Via Bishop Hill (h/t Umbongo), here’s John Bell of the Iona Community on this morning’s Thought For The Day comparing bankers and climate sceptics to paedophile gangs and terrorist regimes.
Because we live in a broadly patriarchal society, we should not be surprised that the culture which brought about the worldwide financial meltdown was overwhelmingly masculine. But consider also that the people who are most vocal in denying human responsibility for the disastrous effects of climate change are mostly male.
The people who control factories of wage slaves in the developing world are almost exclusively men, as are the commanders of terrorist regimes. Leaders who threaten or declare war are mostly men as are those involved in paedophile gangs.
The fact that this was deemed acceptable speaks volumes about the BBC.
What a sad excuse for a man he is. And perhaps he should do some research on the role of women in terrorist organisations; leila khaled for example; who have shown a ruthless and sadistic side to woman’s character that I think we normal, white, Christian men would prefer didn’t exist. I believe that women and men, working together, particularly as man and wife, tend to temper the baser instincts of each other. Labelling men as the only perpetrator is so socialist, so bigotted and so passe.
This is a parody, no?
Okay, if not, then I do hope we don’t start talking about the…ahem…ethnicity of those evil men in developing countries who exploit the wage slaves, or the commanders of those terrorist regimes.
No, wait, where’s me script…..Ah:
What does it say about society when people willingly allow themselves to be exploited by these men, or led into terrorist acts? It’s the same problem as young girls willingly giving up their innocence for a fizzy drink and a packet of crisps, right?
*wipes tear from eye*
What a d*ck head. One could also argue that all the great advances were brought about by (white) men. Penicillin, the motor car, the aeroplane, the telephone, central heating, the interweb and yes radio.
Two can play at that game.
Women give birth to men, so ultimately it is woman’s fault for producing so many bad men; bad men who deny climate change while earning huge bonuses for hanging gay men from cranes.
If there weren’t any women, there wouldn’t be any nasty men.
This Thought for the Day is a piece of cake, isn’t it?
If anyone from Today is reading this, I’m available at £50 a pop. Cash only.
Said my piece on the Open Thread about this clot.
I think he must spend too much time up his own arse, and thinking that Fr MaGuire may yet convert him to the Katmandu trail as happened in Father Ted.
It was only a comedy John-and should not count as religious programming…got that?
It’s like an AGW self-harms race with no MAD control cut outs.
Boom, a 10:10er takes out a large chunk of the Guardian’s eco and free-speech cred.
Whammo… Heartland hit the pyscho switch.
Kerrrrang! Back comes a howler from Iona small brain.
Things is, while the middle one was pretty much a suicide effort and took out the base camp, the first was backed by the BBC even when the Graun called Uncle and the latter seems to have had the delivery system for its dirty bomb (in all senses of that word) provided by none other than… our most trusted national single advocacy PR network. Our money; their message.
Before any gets too excited at how BBC Complaints will ‘handle’ this…
‘We make no editorial comment or judgement on the views expressed by contributors to our programmes, and our aim is simply to provide enough information for viewers to make up their own minds. This may include hearing opinions which some people may personally disagree with but which individuals may be fully entitled to hold in the context of legitimate debate.
It is also not always possible or practical to reflect all the different opinions on this subject within individual programmes. Editors are charged to ensure that over a reasonable period they reflect the range of significant views, opinions and trends in their subject area.
Nevertheless as we’re guided by the feedback we receive I’ve registered your complaint on our audience log. This is a daily report of audience feedback that’s made available to all BBC staff, including members of the BBC Executive Board, the production team for ‘[insert programme name here]’ and other senior managers.
The audience logs are seen as important documents that can help shape decisions about future programming and content.
Thanks again for taking the time to contact us with your concerns.
And now…. moving on…. the Beware of the Leopard room door closes again.
Just popped to have a look at his clan ?? hmm what a useless bunch of weak willed elbow less anal retentive saps the sort of pathetic half arsed excuses for Christians that have damaged and broken the church they obviously hate but haven’t the balls to leave so instead they passively enable its detractors and be useful idiots for the big kids !
Bell had better suck up to the BBC enfeebles as he will need their moderators and protection if he keeps making public statements he has neither the guts or bells to back up in a free debate !
The perverted logic of Bell perfectly, and I mean perfectly represents the BBC corporate world view. A truly sick moral relativity that places child molesters and sceptic scientists in the same category. Look how far the BBC has sunk, a moral depravity only matched by the child raping perverts they are trying to protect.
