Why do Irish people not protest?

duffflash · 10-05-2010 12:48pm #1

Why are we so afraid of showing the government and the EU how we feel?

enda1 · 10-05-2010 12:50pm

duffflash wrote: »

Why are we so afraid of showing the government and the EU how we feel?

What do you want ot protest against?

muboop1 · 10-05-2010 12:51pm

Simple... look at what the responses have been at the last few protests...

PS protect, media spin turns them into the devil and everyone hates them...

Lucky to have their jobs blah blah.

Taxi's protested, ppl got pissed at them to...

reprazant · 10-05-2010 12:56pm

It kind of annoys me when I see people complaining about nobody protesting.

If you want to protest, organise a protest and do it.

Don't sit on ass complaining about how there is nobody protesting, waiting for somebody else to do it all for them.

duffflash · 10-05-2010 12:58pm

reprazant wrote: »

It kind of annoys me when I see people complaining about nobody protesting.

If you want to protest, organise a protest and do it.

Don't sit on ass complaining about how there is nobody protesting, waiting for somebody else to do it all for them.

It’s a sad thing to think but the only time in reason years that people in our nation’s capital got passionate about something was when a few poor Orangemen tried to walk down O’Connell Street.
What a country of amadans we are!

prinz · 10-05-2010 12:58pm

duffflash wrote: »

Why are we so afraid of showing the government and the EU how we feel?

How do I feel? maybe I could send them some flowers :rolleyes:

meditraitor · 10-05-2010 12:59pm

Whats to complain about? really!

thirtythirty · 10-05-2010 12:59pm

Because peaceful protests achieve nothing, and violent protests make you and your country look uneducated and not worth listening to.

prinz · 10-05-2010 1:00pm

duffflash wrote: »

It’s a sad thing to think but the only time in reason years that people in our nation’s capital got passionate about something was when a few poor Orangemen tried to walk down O’Connell Street.

People in our nation's capital? If by people you mean a motley crew of good for nothing looters, vandals and general opportunistic scumbags then yes, I am glad we're not that 'passionate'.

duffflash · 10-05-2010 1:01pm

prinz wrote: »

People in our nation's capital? If by people you mean a motley crew of good for nothing looters, vandals and general opportunistic scumbags then yes, I am glad we're not that 'passionate'.

So let’s do it!! I’ll bring the sandwiches and you can bring the Tea!
Down with that sort of thing. :rolleyes:

Fighting Irish · 10-05-2010 1:03pm

muboop1 wrote: »

Simple... look at what the responses have been at the last few protests...

PS protect, media spin turns them into the devil and everyone hates them...

Lucky to have their jobs blah blah.

Taxi's protested, ppl got pissed at them to...

.

It's always the same

meditraitor · 10-05-2010 1:04pm

duffflash wrote: »

So let’s do it!! I’ll bring the sandwiches and you can bring the Tea!
Down with that sort of thing. :rolleyes:

The thing is- Ireland is a great country so there is no need to protest, sh1t government or not.

duffflash · 10-05-2010 1:04pm

spottyelephant wrote: »

Because peaceful protests achieve nothing, and violent protests make you and your country look uneducated and not worth listening to.

Ah yes, so lets vote yes to Lisbon and our Politisons know what their doing.
It will be all ok in the end.

duffflash · 10-05-2010 1:05pm

meditraitor wrote: »

The thing is- Ireland is a great country so there is no need to protest, sh1t government or not.

Got a job?

prinz · 10-05-2010 1:05pm

duffflash wrote: »

Ah yes, so lets vote yes to Lisbon and our Politisons know what their doing.
It will be all ok in the end.

Would you care to explain where exactly the Lisbon Treaty fits into your picture of things we should be protesting about?

meditraitor · 10-05-2010 1:05pm

duffflash wrote: »

Ah yes, so lets vote yes to Lisbon and our Politisons know what their doing.
It will be all ok in the end.

That boat has passed young man, find something else to moan about

duffflash · 10-05-2010 1:08pm

prinz wrote: »

Would you care to explain where exactly the Lisbon Treaty fits into your picture of things we should be protesting about?

Do you rember the line we were feed when they wanted us to revote?

Yes to Lisbon is Yes to jobs!

Where's the jobs?

prinz · 10-05-2010 1:09pm

duffflash wrote: »

Yes to Lisbon is Yes to jobs!
Where's the jobs?

I voted yes and I've got a job :eek:

duffflash · 10-05-2010 1:10pm

meditraitor wrote: »

That boat has passed young man, find something else to moan about

Like so many other missed opportunities!

duffflash · 10-05-2010 1:11pm

prinz wrote: »

I voted yes and I've got a job :eek:

Location: Dublin

thirtythirty · 10-05-2010 1:11pm

duffflash wrote: »

Ah yes, so lets vote yes to Lisbon and our Politisons know what their doing.
It will be all ok in the end.

