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.