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

Gimme a shot.

Here’s mine: The expansion of the EU should’ve stopped in 1995 with Austria, Sweden and Finland.

The 2004 expansion with 10 new countries, (Czechia, Cyprus, Lithuania, Latvia, Slovenia, Slovakia, Hungary, Estonia, Malta, Poland) the 2007 addition of Romania and Bulgaria and 2013 addition of Croatia should never have happened.

We should’ve drawn up the ladder after. I NEVER want to see Ukraine as a member.

I am pro EU. I just don’t want the aforementioned 14 countries in the union.

Not being in Schengen isn’t that bad, at least we can screen potential baddies before they enter Ireland.

mod edit

this thread is for controversial opinions. It’s absolutely a guarantee that you’re going to see something here you wholly disagree with. That is fine. 

You can discuss opinions with the poster if they wish but do not harass them or constantly attempt to change their opinion or POV or go along with yours. 

Secondly & as important to keep in mind at all times a controversial opinion does not mean a free pass to be a racist, homophobe etc. think twice about what you’re about to post if you’re at all unsure & if you want to play it extra safe ask one of the moderators, we’re happy to advise.

Mod edit 2;

Posters on this thread were requested not to derail it by discussion of the Irish women's soccer team.

I see that these requests have been completely ignored.

Therefore posters who do continue to post about the Irish women's soccer team on this thread will face an immediate threadban. 

You have been warned.

hoodie6029

Keep county borders for sporting purposes only. Redraw all the local authority areas based on what makes sense geographically and based on population to deliver the best service.

Blessington and Carnew are so far from the rest of county Wicklow they should be in Kildare and Wexford local authority areas respectively.

There must be dozens of examples of this around the country.

Likewise, local authorities like Meath allowing crazy amounts of development on the Dublin border and Drogheda border. These have huge impact on their neighbours but there isn’t a thing they can do about it. It’s nuts!

Present levels of wealth inequality in western world is unsustainable,and will eventually come crashing in on itself like communism did in the end

People cheering on the ryanair Twitter account are every bit as lame,as those whom cheer on Elon musk

Strumms

I’d concur regarding the OP’s EU expansion opinion but I’m not sure it’s one which is too controversial. It will become less so.

cuttingtimber22

The media are not giving proper due diligence to the lack of regulation for surrogate children.

Instead they celebrate surrogate parents and take up the cause of people who for whatever reason end up having difficulties in the country where the mother is located.

One could be even more controversial and consider this practice as modern day slavery.

gary550

If you ain't got no money, take yo' broke ass home

Donald wasn't that bad

walterking

Population control.

I debated the subject.

I firmly believe that the state should not encourage more than two children.

They can do this by reducing children's allowance from child 3 by 25%, 4 = 50% and no allowance for child 5 onwards.

Max 3 bedrooms in social housing. No more than 100sqm.

Less population will do far more for the environment than any of the other policies out there.

I won the debate.

The Poolbeg chimneys are a monument to carbon emissions of the past and should be pulled down.

Atlantic Dawn

Anyone I know who's healthy that COVID 'took them out' are the same people who miss circa 4 weeks every year from work with basically milked out of it paper cut illnesses.

StupidLikeAFox

Inheritance tax is a very fair tax, perhaps the fairest of all taxes.

artvanderlay

There should be separate supermarkets for men and women. Even separate queues would be a start. Hold ups at checkouts? Usually women. Coming around corners at full speed without any concern for whose approaching? Again usually women.

Atlantic Dawn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119793890#Comment_119793890

There should be a sign saying there's no mystery prize where your shopping is free so have your jaysus payment method ready. When there's a family of 9 on a day out going through the checkouts they seem to not have a focused person ready to pay.

supermans ghost

The only thing that realistically will “save the planet” as Eamon Ryan and his ilk are always prattling on about, isn’t car pooling and preserving bogland, it is a major cull of the human population.

