Fine Gael used Uber text in 2016 election manifesto, US firm claimed in leaked files
irishtimes.com/politics/2022/07/11/fine-gael-...
irishtimes.comPosted Jul 11, 2022, 9:47 AM UTC
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irishtimes.comIf I go down to my local fucking spar and rob a pack of smokes It'll affect me for the rest of my life and yet these fucks just do whatever the fuck they want in the post powerful positions in the country.
The most corrupt little country on the fucking planet and I'm sick of it. I have to live my life with honesty and integrity and these fucks do the complete and utter opposite and are rewarded for it.
How long is it gonna be until someone takes a stand against these fucks?
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How long is it gonna be until someone takes a stand against these fucks?
What would you like done? Why don't you be that someone?
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It's something I've thought about the past few months man I won't lie!
But I don't have a voice with any reach, I don't have any power beyond my single vote. This entire system is broken in their favour and there's nothing I can actually do about it that won't land me in jail and that's not an option for me.
What can I do realistically do? Write some sort of message and hang it over the bridge going over the n11 near me? I'd probably get arrested for endangering people driving under it! Graffiti a political message in my local village? Again, probably get arrested.
These are silly suggestions don't think I don't know it, I'm open to others but I realistically don't think there's anything a single person can do apart from voting or talking politics to my mates, if you're not famous to a certain extent.
What can we do? I see you posting here just as much as I do. I want to do something.
If I had a voice with reach and knew people would listen I'd be calling for a general strike in the morning. Every single working class individual on strike until things change.
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It really does feel like an impossible struggle all the time doesn’t it? The entire deck is stacked against anyone whose opinion dissents from the capitalist mainstream. You’re looked down upon and sneered at as being at best naive and at worst evil for wanting to change the structure of society to something more egalitarian and less exploitative.
In terms of what we can do as ordinary people:
You can join a political party and help candidates campaign and canvass; join a union (if your workplace doesn’t already have one); there are always plenty of left-wing meetups and seminars going on - check out r/TheIrishLeft and r/IrishAnarchists, not very active but will usually have information on upcoming events - other social media sites probably do too.
And even though it does feel like screaming into the void, do keep posting here and on other social media, keeping anti-establishment and left-wing voices alive and loud is always essential to the cause and to winning people over from the infectious capitalist outlooks.
Edit: and of course read! Read as much as you can about left wing theory, educate yourself as best you can about how the world works and what we can do and say, and gather as many viewpoints and opinions as you can to refute and defend against capitalist rhetoric.
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Right. But you do have a voice. And you can talk to individuals one on one, and you can use your voice here on the forums to vent. You say you need power behind you, support.
Then ask interest and encourage people as to why you should be a good voice to follow, why you'd be a good leader. Start with your friends, family and anyone that'll listen. Maybe you'll have 5 like minded individuals and then you're 6 people instead of one person.
You don't "just get" 10,000 people to march with you without doing the ground work.
If you want to hang signs, ask the Guardai and get the correct permits instead of saying "this could happen to me", that's just creating a roadblock in perception without actually trying to tackle the problem.
And if you're not even willing to start and put some effort in, putting forward excuses instead why you shouldn't or why it's too much or don't have time etc... Then it's just that, excuses.
If you want to do it, be that voice. You have to start.
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I have taken to e-mailing relevant politicians and relevant government departments on topics.
It's not much either and they probably never read them because I've rarely gotten more than an acknowledgment but at least it makes me feel that I've communicated my issues directly to them. Otherwise there's not much else ordinary people can do but vote. Or run for election if you're brave enough.
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The most corrupt little country on the fucking planet and I'm sick of it.
Like I get your annoyed but this might be a stretch. Probably not even in the top 10.
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I'm sorry bud, I know you're technically correct in what you say but I'm just sick of it, I don't care if it's not technically or legally corrupt. The words of a private foreign company has ended up directly in one of our political parties manifestos. We should all be absolutely outraged by that.
We all know that there's only one way that happens and it's the exchanging of money/services/information through one form or another.
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We are one of the least corrupt countries in the world.
Doesn’t mean that every instance of undeclared lobbying and corruption shouldn’t go unpunished. Both things can be true at once.
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So your saying declared lobbying shouldn't be punishable? truly backwards thinking there, as lobbying itself is legalised corruption.
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truly backwards thinking there, as lobbying itself is legalised corruption.
What? No it's not.
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Is a union meeting with politicians to convince them to increase worker rights corruption? Is an environmentalist group lobbying local government to build protected bicycle lanes corruption? If you mean that corporate lobbying is corruption, then I agree 100%. But not all lobbying is corruption.
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What’s the point of being in power if you can’t get away with crime?
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Paywall, anyone got the text?
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This article isn’t paywalled and it includes all the facts https://www.irishtimes.com/politics/2022/07/11/the-uber-files-timeline-how-the-company-lobbied-the-irish-government-to-approve-its-business-model/
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It also makes an interesting contrast with this.
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Regardless of nationality, all Tories are the same.
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Best small-country in the world to do business in.
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😂 you can literally hear them slithering, pure schnakes
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Company unsuccessfully lobbies for regulation change, more at 9.
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Multinational corporation writes portion of ruling political party’s manifesto.
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'Nothing to see here, this is a non-story, move along.'
Am I doing it right?
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Needs a bit of "Mary Lou took an uber once so they're all the same."
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There is a difference between what the story is and what people are trying to make the story to be.
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A foreign company successfully lobbying Fine Gael and putting their own words in Fine Gael's manifesto is what happened.
Now Fianna Fáil seem to be more open to Uber and the likes. Maybe they aren't as unsuccessful as they'd appear.
I wonder what other companies have influence in Fine Gael and contributed to the writing of their manifesto?
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Fine Gael being Fine Gael. Private Businesses, usually foreign/American, over everything.
I wonder what other companies wrote the rest of Fine Gael's election manifesto?
Edit: clarification.
Never underestimate the typical politician’s need for attention, and how one in FG of all parties might go gooey around attention from a US company.