My response didn’t make it through, so I’ve pasted it below:
Oh brother! Touchy much? “Making sweeping statements about an entire group of people” was, until social discourse was overtaken by leftist do-gooders, what normal individuals used to call “having a discussion.”
What is truly sad is that some folks who call themselves conservative have nevertheless swallowed whole the stifling nonsense about “diversity” and “tolerance” and whatnot.
It is impossible to speak for long about any matter without making generalizations.
And group characteristics do exist, whether or not one finds them unfashionable or inconvenient.
Anyone with even a passing knowledge of American history knows that the Irish were unwelcome almost everywhere they went because of all the habits I mentioned in my post, and were also disdained for their large families and “superstitions”. They were often violent (are you going to seriously denounce my accurate etymology of “paddy wagon”)
When the Irish moved into Five Points, they were so rough and unruly that their black neighbors up and left.
That priests and nuns were often the most educated, and the only educated, people in the community is once again simple common knowledge. That they pushed their flocks to “better themselves” in order to counter violent nativist opposition is likewise.
As for the scholar in question, yes, he eventually managed to find a dozen NINAs — after searching literally thousands of sources. The point being that the collective mis-remembered NINAs were a bigger phenomenon than the real thing. We can all find a couple of instances of _anything_. The point was proportionality.
It is unbecoming of anyone who calls themselves conservative to object to facts on account of hurt feelings, while insisting that their people didn’t indulge in identity politics and grievances.
Frankly, my original post makes my case for the lack of such hypersensitivity on the part of the Irish much better than my opponent’s response…
Your last paragraph makes my own point exactly. Might I suggest that your reading comprehension skills have been impaired thanks to the day’s festivities, and that “getting your Irish up” over such a trivial matter simply proves the stereotypes you are so eager to debunk…?