You weren't the person who crudely painted the funny message "screw the bankers, vote no to lisbon" in bachelors walk by any chance!?
Because you seem to have about the same understanding about how little correlation between the two topics there is....

enda1 · 10-05-2010 1:11pm

duffflash wrote: »

So let’s do it!! I’ll bring the sandwiches and you can bring the Tea!
Down with that sort of thing. :rolleyes:

Again, what you wanna protest against OP?

prinz · 10-05-2010 1:12pm

duffflash wrote: »

Location: Dublin

And? What's your point? Should I apologise because I didn't sit on my backside in some backwater waiting for the jobs to come to me?

duffflash · 10-05-2010 1:14pm

spottyelephant wrote: »

You weren't the person who crudely painted the funny message "screw the bankers, vote no to lisbon" in bachelors walk by any chance!?
Because you seem to have about the same understanding about how little correlation between the two topics there is....

It all comes down to the line our Politicians are feeding us!

Are we going to follow them to the end like the good sheep we are?

duffflash · 10-05-2010 1:17pm

prinz wrote: »

And? What's your point? Should I apologise because I didn't sit on my backside in some backwater waiting for the jobs to come to me?

Oh god, here we go again!

Ok let's all go to Dublin to find work!

Then you will be the same fella on about the bogger invasion taking all our jobs!!

prinz · 10-05-2010 1:17pm

duffflash wrote: »

It all comes down to the line our Politicians are feeding us!

What line would that be?

duffflash · 10-05-2010 1:19pm

prinz wrote: »

What line would that be?

The line of trust us and it will all be ok

macgrub · 10-05-2010 1:19pm

OP, What would be your agenda in the protest?

To deliver a valid protest against one form of system, you should be able to back it up with an alternate.
Otherwise, the protest is just plain smashy smashy!

meditraitor · 10-05-2010 1:19pm

I don't go to Dublin just for the jabs.
The wimminz in dublin are easier,

thirtythirty · 10-05-2010 1:20pm

duffflash wrote: »

It all comes down to the line our Politicians are feeding us!

Are we going to follow them to the end like the good sheep we are?

No, i understand what you're trying to say. But you're giving it about as much thought as someone you would stereotypically imagine to be marching down the street shouting "NO!" to a topic they don't quite understand, but they know they don't like...

if you felt that strongly about a government decision that you would protest about it, would you not be better off starting a think-tank, or at least come up with alternative proposals that can be considered??

If your friend says that you and he are going to the cinema, and you don't want to, do you stand in front of him shouting "NO TO THE CINEMA!". Or do you propose an alternative..like the pub!?

duffflash · 10-05-2010 1:21pm

meditraitor wrote: »

I don't go to Dublin just for the jabs.
The wimminz in dublin are easier,

aye in their easy access pajamas

prinz · 10-05-2010 1:21pm

duffflash wrote: »

Then you will be the same fella on about the bogger invasion taking all our jobs!!

I'm not a Dub myself, so no I don't call anyone boggers, and no one will be taking my job tbh so I don't care who 'invades' looking for work.

Again, should I apologise that my location is Dublin?

For some reason that was crucial enough for you to point out? What bearing does that have on your issue?

topper75 · 10-05-2010 1:23pm

I got burned on the Thierry Henry facebook petition and I'm not going back.

Seriously - unless the army come out and back you, massing together with placards to shout slogans changes nothing. The govt got a 5-year mandate in 2007 to do as they please. That is how it is. The Irish public are total pragmatists in this respect.

duffflash · 10-05-2010 1:24pm

macgrub wrote: »

OP, What would be your agenda in the protest?
To deliver a valid protest against one form of system, you should be able to back it up with an alternate.
Otherwise, the protest is just plain smashy smashy!

You said it!

and sure wouldn't any alternative be better that the pure capitalist system
we are headed for.

macgrub · 10-05-2010 1:29pm

duffflash wrote: »

You said it!

and sure wouldn't any alternative be better that the pure capitalist system
we are headed for.

In Soviet Russia, Protest Drives You !:rolleyes:

The Volt · 10-05-2010 1:31pm

A lot of the radicalism came from the student movement years ago. Nowadays the youth are apathetic.

duffflash · 10-05-2010 1:32pm

macgrub wrote: »

In Soviet Russia, Protest Drives You !:rolleyes:

Da, Comrade!:rolleyes:

fontanalis · 10-05-2010 1:34pm

People have their chocie at each election and time and time again nepotism and gombeenism wins the day. No amount of behaving like the Greek morons is going to change things.

duffflash · 10-05-2010 1:45pm

:(Thanks for this its been great and to a degree has answered my question as to why we don’t protest, all be it with more questions, but I’ll leave that to another topic!:rolleyes:

axer · 10-05-2010 1:53pm

duffflash wrote: »

Why do Irish people not protest?

