure there are worse things happening I know nothing about as it isn't given any coverage.

Gravelly

professore wrote: »

Meanwhile up and down the country elderly people are savagely beaten or worse ( to name one much more serious ocuurence - lots of really horrible stuff happening every day that doesn't even make the news).

I was having this conversation with friends at the weekend - two more elderly people robbed (one assaulted) in my area in the past couple of weeks, no headlines outside of the local press, and no move to do anything about it.

If the elderly could get themselves classified as a minority and get the full protection of the press, quangos, politicians etc. as all the other "minorities" have, then they'd be much safer. Unfortunately, as it is a protected minority that is carrying out most of the attacks on the elderly in rural areas, it's a case of "nothing to see here".

Delirium

professore wrote: »

There was no "homophobic attack​".

from your OP...

professore wrote: »

I've been seeing headlines like this all weekend. Shocked, I went to read the story. I thought jackbooted skinheads had broken in to the George and stabbed a couple of patrons. It turns out a man in his 20s dressed in a racoon onesie wrote some slang words for gay people and drew a swastika IN CHALK on the front of the George.

Meanwhile up and down the country elderly people are savagely beaten or worse ( to name one much more serious ocuurence - lots of really horrible stuff happening every day that doesn't even make the news).

I voted for gay marriage and have many gay friends including a couple of family members but I thought after reading this - get the **** over yourselves. This is not a nice thing that this lunatic did but it's hardly front page news.

There is a children's fable called the boy who cried wolf - people would do well to read it.

hairyslug

Journalism is going down the sewer not only here but everywhere, because they can publish as often as they want they can run any story they want as often as they like, by pushing stories to the extreme, they get more clicks.

But, this was a homophobic attack.
How would we react if a Polish shop had "Polskis Out" written all over the walls
Or a Nigerian shop with "N word Jim's" all over it or an Irish shop in the UK telling us to go home.
It needs to be reported, it needs to show that this is still happening and that the majority of us (there will always, till the end of time be a minority) are absolutely disgusted by it.

Gravelly

BTW, why the hell was this nutter dressed in a racoon onesie?

Samuel T. Cogley

Gravelly wrote: »

BTW, why the hell was this nutter dressed in a racoon onesie?

Hoping to get some nuts.

Okay that doesn't even make sense...

professore

The net result is that people will think there is so little homophobia in Ireland that the LGBT community get worked up over a drunk guy who is so incompetent he used chalk instead of something more permanent. And that the LGBT community are massive drama queens. That's what this achieves.

TerrorFirmer

I don't think anyone's arguing it shouldn't warrant a mention but it was way blown out of porportion. The way it was pushed so heavily I thought someone had been very badly assaulted in a hate attack, or the venue had been smashed up or seriously vandalised.

Not a small chalk swastika that could be washed away in 2 seconds.

professore

hairyslug wrote: »

Journalism is going down the sewer not only here but everywhere, because they can publish as often as they want they can run any story they want as often as they like, by pushing stories to the extreme, they get more clicks.

But, this was a homophobic attack.
How would we react if a Polish shop had "Polskis Out" written all over the walls
Or a Nigerian shop with "N word Jim's" all over it or an Irish shop in the UK telling us to go home.
It needs to be reported, it needs to show that this is still happening and that the majority of us (there will always, till the end of time be a minority) are absolutely disgusted by it.

I'm pretty sure all of the above IS happening on a regular basis.

professore

professore wrote: »

hairyslug wrote: »

Journalism is going down the sewer not only here but everywhere, because they can publish as often as they want they can run any story they want as often as they like, by pushing stories to the extreme, they get more clicks.

But, this was a homophobic attack.
How would we react if a Polish shop had "Polskis Out" written all over the walls
Or a Nigerian shop with "N word Jim's" all over it or an Irish shop in the UK telling us to go home.
It needs to be reported, it needs to show that this is still happening and that the majority of us (there will always, till the end of time be a minority) are absolutely disgusted by it.

I'm pretty sure all of the above and much worse IS happening on a regular basis. It's not reported though. A name and shame for the offenders would be far more effective.

Easy Rod

professore wrote: »

Yes. Just last week a 94 year old man was hospitalised when intruders broke into his house and broke his walking stick off his skull. There are robberies like this on a weekly basis where violence is involved or threatened.

