National Ridicule a Belief Day is apparently 21 June

[nekokate]

At the risk of conspiracy theory-esque accusations of anti-Gallowayism, I'm raising a second negative point about the Gorgeous One within a single afternoon!

I hope I was 'not the only one' (fnar!) who was left with a decidedly bad taste in my mouth throughout the June 21st MOATS* as George periodically took it upon himself to ridicule and figuratively laugh in the face of Druidism and sun worshippers, even declaring at one point "You have a right to worship what you want, but don't expect me not to laugh at you".

Is it not a little elitist to consider anything other than the popular monotheistic religions fair game for mockery? As an atheist, I personally find it a strange sight when I see Hassidic Jews wearing black hats and dangling forelocks, or people rocking back and forth as they stand before The Wailing Wall, or Muslims releatedly placing their foreheads on the ground, but I would never mock or laugh at these people because I have a deep respect for culture and ideological differences - it's what makes the world an interesting, colourful place. So what possible excuse could a progressive, Left-wing automoton like Top Cat have for blatantly, as well as surreptitiously, ridiculing Druidism?

It seems that his reasoning is that he believes in God, therefore religions in which "God" is the God are respectable, if not untouchable, but stray from that formulation and prepare to face the breeze of a giant guffaw.

I remember seeing a very early stand-up show by the controversial and brilliant comedian, Stewart Lee, in which he said as his opening line (and this is verbatim) "So... I think all religions suck a big dog's cock", and he then went on to discuss his atheism.

To my sensibilities, even as volatile and potentially (deliberately!) offensive that was as a blanket statement, it is infinitely more acceptable than George's insulting of Wiccans and Pagans and Druids on the 21st of June show, because it was free of hypocricy: Everyone was equal, even if they were to be equally mocked.

It seems to me that on occasion, George can't resist the temptation to cherry-pick his empathy and acceptance of others. Bad kitty. No cream.




* That's Mother of all Talk Shows - hooray, I've coined an acronym!

[faceless]

I only heard a little bit of the show, but did notice the derision of a Wiccan caller. It's the reason I used a picture of Stonehenge on the Galloway Archive page.

It is insulting to mock anyone's beliefs like that, especially when they are beliefs which have been about for a lot longer and which provide at least some of the basis of many modern religions such as GG's. Modern Druidism has only been about for 150 years or so, but there have always been those who believe in the power of the earth first.

I noticed last night that he said his charity of choice was the Saint Vincent De Paul society, which is a charity run by the Catholic Church. That's probably relevant here...

(I like MOATS)

[major.tom]

I noticed GG make an already tired argument he's made before for the existence of god. It goes something like "matter cannot be created or destroyed, so who created the Big Bang?" That presupposes that god existed before the big bang, which begs the question, where did god come from?

My layman's understanding of quantum physics is that the universe is constantly expanding and contracting. So isn't it be possible (if not probable) that this is a perpetual cycle?

GG's viewpoints on druids and sun-worship brought him down a notch in my book. His use of the term "medieval" to describe the ancient practice only speaks to his own ignorance.

[Brown Sauce]

He seems to be as badly informed with Wicca as Buddhism. I don't mind anyone having a go at anything, just so long as it comes from an informed viewpoint, and one that welcomes change.

he said a couple of weeks ago, "Don't criticise what you can't understand", to a caller who had a valid point, using the Dylan lyric to put the caller down as Dylan was the music topic of the day, and immediately cut the caller off. It may be that he didn't agree with the caller, it may be that I didn't too, I can't actually remember, but to use this is not fair play in my book, and only leads me to criticise his hauteur.

Maybe he should try not to criticise what he won't try to understand.