To quote the late great George Carlin, The planet will be fine, the people are f**ked.

Bill Burr also has some very funny observations on how he would hypothetically achieve this, one of which involves surreptitiously sinking cruise ships.

Strumms

According to verifiable EPA ( Environmental Protection Agency ) statistics, the causes of greenhouse gas emissions in Ireland are as below …yet literally the agricultural sector and business sectors are given a hall pass by the likes of the Green Party and a significant cohort of greens headed twats and climate hacktivists… AND the wider political circus....

Yet they instead are overjoyed to lecture and talk down to households and regular citizens with tremendous levels of arrogance and contemptuous incompetence and hilarious hypocrisy regarding everything from the use of cars, residential power consumption, going on holidays etc…while embracing multiculturalism and an exploding population which will contribute more to issues… and importantly…saying next to zero about the sectors of society as above who are the most prolific causes of climate change…

in an ideal world I’d love to see the likes of Ryan et Al… locked up for publishing treasonous and seditious material. Locked up and in the dark with cold food… save a bit of energy then.

Quantum Erasure

things are generally all right

Jaysus..where to begin..

dogbert27

If you move to a foreign country then you should follow that country's culture and societal norms.

Do not expect that country to change to make your life easier.

Miadhc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119793824#Comment_119793824

Irish people aren't having big families anymore the average number of children per family was 1.38 in 2016. You do understand that having such a low birthrate isnt a good thing for the country as a whole. Who looks after and pays for the elderly population in the future?

Our population replacement rate is 1.7 births per family. So we aren't even replacing ourselves currently. Similar trends across Europe which is one of the reasons governments are importing people from the third world.

There are lots of flaws in your proposal, I'm not sure how you won a debate on it

StevenToast

All Clampers are wànkers.....on a power trip....

barneygumble99

People with a very low iq need to contained within the confines of spike island. There could be a biannual general intelligence test, fail it, catch ya later. Oh and did I forget to mention that they’d be sharing it with but segregated from, anyone with more than 3 convictions. People who educate themselves and pass the iq test, get to leave after a year. Those convicted folk don’t get that opportunity.

Gimme a shot.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119794006#Comment_119794006

Education has no bearing on a person’s IQ. You’d understand that if you had a high IQ.

tritriagain

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119793988#Comment_119793988

is the elderly population not getting adequate care in itself not an element of population control. if people died younger the need to provide "the pension"and health care would be less demanding. I'm not saying I agree with this but people are definitely retiring too young.

barneygumble99

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119794009#Comment_119794009

https://www.ed.ac.uk/news/2018/extra-year-in-class-can-make-pupils-smarter-iq-ana

took 5 seconds to find this , maybe if you had a high iq yourself , you could’ve looked it up before posting.

micar

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119793999#Comment_119793999

You must gave read the other thread OP started

Still stihl waters 3

Eugenics if practiced correctly isn't all bad and would improve humanity

When radical Islamic suicide bombers and gun men were attacking parts of Europe I often wondered why attack innocent people as people don't really give a sh1t about strangers in another city

They should have attacked the likes of coronation Street, emmerdale, any of the soap stars and sets, bomb the sh1t out of the eastenders set, the x factor, love Island, they'd have a far bigger impact on people if they took away their modern day comforts

foxsake

people who try to excuse behaviour by saying "i'm only doing my job" are cowards.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119793875#Comment_119793875

You think 33% is fair?

Gimme a shot.

Inheritance tax should be abolished.

Expenditure needs to be reduced.

Trim the fat from the government.

More personal freedoms. If a shop wants to sell beer / wine at 4 AM or a pub wants to stay open 24/7 then so be it.

Gimme a shot.

If a person enters your home or property without permission you should be allowed to do anything to protect your family or possessions.

StevenToast

If a person illegally clamps your car you should be allowed to do anything to protect your possessions.....