Just because someone says X is a bad thing doesn't therefore mean that they think Y is not a bad thing.

Professor Moriarty

Homophobia: irrational fear of, aversion to, or discrimination against homosexuality or homosexuals

Attack: 1. an aggressive and violent act against a person or place. 2. an instance of fierce public criticism or opposition.

JupiterKid

The incident may not have involved violence but it was still a homophobic action against Dublins oldest and most well known gay bar. BTW The George has has its windows smashed in on a couple of occasions.

The bigoted idiot who did this used chalk. Not very effective and cleaned away in a matter of minutes. But ignoring this incident is not doing anyone any favours. ANY attack on a vulnerable group of society, be they isolated elderly people living alone in rural areas, racial minorities or the LGBT community, needs to be publicised.

It may have been some stupid graffiti in this instance. The next time it could be a gay bashing incident adjacent to the George (and yes, these have happened on a number of occasions before).

professore

professore wrote: »

Plenty of antisocial behaviour and "attacks" on minority groups (and majority groups) every day and there are no headlines.

Yes and every year I have to sit through the media telling me how the junior & leaving cert English papers went etc.
It's not news as far as I'm concerned.
But it's reported.
Why do you feel this crime shouldn't be reported? Because there are other crimes that aren't? Sorry to tell you, that happens everyday!

professore

professore wrote: »

The net result is that people will think there is so little homophobia in Ireland that the LGBT community get worked up over a drunk guy who is so incompetent he used chalk instead of something more permanent. And that the LGBT community are massive drama queens. That's what this achieves.

No it doesn't

Lux23

ThisRegard wrote: »

You mean homophobic slurs? But I see you have different levels of homophobia, some acceptable.

There are acceptable levels of homophobia? Really?

hairyslug

professore wrote: »

professore wrote: »

I'm pretty sure all of the above and much worse IS happening on a regular basis. It's not reported though. A name and shame for the offenders would be far more effective.

But it should be reported, are all the gays (I use this in a Billy Eichner sense) pushing this story, no it's the papers, I'm sure there a lot of them shrugged it off because sadly they are used to it and have heard worse.
It's a double edged sword with journalism, they can over report easily and push the smallest story to the extreme but they can also show that these crimes are happening all around the country.

gizmo81

The use of the swatstika makes this a very threatening attack. Why, because thousands of gay men were specifically targeted by the nazi regime and exterminated, The Pink Triangle.


Some 56 per cent of LGBT teens aged 14-18 in the study said they had self-harmed while 70 per cent of this age group had seriously thought of ending their own life.

The report also shows that LGBT people continue to experience victimisation and harassment in their day-to-day lives. Three-quarters have been verbally abused, with almost one-third reporting abuse in the past year.

One-in-three have been threatened with physical violence due to their sexual identity, while one-in-five had hurtful things written about them on social media.

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/rates-of-lgbt-self-harm-suicide-are-horrific-says-mcaleese-1.2583054

http://www.glen.ie/attachments/The_LGBTIreland_Report_-_Key_Findings.pdf

professore wrote: »

The net result is that people will think there is so little homophobia in Ireland that the LGBT community get worked up over a drunk guy who is so incompetent he used chalk instead of something more permanent. And that the LGBT community are massive drama queens. That's what this achieves.

Billy86

professore wrote: »

It's irresponsible journalism. If next week an LGBT person is attacked, far less people will pay attention than otherwise would have.

Pretty much, it should be written for what it was - and what it was was pretty deplorable, but wasn't there a situation where a few scumbags actually physically assaulted patrons outside The George a few years ago in what appeared to be a planned attack as well as an incident last year by another individual? It is probably a fair point that people will be more likely to skim by such stories after seeing ones like this.

That said as pointed out we had the referendum where all but one area voted yes (an area with a lot of youth migration and even then it was only something like 52-48 against) and look like we may well have a gay Taoiseach in the near future which I haven't even heard much being made of in terms of his sexuality. We've possibly made the furthest leaps forward of any country in the world over the last 25-30 years on how we view our gay community to the point we often don't seem to view them as a community as such anymore (which is a very good thing, if that makes sense?), even with gay bars/clubs going out of business because of it (again a good thing in a roundabout type of way, though a shame because The Dragon was a fecking great spot!). Not to say an incident like this should be entirely ignored, but because of the above it's not really the type of story it was 10 or 15 years ago.

iDave

Shame our media doesnt report the slow hanging of gays in Iran.

ohnonotgmail

Lux23 wrote: »

There are acceptable levels of homophobia? Really?

you have badly misread the post you quoted.

