Roald Dahl

[BobG]

I've heard plenty of shit in my time. But the wilful. blind, unthinking shit you perpetually utter BB is in a class of its own. You destroy. You decry. You never offer constructive solutions, or evidence. You are beneath contempt.

BobG

[Bentley Bullet]

Single Malt?

[belton rover]

What will we need to start calling Asian restaurants, we won't be able to call them Thai or Indian or Chinese if some had their way. The corner shop run by a family from Pakistan was always call The Pa........ no I better not say it don't want to offend anyone but it was never meant to be offensive when I was young

The problem there Raven, is that the majority of those (me included) who used that term quite innocently back in the day had no idea whether the owners were Pakistani, Indian or from any other nationality.
Ignorant at best.

[belton rover]

Yeah. I've stopped posting on these threads due to the complete b*llocks you continue to contribute BB.
Why BST carries on engaging with you is beyond me.
At least that other WUM from Belton seems to have given up.

b*llocks Tommy. You have no idea why I post less than in the past.

[ncRover]

I'm pretty sure the greeks, romans and scandi's were thinking along those lines too for a while.

Good point, but that’s more the replacement of some religions with others due to the collapse of civilisations I think.

The African continent has 1.2 billion people and is growing. The vast majority of them are Christian or Muslim. So don’t assume that the decline of religion in the western world is indicative of a global pattern. You also shouldn’t assume that our civilised society isn’t in part as a result of the order that religion gives to chaos.

Until science objectively tells us the best rules for life or explains to us why there is a physical realm rather than nothing, humans will continue to elicit religious behaviour.

You could argue that rigid political ideology is a form of religious behaviour without the worship of a deity.

Your right about the spread and continual draw of religion especially in the developing world.

What you have to ask yourself is why is religion and openly religious people in the west a declining situation.

Is it because these people consider themselves to have a superior intellect and don't need all this mumbo jumbo? or could it be that some of this disposition have an unconscious  bias towards developing regions and their populations, customs and creeds.

I would imagine most are not even aware of this fact but some will be and they will be telling you why that's not the case anytime soon.

Yes dd I think it is the feeling of superior intellect. I don’t follow a religion per se but I’m critiquing those who would call any religion “made up nonsense”. It’s very close-minded and dismissive. Especially when these know-it-all liberal types have only selectively followed science in the last few years.

A fine example from the Labour MP for Exeter here

https://twitter.com/benpbradshaw/status/1628052795420024833?s=46&t=ew2zhuY5a18ATIpF10kwsg

[danumdon]

Oh dear, after spending years cultivating religious minorities i would imagine his party handlers would not be best pleased with Mr Bradshaw. In fact when you consider Bradshaw's personal situation it makes his statement even more puzzling when reacting to minorities.

[ncRover]

Oh dear, after spending years cultivating religious minorities i would imagine his party handlers would not be best pleased with Mr Bradshaw. In fact when you consider Bradshaw's personal situation it makes his statement even more puzzling when reacting to minorities.

What’s his personal situation?

[danumdon]

Bradshaw is in a civil relationship to another man.

[BillyStubbsTears]

So, let me get this right.

A gay man should be respectful to a religious fundamentalist who thinks he is a sinner and who would deny him the right to form a legally respected partnership with his soulmate, because they are both minorities?

I don't think it quite works like that.

[danumdon]

So, let me get this right.

A gay man should be respectful to a religious fundamentalist who thinks he is a sinner and who would deny him the right to form a legally respected partnership with his soulmate, because they are both minorities?

I don't think it quite works like that.

As usual reading far too much into a post, my comparison was just that they are both minorities in the UK, the whys and wherefores of if they both agree with each other's personal situation is another story.

[BillyStubbsTears]

DD.

You said it was puzzling that Bradshaw should comment on minorities. If you didn't mean that Bradshaw shouldn't comment on minorities because he is a minority, then I apologise for misunderstanding.

[danumdon]

DD.

You said it was puzzling that Bradshaw should comment on minorities. If you didn't mean that Bradshaw shouldn't comment on minorities because he is a minority, then I apologise for misunderstanding.

Apology accepted!

[scawsby steve]

A bit of a test coming up for Starmer here. He needs to rebuke Bradshaw publicly for such a statement of religious intolerance, especially with an election on the way.

