I've been bible thumped. A woman who had been a friend up until that point, when I told her about myself - grabbed her bible, slapped it repeatedly into her hand in my face and called me "bizarre and strange" over and over again. Until you've had this happen you can't really imagine how fucked up (and bizarre. and strange) it really is.

She did ruin the message a little though when she kept trying to read scripture to me to prove I was "wrong" but all she could find was passages about how a man should love their neighbors and friends as they would their wives (uh... ) and another part about "and the wife should obey the husband" which she then immediately followed up with

"but that part doesn't count, because they didn't understand things back then."

Yeah. And now she's marrying my brother-in-law. *sigh*
( Allisade would love to hear from you, Tue 6 Apr 2010, 17:02, 3 replies)

Northern views about London.
I'm a northerner. I know a lot of people who havn't stepped foot in their own countries captial. We're not talking about scabby chavs who have to scrape coppers together to even get the bus into town. We're talking well established oldies who have had the experience of life. Yet they refuse point blank to go to London, because "You just get blown up by bombs" and "You'll get stabbed by illegal immigrants". People just think its dodgy and totally dangerous.

So armed with these warnings, and begs and pleads from the elders to not venture there. Me and the girlfriend went on our first visit many years ago. Yes! I actually felt a bit scared and I had a hard time dragging the girlfriend out of Kings Cross Station because she was REALLY scared! The amount of people everywhere pushing and shoving was just really daunting. Someone threw a sandwich down on the ground and 10 seconds later a skanky tramp had it. Saw hookers outside the station. And lots and lots of different nationalities of people all doing their strange things.

It really is the scarey big city. The fact the locals call it "Town" is laughable! No! A town has one bus station and maybe one train station!

Anyway i'm used to London now. Been loads of times, its great :) Tho I wouldn't live there!
(Miggyman, Tue 6 Apr 2010, 16:52, 16 replies)

Non-Traditional Names
This is not something I'm proud of, but I have a prejudice against names like Shaneeta or Gifty. I once embarrassed myself chatting to a (very nice) girl at work when I made a crack about names with apostrophes in them - it turned out her name was La'Shan.

The thing is, I totally understand that names coming from other cultures are going to be different, and don't necessarily map to a traditional spelling when they're based on non-English names, places and people. I can't defend my prejudice, but I can't seem to get rid of it either.

This is only going to get worse - I'm moving to the US next year.
(Seebeedee, Tue 6 Apr 2010, 16:49, 11 replies)

Scottish Football
There was a poll, asking about the best and worst things about Scottish Football. The top two answers in the 'worst' list were,

1. Sectarianism

2. Fenian Bastards
( Cheeses of Nazareth Where's Captain Kirk? www.whereiskirk.com, Tue 6 Apr 2010, 16:35, Reply)

I didn't think I was prejudice at all
That was until I took up my seat on a jet taking me away on hoilday.

And the pilot introduced himself and started going on about the flight ahead over to Spain.

And I very nearly shat myself with fear. There was absolutely no way possible we were going to make it to Barcelona in on peice. We were all going to die. Horribly.

The pilot had a Brummie accent.

Turns out I'm prejudice against Brums. They can wash my car, serve me burgers - yes. But put fly an aeroplane?

Just hope I never need an operation and end up with a Brummie surgeon. I'd probably end up throwing myself out a window trying to escape.

Sorry, people of Birmingham - but you just don't sound too smart.
(Gulliver, Tue 6 Apr 2010, 16:29, 11 replies)

4x4 drivers on country lanes
Too long did you bully and push your way toward me when I drove my car in the opposite direction to you!

Why when you have the "off road vehicle" is it I who had to reverse into the field entrance to let you by? Even when reversing for your convenience why must you drive forward as I reverse staying just a few feet from my front bumper!?

So now I have my revenge! For now I own a van... and it's BIGGER than your 4x4! Better still, mine already has dents in it and I'm not afraid to gather more! SO now you must be the one to reverse for I will stand my ground and look down upon thee lowly 4x4 driver! ;-p
(golddust QOTW now revolves around being a cunt, Tue 6 Apr 2010, 16:20, 4 replies)

I hate prejudice.


And Blacks.
(Scrumpy does not negotiate with terrorists,, Tue 6 Apr 2010, 16:14, 1 reply)

veggy prejudice?
I have more than been pissed off and hungry over the years as there has been little thought going into putting more non meat dishes on the menu but I am never going to call it 'discrimination'. It's even worse in europe except when in Italy, bless them.
If people want to eat meat I have no issue with that and am not prejudiced against it, in fact one of my best friends is a butcher(Pennington and Dunnes, Cannon Hill lane, Raynes Park, purveyors of quality meat to the catering trade)
In the same way I would never demand that my veggieness is practised by everybody else and laws changed so that I dont feel discriminated against and demand that everybody stops eating meat.
So those whine about non meat eaters can all fuck off and join the BMP (British meat party) and demand only british beef for british people and stop being defensive when you try to justify swallowing dead flesh like a cannibal, I am not having a go because I dont want to eat it, you are very welcome to it.
And those who get on their soap box and demand equality for veggies stfu and be thankful that there is actually something you can eat on the menu as there are plenty of people in the world who have no choice as to what they might eat next, if anything.
Things have changed for the better in the last 20 years and there is plenty of choice, there is no prejudice, just people who can't be arsed to think differently.
(nimrodihnio making gravy for one., Tue 6 Apr 2010, 15:28, 17 replies)