That rather than condemn one evil gang he would prefer to accuse men in general, that somehow because other men commit other crimes it somehow excuses this particular gang. Note how Bell claims without any evidence that individual gang members would not have raped and abused these children. Muslim men handed round abused vulnerable white children for sex with muslim men, muslim men who desired white children for sexual gratification, muslim men who consider that white children are of lesser value than their own children, muslim men who attend daily prayers and attend their mosque and consider white children as white meat to be abused.
The tactics and strategy are clear, Bell was invited on air because he had the message the BBC wanted peddling and Bell obliged them. The very worst sort of moral relativism, they have put a great deal of effort into excusing and apologising for a gang of muslim child abusers and rapists, who used white children as “white meat” and abused them in ways they would never do with muslim children, that is the very definition of racism.
Just when you thought the BBC could not sink any lower they do. That they would dare to accuse decent people whose only crime is to follow the best tradition of science by scepticism of being the same as child rapists.
Well worth filing a complaint over this I think. It’s worth noting that when “equalities” minister Lynne Featherstone came out with a similar sexist rant blaming men for everything the BBC pretended it never happened and refused to report it. I think they genuinely believe that saying things like this is ok.
I agree with David P, if I read this in any other context I’d assume it was a parody.
So according to the logic as posited by the John Bell broadcast, a small minority of men commit heinous crimes, all men are guilty…
Dear BBC, can we use that logic against Blacks? Asians? and smear them all with the same brush now? And how is that different from what John Bell did?
When they say ‘all men’ they actually mean ‘all white Christian British men’.
Apparently white men are responsible for and the root cause of all the evil in the world, every other race and colour are innocent victims.
A blood libel against an entire group of men based on colour and race.
Bell’s comments about men are odd….and odder still when you consider Richard Black has used the same line about Climate sceptics…..asking why are they all men?…and then claiming they possibly had something terrible happen to them in childhood.
Is a coincidence that Bell picks up on that rather
unique insight.
But then Bell has other unique insights especially about paedophiles.
Today he suggested perhaps that they weren’t really paedophiles merely unwilling participants ‘forced’ into it by peer pressure…or overcome by a sort of mass hysteria (as the BBC explains away the ‘innocent ‘ rioters in London).
That’s not the first time he has made excuses for them…..Several years ago, 2008?, on T4tD he raise the matter suggesting perhaps paedophiles weren’t that bad…perhaps we shouldn’t be so quick to judge….perhaps they were vicitms of overwhelming, uncontrollable urges…..It could happen to any of us he suggested.
I guess that’s one up from ‘all men are rapists.’
Now that the News of the World is defunct perhaps Bell doesn’t keep up with the sordid side of life….if he did he would know that women are highly likely to be involved in murders and abuse, in fact anything men can do they can do also, except reverse the car.
On that note I shall go into hiding…definitely no where near Iona.
I heard this and was amazed. My view was that the guy was trying to make a point about evil being a collective issue, not always individual, as in his example of the gang fight where people who are normally peaceful joing in. Well, that is the stoy of mob behaviour perhaps. But the impression I had was that the argument had been doctored to water down muslim pedophilia and include a plug for the Beeb’s faith that failure to fight climate change is a sin.
What must be taken into account is the fact that the Iona Community operates on the basis of “do it yourself theology”. Mr Bell is spouting his own beliefs, but by claiming that they come from the Iona Community The BBC can invest them with (to their mind) the same gravitas as the views of the Pope or the Archbishop of Canterbury.
The Beeboids own tame religion – jolly usefull.
Oh, the tired, worn out, predictable laziness of so much of this man’s drivel.’Men’ don’t start wars, governments do. Governments that are elected by the population – 50% of which is female.
…and here’s Guido’s take on that ‘masculine’ financial meltdown…
http://order-order.com/2012/04/02/risky-girls-show-up-hancock-and-zahawi/
And those factories of wage slaves run by men? Who is it out in the shops hunting for bargains galore, pushing prices ever lower, driving the race to the bottom? Pretty much everyone, I’d guess – male and female.
Men are commanders of terrorist regimes, aided in Gaza by mothers who pack their children off with suicide vests to do their duty and honour their family. (applauded by well known Westerners of both sexes)
As for the climate change claim, how do we know? We don’t, of course, but never let that stop a self-loathing bigot from making assumptions that fit their prejudices.
It’s so easy to see arguments as one-sided, especially if you only look at one side. What a twit.