We're not just talking about Christian voters here; far from it.

[BillyStubbsTears]

It's not "religious" intolerance.

It's giving a fortnight, but defensible opinion on a very particular type of religious belief - one that claims that the literal answers are given in an ancient book, and there's no questioning that.

Bradshaw is strictly correct. People with those beliefs DO have a part of their brain missing - the part that weighs up evidence and makes choices on matters of morality is switched off because it's not required.

If we are talking about intolerance, I think I'd start with the politician who said that a fundamental and natural part of his being makes Bradshaw's existence sinful. Just stop and think what it would feel like to have some bigot tell you that, before you rush to slag off his response.

[scawsby steve]

It's not "religious" intolerance.

It's giving a fortnight, but defensible opinion on a very particular type of religious belief - one that claims that the literal answers are given in an ancient book, and there's no questioning that.

Bradshaw is strictly correct. People with those beliefs DO have a part of their brain missing - the part that weighs up evidence and makes choices on matters of morality is switched off because it's not required.

If we are talking about intolerance, I think I'd start with the politician who said that a fundamental and natural part of his being makes Bradshaw's existence sinful. Just stop and think what it would feel like to have some bigot tell you that, before you rush to slag off his response.

OK, I'll change the semantics a bit to "perceived religious intolerance". My concern here is voters. I would imagine most Muslims in this country are Labour voters, and possibly Hindus and other religions in deprived areas.

Labour made the mistake last time in completely misjudging the mood of a certain faction of people. They mustn't make those kind of mistakes again, and Starmer's going to be grilled constantly by the mainly right wing media over the next 18 months or so on every issue perceivable.

The Tories are there for the taking. Labour must make sure they don't f*ck it up on cultural issues.

[ncRover]

It's not "religious" intolerance.

It's giving a fortnight, but defensible opinion on a very particular type of religious belief - one that claims that the literal answers are given in an ancient book, and there's no questioning that.

Bradshaw is strictly correct. People with those beliefs DO have a part of their brain missing - the part that weighs up evidence and makes choices on matters of morality is switched off because it's not required.

If we are talking about intolerance, I think I'd start with the politician who said that a fundamental and natural part of his being makes Bradshaw's existence sinful. Just stop and think what it would feel like to have some bigot tell you that, before you rush to slag off his response.

OK, I'll change the semantics a bit to "perceived religious intolerance". My concern here is voters. I would imagine most Muslims in this country are Labour voters, and possibly Hindus and other religions in deprived areas.

Labour made the mistake last time in completely misjudging the mood of a certain faction of people. They mustn't make those kind of mistakes again, and Starmer's going to be grilled constantly by the mainly right wing media over the next 18 months or so on every issue perceivable.

The Tories are there for the taking. Labour must make sure they don't f*ck it up on cultural issues.

Š”In 2010, Muslims favoured Labour, whilst the Jewish vote was more for the Conservatives. The Hindu vote tended to Labour, although was more balanced in 2010. The Sikh vote was evenly split between the two main parties, whilst the Buddhist vote was disproportionately for the Liberal Democrats.”

https://www.theosthinktank.co.uk/cmsfiles/archive/files/Reports/Voting%20and%20Values%20in%20Britain%20executve%20summary%20FINAL%20revised%201.pdf

[bpoolrover]

So apparently there replacing fat with enormous, i would rather be called a fat bas… than a enormous one!

[wilts rover]

Puffin annouce plan to publish classic edition of Dahl's work alongside new editions.

When we were talking about this at work I said it was all a PR stunt by the publishing company to get people talking about hem sell more books.

U's all been had!! Welcome to free market capitalism.

https://twitter.com/thebookseller/status/1629087668054249472

[Bentley Bullet]

All this political correctness is driving normal people mad. It's the likes of poor old big enormous yorkshire pudding I feel sorry for.

[ravenrover]

I'm told that Netflix have bought the rights to Dahls books. Now there couldn't possibly be a link there, could there?

[Ldr]

Possibly but it was 18 months ago RR

[BillyStubbsTears]

Well you can all calm down now.

If you want to buy the version where he talks about weird African languages, you can. If you want to buy a version where that's replaced by ",weird languages" you can buy that one instead.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-64759118

I wonder which one Queen Camilla will choose...