It was a start
Elderly relative born in the early 1900s did not like black people. She stopped watching Wimbledon because the Williams sisters kept winning. If she had to deal with someone who wasn't white then she would be polite to them.
As old age caught up with her she had to go into a nursing home where due to the poor pay and conditions the staff tends to be multicultural. One day my father was visiting her, a black member of staff came in to do something. When he'd gone she beckoned dad to move closer and said, "You know some of them are alright."
(jvz, Tue 6 Apr 2010, 15:24, Reply)

Vatican Priest: Abuse Uproar Like Anti-Semitism
Pope Benedict XVI's personal preacher on Friday likened accusations against the pope and the Catholic church in the sex abuse scandal to "collective violence" suffered by the Jews.

The Rev. Raniero Cantalamessa said in a Good Friday homily with the pope listening in St. Peter's Basilica that a Jewish friend wrote to him to say the accusations remind him of the "more shameful aspects of anti-Semitism."

The 82-year-old pontiff looked weary as he sat near the central altar during the early evening prayer service a few before he was scheduled to take part in a candlelit Way of the Cross procession near the Colosseum which commemorates Christ's suffering before his crucifixion.

Thousands of Holy Week pilgrims were in St. Peter's Square as the church defends itself against accusations that Benedict had a role in covering up sex abuses cases.

The "coincidence" that Passover falls in the same week as Easter celebrations, said Cantalamessa, a Franciscan who offers reflections at Vatican Easter and Advent services, prompted him to think about Jews.

"They know from experience what it means to be victims of collective violence and also because of this they are quick to recognize the recurring symptoms," the preacher said.

Quoting from the letter from the friend, who wasn't identified by Cantalamessa, the preacher said that he was following "'with indignation the violent and concentric attacks against the church, the pope and all the faithful of the whole world.'"

"The use of stereotypes, the passing from personal responsibility and guilt to a collective guilt remind me of the more shameful aspects of anti-Semitism,"' Cantalamessa said his friend wrote him.

In the sermon, he referred to the sexual abuse of children by clergy, saying "unfortunately, not a few elements of the clergy are stained" by the violence." But Cantalamessa said he didn't want to dwell on the abuse of children, saying "there is sufficient talk outside of here."

Benedict didn't speak after the homily, but, in a tired-sounding voice, chanted prayers. He leaned up to remove a red cloth covering a tall crucifix, which was passed to him by an aide. He took off his shoes, knelt and prayed before the cross.

For pilgrims, the credibility crisis over the pope's record on combatting clergy abuse of minors didn't color their Holy Week activities in Rome.

Anne Rossier of Boston, Massachusetts, said the moment was "difficult" and that "lots of people have been turned against the church" but "we could not have been in a better place right now for Easter."

Boston was at the epicenter of sex abuse lawsuits and allegations that U.S. bishops in many dioceses shuffled pedophile priests from parish to parish instead of removing them from contact with the faithful. Boston Cardinal Bernard Law, at the center of the storm, resigned as archbishop, to be assigned to a prestigious post in Rome by the late Pope John Paul II.

Tourists snapped photos and strolled through St. Peter's Square on a breezy, sunny day. Valeria Misuri, 38, from Livorno, Italy, studied a map in the square as she visited Rome with her family.

"I haven't let the recent scandals change how special this place is at this time for me," said Misuri. "The church is made up of men, and men have always erred and will always continue to do so."

Pointing heavenward, she said: "In the end, the conscience lies there."

www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/04/02/world/main6357321.shtml
(apeloverage committed the vile act of onanism on, Tue 6 Apr 2010, 15:19, 7 replies)

Food discrimination
This weekend Ms Foxtrot and I returned to the homestead to visit my parents. On the Saturday night we went to a local Italian restaurant for a meal for my sister's birthday. 7 of us ordered meat, or meat with pasta, or meat on a pizza, with a starter of meat.

Ms Foxtrot is a vegetarian.

She is also not keen on the effect that wheat has on her insides and so scoured the menu for an appropriate dish. In an Italian restaurant. Let's be honest, if it hasn't got tits or tyres the Italians aren't interested and they like their food to spring directly from something that used to have a face to help perpetuate the bullshit superhuman sexual prowess image that they've cultivated for themselves. Oh, and I say "restaurant", this is Piccolo's in Arnold (named, rumour has it, for Rimmer and retaining many of his more winning characteristics).

