Seems rather silly if this is indeed what TH is saying. Americans have to live with the wrongs we made back in the day, so why should other countries be able to rid of their history.

I don't think there is any distinguishable line between the issues important to Americans and Canadians, the only difference is population size and where our majorities sit on the political spectrum.

And the fact that we don't give a **** about you.

This is true. Just got back from Cambridge and my southern friends used to think this was what the north was like, just chavs and scum walking the earth. And if you come to the North, we basically think everybody down south is a toff.

Go **** yourself. :)
You too. :)

Irish indifference at work.

Ders mor ta de Oirish, dan dat.

Well, nobody's perfect.
Let's say we haven't oppressed or tried to enslave or wipe out anyone in the last, oh, thousand years. Not too many countries can say that.
Actually, not too many countries can talk. None can in fact, but you get the idea.

ffs

Including Ireland, regardless of the fact that it's been too puny and weak to enforce its will upon any other countries for centuries.

Or wishes to. Have another pint!
http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/...20130322204725

To get back to the main topic, one thing Ireland (and I can only speak for Ireland obviously) no longer has, but had, is a strict dividing line on religion. Used to be that (mostly) north of the border was Protestant (in fact, at one point in the 70s Catholics were even interred in "concentration camps" up there and many emigrated to the South to avoid persecution) and southward was all Catholic. It's pretty much still that way but for a very long time it was North v South religious-wise. Nowadays, with the influx of so many different cultures and religions, really, nobody gives a **** any more. I think this is a very good thing. So we really don't have this Christians vs Everyone Else thing that's going on in the States, as such.

Yeah... we don't really have that either. We're fairly religiously conservative, but so long as they're not muslims in the Middle East no one cares. There's no serious issue between any of the Christian sects (though we occasionally poke fun at the Mormons and their magic underwear), anti-Semitism isn't really a thing anymore unless you're in some backwoods hick town, there aren't enough muslims for any Christians to feel threatened at home so the ones that are here aren't worried about, and Hindus and Buddhists and whoever else are fine. As far as I know there are no serious sectarian conflicts anywhere in America that I am aware of.

Obviously the US has its problems, but it seems clear to me that most other countries have far worse problems in basically every category you could think of.

Guns have a very different history in the US than nearly all of Europe. Westward expansion moved so much faster than civilization that personal defense, rather than that provided by rudimentary police forces or the Army was necessary. So self-reliance and the means to hunt food, drive off criminals, or push out the natives bred guns into the Manifest Destiny mythos of America.

Guns are not a "redneck" thing. They are an American thing - an integral part of our history.

Gun culture is ingrained in much of East Africa too. Hell, Mozambique has an AK-47 on their flag. http://www.mozambique.co.za/images/m...ag-590x390.png

Well, you kind of seem to. Don't Christians control and fund most of the big political names there? Aren't there huge fundraisers for Christian concerns? Don't they pretty much dominate what goes on in schools, regardless of the makeup of the student body? Looking from the outside, it would very much seem that one religious group (ie Christians) control a whole lot of the infrastructure of your society, no? Like, when we have elections nobody bothers that much about the religious beliefs or practices of the candidates, whereas it seems to be seen as a much bigger deal with yours.

That's what he meant by religiously conservative. Ireland also has a much higher Christian to non-Christian ratio than the US, so maybe they don't bring that up because it's a given, so to speak.

Sikhs are widely disliked, but not because they're Sikhs, they're just caught in the crossfire of the Islamophobia.

lol thick cunts.

Well like I said, there's rampant racism here, but you'll find it mostly confined to a) talk, mostly in pubs and b) drunken louts at night who decide to pick on someone. So like, a Pole or a Romanian could walk down any street in Dublin without fear (maybe not at night, but that wouldn't be anything to do with his nationality; Dublin is not a safe place at night in some areas no matter who you are) and generally people don't try to segregate or separate them. To be honest, for about 95% of Irish people, anyone coming into Ireland just after a while becomes accepted as Irish. It's really funny to see a Chinese guy or an African woman speak with a thick Dublin accent! :laughing:

Like I say, as long as you can stand your round you're all right by us. There are the minority idiots just looking for a fight of course, but sure you'll get them anywhere. And old people; old people are hugely intolerant of "foreign fellas", but then, they come from a different generation. Not that it makes it right or anything but you can see where they have a different worldview than my generation do.

You'd think with all of this dialogue about Islam, people would have figured it out by now too. Makes you wonder how much decriers really know about the religion.

Just wondering, why? Why are they thick cunts?

Sikhs or people who target Sikhs because of their anti Muslim bigotry?

They can't tell the difference between Sikhs and Muslims. Hell they probably think Muslim is a synonym for Arab.

Well I guess your comment made that a little ambiguous. I assumed you meant the Sikhs, but yeah I see now you could be, and probably were, talking about those who target them, in which case you're completely correct.

****ing Muslims! They're all the same! :laughing:
https://4.imimg.com/data4/EW/FB/MY-1...th-500x500.jpg

Definitely not on about Sikhs. Sikhs are :cool:

As a balding man I'm looking into Sikhism for when I decide to shave my head.

that would be Sikh

Like I said, we're religiously conservative, and there's definitely a big Christian presence in a lot of small towns, but the Separation of Church and State basically prevent religion from directly dominating policy. Plenty of uber-Christians (who are generally laughed at by the rest of us) would love to have Creationism and/or Intelligent Design taught in schools, and to "teach the controversy", but the law shuts that down like a guillotine. We can't even have student-led prayer groups in schools that have no government involvement cause of how liberally the Separation of Church and State is interpreted. And aside from those religious conservatives nobody really wants that to change.

Some places like Texas try a little harder for that ****, but everywhere else it really isn't an issue. I live in the South but have never even heard of anybody trying it here in my life. Christianity is not taught except for a day in history class the day before we learn about Islam, then Buddhism, etc.


Politicians are trickier. There aren't much in the way of non-Christian politicians (plenty of Jews though as far as I know), but that's generally important only as far as elections go. A politician might say, "God bless America" or something in a speech, but aside from some uber-conservatives they don't invoke religion as a reason to enact a policy, and if they did they'd probably alienate a significant portion of their electorate unless they were from a predominantly Evangelical area or something.

Cool. I'm just letting you know what it looks like from the outside, in a total turnaround of Ki's OP. From here it looks like all major politicians are supported by donations from big Christian groups, and that if you don't have the neo-Christians on your side you ain't going to get elected. But I freely accept this is all me on the outside looking into the fishbowl, and you fish sure know your own bowl.

The conservatives are definitely beholden to Christians to get elected, but consistently ignore them to a large degree when actually in office except to throw them the occasional bone to stay in office come election time. Liberals could give a **** about fundamentalist Christian support though, cause the idea of an Evangelical voting Democrat for any reason is simply laughable. And as far as donations, Christians wish they could put up the kind of money to buy and sell our politicians as big business does.

Perhaps all the Sikhs should hide.

Oh very clever. :)

That's banter right out of the top drawer.

Lovely stuff.

Australia is probably more like the U.K. than anywhere else, with the Westminster political system copied from them, universal health, etc. On the other hand we are more like the US in terms of being 'New World', i.e. whites arrived recently in what is celebrated as a 'discovery' rather than the near genicide it actually was.

You know, I wasn't expecting this thread to stay on topic as much as it has. I am proud of everyone here.

So what country has the biggest tits?

Obviously england.

You are indeed all a bunch of tits, but I was speaking of breasts.

This is what I was saying.