**** you, Ireland.

Rozie wrote:

I am sick to death of this country and it's ridiculous sense of social conservativism and ****witted apathy. And before you think "Oh but you don't mean ME surely, I am a user of the internet and therefore more educated than most folk!" yes I mean you too. I've been in enough arguments on this board to know that there are more than enough idiots to go around here too.

What the hell, seriously? People complain about our current government, then VOTE THEM IN AGAIN. Nobody cares about the Tribunials, the controversy, the general lack of progress? And now you're going to tell me "Oh but us here on Boards.ie mostly realise that!"

No, you don't. You don't realise that it's your dimwitted mentality that's causing this. Your complete lack of desire to stand out and be heard, for fear of ridiculous character assassination, WHO ARE YOU TO SAY THIS? YOU ONLY CARE ABOUT YOUR SIDE OF THE ARGUMENT AND NEVER LISTEN TO ANYONE ELSE'S! which I guarantee will make up at least 30% of the replies I get to this thread. **** that.

The truth is, Ireland, that you're one festering pile of steaming ****. You cling to a cultural identity that no longer exists. You're corporate sell outs, drunken louts, pissing on the graves of the people that got you where you are today.

Your attitudes are pathetic. You fail to realise that even kicking up a storm can be sufficent to make a difference, and spend all your time attacking those who actually try to instigate change. You care more about people attacking bigotry than people spreading rampant bigtory, more about people that moan about shady characters in ways you don't approve of than the damage the shady characters do to our country.

And the students. **** me, the students. You all dress the same, think the same and do pretty much the same. Yes, there are plenty of exceptions, but compared to what students used to be, it's paltry and pathetic. What the **** happened to students being the bohemian force of cultural forwarding? All you do is walk around in your jeans and pastel coloured shirts and hoodies obsessing over a career that will never make you feel truly fulfilled, drinking and patting yourself on the back for ANY level of activism at all you engage in, no matter how meager.

Irish people look boring. I don't care if people say it doesn't matter, it ****ing does. It's not shallow to want to live in a place with nice buildings, it's not shallow to want to live in a place where people aren't afraid to express themselves for fear of some conservative youth making them feel immature just for standing out. 2 minutes on a site like Myspace browsing people from Ireland and then any other European country shows very quickly that Irish people quite simply look boring, and have much less diverse interests. THIS IS THE TRUTH. IT IS NOT SOMETHING TO BE PROUD OF. And yes, it does mean we are FAR more sheepish than some of our neighbours.

You act boring. I'm sure I'm going to be met with hundreds of replies of how CRAZY the SKYDIVING was with Donncha from Templebar the other day, but that's not worth a toss, every developed country has that. What about our cultural exports? We have offered some of the most terrible music that has done insurmountable damage to the music industry of both of the UK and Ireland, and who the hell would want to import our television? We are a cultural black hole of creativity. We offer very little.

And don't get me started on how "Laid back" the Irish Lifestyle is, and how other countries are just SOOO hectic. They only way in which they're more hectic is that they actually give a toss about things. Ireland is only laid back in so far as that it does NOT give a ****, total social apathy for the most apart.

We are work mad, career mad. We work longer hours than most of europe, and our leaving cert is a rat race. Colleges are high pressure and have poor social scenes, they're not like real universities at all. We are Corporate. We are Soulless. This is nothing to celebrate either, no matter how good it makes our economy. We have no real cultural identity. Irish people will tell you they're happy, more so than many other countries. But they're really just easily fooled. Looking at what our country actually IS like, it makes no sense for them to be. **** services, rampant conformity throughout or social scenes, overpriced goods, nothing for young people to do but drugs and smashing old ladies over the head with whiskey bottles.

Irish people on the internet... they seem ridiculously amateur, about as "haha I'm using the internet" as you can get. And the internet is already BAD, so that makes it worse. Irish people are vicious authoritarians; this forum can be a great example, people being banned for weeks from forums for minor offenses and cocky moderators pissing in their faces. It doesn't matter if a board is "private property", it's only common courtesy to treat others, especially your patrons, with decency, even if you don't like what they say or how they say it. To me, this reveals the real maggot ridden lump of burnt flesh in the Irish mentality, how incompetent we are at dealing with other people, dealing with social structures.

Our country ****ing sucks.

Rebellion is GOOD, instigating change is GOOD. You need to learn that. It is not immature to whine, moan, to want to change things. it's GOOD, because the alternative means that nothing improves.

I know I'm going to be torn apart, because that's all most people can do. Say HOW DARE YOU TELL US WE'RE WRONG and never bother to refute any of my points. The rest will be anecdotal arguments, or ridiculously ambiguous stats, or saying how I have a point but shouldn't express it so angrily. Which annoys me the most, because you'll go to the ends of the earth bitching about someone you basically agree with, without lifting a finger to try and stop the real tragedies in the world. Or you'll say "Oh our problems mean nothing; the Childrens are dying in Africa", and not bother doing anything about that either. Or if you don't like it, leave. How the hell will that solve anything?

It's GOOD to be pissed. Our problems ALWAYS matter, how the hell can he help anyone else if we're a mess? It's good to ****ing swear at people that
piss you off. It's good to be the opposition, to be strong and independant. It's good, NOT immature, to be rebellious.

What am I doing about it? Not a lot, right now. I'm not a in a position to. But I'm ranting. And ranting is good. There are people who are in fantastic positions to do things, but do nothing. That's what ranting is good for; puts pressure on them to incite change.

But the truth is, we have serious problems. And you know it. And you know I'm right. We are ****. And we need to do better. Or we'll be with O'Leary, in the grave.

stepbar wrote:

We can do without people like you Rozie. You won't be missed TBH.