The authorities here in the United Kingdom are well aware that outside forces led by Elon Musk are prompting riots on the streets of Belfast. Now the question is what they are prepared to do about it.
If there is a world wide drift to fascism, then it isn't organic, but is directed. An ideology does not just spring up, in virtually all nations.
Religion is an ideology, secular, not sectarian, but a religion. Imagine a world wide religion just popping up all over the world, with funding and organization.
Musk and social media may well be to blame for the current devastation in Belfast, but the tinder has been there since long before either of them appeared. In the late summer and fall of 1975, I spent three months hiking and hitchhiking around Britain (including Wales and Scotland), Ireland, and Northern Ireland. Walking solo across the long bridge separating the Irish Republic from the North, I assumed I'd have to take a bus to Belfast, where I'd be staying a week with a family in Bangor, just outside the city. I was wrong: I had no trouble getting a ride.
Though it wasn't a particularly hot time for "the Troubles," you had to pass a checkpoint to get into Belfast's main shopping area. Christmas was still two months off. I wondered how long the lines at the checkpoints would be as the holiday grew closer.
When it came time to leave for Scotland, my host dropped me off at the train station an hour before train time because he had to get to work. The station had been bombed often enough that it was basically a shell. The only people besides me there were the ticket seller and the newspaper vendor. Signs warned against leaving luggage unattended; I kept my backpack close. About five minutes before train time, the floodgates opened: people poured into the station and onto the waiting train. It was a lesson I've relearned often enough in the decades since: life goes on in the midst of impending danger, but routines are adjusted; accommodations are made.
The authorities here in the United Kingdom are well aware that outside forces led by Elon Musk are prompting riots on the streets of Belfast. Now the question is what they are prepared to do about it.
You would know much more about the on-the-ground situation than I would! Thank you for the added context.
These guys are international nationalists and everyone needs to start connecting the dots. Thank you for your reporting.
If there is a world wide drift to fascism, then it isn't organic, but is directed. An ideology does not just spring up, in virtually all nations.
Religion is an ideology, secular, not sectarian, but a religion. Imagine a world wide religion just popping up all over the world, with funding and organization.
Musk and social media may well be to blame for the current devastation in Belfast, but the tinder has been there since long before either of them appeared. In the late summer and fall of 1975, I spent three months hiking and hitchhiking around Britain (including Wales and Scotland), Ireland, and Northern Ireland. Walking solo across the long bridge separating the Irish Republic from the North, I assumed I'd have to take a bus to Belfast, where I'd be staying a week with a family in Bangor, just outside the city. I was wrong: I had no trouble getting a ride.
Though it wasn't a particularly hot time for "the Troubles," you had to pass a checkpoint to get into Belfast's main shopping area. Christmas was still two months off. I wondered how long the lines at the checkpoints would be as the holiday grew closer.
When it came time to leave for Scotland, my host dropped me off at the train station an hour before train time because he had to get to work. The station had been bombed often enough that it was basically a shell. The only people besides me there were the ticket seller and the newspaper vendor. Signs warned against leaving luggage unattended; I kept my backpack close. About five minutes before train time, the floodgates opened: people poured into the station and onto the waiting train. It was a lesson I've relearned often enough in the decades since: life goes on in the midst of impending danger, but routines are adjusted; accommodations are made.