Because ara sure it'll be grand...

DoireNod · 10-05-2010 1:54pm

I get the distinct impression that the vast majority of people are too ignorant to protest about certain things that should or would warrant protestation.

In order to be able to protest against something, one has to know and understand that which they are against.

DoireNod · 10-05-2010 1:56pm

Voltwad wrote: »

A lot of the radicalism came from the student movement years ago. Nowadays the youth are apathetic.

Very true, but it's not just the youth who are apathetic, it's society in general.

What is it that fosters this apathy?

fontanalis · 10-05-2010 2:10pm

duffflash wrote: »

:(Thanks for this its been great and to a degree has answered my question as to why we don’t protest, all be it with more questions, but I’ll leave that to another topic!:rolleyes:

What exactly would you protest against?
What would be the form of the protest?
What would be your alternative solution to what your protesting against?

toiletduck · 10-05-2010 2:16pm

duffflash wrote: »

Why are we so afraid of showing the government and the EU how we feel?

I would gladly join a protest against some of the moves I think the government shafted the public with (Anglo, Nama etc.) but I know that any such march would be hijacked by the usual suspects.

Last protests I took part in was back in 2002/03 against student fees. Each and every march, was seemingly taken over by college socialist societies, anti-war causes, SF and other (mostly left) groupings. Have seen this time and again.

fontanalis · 10-05-2010 2:20pm

toiletduck wrote: »

I would gladly join a protest against some of the moves I think the government shafted the public with (Anglo, Nama etc.) but I know that any such march would be hijacked by the usual suspects.

Last protests I took part in was back in 2002/03 against student fees. Each and every march, was seemingly taken over by college socialist societies, anti-war causes, SF and other (mostly left) groupings. Have seen this time and again.

That's the problem, confrontation junkies with no viable alternatives.

prinz · 10-05-2010 2:21pm

toiletduck wrote: »

Last protests I took part in was back in 2002/03 against student fees. Each and every march, was seemingly taken over by college socialist societies, anti-war causes, SF and other (mostly left) groupings. Have seen this time and again.

+1. It also put a stop to me participating in student politics, and I see the same people will infiltrate each and any public demo no matter what the subject matter to promote themselves at all costs.

mewso · 10-05-2010 6:39pm

Thank god Ghandi never read this thread.

prinz · 10-05-2010 6:41pm

mewso wrote: »

Thank god Ghandi never read this thread.

Why?

Tootle · 10-05-2010 6:47pm

We're just apathetic. "Sure wont someone else with sort it out" or else "what would the neighbours think".

dsmythy · 10-05-2010 6:51pm

Well we could do what the Greeks did recently. Do economy crippling general strikes. Burn people in banks. Trash a few businesses and cost people their jobs. Make a mess of the streets. All to protest a left wing Greek government voted in a mere few months earlier.

sponsoredwalk · 10-05-2010 6:58pm

fontanalis wrote: »

That's the problem, confrontation junkies with no viable alternatives.

You seem to misunderstand the idea behind protesting.

Protests are not about a rapid overhaul of government Russia-1917 style they are about trying to make small changes in ways that benefit everyone.

If there was a viable alternative to outright exploitation that wasn't smothered in the blood of corruption don't you think it would already be accepted or at least well known but currently being defamed

.

I find it amazing that you all would give out about these 'usual suspects' i.e. the people that want to make things better, if we take a historical look we'll see that it's the 'usual suspects' who were the ones campaigning for the 8 hour work day, to stop children from working, to fight for equal rights for black people, for women, for fairer wages, etc... etc...

I disagree with some posters view on these usual suspects as if we look historically at those protests that make a difference whether by failure or victory we do see positive social consequences from it all, though sometimes accompanied by bloodshed unfortunately...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_labor_protests_in_France

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_1968_in_France

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1992_Los_Angeles_riots

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Workers%27_Day

I really don't need to go on with this list do I?

Also, you'll notice it's usually a minority of people who devolve a peaceful protest into a riot. I'm aware Greece recently went a bit overboard but the Greek people have been screwed by their government. You'll notice that in most countries such as France, USA, Iran, Israel, etc.. etc... are capable of peaceful protests so I'm always skeptical of people who bring out the tarring brush, especially in the politics room

.

I would argue that the apathy some of you feel towards protesting is surely misplaced & can only stem from a lack of knowledge of history.

The only other logic I could use to rationalize some of the nonsense I've read in this thread is that this demonic apathy some of you have brought up has extended to more areas of society than we'd like to admit

Why do Irish people not protest?

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