How will you vote in the Marriage Equality referendum? Mod Note Post 1

"I can't see the relevance.of children to SSM, myself but if no campaigners see an angle there to promote their agenda, well then fair enough."

It's not "fair enough" to deceive people into thinking the referendum is about children when it isn't, it's actually very unfair!

One eyed Jack wrote: »

You also said pointless, and yet here we are

Well I won't wish you luck cheerleading the destructive element within the campaign , if you can't see it there is nothing can be done about it.

Meanwhile the airwaves over the whole weekend will be dominated by those two gombeens acting the maggot and achieve nothing other than perpetuating the victimisation status of the no side and showing the thuggish element of the yes side.

Own goal if ever there was one , as I said clueless

Kiwi in IE wrote: »

People who do not tolerate intolerance are themselves intolerant? I don't think that adds up!

If someone put up posters which were inflammatory, dishonest, lying and discriminatory toward a particular ethnic group or religion, and they were torn down, would those who tore them down be considered 'intolerant'?

Yes there is an upcoming referendum, and so groups representing the no side feel vindicated in putting up public displays of prejudice, but in reality, stopping institutional discriminination due to sexual orientation is not something that should be put to public vote anyway.

I get what others are saying about giving the no side a reason to whinge about the behaviour of the yes side, but those posters should not have any place in civilised society, and I cannot bring myself to disagree with or oppose those who tear them down. I saw one the other morning on my way home from work and I don't think I've ever felt so compelled to destroy/deface property!

Lots of things are immoral but not illegal and that is all that counts. Used correctly those posters are just that extra boost the yes side needs.

First rule is never stop the other side imploding . I have seen a lot more vicious stuff over the years . Just one month to go so and it is done.

Ricardo Jealous Mimicry wrote: »

Again, one side being held accountable for something the other side does too. Yes posters have also been torn down. Murals have been defaced. It will happen in every political campaign, ever.

Yeah but usually not stupid enough to be filmed doing it

Standman wrote: »

Friend of a friend on facebook has pictures of himself proudly throwing the No posters from his street into a bin, getting heaps of likes and encouraging comments from others.

I get people are very passionate about this whole thing but christ, it doesn't give you permission to act the bollox.

And not one of those likes was ever voting anything but yes :mad: talk about preaching to the converted

haveringchick wrote: »

Half an hour of housework is just enough for me. Shirley Conrans right. Life's too short to stuff a mushroom.
Yes any group which advocates the banning of religion is a little bit commie.
I don't like communism.
It doesn't work.

Can you show me where someone advocates banning a religion completely?

haveringchick wrote: »

Half an hour of housework is just enough for me. Shirley Conrans right. Life's too short to stuff a mushroom.
Yes any group which advocates the banning of religion is a little bit commie.
I don't like communism.
It doesn't work.

LGBT groups don't advocate banning religion .

I don't see what allowing gays to marry has to do with workers owning the means of production and abolishing private property. I know some gay couples who would like to take out mortages.

marienbad wrote: »

If I didn't think it had an effect on some voters I wouldn't be posting about it.

It is an action that will not win even one yes voter but just the incentive than can tip a don't know or bring the no's but I won't bother voting to come out after all.

I'll be honest with you, I don't think the point of it is to win any yes voters. I think different people have different motivations for what they're doing (some people are genuinely disgusted by the posters, some people are doing it simply for likes and validation of how 'cool' they are among their peers and on social media, and some people are doing it just for shìts n giggles).

My point being that you really cannot control what other people are going to do, and you cannot be held responsible for the behaviour of others.

And your comment- ''At least on the airwaves, I can switch the radio off. I also manage to avoid their social media pages'' shows how naïve and self-centred you are ! Who cares about you or I for that matter ? We are already committed yeses . It is about the undecided and uncommitted . And they will be watching the TV and listening to the radio . Another wasted few days on the defensive instead of getting our point across .

I've said from the very beginning that I have no interest in the political pissing contests being entertained in the media. I care about the people, not politics. The reason why people are so apathetic and indifferent to this referendum is because they don't care all that much about political peacocking either.

As for your comment that I'm self-centred, well of course I am, and it's naive of you to think that anyone else isn't. That's purely human nature - people only care about an issue when it affects them directly.

Anyway it is done , time to move on.

Probably for the best. Someone said it early in the thread that this referendum was going to be very divisive even among family and friends, and it sure as hell has been from my experience anyway. It's not like I'm keeping score, but talking to people about this referendum has definitely been a good indicator of who your friends and family really are.

Regarding the question of whether same-sex couples make good parents (which is a separate issue from the marriage referendum), although many children born from "accidental conception" have good lives and turn out to be perfectly happy and healthy adults, one would think that on average parents who plan to have children would tend be more knowledgeable about and invested in parenting than those who have accidental children (although obviously that doesn't guarantee that they'll be good parents either).

Unlike heterosexual couples, same-sex couples can't have children by accident (unless maybe one party has a child outside of that relationship). They have to really want it and go through complicated proceedings, often adopting a child who wouldn't have had as good a life otherwise. So generally they really want the child, they're invested and they're saving it from a bad life. It seems to me that same-sex parenting is a net benefit to children's welfare.

S.O wrote: »

I found these anti SSM/SSA posters on google, these are the type of posters the no campaign should put on poles and billboards to argue the case against the referendum.

Those posters are about as relevant as this one...

Pherekydes wrote: »

Now you see how non-religious people feel in this country.

Replace 'lizard' with 'religious' in the above. Put yourself in the shoes of the other.

Why not just go the whole hog instead of having to do the shoe swapping gig -

haveringchick wrote: »

Im very glad for you to come out as a person who identifies as atheist and have no problem with your atheism as long as you continue to allow me to be a non atheist.

Works plenty of ways really -

haveringchick wrote: »

Im very glad for you to come out as a person who identifies as LGBT and have no problem with your being LGBT as long as you continue to allow me to be non LGBT.

Or, the one that covers a multitude -

haveringchick wrote: »

Im very glad for you to come out as a person who identifies as an insufferable arsehole and have no problem with your being an insufferable arsehole as long as you continue to allow me to be a non arsehole.

I think you may get the idea by now and that is simply that nobody likes an arsehole that forces and imposes their opinion on people, no matter what labels they choose to apply to themselves thinking that any excuse means their behaviour is morally justified.

It isn't.