All Arabs are terrorists. All Irish are drunks.

Yeah, I know how ridiculous those statements are. The problem is that far too many morons believe them to be facts.

Anyone who still has a semblance of a brain in their head knows that Obama is not a terrorist.

And then there's the idiotic stereotype of all Irish being drunks. McCain is part Irish, but no one has ever accused him of being a drunk.

Americans buy bullshit like kids buy candy.

Will this country ever grow up?

Then again, given today's multiple financial and war crises, perhaps the clock has run out and we won't have time to grow up. And who knows? This may make the world a more sane place in a few hundred years.

:D

You elitist Irishmen think you have the market on drunkishness, well you have another thing coming. :toast:

I guess it just makes it easy to group people. You do not have to think. My grandmother hated people with Irish names and my mother-in-laws family hated people with English names, which I had. These were bad people both sides always told me. Crazy....I hope that stuff in just going to go away it is so silly.

:puke:

... my former spouse is a Muslim of Indian heritage (believe me, most Americans can't distinguish between Indians and Arabs).

My fifteen year old daughter has been known to tell folk, "just put me down as an alcoholic terrorist," while muttering "idiots."

Our family got this as we were from the North and had a German name. We were Yankee, N---loving,Jews with a few GD's in it. My kids did not know what they were yelling at them about. I used to call the parents and ask them if they knew their children swore and never say a thing about the other things they said and it would stop. It made me laugh as they did not like their children to swear. Course we still went to schools with Jefferson Davis picture on the wall and the Stars and Bars the top flag on the flag pole. Oh well we made bad Southerns.

:eyes:

Here is a helpful bit of advice - if you generalize and hate and stereotype a group while complaining about generalizations and stereotypes and group hate, it kind of destroys your whole point. Or does it illustrate the point? Hmm.

Touche

i'm irish and italian, a common mix for people from NJ, NY, etc. go imagine those stereotypes.

It's the stereotype that all Irish are idiots.

I've heard it a lot. I had a math teacher back in HS who returned a test and graded it with a C. She could see I was upset by it and said, "It really isn't your fault you're Irish...they're a bit slower than most, so don't get too discouraged and keep trying."

It was embarrassing, because she said it loud enough for the entire room to hear.

Plus, you got it wrong. All MUSLIMS are terrorists. That includes people from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Indonesia, who are not Arabs, but are still terrorists.

They're Persian, not Arab.

Arabs, as you point out, are usually clump in a broad "terrorist" label that they do not deserve.

YEs, they certainly do love their black and white thinking. Makes life easy.

is that you can look at the level of qualifying words. If the severity or level of qualifying words is extreme, the statement is usually false. If the qualifying words used are moderate, use your best judgment. If the qualifying words used are not very extreme at all in severity, the statements are usually true.


Some simple rules, from College Student Success ACA 101, regarding statements such as those you reference in the OP:

1. Extreme statements tend to be FALSE.
Use of extreme words and phrases, such as "all," "never," "always," and "completely," usually mean the statement is FALSE.

2. Use of words like "many," "some," "sometimes," "few," "usually," "almost," "generally," "often," and other words that represent less of a blanket statement/broad brush stroke tend to be TRUE.

3. Use of words like "most" and "majority" may go either way. Use your best judgment and common sense with those or go look it up if you are really looking for factual information on a subject.

The bottom line is either you already know the facts or you are willing to look it up for yourself to see what the facts really are.

In other words, I wish your post could be part of the rules on most message boards. It would stop a lot of flame wars and clear up a lot of misinformation and downright confusion out there..and here too. It irritates the hell out of me when people say things like the statements you mentioned. I could not agree with you more than I currently do.

I am recommending your OP. It needs to be on the Greatest Page, imho.

Our culture and media has helped foster a distorted view of the world. All international news stories are always skewed on "how does this affect America" even when it doesn't and there's been a impression of USA military, intellectual and commercial superiority (USA, USA, USA). We have grown up with stereotypes that are advanced in teevee shows and movies or manipulated by politicians who use these stereotypes to further their careers and their pocketbooks.

This country isn't as bad as it was back in the "golden 50's", but intolerance...especially perpetrated by the media (especially hate radio) still is a crutch for many in this society to blame their problems.

Yeah, right.

Or Mafioso? Or is it Mafiosa? I'm only half Italian, the other half is Irish, so I'm always so drunk I forget. ;)

Why don't I take your money and sell you a subscription to my newspaper so I can tell you what to think, do. And when you're done with the newspaper, you can use it to wrap a dead fish in and set it on your enemy's doorstep (isn't that an old Mafia way of transmitting that "you're ass is grass"?"

It could possibly be, but I was raised by the Irish part of the family not the Italians.

My own personal calling card preference would be a flaming bag of dirty kitty litter, but that's just me...