The echo chamber that is The Journal

jimgoose · 07-03-2019 03:22PM

troyzer wrote: »

Ireland is a country with a ring wing orthodoxy so ingrained as to be practically immovable...

My dear chap, we don't even know what "Right Wing" is! What we have here is a sort of moderate socialist mish-mash with slight Right-ish tendencies, still licking it's wounds after the Civil war. :pac::pac::pac:

Cee-Jay-Cee · 07-03-2019 03:25PM

As far as I can see the typical Journalist commenter is anti-government, most likely on the dole and therefore takes every opportunity to have a swipe at the public service, didn't pay their water charges and thinks that every government department is corrupt and crooked. A real bunch of **** by all accounts.

jimgoose · 07-03-2019 03:27PM

Cee-Jay-Cee wrote: »

As far as I can see the typical Journalist commenter is anti-government, most likely on the dole and therefore takes every opportunity to have a swipe at the public service, didn't pay their water charges and thinks that every government department is corrupt and crooked. A real bunch of **** by all accounts.

Thus far, aside from the dole part, you haven't excluded me, and I'm a Right-Wing Arsehole! :pac::pac::pac:

Rubber_Soul · 07-03-2019 03:29PM

troyzer wrote: »

Ireland is a country with a ring wing orthodoxy so ingrained as to be practically immovable. There has never EVER been a left wing government in Ireland and a lot of the failings of Ireland can be attributed to a slavish adherence to neoliberalism.

I'm not a Trot and the market economy has its place but it's incredibly frustrating when you get one right wing government after another ****ing it up.

We spend nearly 30% of our budget on social protection, over 20% on our socialized healthcare system, and nearly 15% on education. This is not the budget of a right wing
Government.

Edgware · 07-03-2019 03:30PM

Horsebox9000 wrote: »

The article on Mary Lou going to the US that was posted today shows the irony in their comment
If it was someone else from any other party they would be branded fat cat elitists however when.Mary does this it's all rosey to attend this 500 dollar plate events.
Again not trying to belittle people for.their beliefs I just don't get what seems to be the huge amount of non critical thinking that takes place in these comment sections

Mary Lou
Fat cat elitists

What are you insinuating?

dxhound2005 · 07-03-2019 03:30PM

Horsebox9000 wrote: »

I try read as many publications as possible myself for what one could assume is a decent holistic view on current affairs.

Forget about holism. Your experience should have taught you that some publications are to be avoided.

tinpib · 07-03-2019 03:32PM

Ya, maybe when the whole commenting on articles started about 10 years ago there was novelty in it, but the Journal comments are very tiring at this stage. It's just the same ould heads spouting the same rubbish.

Same goes for Broadsheet.ie which was hilarious when it started and now I rarely visit it, the comments on there are torture now with a core group of the same people commenting on every article all day every day.

Think we are still in a golden age on Reddit though. It's not great for discussion but for LOL moments it is brilliant. The sheer volume of very, very witty people on there is mad.

troyzer · 07-03-2019 03:33PM

Rubber_Soul wrote: »

We spend nearly 30% of our budget on social protection, over 20% on our socialized healthcare system, and nearly 15% on education. This is not the budget of a right wing
Government.

The size of the budget itself is the problem. Our private healthcare system covers half the country due to how crap our healthcare system is.

I disagree that it's not the budget of a right wing country. The United States spends nearly half of it's budget on social protection and another quarter on healthcare.

CosmicFool · 07-03-2019 03:33PM

I deleted thejounal app and don't look at any news site anymore. It was the best thing I have ever done.

I rarely go on FB. Boards.ie is the only site I'd use frequently these days.

Diceicle · 07-03-2019 03:36PM

CosmicFool wrote: »

I deleted thejounal app and don't look at any news site anymore. It was the best thing I have ever done.

I rarely go on FB. Boards.ie is the only site I'd use frequently these days.

Are you me or am I you?

mikemac2 · 07-03-2019 03:54PM

500 jobs for Dublin yay

Wave of bitter comments in the journal about their town getting no jobs.They have a point about regional balance but the way they say it is always so negative

jay0109 · 07-03-2019 04:02PM

troyzer wrote: »

Economics is about much more than social welfare payments. We have the smallest state in Europe when calculated as government spending percentage of GDP. It's actually the second smallest in the OECD ahead of only Chile. This is a right wing country.

See, thats where your maths are shown up...right there

Dial Hard · 07-03-2019 04:02PM

troyzer wrote: »

I detest Paul Murphy and I agree that most of the Irish left has an awful approach to economics.

There was a by-election in my constituency back in 2016, Paul Murphy was one of the candidates and it was when water charges were pretty much his only raison d'etre. One of his pre-canvassers called to the door one day and we had the following exchange:

Me: Sorry, I don't vote for single-issue candidates.

Him: Paul isn't a single-issue candidate.

Me: What's next on his list if he manages to get water-charges abolished, then? And by the way, I actually support metered water charges.

Him (sneering): Oh you're a neo-liberal then, are you?

Me: I'm socially left but economically right, so whatever you want to call that.

Him: Ok, bye (walks off)

How to win hearts and change minds, folks!

jimgoose · 07-03-2019 04:05PM

Dial Hard wrote: »

There was a by-election in my constituency back in 2016, Paul Murphy was one of the candidates and it was when water charges were pretty much his only raison d'etre. One of his pre-canvassers called to the door one day and we had the following exchange:

Me: Sorry, I don't vote for single-issue candidates.

Him: Paul isn't a single-issue candidate.

Me: What's next on his list if he manages to get water-charges abolished, then? And by the way, I actually support metered water charges.

Him (sneering): Oh you're a neo-liberal then, are you?

Me: I'm socially left but economically right, so whatever you want to call that.

Him: Ok, bye (walks off)

How to win hearts and change minds, folks!

That reminds me of the time a few years back one of the local Sinn Féin boot-boys turned up on my doorstep warbling about taxing "the Rich". One interesting conversation later about who exactly "the Rich" were according to his modus operandum, and I advised him to get THE FUCK off my land before I fetched the constabulary. :pac::pac::pac:

CrankyHaus · 07-03-2019 05:02PM

Actually the left right thing in Ireland is so thoroughly confused that even our left wing parties cannot get a handle on it.

Taxes on property would seem like a very basic left wing principle.
Yet in Ireland they were forced on us by the troika of the IMF, EC and ECB (which is hardly the Comintern), pushed through and championed by the centre right FG and vociferously opposed by the "left wing" SF, AAA and PBP.

troyzer · 07-03-2019 05:05PM

CrankyHaus wrote: »

Actually the left right thing in Ireland is so thoroughly confused that even our left wing parties cannot get a handle on it.

Taxes on property would seem like a very basic left wing principal.
Yet in Ireland they were forced on us by the troika of the IMF, EC and ECB (which is hardly the Comintern), pushed through and championed by the centre right FG and vociferously opposed by the "left wing" SF, AAA and PBP.

Agree. I'm ashamed of my lefty brethren sometimes....

Most of the time actually. ****ing idiots.

Wheeliebin30 · 07-03-2019 05:54PM

The journal is full of wasters and spongers who done nothing with their lives but have to blame someone.

The gubberment.

DEFTLEFTHAND · 07-03-2019 05:56PM

Wheeliebin30 wrote: »

The journal is full of wasters and spongers who done nothing with their lives but have to blame someone.

The gubberment.

It's always easier to blame others for failures than to look in the mirror.

It's human nature.

The echo chamber that is The Journal

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