I've got something against those pesky pretzel eating Germans. Goddamn Volkswagons are cool cars and I can't afford one. Also, Nazis. WTF breh. You tryna keel meee!!!

Why do you care so much about what their intentions are? You are happy to make assumptions about them only caring about helping for their reputation or whatever but there is no way you can really tell that.

Yeah you can. 9 times out of 10 you can because of their actions.

And I flat out explained why it matters already. Right there in the quote you quoted.

Edit: Think about this, they need a victim to feel like a hero. Do you really think they want to fix things and get rid of the victim?

.

"Get rid if the victim" how? The same way the Mafia get rid of their victims?

I guess "tinker" is a word that came, more or less as you say, to be identified with actual gypsies who fixed things for you and did indeed move from place to place in caravans. However, you'd have to be here to know. If you took a look into one of these "knacker"'s caravans (they're more like trailers, as you say; they really don't travel at all) you'd see the very best in furnishings, electronics, all mod cons: not really the kind of thing that would make you say "Aw! How sad! Is this all they can afford?" Poor is not a word you ascribe to them, though they will often play on that, carrying babies around and dressing in rags, then going home to their mansions on wheels.

Anyway, as I already said, it's something you'll never understand unless you're Irish. We're all NIMBYs here.
Have no problem with them, (I'm raised a Catholic but I'm not a practicing one, and I believe people should be able to follow whatever religion or church or god they want) but when the UVF (Ulster Volunteer Force) were killing as many people as the IRA, I hated them both. I kind of have a little sneaking contempt for Unionists, who want to remain part of the UK. I mean, it's our island, right? But I would have no problem talking to, dealing with or being friends with a Proddy. None at all. I think the whole sectarian thing has cost more lives, more misery and more bad press for Ireland than almost anything in our history. And it's ****ing stupid. Who cares if it's the Union Jack or the Tricolour that flies above Stormont? :rolleyes:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8JqKxrloQQ

I'd like to tackle the question of racism on TV, especially in the seventies and especially in the UK and Ireland. Particularly on comedy shows, there were serious racial stereotypes that always cropped up - the drunken Irish navvy, the Indian who owned (anyone) an Indian takeaway, the Sikh with his turban, the Chinaman - there to give a few laughs. I was brought up in that climate, and when young I of course saw nothing wrong with it. Looking back now, I kind of still don't but I wonder: was it for cheap laughs, was it lazy writing, was it to "include" these other races or was it evidence of a more deep-seated and dark dislike and prejudice towards these other people?

When you're racist and funny about it, it seems not to matter as much. There were a glut of TV shows in the 70s here that survived on racism - It Ain't Half Hot Mum, Minder, Till Death Do Us Part (of which more later), Only When I Laugh, Are You Being Served? The Sweeney, and hundreds more. Some were comedy, some were drama with a little humour thrown in. But all used things like gay stereotypes (Minder used the cockney term "Iron" for gays, and for a long time I could not make the connection. It's "Iron hoof" - Poof. Sigh) and even blacks were referred to as anything from wogs to chocolate bunnies. Later shows, too, and popular ones, like Only Fools and Horses continued this trend, and though it was all tongue in cheek, how much was it meant to be "just a laugh"? Were the writers saying "Ah you're one of the lads" to a black/Irish/Chinaman/Insert here, or using their writing as a way to mock and racially abuse them under the guise of comedy? Have we now swung too far the other way, afraid to make any reference that might be construed as racist?

I was on a trivia quiz website a while back and made reference in one of my quizzes to an "oriental gentleman". I was told that term was racist. Really? How could "gentleman" be racist? :D Seriously: oriental used to describe someone from the Far East/Asia, which was known as The Orient, so how could calling someone oriental be racist? Might as well say it's racist to call me a Hibernian, or a native of Maynmar a Burmese.

Seriously. They had ****ing riots in Belfast when they decided not to fly the UJ all year round! What's wrong with these people? It's a piece of coloured cloth, ffs! :rolleyes: