Originally published at: Ireland borrows water cannons from UK after anti-immigration riot | Boing Boing
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This whole thing is a fucking shitshow. The government are talking about loosening the regulations on how they can use CCTV footage to obtain evidence, the gardai were cracking down on young people in general in town today, and there’s a lot of talk of asking why they didn’t just beat the shit out of the rioters last night.
When if the gardai had taken any of the warnings about the far-right recruiting people, if they hadn’t literally escorted them into libraries to yell at the staff about LGBT-friendly books, if they’d taken it seriously when homeless camps were set on fire because there were migrants in them, if they’d even been paying attention when the fascists were openly organising to come in and start shit yesterday, then maybe this could have been prevented.
Instead we get more of the panopticon society and demonising of the working class.
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You don’t expect Drew Harris, who literally doesn’t have security clearance in Ireland because he’s an ex spook from a foreign power, and under their Official Secrets Act, to even begin to think about approaching this reasonably? It’s all about facial recognition AI shit. They fucking know the names of them all!
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Also, if you have even walked through Dublin in the last year you will have noticed that these people have their faces covered while they are stealing electric bikes down the wrong side of the road. They didn’t need water canons last night from the fucking RUC, they needed to stop pretending fascists aren’t a problem.
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Are far-right goups a problem in Ireland? Or is just a new trend? I mean, there are a lot of fascist groups and some already well-established figures around Europe. But I don’t remember reading any news about neo-Nazi groups there. It seems that these people who took a beating 80 years ago are coming back with the help of resentful and opportunistic people.
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They’re not huge here, but they’re growing and getting the light touch from the authorities thus far which doesn’t help. Thankfully they can’t get elected to save their lives.
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Are there specific Irish social media arseholes who were identified as stirring up the yobbos and Know-Nothings? Slapping them with criminal charges for incitement to riot might be a more effective way to crack down on fascism and Identitarianism in Ireland than “moar cameras”.
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My understanding is that most of the actual organising was done via Telegram groups. There’s a bunch of notable ringleaders on public social media but most of them are able to keep their noses clean on there.
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Will these Mussolini projects be successful in trying to change the country’s mindset?
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Yes there were. There were also major media platforms interviewing people associated with them who have since furiously deleted their tweets.
Bit no. We need AI facial recognition tech and weapons from the North. Not police work and taking fascist threats seriously.
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Thanks to you and @lorcan_nagle for the responses. Left unchecked, these types just become future Wilders and Melonis and Orbans. The authorities ignore the danger that the rabble-rousers pose at their own peril as well as Ireland’s.
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Here’s a pretty good rundown of how yesterday unfolded:
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They found their own brown shirts mob.
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I see the names of several people in that article who deserve to be brought up on charges. It also looks like MMA star Connor McGregor, while more careful, is setting himself up to be the international celebrity spokesman for Irish Identitarianism.
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I’d be curious about whether it’s a new context rather than a new trend in the case of at least some of the participants.
When you’ve got authentic jackbooted imperialists running around and imperializing it’s both easy and natural for people who are primarily ethnic nationalists to blend in with people who are primarily anti-imperialists; since they are both in favor of advancing the cause of the locals in the locality; but those causes diverge once the supply of actually oppressive xenos dries up and the people who were against the foreigners because they were oppressive call it a win and go do something else while the ones against them because they are foreign see ongoing work to be done.
Certainly wouldn’t be the first time an anti-imperialist or anti-colonial movement turned out to have a solid nativist core; either organically or at the first sign of circumstances that need blaming on someone.
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Yes.
I first became aware of it as an issue via experimental music and how some European Nazis had moved to Ireland to escape the heat in other parts of Europe. The popo were warned repeatedly about dangerous people but the Irish police have a very singular political focus: republicans. The British police were reformulated by the Free State while they were fighting the civil war as the national police force. There are actually a huge bunch of historical ironies in this but I guess it’s not really important.
They have no real political parties. Far right candidates lose their deposit every time. But they have politicians that flutter their eyelids and sound dog whistles at them. Certain media outlets, in partucular Newsralk radio like to have JAQs on. Finally this might be a point where the media makes a choice about fascism and clicks for cash.
Are they asking themselves the right questions? We already know the police are not.
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Honestly hadn’t come across him about this. Not mad because my touch points today have been distinctly diverse groups and seeing what we can do to make things better. But yea. That rapist piece of shit is also a racist piece of shit. And yes I probably will have to delete this or something as his crew are neighbours.
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Or anti-interventionist and isolationist movements, like the America First Committee of the 1930s and their Putin-loving MAGAt namesakes. There’s a strong affinity between nativists and those who, for various reasons (e.g. anti-internationalism, anti-Semitism, white supremacy, fascist sympathies, etc.) oppose supporting efforts and defenses against expansionist right-wing authoritarian regimes.
According to the article, he’s been at it a while. In regard to yesterday’s hooliganism, he basically said “I don’t condone the rioting, but…”
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Connor McGregor can go bite his own balls.
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He’s been a rapist and a racist for quite some time. I just mean I literally hadn’t heard anyone checking in on what his hot take was until here because he doesn’t register in any circles I’mi in . Not on Telegram. Twitter . Or Arsebook.
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