Also sent to joe@rte.ie

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Dear Joe and the Liveline team,

I wonder if you might address a query I have with regard your recent coverage of ‘head shops’.

Previous to your campaign against them not one ‘head shop’ in Ireland had been set on fire. Since you spent the best part of a week drumming up fear and public anger two of them have been set on fire. Perhaps I’m putting 2 and 2 together and coming up with 5 but you would have to think it’s more than just coincidence.

Let’s be realistic, on Monday you covered the Michael O’Leary/Mary Coughlan debacle in great detail and no doubt that was a contributory factor in the softening of the Minister’s stance to Mr O’Leary whom she had previously said she would not meet. Although the meeting ultimately proved unsuccessful Liveline played some part in raising public awareness and pressurising the government to do something.

So, if we accept that Liveline has a measure of influence, albeit small, at the upper echelons of government, isn’t it reasonable to suggest that you might influence the ‘common man’, so to speak? Do you accept any responsibility for the two fires that have damaged the ‘head shops’? Before your show raised the issue of these shops there was little or no public interest in them, beyond the customers who used these perfectly legitimate businesses, and certainly none of them had been victims of arson.

Previous to your shows, Capel Street had not been closed to traffic for days on end, which, as most Dubliners will tell you, is a good thing, what with it being a rather important thoroughfare in this city of ours. I listened anxiously on Monday to see if you addressed the Capel Street fire as this was not a small event. One of Dublin’s main streets being closed off is a serious matter and as there was an obvious connection to your shows, during which you invited all manner of ill-informed, inflammatory comment, I thought this would be a subject to which you would return. I have to admit I was disappointed.

May I ask what it might take for you dedicate some time on your show to these fires? More road closures? Injuries? Deaths, perhaps? Are you worried at all that another ‘head shop’ might be the victim of an arson attack?

In the interests of balanced broadcasting wouldn’t it be an idea to ask your listeners how they feel about the fires? If you can raise such ire over businesses which, as I pointed out earlier, are perfectly legal, provide employment to dozens of people across the country and revenue to the state, what is your stance on deliberate arson and what appears to be vigilantism?

I look forward to your reply,

Twenty Major.

Joe : “We’ve got David on the phone, from Stoneybatter”.

David : “Howya, Joe”.

Joe : “David, you were another victim of this terrible scam where you went into Drury Street car park and it didn’t give you a receipt and you’re after losing out on €5.60 that you can’t claim back against your work expenses and the fella at the car park told you the machine wasn’t working properly and did he offer to write you out a receipt on paper or anything because €5.60 is a lot of money? That’d buy you a bail of briquettes as Mary said earlier that’d warm her house for a day and a half”

David : “Well, thing is Joe I just said that to your person there to get on air.”

Joe : “mmmm”

David : “The real reason I’m after ringing in is them head shops like..”

Joe : “I see. And what about them terrible head shops where they sell ‘bath salts’ but we all know they’re not bath salts but what does be in them? Nobody knows! They’re dangerous”.

David : “I agree Joe!”

Joe : “Good man, David”.

David : “I listened to your shows about them and the stories and the scaremongering and all that and I was disgusted”.

Joe : “And you were right to be disgusted because they are disgusting but the head shop fellas don’t see it. They just want to make money without thinking about the consequences. Idiots”.

David : “You’re bang on, Joe. That’s why I burned down the one on Capel St and I won’t be stopping there, Joe. I’m going to burn them all down. Burn them aaaaaaaaaaaaallllllllllllll!!!!”.

Joe : “Erm … bollix. Have we got Anne there? Anne. You were overcharged for your pet insurance by 87 cent. Can you afford to eat this week, Anne?”

If you ever wondered why the people of Ireland seemingly ‘put up’ with crooked politicians, abusive clergy and all the other gobshitery that surrounds us on a daily basis then listening to Liveline will give you the answers you need. It’s because they are cretins.

Today’s ‘Video games are evil and should be banned because they are evil because I say so and not based on any evidence’ show was an extravaganza of ill-informed, half-witted, moronic fuckwittery of the highest order. Some of the people they had on were just so ridiculously ignorant of anything resembling a fact it’s frightening. It was all about Modern Warfare 2, a game in which you go around shooting people. Like many other video games since video games were invented. Apparently they’re worse now though because graphics are better and we can more realistically portray blood (but am I right in remembering a cheat code for Mortal Kombat which made it more bloody?).

Inevitably somebody mentioned the Columbine killers playing violent video games. A media led myth that has not even a shred of truth to it. If anyone thinks those boys killed those people because they played Doom then they are just wrong. The same way they didn’t kill all those people because of Marilyn Manson or because they wore long trenchcoats. Yet Liveline with that bastard cunt Joe Duffy is the perfect platform for these people to disgorge at clueless length about stuff they only think they know about. Typical conversation:

“My boy was playing a game and it had someone stabbing a person in the neck and there was blood everywhere”.

“And what did you do?”

“I took the game away”.

“And how did that go down”.

“Oh, it was terrible. There were arguments and all kind”.

“Was there violence? Did you have violence at home because of it?”

What a cunt. Another guy rings in:

“I’ve got Modern Warfare Joe and I played it last night and I’m not about to go out and start shooting people”.

“Well, I hope not”.

Fuck me. Generally the only people Duffy had on defending video games were young enough, some of them not really eloquent enough to get their point across but when the student from IT Tallaght came on to talk about how the Director of Film Classification came to the college and gave a lecture about how there was no evidence to link violent films with real life violence he was ignored.

Honestly, these people are idiots who clearly have nothing better to do with their time. And these idiots are representative of much of Ireland because people hear the idiots on the radio and agree with the idiots and soon the idiots point of view becomes conventional wisdom and on we go.

I have watched lots of films which have violence in them. I have not once carried out an act of violence similar to the ones I have witnessed. I have played video games with violence in them, yet I have not carjacked anyone, driven up the pavements knocking people down like skittles before stealing a helicopter and making my escape. The closest I’ve come to emulating a video game is trying to a Cruyff turn when playing football and I nearly slipped a disc doing that.

Today’s Liveline was maddening, it really was. Forget about banning video games. I call for Joe Duffy to be banned before he incites someone to carry out acts of sickening violence … on him.