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PaperclipPerfector  5mo ago (text post)   26712 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of November 20, 2023

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This afternoon, an Algerian man who'd been resident in Ireland for years approached a crèche in the Dublin city centre and stabbed a teacher and several children, all of whom have been hospitalised. A man intervened and tackled him to the ground (I've heard unconfirmed reports that he was Brazilian, making this something of a wash from an anti-immigration perspective).

In a remarkable display of striking while the iron is hot, an anti-immigrant group organised a protest outside the Dáil (lower house of parliament) later this afternoon. Protesters clashed with police officers at the scene of the crime. Before long it escalated into a full-scale riot, the likes of which I've never seen before in Dublin. A bus was set on fire, as was at least one police car and a Luas (the light rail system serving Dublin). A Holiday Inn was set on fire. Shops have been smashed up and looted. I had to get a taxi home as the public transport has been suspended. Walking through the streets is eerie, they're largely empty aside from riot cops carrying riot shields very forcefully redirecting me. Helicopters are still circling overhead.

My gut feeling is that this is primarily the work of opportunistic scumbags rioting for the fun of it, for which a fairly small protest which got out of hand was merely the catalyst. On the other hand, I have heard a lot about the alleged "rise of the far right" in Ireland over the course of the last few years, and the fact that it happened so soon after Geert Wilders' election is certainly odd timing.

EDIT: See also @Tollund_Man4's more detailed write-up in the transnational thread.

Creche? Are we in Baldurs Gate 3?

What?

First and only time I ever encountered the word crèche was in the game Baldurs Gate 3, where it refers to a base for the species Githyanki. Then I saw it here.

Didn't know they used the word, a French word apparently, for daycare in Ireland.

Not just a base, a base where they raise their young, hence why it is called a crèche. Time does not pass normally in the Astral plane so Githyanki establish creches on the material plane so the children can grow to adulthood.

Its also used in the UK as well and I think Canada and South Africa and probably anywhere British English holds sway.

Canadian here, and I'd never heard it until this year when it was suddenly popping up all over, and never for a school or daycare located anywhere other than Ireland or Faerun.

In the UK I think it’s often used for daycare that isn’t entirely a traditional paid nursery. Like a corporate daycare for employees’ children, or something during a multi-day event to drop off kids.

I’ve never heard of it in the UK, it was always nursery or nursery school.

Interesting, we have a corporate creche so maybe I heard it there.

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