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Notes -
Here's a somewhat phenomenological idea which I'm just going to throw out there: these people don't recognise anything American about their discourse because it's genuinely not quite the same until there are domestic right-wing American views to contrast with.
The experience of an Irish left-winger is of a civilised country which has shed itself of its own brand of backwards conservatism pointing and laughing at the most recent thing the insane Yanks have gotten up to. No one entertains the idea that there will be any disagreement about this so they voice it freely at work and the like. It's not until a domestic voice gives opposition that the re-enactment of America is complete, the conception of the normal Irish citizen just being a nice person is shifted into Americanised Irish left-winger vs Americanised Irish right-winger, a faithful re-enactment of America involves hating each other after all. It's no surprise that they accuse the right-winger of bringing American politics into it, until the right-winger started to play his role the fact that we were all just re-enacting America hadn't yet become clear.
The real original Irish discourse takes place between old school leftists and a newly minted radical right arguing over which side holds claim to the nationalist cause. This is the stuff that doesn't make any sense in an American context, Americans themselves aren't interested in it, and there is enough substantive thought (a benefit of having a revolution instigated by poets and playwrights educated in the Victorian style) that original debate can be had. It's where everything interesting in Irish political thought happens.
I find this pretty convincing.
Americans export awareness of our CW battle lines.
Some domestic occurrence looks vaguely like an American one
Domestic activists realize they can tap this giant well of cultural awareness
American hashtags on domestic media
The important bit is 3, where some journalist realizes the potential of appealing to an American export. It’s potent because it seeped into the domestic public before anyone was really defending against, as you said, those wacky Yanks. Tie it to the hashtag or slogan and even your enemies will know what you’re talking about. That’s a seductive feeling—and one that rewards the wielded with clicks and clout.
I'm sceptical of this hypothesis because there were large scale nationwide BLM protests in Ireland long before anything BLM-related actually happened here. After George Nkencho was shot dead by police officers in December 2020, I could almost detect a palpable sense of relief among Irish progressives - finally we have something that looks like a legitimate grievance, the accusations of tilting at windmills won't land quite as easily as they did before.
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