Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Irish casual racism: an exchange of vitriol on Youtube

After watching a very disturbing Youtube video trying to make the point that our good Irish culture (and presumably, skin colour) are being diluted, I felt the need to respond to some of the worst comments, particularly those that seemed to assume that all immigrants are gaming the system and/or getting "free housing", benefits and other such nonsense.

There were many comments like this:
nomorefreebees 3 days ago
great video ,,, so we now have foriegn irishmen do we? i dont think so,
the foriegners are here for only one reason and thats to make ireland their land,,,,,while our stupit government gives them all the benifits available and deprives its own people ,, hospitals closing down to keep immigrants ,,, benifits cut to keep immigrants...... and all the while we say nothing ....... so are we going to act now or do we want to let immigrants take us over like they almost have now in sweeden ...

I was saddened to see that a greater number of commenters seemed to agree with these misinformed racists. But then entertained by a quite ludicrous private message sent to me by one of them:

From: nomorefreebees Subject: fool Date: Jul 19, 2010
You have some cheek to dictate to Irish people haven't you? You didn't even know where this country was a few years ago.
You hand out allot of meaningless advice about a dole office. I have a business and I don't know what the inside a dole office looks like but obviously you do. Furthermore many so called immigrants are illegal and work as well as collect benefits. The evidence is on my channel if you care look at my videos. But you won't will you? Because you don't want to know do you? Or should I say you already do.
If all immigrants are working as you claim then why is it costing the Irish people 90 million a year to keep immigrants in Mosney Co. Meath? Plus another 190 million to keep the rest of them in free housing, benefits all over the rest of our country,
I have my facts right so get your facts right before you comment on my channel.
Letting on your little Mr. Innocent and trying to let people think you're the oppressed while all the while you're bleeding our country dry,


And my response:
"You didn't even know where this country was a few years ago"

It hasn't moved much in the last few million years. Also, could you start out by not spouting such clearly useless drivel as this? A few years ago, I was right here in Dublin, so I know exactly where we were.

"If all immigrants are working as you claim then why is it costing the Irish people 90 million a year to keep immigrants in Mosney Co. Meath? Plus another 190 million to keep the rest of them in free housing, benefits all over the rest of our country,"

Excuse me? Where did I claim that "all immigrants are working"? I certainly said no such thing and by trying to build such a flimsy strawman argument you have instantly reduced your credibility to ZERO.

Furthermore, the "immigrants" in Meath and "the rest of them" with free housing are a tiny minority of the immigrants in Ireland.

Your argument is like saying that humans shouldn't be allowed to live here because we spend millions to operate prisons and hand out dole to scangers who never work a day in the life.

The people who unfairly game the system are the VAST MINORITY.

Unfortunately, racist idiots like you appear to be growing in number.


Is it just that Youtube brings out the worst assholes (like him and well... me) or is this really how a majority of Irish people feel now? Because it's pretty damn sad.



More from him:
This is a small country and you claimed 90% of immigrants were working thats not true how could it be when its costing our goverment or should i say the tax payer 90 million a year to keep immigrants in mosney not counting their benifit money. And how about all the others? there costing us another 200 million a year , they have free housing, benifits, free bus passes , and the rest.
your only kidding yourself not me, like i said i have the facts i dont speculate. wheres your facts? tell me it doesnt cost us that money will you?


Response:
"your only kidding yourself not me, like i said i have the facts i dont speculate. wheres your facts? tell me it doesnt cost us that money will you?"

You do not have all the facts. If you had the facts you would not say something like "that's not true, how could it be if the tax payer is paying 90 million a year to keep immigrants in Mosney"? That is you taking a fact (90 million a year "to keep immigrants in Mosney") and jumping to an unsupported conclusion (at least 10% of immigrants are spongers).
You can't just take a fact and suggest that it supports any claim. THAT is speculation, and it's what you are doing.

I note that you're trying to build another strawman argument: "tell me it doesnt cost us that money will you?". Do you not see how silly this is? I never said that it doesn't cost us money. Of course it does. My point is that it's a small number of immigrants/refugees that cost us the money. Not only that, but the vast majority of immigrants (there are more immigrants than just refugees) HAVE to work to be here, and they pay tax like every other worker. So the legitimate immigrants are also funding the spongers.

Yes, there are some sponger immigrants. Yes, there are some sponger refugees. Yes, some of those refugees somehow got free housing. A very small number of them (and most of that happened at least 10 years ago).

You talk as if the majority of immigrants have free housing, free bus passes etc. That is not true and you do yourself a disservice to suggest so.

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