Belfast is Burning. Because of COURSE IT IS.

[Soph0571]

Last edited Thu Apr 8, 2021, 08:53 AM - Edit history (1)

Brexit Bollocks comes home to burn communities to the ground. 3.5 months after Brexit went hard core and riots and mayhem engulf NI. After Brexit I wrote about being a child of the troubles and how Brexit could do real damage to an international peace treaty that has contained the conflict in NI over the last couple of decades. We could never go back to the days of a hard border on the Island of Ireland and so of course there was always going to be a wet border down the Irish Sea. Of course the NI protocol was the way the English Nats would go. They chose to sacrifice free movement of goods within the United Kingdom to protect their precious hard core Brexit. It should have worked. It could have worked. It might have worked. BUT, Boris is in charge, and bluster, bollocks and lies is all that they know. They do not care about NI. They do not care about the peace treaty. They care only for England and the flag. And so while during the transition period, they could have mitigated much of the barriers created by a border in the Irish Sea, they instead just pretended that it would all be fine.

This wet border and the friction it has created within the loyalist community is not the only reason that riots are happening of course. But there is no denying that they play a significant part.

Link to tweet

Unicorns anyone?

[bronxiteforever]

1. I agree. Peace requires hard work. Nigel Farage and his ilk

Didn’t give one thought as to what happens to NI and the Peace Accords. Also they didn’t care what the people of Scotland thought either. Brexit was all that mattered to them and it appears that Brexit is of little comfort to the United Kingdom.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

2. Ugh.

I hope it will end someday.

[olegramps]

3. NI was formulated with force and injustice. Its history is its past.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

4. Yeah, I've read about it.

My Y-DNA proves that I'm either a paternal descendant of Hugh Montgomery, a "founding father" of the Ulster Scots, or one of his close male relatives.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_Montgomery,_1st_Viscount_Montgomery

My ancestors have been in America for centuries, so it's something long-forgotten in terms of my oral family history.

One of my distant cousins, I suppose:

[Buckeye_Democrat]

13. By the way...

The friendliest strangers that I've ever met were the owners and operators of an Irish pub in Philadelphia PA. I was there for a conference and visited that pub mostly because of the convenience, since it was located within walking distance of my hotel.

They were born and raised in Ireland. (Can't remember where.) They treated me like I was a long-lost relative or something. I ate a huge and delicious Shepherd's pie and drank some Irish beers.

Not sure why they ever came to the USA, a meaner country. I looked up that pub on the internet a few years later, and they were gone. (New owners.)

That level of friendliness made me want to visit Ireland someday, but it may never happen. And it's clearly not a universal trait over there, but wow! So pleasant.

[Lonestarblue]

5. Brexit was sold as freedom, just like Trump sold ignoring the virus as freedom.

Trump and Johnson—two of the worst, most incompetent people ever elected to head major countries. Both have loosed mayhem on their populations that may well last for decades. At least Scotland and Northern Ireland have options. They can rejoin the EU. Our options to deal with the Trump Party are more limited, though I’m about ready for an EU type separation where we have freedom of trade and movement, but separate governments. A logistical nightmare, perhaps, but I’m really tired of a right-wing minority using gerrymandering, voter suppression, and the EC to control the majority who do not support their goals of authoritarian government.

I’m not in a blue state now, but I spent plenty of years in them and I’m tired of paying the bills for the red states that just want to overturn democracy and keep their white supremacy and religious extremism alive.

[Roy Rolling]

6. Of Course

With Yoko

Or without Yoko

[PatSeg]

7. Sadly so typical of right-wing politicians

They come full of drastic ideology and leave behind disaster and mayhem that lives long after they're gone. The decades of work of the peacekeepers and diplomats is blown up in a heartbeat. They think the world is their chessboard and people are just their pawns.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

8. I was half-expecting a nuclear holocaust after...

... Trump and his right-wing authoritarians were in control of the nuclear football. (Whew!)

https://psychology.wikia.org/wiki/Right-wing_authoritarianism
----------
In roleplaying situations, authoritarians tend to seek dominance over others by being competitive and destructive instead of cooperative. In a study by Altemeyer, 68 authoritarians played a three hour simulation of the Earth's future entitled the Global change game. Unlike a comparison game played by individuals with low RWA scores, which resulted in world peace and widespread international cooperation, the simulation by authoritarians became highly militarized and eventually entered the stage of nuclear war. By the end of the high RWA game, the entire population of the earth was declared dead.[13]
----------

[PatSeg]

9. I was half-expecting some major

civilization ending event or events because of Trump and it appears we came very close with this pandemic and the resulting economic decline. Another four years of his incompetence and arrogance could have brought about World War III, though I don't think we are out of the woods yet. We appear to be in the midst of a different kind of warfare, one that could be as devastating to civilization as guns and bombs.

Fascinating study and it confirms some of my observations about right-wing authoritarians. People like Trump often do destructive things because they can, with no thought for the long range consequences even to themselves. They are addicted to the power.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

10. Yes, the uncontrolled pandemic was bad enough.

We all should've injected ourselves with bleach, so we can't blame poor ol' Trump who tried to help.

X a billion

I agree with you.

[PatSeg]

11. Oh yes, if only we'd listened, sigh

You know, I always believed it was possible for an authoritarian to take power in the United States, but I really imagined he/she would be really smart, charming, and charismatic, an Elmer Gantry or Harold Hill. Trump has been a joke, a caricature of a vain and goofy rich guy for years, hardly the guy I could have envisioned beguiling over 70 million Americans. Well of course, I never could have believed there were that many Americans who were that gullible.

Oh well, as I get older I find I am still learning.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

12. His idiocy might've been a blessing in some ways.

I hope to never endure it again, but a smarter right-wing authoritarian might cause even more damage.

Perhaps the many "morans" in the USA will remain distrustful of the intellectual elites and a decline will be gradual instead of instant?

[PatSeg]

14. You know, I have seen it from that perspective

I often felt like things had to get really bad before they could get better. This has been true throughout history. We rarely see a lot of positive or progressive change when a large percentage of the populace is comfortable and complacent, and that leaves so much injustice unaddressed. The Trump years brought largely ignored social maladies to the surface where they can be acknowledged and treated. Poverty, racism, and sexism still exist, but so many put their blinders on because it did not affect them and their families.

Trump spoke of the "forgotten man" (straight out of It Can't Happen Here) and in a bizarre sense he WAS right, but he had no intention of actually helping such people, he was just using them. Sadly, they went from "forgotten" to "used and abused", though few of them will acknowledge that.

I agree that it was better to have an incompetent oaf in the White House than a truly intelligent, charismatic leader, who could have been reelected. Someone who could skillfully dismantle democracy one brick at a time and taken us down a path we probably would not return from. How fragile a thing democracy is and how easily we take it for granted, as it is all we've ever known.

[politruk]

15. "At the end, it is a question of nationality.

The Celts have brought Ireland nothing but trouble and disorder. Any Irishman who has turned out to be successful has in no case I know of been of true Celtic origin."

-- Edward Carson

That's the white-on-white racist mentality anyone who lives in NI has to contend with.

[politruk]

16. "At the end, it is a question of nationality.

The Celts have brought Ireland nothing but trouble and disorder. Any Irishman who has turned out to be successful has in no case I know of been of true Celtic origin."

-- Edward Carson

That's the white-on-white racist mentality anyone who lives in NI has to contend with.

[LeftishBrit]

17. How bloody depressing

NI voted Remain; they were afraid of just this sort of thing.

[Soph0571]

18. And as NI burns for another night

the righties have started blaming the EU... because of course.