The future's bright...
Well, just use a green one on July 12th, to even things up...
It won't have escaped the attention of our US readers that El Reg Stateside today features an orange masthead - part of a temporary sponsored makeover. Well, it's fair to say that the Strategy Boutique could have brainstormed that one bit more thoroughly. One reader was moved to protest: "Why are you insulting millions of …
...about the masthead being orange specifically, on a day associated with Ireland. You may have heard of some political issues with Northern Ireland? Orangemen? Yeah, there you go...
A bit of an overreaction regardless, given that it's obviously a sponsorship thing, but it's not quite as bad as if they were merely complaining about the lack of green.
As an Catholic Oirish person , can I say that If the banner had had a couple of Union Flags on, it flanked by a pair of hooded gits with AK47's and a big message saying 'Prods rule, feck the Taigs' on it then yes, definitely grounds for complaining.
Otherwise no, stop whining and neck some green stuff.
"If the banner had had a couple of Union Flags on, it flanked by a pair of hooded gits with AK47's and a big message saying 'Prods rule, feck the Taigs' on it then yes, definitely grounds for complaining."
...now everyone else in this presentation is staring at me wondering why I am giggling like a fool.
"Why are you insulting millions of Irish Catholics on St. Patrick's Day?"
And it's depsite that attitude that the peace process in Northern Ireland rolls on.
Though surely Irish readers of El Reg get the UK version? How many millions of Irish are working in the US these days. Or do they mean catholics of Irish descent?
i'm an Everton fan and i'm absolutely sickened by the Register's use of the colour red (the colour of our rivals Liverpool) on Everton match days. I can't believe you are so brazenly insulting thousands and thousands of Everton fans like this. You foul, disgusting, heartless scum are clearly not the kind of people I want to do business with.
I think its an insult to all us Britons after the defeat of Boudica's army by the Roman Empire!
Not only that, but here in the land of hope and glory, the Reg colours of Red, White and Black are the flag colours of the Nazis!
Shame on you all at The Reg. How dare you insult all us Britons!. You should all be made to sing land of hope and glory every morning for your crimes against so many of us!
... or maybe ... just maybe ... its simply a colour and people should get over the past rivalries. (I don't mean forget the past as there are very important lessons to be learned from the past, but learning which colours to label as the enemy is focusing totally on the wrong lessons of history!).
;)
Actually I'm not sure there's any firm evidence for the Romans having a 'state' colour. They used red a lot in the military, I seem to think; although I'm not sure what the source for that is. And I know that purple was quite important - being such an expensive colour it tended to get used a lot by those seeking to 'keep up appearances'; senators, consuls and the like. And rich merchants to show they were doing well. In the badly named imperial period, it was the colour of the 'emperor', and since he represented the state I suppose we could say purple is the 'Roman colour'...
(It's interesting you mention the Nazis in the same post, though: it's a point of annoyance for me - note 'annoyance' rather than 'deep melodramatic offence' - that we continue to allow the Nazis a small victory in that they still retain claim over certain imagery that rightly belongs to others, such as the swastika and all the symbolism they stole from Rome. I'd like to see them deprived even of that little win, and all these symbols reclaimed for proper, legitimate use.)
But getting to the actual point: you're absolutely right in saying people should get over it. If people wouldn't get so ridiculously hung up over such trivia, then the various 'peace processes' of the world might have a slim chance of success. But if you've got a bunch of remote Americans getting hot under the collar because of something as nonsensically nothingy as this, then the ill-feeling is going to be kept alive far beyond its time - even if those keeping it alive don't really understand what it's all about, but just know that "it's what we've always done" (and gods, how many times have we seen that as the sole driver of continuing conflict?).
Perhaps one day we - the so-called 'developed world' - will learn to cope with the *extreme stress* of there being other people in the world with opinions and preferences that might differ from our own. Maybe then we'll all calm down a little and actually become civilised.