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Post by The Mad Hatter on May 25, 2012 14:10:50 GMT -5
Now we are getting closer to the fight club. Not there yet though.
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Post by Jenne on May 25, 2012 14:14:58 GMT -5
...what's nice about that last one, is that it makes me feel better about being American. (Although I already knew bigotry is not solely a US commodity, it's strictly hairless ape. /trolololol
I know, now I'm just being naughty. Sorry. /blames baby again
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Post by Sita on May 25, 2012 14:15:31 GMT -5
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Post by Jenne on May 25, 2012 14:15:41 GMT -5
Now we are getting closer to the fight club. Not there yet though. DOOO IIIITTT
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Post by Jenne on May 25, 2012 14:16:04 GMT -5
I choose the debil in this particular instance.
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Post by Tofu DeBeast on May 25, 2012 14:20:11 GMT -5
Hold up, ignorant American with a question here.
What exactly is a Pikey anyway? Is it a distinct racial/cultural group, or is it just a term for people who travel around, have no fixed address, and often cause trouble?
And what is a Chav? Same thing?
Sorry to interrupt the flow of this thread. 30 seconds of web research wasn't very helpful.
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Post by Jenne on May 25, 2012 14:23:27 GMT -5
I have to say, this is the first I've heard of Pikey (when Duck, Moley and WillyBear first used it a few days ago) as well. It became clear later on it was about Gypsies, but I'm wondering how the reference got made (did their heads become severed at some point and put on pikes? the Brits did that a lot back in the medieval times)...and that's just the linguist in me.
Chav I know is lowclass Britisher/English person who aspires at times to a higher class through a more garish dress, etc. White trash, essentially.
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Post by The Mad Hatter on May 25, 2012 14:24:28 GMT -5
Hold up, ignorant American with a question here. What exactly is a Pikey anyway? Is it a distinct racial/cultural group, or is it just a term for people who travel around, have no fixed address, and often cause trouble? And what is a Chav? Same thing? Sorry to interrupt the flow of this thread. 30 seconds of web research wasn't very helpful. Replace Pikey with Nigger, Redskin...well, you get the idea.
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Post by bigwillybear on May 25, 2012 14:44:59 GMT -5
Pikeys are feral scum that have no racial type, no law, no responsibility and live as parasites on the society they infest. Its politically incorrect to talk about it but they are a constant irritation in the UK as the honest tax paying folk are continually forced to pick up the bill for their lawless behaviour. They cruise the quiet neighbourhoods under the guise of scrap metal collectors in order to scope out homes to rob and vulnerable elderly folk to con. They are responsible for a large proportion of UK crime both organised and trivial. There are gypsies and there are Pikeys. A simplified view would regard gypsies as Pikeys. However the real situation is that the indigenous English Gypsies and the Irish Traveller community distance themselves from the outlaw scum that they themselves call Pikeys. Pikey is a name given by gypsies to their own outcasts. The name originates from the profession of catching Pike using noose poles in the Fen during the middle ages by men living outside the constraints of feudal law in the swamps of the Fens which were eschewed by society due to the rampant Malaria that afflicted all areas less than 2 m above sea level. They also became known as the Fen Tigers for their fierce nature. There is no evidence that the modern Pikeys share anything more than a name with these earlier men.
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Post by The Mad Hatter on May 25, 2012 14:47:57 GMT -5
I am uneducated about this at large. Is it all of them, most of them, or some of them? When I see such a broad brush stroke I get itchy is why I ask.
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Post by bigwillybear on May 25, 2012 15:05:44 GMT -5
Its not a them at all. Its not a social group. Its a name given to travelling outlaws that live outside society whilst parasitizing it and preying upon it. They generally shelter withing the camps of Irish travellers but not because they are necessarily Irish travellers but because that community is largely anonymous and thus provides handy camouflage. I know plenty of gypsies both Irish and English and they hate the Pikeys more than anyone.
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Post by The Mad Hatter on May 25, 2012 15:09:05 GMT -5
Okay, according to the most recent definition on Wiki, I am a Pikey.
The connotation and linkage of gypsies to petty theft, crime and general low socioeconomic activities is well-entrenched.[citation needed]
In 1937, then-Senator Harry S Truman compared the financiers of the 1930s, whom he called "pikers",[3] to bank robber Jesse James.
Pikey remained, as of 1989, common prison slang for Romani people or those who have a (perceived) similar lifestyle of itinerant unemployment and travel.[10]
More recently, pikey was applied to Irish Travellers (also known as tinkers and knackers) and non-Roma Gypsies.[11][12] In the late 20th century, it came to be used to describe "a lower-class person, regarded as coarse or disreputable."[6][13]
Pikey's most common contemporary use is not as a term for the Gypsy ethnic group, but as a catch-all phrase to refer to people, of any ethnic group, who travel around with no fixed abode.
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Post by Jenne on May 25, 2012 15:17:28 GMT -5
Interesting. Of course, different people will use monikers and labels differently than an established or well-known usage.
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Post by The Mad Hatter on May 25, 2012 15:25:38 GMT -5
I ended up on an English Full Timer (RV) site and there were mixed opinions on Pikeys. It did seem the majority came down against, but there were a few who came to their defense.
I would imagine that if you were born into a group of cheats and thieves that you would become one, not knowing anything else.
Carnies call everyone who isn't a carnie a rube, sheep to be fleeced.
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Post by Tofu DeBeast on May 25, 2012 15:29:30 GMT -5
I am uneducated about this at large. Is it all of them, most of them, or some of them? When I see such a broad brush stroke I get itchy is why I ask. Good point. I am having a hard time deciding if I should hate them because they are thieving bastards or pity them because they are an underclass minority subject to discrimination. I get itchy too when such a group gets demonized like this. It seems like one small step towards fascism and concentration camps. Yet a thief is still a thief. Here in the US we have a group of people who perpetrate a lot of crime and mostly come from one ethnic group. We call them The Mob or The Mafia, and no one pretends that they are an underprivileged and excusable minority. Yeah maybe they are mostly of Italian lineage, but we don't assume all Italians are in the mafia, and groups like The Italian American Defense League rightly make sure that stereotypes don't get out of control. And Mad Hatter, you strike me less as a Pikey and more as a Ramblin' Man.
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