Would you consider this racist/offensive towards Irish people?

I am not so much offended by Jack Dee's Irish jokes as the standard by which opposition to stuff that isn't politically correct is applied

if an irish comedian made a gag about immigrants being welfare chasers, this thread would be 20 pages by now and the bleeding heart liberals would be out in force (whether their apoplexy is justified or not is another issue)

They are not out in force on this issue, that they pick and choose when best to display how appalled they are is interesting to me as quite obviously the standard for political correctness is not applied equally, if men or the Irish in general are made fun of, there is usually little or no outcry

On the other hand if women or non-white ethnic groups are joked about, there will usually be a stampede of people rushing to their defense for any number of reasons ranging from being burdened with a kind of middle-class guilt for the crimes of their ancestors to trying to develop a hero complex and rescuing the poor subjugated downtrodden group.

The reasons why some groups get more support than others is mainly down to the media of that age and what they class as being trendy or fashionable in terms of worthy of defense, therefore cases for that particular group will be highlighted more and that imbalance in coverage will give weight to the myth that that group suffers more....usually this decision is based on which group has most recently in time been oppressed or had legal impediment blocking its progress (even if these cases were evident in areas outside of where the moral outrage occurs or indeed when these cases continue to be apparent elsewhere)

basically some groups are viewed as fair game whereas others are not in spite of the fact that both these groups may have the same rights and privileges today

history, the media and societal norms mean we can laugh and make fun of person x and not of person y...this is evolving all the time though.

for example, if jack dee made those comments 15 years ago, I believe there would have been far more of an outrage, then Ireland developed more confidence as a nation, the economy boomed, we went through the Celtic Tiger era, we became wealthier and more confident, we were no longer perceived as the insecure, backward little nation and we developed the skill of being able to laugh at ourselves

some groups still cannot do that, it is a sign of strength when you can write off these offenses and get on with your life..........and conversely when the complaining and whinging about petty or trivial jokes about your group is too loud then it only exacerbates the sense of weakness, insecurity and fragility that surrounds your group

I would like to think that any group (and its supporters) worth its salt will only get offended by what is worthy of getting offended about......in the modern climate the offense-chasers are everywhere and rather than actually helping out their group they are setting them back as the backlash to political correctness threatens to develop into a core value in itself