You've caught me somewhat tired and cranky this morn, however, and I do resent your running deceit with regard to this matter, along with the insincere accusation of paranoia you've since thrown at me. Rather than thinking of it as paranoid, think of it as being not completely pig-****ing-thick when I perceive
this to be a shot directed at myself along with your attempted smoke-machine defence of the reference to James McClean as a "provo" as an insult to the intelligence of anyone who has bothered following your brazen efforts to obfuscate the issue and worm your way around it.
I'll interpret that as an admission that the reference to McClean as a "provo" was inappropriate then...
And in case there's still some unwillingness on your part to acknowledge this, or a residual confusion as to
why it was inappropriate - although I suspect it's more likely you're just playing dumb here - it was absolutely
not because the idiot who disparaged McClean would and should have been "more accurate" in referring to an open Sinn Féin supporter as a "Provo/Provisional Movement supporter", a twisted and irrelevant straw man you've since spent a number of pages attempting to erect. We all know that was not the connotation behind the label used as it was on OWC. It was inappropriate for the following number of reasons; don't necessarily think of them as exhaustive.
Sinn Féin refer to themselves officially as just that; Sinn Féin. Note the missing word/letter. You won't find one mention of the word "Provisional" on their home page. They also outline the following in
an introductory document:
Couldn’t be more clear.
The PIRA are effectively defunct as an organisation and have been for a number of years. Take your pick from since either 1997 or 2005; whichever you prefer. Republican Sinn Féin, in terming themselves as they do, officially do any necessary distinguishing from Sinn Féin for you in their own title, thereby making it wholly surplus to requirements for you or anyone else to continue referring to Sinn Féin as "PSF". There is no ambiguity in the simple use of Sinn Féin nowadays. It is especially unnecessary outside of an intra-republican context where the two organisations aren't even being discussed at once, if even extra clarification would be necessary within such a context, except to also make some political point. Everyone knows who Sinn Féin are and to which organisation one would be referring when using that title. And do you really believe that RSF are a genuine political force or anything other than a peripheral organisation within contemporary Irish republicanism, never mind Irish politics generally? Or was your reference to their apparent increasing strength merely another attempt to further lead us down the garden path; to pretend that they have a level of popularity and influence (indeed miniscule in reality) approaching something that might even nearly challenge Sinn Féin's claim over the Sinn Féin title, thereby invoking some need for disambiguation? The whole need for distinction by use of "Provisional" or "P" has become redundant with time, yet you still try to hoodwink myself and others here that you adhere to the strict use of a completely superfluous and outmoded distinction at all times. Are we supposed to believe that you genuinely fear people might think you're actually referring to a virtual non-entity when you mention Sinn Féin without a prefix? I certainly don’t.
It is fairly obvious that anyone who derisively dubs someone a "provo" in the current political climate is doing so to make a snide political point. In the context of OWC, it was so obviously anything but neutral and was loaded with contemptuous and slanderous innuendo that I can't believe you're still trying to defend it via unrelenting faux-denial. I mean, why else would anyone even mention the term if not to make some cheap point? Could you imagine Sinn Féin assembly members being referred to as "provos" by their unionist counterparts up in Stormont? Of course not. Well, OK, I admit I wouldn’t put it past the likes of Jim Allister, but other than that...
Have a read of this:
http://www.tuv.org.uk/press-releases...-provo-victory
A story about the proposed conflict resolution centre on the old Maze site, and it's even tagged under "terrorism". It's abundantly clear the baggage the term "provo" carries in unionist circles, especially eccentric ones.
You’d think I was having a laugh if I started insulting you with various slurs that might be offensive to a unionist in certain contexts and then made it worse by blaming your sensitivity and paranoia for you taking offence because, after all, a unionist is exactly what you are. It'd be the height of ignorance and denial on my part. You surely must be aware that certain labels can have different meanings when used within different contexts and, depending on the intent behind them, might be considered pejorative in certain scenarios but not in others. I go back to the famous distinction between a white man referring to a black man as a "n*gger" and a black man referring a black man as a "n*gger". You think it would be acceptable for the white man to turn around and feign ignorance to the black man claiming, "But how can you get all worked up about this when a n*gger is exactly what you are?" You grew up in a region dogged by violent political conflict where verbal nuance was a public necessity in order to ensure various identities and sensitivities were respected, for God’s sake! It
is important that unionists relinquish any last vestiges of that infamous culture of denial y'know.
Now, it would help if you acknowledged what you've been doing.
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Originally Posted by DannyInvincible
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