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I'm honestly still amazed sometimes that the Fighting Irish mascot of Notre Dame is still a thing. It seems inevitable that it gets relegated to the scrap heap

I'm honestly still amazed sometimes that the Fighting Irish mascot of Notre Dame is still a thing. It seems inevitable that it gets relegated to the scrap heap of history at some point, but I guess people don't care as much since the Irish, at least in the U.S., mostly ended up catching a break and didn't become a permanent underclass all but obliterated from existence by military might like Native Americans were.

selimthegrim 6y ago
Notre Dame has had plenty of Irish presidents
malandrew 6y ago
As someone who is 1/4 Irish, I'd say it's because we just don't care. The Notre Dame mascot is completely inconsequential. It's a mascot. Nothing more. Nothing less. It's a privilege to not care. I feel sorry for everyone from other groups that are forced to care about inconsequential things because in aggregate all these inconsequential things that people demand that you care about end up being a denial of service attack, leaving you with less bandwidth to think about things that actually matter like working hard and working smart and building wealth. If some group that was not Irish kept trying to get me and other people of Irish descent to waste brain cycles on such trivial non-consequential things, I'd ignore them and instruct others to ignore them. It honestly boggles my mind that our culture has optimized for amplifying the voices of such people as it's so counter-productive. I'm also 1/32 Native American and feel the same way about those mascots too. It's honestly all so tiresome and wasteful of brain cycles. Heck, look how many smart people have commented on this story and all because these non-issues have been elevated to the point we're we are forced to waste brain cycles on this because it became intrusive and broke our work flows. Many activists in history have been great but much of what passes for "activism" today is not just useless, but actively counter-productive.
- solosoyokaze 6y ago
  > I'm also 1/32 Native American and feel the same way about those mascots too. Just because you don't take issue with it, doesn't mean it's not offensive and a big deal to other people (who are often more than 1/32 Native American). The Redskins is a racist name, anyway you slice it. Try to replace red with brown or yellow and it's immediately obvious. I don't think every single case is as cut and dry as that one, but it's not fair to call these issues inconsequential.
throwaway19937 6y ago
(https://pando.com/2014/02/12/war-nerd-the-long-sleazy-history-behind-a-googlers-nonviolent-militia/ https://pando.com/2014/02/12/war-nerd-the-long-sleazy-histor...) argues that the slogan is derived from a British army recruiting pitch for cannon fodder.

selimthegrim 6y ago

Notre Dame has had plenty of Irish presidents

malandrew 6y ago

As someone who is 1/4 Irish, I'd say it's because we just don't care. The Notre Dame mascot is completely inconsequential. It's a mascot. Nothing more. Nothing less. It's a privilege to not care. I feel sorry for everyone from other groups that are forced to care about inconsequential things because in aggregate all these inconsequential things that people demand that you care about end up being a denial of service attack, leaving you with less bandwidth to think about things that actually matter like working hard and working smart and building wealth. If some group that was not Irish kept trying to get me and other people of Irish descent to waste brain cycles on such trivial non-consequential things, I'd ignore them and instruct others to ignore them. It honestly boggles my mind that our culture has optimized for amplifying the voices of such people as it's so counter-productive. I'm also 1/32 Native American and feel the same way about those mascots too. It's honestly all so tiresome and wasteful of brain cycles. Heck, look how many smart people have commented on this story and all because these non-issues have been elevated to the point we're we are forced to waste brain cycles on this because it became intrusive and broke our work flows. Many activists in history have been great but much of what passes for "activism" today is not just useless, but actively counter-productive.

solosoyokaze 6y ago
> I'm also 1/32 Native American and feel the same way about those mascots too. Just because you don't take issue with it, doesn't mean it's not offensive and a big deal to other people (who are often more than 1/32 Native American). The Redskins is a racist name, anyway you slice it. Try to replace red with brown or yellow and it's immediately obvious. I don't think every single case is as cut and dry as that one, but it's not fair to call these issues inconsequential.

throwaway19937 6y ago

(https://pando.com/2014/02/12/war-nerd-the-long-sleazy-history-behind-a-googlers-nonviolent-militia/ https://pando.com/2014/02/12/war-nerd-the-long-sleazy-histor...) argues that the slogan is derived from a British army recruiting pitch for cannon fodder.