AtomicHorror

Ah guard should you not be off solving murders instead of stopping me from calling for genocide against the queers? Whatabout whatabout whatabout...

Genuine question- when OP says s/he has seen headlines like "Homophobic attack", which headlines is s/he referring to? I ask because I've seen the word "attack" used exactly once, with the rest of the media instead referring to "vandalism".

TerrorFirmer

People seem be treating this thread as if it's some sort of debate on whether or not the act itself should be reported at all, which is totally incorrect and misrepresenting some of the posters who've contributed.

No-one said it shouldn't be reported. But pushing it as major, headline news is totally blowing the event out of porportion. I mean, really, a drunken lout scrawled a swastika.... in chalk.

Front page, headline news? Way OTT.

Glenster

professore wrote: »

I've been seeing headlines like this all weekend. Shocked, I went to read the story. I thought jackbooted skinheads had broken in to the George and stabbed a couple of patrons. It turns out a man in his 20s dressed in a racoon onesie wrote some slang words for gay people and drew a swastika IN CHALK on the front of the George.

Meanwhile up and down the country elderly people are savagely beaten or worse ( to name one much more serious ocuurence - lots of really horrible stuff happening every day that doesn't even make the news).

I voted for gay marriage and have many gay friends including a couple of family members but I thought after reading this - get the **** over yourselves. This is not a nice thing that this lunatic did but it's hardly front page news.

There is a children's fable called the boy who cried wolf - people would do well to read it.

Slang words......

Voting for gay marriage and "having gay friends" isn't an way to never hear about homophobic attacks ever again.

Lux23

ohnonotgmail wrote: »

you have badly misread the post you quoted.

Have I? How?

Glenster

iDave wrote: »

Shame our media doesnt report the slow hanging of gays in Iran.

How'd you find out about it then?

looksee

'I'm a Brit, I am upset and intimidated by the 'Brits out' graffiti that is still (very occasionally) painted around the place. I want some headlines to show how this kind of hate speech still happens'. (Standard responses - If you don't like it you could always leave / why are you worrying about what a bunch of ignorant eejits think? / Ah but you have to understand the history...)

Actual thinking - this situation has improved immeasurably in the 40 years I have been here and the occasional bit of bigotry just reflects on the way those people have been raised to hate anything they don't understand / is different to their own way of life. It does not require headline attention and is not representative of the feelings of the vast majority.

Samuel T. Cogley

Ah nuance, the reason for so many tangential conversations on these threads.

Outlaw Pete

Wouldn't call it an attack.. but sickening enough incident all the same and certainly shouldn't in any way be seen as crying wolf to be complaining about it.

AtomicHorror

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

People seem be treating this thread as if it's some sort of debate on whether or not the act itself should be reported at all, which is totally incorrect and misrepresenting some of the posters who've contributed.

No-one said it shouldn't be reported. But pushing it as major, headline news is totally blowing the event out of porportion. I mean, really, a drunken lout scrawled a swastika.... in chalk.

Front page, headline news? Way OTT.

Which papers ran it on the front page? Not a rhetorical question, I just didn't see them that day.

I think what's more interesting is that stories are inappropriately over-hyped every single day- from the latest cure or cause of cancer, to Kate Middleton wagging a finger at a 3 year old, to migrants rabble rabble... but this is the story that OP chooses to take issue with.

Proportion is a matter of opinion, of course.

Penn

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

I mean, really, a drunken lout scrawled a swastika.... in chalk.

Pretty sure it was the homophobic slurs written on Ireland's most prominent club/bar for gay people near the anniversary of the same-sex marriage referendum that was the newsworthy part of the story, not just a chalk swastika.

Whether it's front page news or not, let's face it, most newspapers' front pages don't have actual front page worthy news items on their front pages most of the time, especially tabloids. Why complain about this one and not any of the other bullsh*t 'celeb goss' or 'politician making weird facial expression' front pages?