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"A cabbie asked me if I supported Donald Trump and told he we was surprised I didn't. He told me all Americans supported Trump. So I asked him if he was an IRA

"A cabbie asked me if I supported Donald Trump and told he we was surprised I didn't. He told me all Americans supported Trump. So I asked him if he was an IRA thug/terrorist, to which he naturally said no." It's hardly reasonable to compare being a member of a terrorist organization to supporting the leading candidate of one of two major parties. Consider just the sheer effort of participating in terrorism is far greater than voting.

gilleain 11y ago
Not only unreasonable, but also fairly unwise to be asking a Belfast cab driver if he's a member of the IRA.
mineshaftgap 11y ago
Trump is considered racist for wanting to secure the borders. Both parties leadership, made up of out of touch elites, have decided that illegal immigration is good for their interests, voters be damned. Dems need to have more people on gov assistance and the GOP wants cheap labor with no rights. I dislike Trump but if both sides are demonizing him then he is probably on the right track.
SEJeff 11y ago
Well I was pointing out his logical fallacy in assuming I supported someone because of where I was from. That is a ridiculous assumption, so I made an equally ridiculous one, which he immediately understood. Then we got on really well.
- falsestprophet 11y ago
  It isn't equally ridiculous. 38.6% of Americans state that they would vote for Donald Trump over Hilary Clinton while 49% state that they would vote for Clinton over Trump. There are only several hundred members of the IRA today (out of 1.8 million people in Northern Ireland) and even fewer of them participate in terrorism. And it's not a logical fallacy. The cab driver clearly didn't mean all Americans support Donald Trump. Presumably he knows there are other candidates so thats at least a few people who don't support Trump. He meant a lot of Americans do support Trump and clearly they do. [1] http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2016/president/us/general_election_trump_vs_clinton-5491.html http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2016/president/us/ge... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real_Irish_Republican_Army https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real_Irish_Republican_Army
  - PhasmaFelis 11y ago
    > The cab driver clearly didn't mean all Americans support Donald Trump. Presumably he knows there are other candidates so thats at least a few people who don't support Trump. He meant a lot of Americans do support Trump and clearly they do. Why are you willing to accept that the cab driver was speaking figuratively, but not that SEJeff was?
  - deleted 11y ago
    [deleted]
  - mikeash 11y ago
    > The cab driver clearly didn't mean all Americans support Donald Trump. Then why was he surprised to meet an American who didn't? You're really reaching.
PhasmaFelis 11y ago
Can you come up with a better analogy on the spot that would have worked in that situation? SEJeff obviously isn't saying that Trump support and IRA support are exactly equivalent. He's saying they're both subgroups in a larger population that outsiders stereotype as representing the entire population, to the disgust of many of the people stereotyped. It's an excellent analogy because it references a situation that's intimately familiar to the person he's speaking to.
- SEJeff 11y ago
  bingo!
- vacri 11y ago
  "Are you protestant/catholic" would suffice. Lots of people in the US support Trump. Lots of people in NI are either protestant or catholic, and it's a shorthand for the sides of the same political divide that the IRA is involved in.

gilleain 11y ago

Not only unreasonable, but also fairly unwise to be asking a Belfast cab driver if he's a member of the IRA.

mineshaftgap 11y ago

Trump is considered racist for wanting to secure the borders. Both parties leadership, made up of out of touch elites, have decided that illegal immigration is good for their interests, voters be damned. Dems need to have more people on gov assistance and the GOP wants cheap labor with no rights. I dislike Trump but if both sides are demonizing him then he is probably on the right track.

SEJeff 11y ago

Well I was pointing out his logical fallacy in assuming I supported someone because of where I was from. That is a ridiculous assumption, so I made an equally ridiculous one, which he immediately understood. Then we got on really well.

falsestprophet 11y ago
It isn't equally ridiculous. 38.6% of Americans state that they would vote for Donald Trump over Hilary Clinton while 49% state that they would vote for Clinton over Trump. There are only several hundred members of the IRA today (out of 1.8 million people in Northern Ireland) and even fewer of them participate in terrorism. And it's not a logical fallacy. The cab driver clearly didn't mean all Americans support Donald Trump. Presumably he knows there are other candidates so thats at least a few people who don't support Trump. He meant a lot of Americans do support Trump and clearly they do. [1] http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2016/president/us/general_election_trump_vs_clinton-5491.html http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2016/president/us/ge... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real_Irish_Republican_Army https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real_Irish_Republican_Army
- PhasmaFelis 11y ago
  > The cab driver clearly didn't mean all Americans support Donald Trump. Presumably he knows there are other candidates so thats at least a few people who don't support Trump. He meant a lot of Americans do support Trump and clearly they do. Why are you willing to accept that the cab driver was speaking figuratively, but not that SEJeff was?
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
- mikeash 11y ago
  > The cab driver clearly didn't mean all Americans support Donald Trump. Then why was he surprised to meet an American who didn't? You're really reaching.

PhasmaFelis 11y ago

Can you come up with a better analogy on the spot that would have worked in that situation? SEJeff obviously isn't saying that Trump support and IRA support are exactly equivalent. He's saying they're both subgroups in a larger population that outsiders stereotype as representing the entire population, to the disgust of many of the people stereotyped. It's an excellent analogy because it references a situation that's intimately familiar to the person he's speaking to.

SEJeff 11y ago
bingo!
vacri 11y ago
"Are you protestant/catholic" would suffice. Lots of people in the US support Trump. Lots of people in NI are either protestant or catholic, and it's a shorthand for the sides of the same political divide that the IRA is involved in.