I agree to the extent that it should be done, but I also know that this is the trick people fell into with Trump, thinking that they could shame him and his followers with facts and figures while he's just moved onto the next thing. You end up on the back foot, just being a corrector to the racist. Grealish is clearly going for that Trump thing here, how successful it will be in Ireland i'm not sure.In a week where we're talking about public service broadcasting, RTE should be on the ball better than just echoing what's being yelled on Twitter. That yelling is already happening.
My reaction was mostly to The Late Debate last night and Morning Ireland this morning. But, like I said, in fairness they did come back with the figures today somewhat.
The response to "There are $6billion in remittances going to a single country” should not be “Remittances are fine, your granny did it, and you are a racist”
Because it sounds like his figure is correct, but no one wants to admit it.
“Your figures are baloney, the real figure is $X and in line with international norms for a population this size. And you’re some sneaky fuck, using bogus figures to scaremonger.”
I just wasn’t hearing that anywhere yesterday or last night.
I think we’re mostly saying the same thing.
It's the kind of shit my dad forwards on to me and when I go do the research and correct him he goes "oh right, fair enough, I hadn't thought about it too much" because he's not actually a bad guy, but half the damage is already done.
I kind of think just publicly making a fool of him would be better than correcting him (which should also be done of course). The youth of today just shouting "OK Boomer" a million times at him will probably do more damage to his reputation than any amount of correction. The Ian O'Doherty's of this world can get all worked up in their columns about the lack of civility and polarization all they like, these racists don't deserve civility when they're the ones advocating for violence.
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