Yep….counter terrorist people are told to shoot the woman terrorist first….they are the most dangerous!
What an utter prick.
I’ve gone straight to the source on this one. Excerpt from an email sent to the Iona Community:
“According to Mr Bell, because I and many others do not agree with the so-called “consensus” on anthropogenic global warming, we should be villified together with terrorists and paedophiles. This is an outgrageous slur on the characters of a large number of law-abiding citizens, myself included. I demand an unreserved apology from Mr Bell for this unwarranted and dispicable attack on my character.”
I wonder if I’ll get a response. We soldier on…..
Just tell him you are proud of many aspects of Britains’ colonial past and watch him disolve into a weeping jelly-like mass !
Without men, particularly white men and especially the wonderfully inventive Englishmen virtually nothing would ever have been invented. Try to imagine a world without trains, cars, planes, ocean liners, televisions. The list is endless because men have invented everything that we enjoy in this age.
Mind you, it also means that on occasion you also have to listen to some half baked, liberal prick on Radio 4…
“The people who control the BBC, who run Question Time and many other BBC shows are almost exclusively men, as are those involved in paedophile gangs.”
Yes, I see what he means.
What a complete cunt if only for the fact the half the world are men so I guess they do lots of good and bad things.
BTW – The FULL transcript is here
– I will comment more when I’ve analysed it
‘It was men – who hugged their wives and kissed their children – who herded human beings into Nazi gas chambers.’
As Godwin has been invoked, albeit selectively…
http://investigation.discovery.com/top-ten/female-nazis/5-female-nazi-war-criminals.html
Some in the US are starting wake up to the BBC’s BS:
http://weaselzippers.us/2012/05/12/bbc-thought-for-the-day-climate-change-deniers-are-like-terrorists-slave-owners-paedophiles-and-nazis-and-theyre-all-men/
This blog is not alone.
Some terrific comments.
John Bell………. Harriet Harman’s lost twin brother? Men are to blame for all evil in the world? In her’s maybe!
– Those affected by that event in Rochdale are real people. We are sorry, If he was going to mention that event he should have done it properly with respect, not just mention it gratuitously to make a political point.
Peace, love & solutions would be expected in the Religion Slot, but Bell’s used it to point score against his secondary victims men, skeptics & business.
His Message : He ends with his group sin idea, but also uses the RHETORICAL TRICKS of giving your false prejudices credibility by wrapping them up in other things that people will accept as true . Those prejudices were #1 that there has been climate change disasters AND they have been caused by man. #2 Anti-man #3 Anti-corporation
– So smearing and deceit are not evil ?
– I see his idea is to introduce the idea of group sin over personal sin, which he claimed was discovered by Rheinhold Niebuhr. I don’t see what’s new about it too much different form “mob menatlity”, although he’s talking about organised groups. What’s new ? as he says Jesus killed by such group mentality ? Though Bell’s piece was more politics than religion.
#3 If a certain group built a corporate body that facilitates evil by promoting dogma & authority over evidence, logic & democracy ;
empowers themselves & holds back equality for all including women for 2000 years … that would be organised religion itself.
#2 the evil groups in the Bible often included women
– I would say the piece is hatespeak, try replacing “men” with “yer gays”, “yer muslims”, or “yer immigrants”
What do we call it, if we prejudge a person by categorizing them not by their choices but by accident of birth ? BIGOTRY
#1 What do call a man who knows there haven’t been any disasterous effects caused by any RECENT form of climate change , but make accusations that there have been AND they are caused by man ?
… (perhaps he means environmental damage)
If students go through it line by line they will find other factual errors & false dichotomy, smear words, leading words, exaggerration, but once again we are falling for that trick where people attack with SMEARS to divert us into defending ourselves before we point out the flaws in their arguments.
– As ever you can find support for any argument in scripture quote : 1 Timothy 2:12 do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet
Context : In most situations the BBC does attempt balance, but in the context of thes 3 min progs it says the balance rule doesn’t apply – Yes truth does matter, but the BBC has this secret deal : religion is compartmentalised into it’s own set progs like the 3 minutes on Radio4 in morning in return for the archaic undemocratic religious keeping their oar out of other progs. …..Pity they haven’t done this with the CAGW religion.
Does this fellow consider himself above the group he says is evil – men ?
BTW – The BBC are normally quite hot on bullying saying “you can’t say that, cos the other person is not here to defend themselves”, but cos of the nature of that religious slot where no right of reply is allowed, Bell got away with being a BULLY.