Southbanken
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- 3 Oct 2012
- Messages
- 450
No exactly, and that response hasn't come out of nowhere. Suppose it's the same kind of confirmation bias that exists against any minority. Logic tells me that the vast majority of travellers must be perfectly nice, but the only two groups I've ever encountered absolutely were not, so those are the experiences that stick in my mind. I'd imagine the reason for that is purely that the 'normal' travellers are by definition not ones I'd have come across as they keep to themselves. The people cheering probably have had the same experience.
That said I do think watching a Jimmy Carr gig and being offended at anything he says is like having a picnic at the beach and being pissed when the seagulls turn up. Once the clip is taken out of the context where everyone seeing it is expecting to hear some (extremely) offensive material, and put on Twitter for people who were just trying to have their morning coffee to hear, it will obviously get a very different reaction.
I'd say its more to do with the fact that the interactions you have had with "normal" gypsies or travellers, you didn't even realise were interactions with gypsies or travellers. They were just people you met in a pub, or served you in a shop, or chatted to on the bus.