What qualifies as a controversial opinion? Having a person or two disagreeing with an idea you have hardly makes it "controversial". But that will happen pretty much on any thread you express any opinion on.

If I think back over my time on boards about when people have disagreed with me in greater numbers and more emotionally - I was not even expressing opinions. I was merely mentioning choices I had made in my own life without suggesting anyone else (should) do the same.

Strangely over all the years on here the two things that seem to fit that description most was A) When I mentioned I chose not to do the whole santa claus thing with my children and B) When I mentioned I was teaching my 11 year old daughter how to use guns/rifles. Those two got a few people rather riled up at the time. More so than expressing any opinions on the abortion and gay marriage referendum threads for example.

Fr Tod Umptious

My controversial opinion is that most of the opinions posted here are not actually controversial.

Gimme a shot.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119794191#Comment_119794191

I think you’ll find the majority of clamping is legal since the 2015 act.

Tabnabs

"Your rights end where my nose begins".

Ash.J.Williams

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119793696#Comment_119793696

naas would be so much better to serve blessington

Ash.J.Williams

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119794195#Comment_119794195

was riling people your aim?

StupidLikeAFox

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119794111#Comment_119794111

It's only 33% above a very generous threshold for children.

If you are gifted 320k, you pay nothing

If you are gifted €500k from your parents, you pay 12% tax on that.

If you are gifted 5m, you pay 31% tax.

It's a very fair tax for preventing intergenerational transfer of wealth

tayto lover

I don't like seeing women in the men's underwear section of a store or men in the women's. I get shivers down my spine.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119794571#Comment_119794571

Never. Also never understood people who have such aims. I can't get into the head space of trolls.

I tend to talk about my own life a lot and things I get up to. Most of the things I do/decide do not bother anyone. Some things seemingly do.

Usually though I never say anything as an opinion or advice or as something I think other people should or shouldn't do. I simply represent what I myself do. So for that reason mostly things I say do not bother anyone. It tends to be when you preach at others that you get their back up.

djan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058269063/what-s-your-most-controversial-opinion

Would be interested on your reasoning against the expansions. Important to note that in the list there are extremely differing countries both in economic performance and social etc. Hard to make an argument against relative high performers of Czech and Slovenia. If those are the measures, Ireland would have never gotten in and today's Spain and southern Italy would be out too.

ancapailldorcha

The state should build more social housing. A lot more and urgently.

Jequ0n

It’s a pity that I can’t post mine because I’d be banned and I don’t feel like giving people that pleasure.

ELM327

I hate palestine.

I'm also pro confederacy and have a number of battle flags in my home office.

I also am pro choice and pro lgbtq rights, but can see the scientific differences between trans women and AFAB women. This is what got JK "canceled" but she was right.

randd1

Ireland should not provide any aid to foreign countries that are not stable democracies. And even at that, it should only be provided in the event of a natural disaster.

ELM327

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119794627#Comment_119794627

Agree

hoodie6029

Restricted breed and crosses of restricted breed dogs should be treated as weapons. You should have to be assessed like you do for a gun licence before you can get one.

Same penalties should apply as do for guns if you have one without a licence.

Breeders should be regulated like gun dealers.

The move to ban smoking in open public areas,is stupid and an excessive overreach by the state with not enough merits to justify it

Anyone who is single and has an affair with someone whom is married/persues them,is blameless in the inevitable fallout

yourdeadwright

There are two genders & lots of mental illness,

Furze99

In general - have internment camps for troublesome members of certain ethnic groups and other citizens from certain communities with little income but apparent wealth. Save us all a heap of bother.

Currently - stop all 'international protection' immigrants until we can process who we have and send most of them back to build up their own countries.

yourdeadwright

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119794575#Comment_119794575

I disagree,

I work hard my whole life and pay all my taxes ,

Why should the government get to take more of my money because i die ? What wrong with working my arse off to set my kids up,

Max H

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119794577#Comment_119794577

You are Father Ted and i claim my prize