December 1, 2023
Or just a few days of protest over an Algerian immigrant stabbing Irish children outside a school?
Things could explode in massive fury, because the government is trying to push through a new Hate Speech law.
It contains the usual garble about incitement to violence, hatred directed toward special groups; the new wrinkle makes it a crime to even POSSESS such hate material.
If my experience as a kid with Irish kids is still relevant, half of Ireland could wind up in jail if this law passes. Those kids were masters of the insult. They practiced and cultivated it. For them, it was an art form.
If the law passes, I think the government is going to have to outlaw booze. Which is often the initiator of "hate speech."
I assume the Irish government itself would be one of the special groups-hate speech directed at it would qualify as a crime. If so, you may as well not refer to Ireland as a nation anymore.
If that Irish lad George Carlin were still alive, I think he would have much to say about this new law.
"But they take it too far, they take themselves too seriously, they exaggerate. They want me to call that thing in the street a 'person-hole cover;' I think that's taking it a little bit too far. What would you call a lady's man, a 'person's person'? That would make a 'He-man an 'It-person.' Little kids would be afraid of 'the boogieperson'. They'd look up in the sky and see 'the person in the moon'. Guys would say, 'Come back here and fight like a person,' And we'd all sing 'For it's a jolly good person'."
"Government wants to tell you things you can't say because they're against the law, or you can't say this because it's against a regulation, or here's something you can't say because it's a...secret; 'You can't tell him that because he's not cleared to know that.' Government wants to control information and control language because that's the way you control thought, and basically that's the game they're in."
I met Carlin during the intermission of one of his shows in San Diego. It was near the end of his career and his life. He was disappointed in the bland reaction of the audience that night. I think he might have started to realize that too many of his people were blasted out on meds and other drugs, and were generally opting for passivity as a lifestyle.
I hope that isn't true of the people of Ireland right now.