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Dangers of Demonisation


Is it any wonder unionists feel like their culture and identity is constantly under attack? It's all very well for people in Northern Ireland who are familiar with the bullshit emanating from the likes of the Andytown News group and the various interest groups to just switch off when the latest MOPE appears in the media, and most will. Unfortunately those without such a familiarity of the situation here actually believe some of it and that can lead to situations where, for example, the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam ranks Orangeism up there with Nazism and advocates of apartheid in South Africa.
I've said before, and anyone who knows me would testify, as an atheist I'm no particular fan of the Orange Order and they often do themselves no favours. Sometimes it surprises me how much the bullshit slander (they eat babies and rape women, didn't you know?) against them annoys me, but the fact is that the Orange Order is just a 'legitimate target' for the sectarian bile and hatred the perpetrators clearly feel towards unionists and/or Protestants generally.
Why does all this matter? Because once these hateful liars have successfully demonised unionism and the majority population of Northern Ireland they can use these fictitious and/or exaggerated 'evil acts' to justify the extremely real and extremely vicious murders and bombings carried out by the IRA - by pretending they were fighting a dangerous, bigoted, violent group of oppressors rather than an innocent civilian population.