So she asks if the tricolore salad (tomato, mozzarella and avocado with a basil vinaigrette) can be beefed up (sorry) to constitute a main course. Of course-a, they say, no problem-a, excessive hair gel, football, other xenophobic stereotypes. The salad cost £4.50. I can't wait to see this. And they did not disappoint.

Well, they didn't disappoint me, but I know Arnold. Ms Foxtrot was served a quartered tomato, a sliced mozzarella and half a sliced avocado. I know it was a half because a bit had gone brown where it had been sat in the fridge. Those ingredients would cost about £1.19. The basil vinaigrette was missing entirely, which on this form came as something of a relief.

What kind of sick world do we live in where a gluten intolerent vegetarian can't get a sumptuous and exquisitely composed meal for £4.50 in a slightly shit restaurant catering to the inhabitants of a town which consists mostly of chavs, slightly to the north of the gun crime capital of Britain?

It's political correctness gone nowhere at fucking all. Shocking.

Apologies if this isn't funny. I thought I'd give "100% true" a try. All feedback welcome, including "your real life is not humourous, make more stuff up"
(Darth Foxtrot A one-man army dedicated to making fetch happen, Tue 6 Apr 2010, 14:33, 25 replies)

Churchill
Once said something along the lines of

"All working-class women should be neutered".

Once I heard this prejudice he had against the working classes, he dropped massively in my estimation.

It took dodgy a appendix, a month of daytime TV and Jeremy Kyle to make me realise that once again, he had a bloody good point. However, for me it no longer applied to people who used to be 'working class', as anyone with any kind of job I respect.
Oh no, my prejudice is against those who do not work and expect everything to be handed to them.
(Roddimus_Prime Should be revising, Tue 6 Apr 2010, 14:22, 7 replies)

I'm predjudiced against Scientologists.
I mean, I've just taken aboard all the unfair negative coverage from the media without giving them a chance. Maybe there really was a tyrant ruler Xenu who destroyed millions of souls inside volcanoes on Earth with Hydrogen Bombs......

Or maybe some things can and should be dismissed quickly without even bothering to dig beneath the surface. Like X-Factor.
( TheFinch is getting to grips with the complex plane on, Tue 6 Apr 2010, 13:59, 4 replies)

Education, education, education
We all vary in our degrees of self-consciousness, but it's always hard for any given person to judge how he or she is perceived by the average member of the public. In my own case, a randomly chosen person who passed me on the street might notice a tall, dark, slightly gangly Caucasian gentleman with long hair, not dressed to fit any fashion, blundering around with a slightly vacant expression. It's hard to guess whether I appear harmless or slightly shifty, good- or bad-looking, approachable or intimidating, or just like a student.

I was, however, made aware of one preconception that seems to be triggered in most people the moment I open my mouth: apparently a number of people jump straight to the conclusion that I went to public school*.

I didn't. I went to a state comprehensive school and my parents have always made it abundantly clear that, even if they could have afforded the fees, they would never have sent me to public school. So I was very surprised, when I first rolled up at university, that I was being mistaken for a public schoolboy. Odder still, the people who made this mistake invariably turned out to be former public schoolboys themselves.

Because it wasn't hard for school to be mentioned in conversation, and there was always something insipid about the way they'd ask,
"Oh, so which public school did you go to?"
"Erm...I didn't. I went to a state comp..."
"Oh..." they usually replied, with a tone that wasn't quite disgust but often seemed a little stronger than disappointment. Well, you did ask. And since we're on the matter, why did you specify public school? It's safe to assume I went to a school, but the fact you specifically asked about public school just makes your question even more snobbish.

I know, I know, it's the voice. Somehow I've ended up being rather well-spoken, with quite a nice, home counties RP accent. It's got quite a deep tone to it as well and I quite like the way it sounds (it even came in handy when a family member asked me to do a voiceover on a video for his publishers, sadly fame and fortune have not followed).

But why did these snobs assume that, because I sound a bit posh, I could only have gone to some extortionately-priced school with all the rich kids? Are they actually taught this prejudice that only other "old boys" from "the good schools" speak properly, and that's how you can pick them apart from the proles in these modern times? Are they given a little booklet entitled "Know Your Enemy: The Prole," detailing the hilarious regional accents and behavioural quirks with which the commoners will present themselves?

So Daddy paid a small fortune for you to be educated with all the rugger buggers, so that you could lodge yourself in some old boys' network. Well bully for you. My Daddy didn't, I think I just got too much exposure to Radio 4 as a child.

*_{That is, "private school" for those not familiar with the British education system.}
(LongJohnBaldry, Tue 6 Apr 2010, 13:49, 11 replies)

I'm not prejudace

He lived a few thousand years ago with Jesus in the merry old times
(NuffMuff fucks shrubbery, Tue 6 Apr 2010, 13:42, Reply)

I remember....
Back when I was a wee nipper, I regularly attended church with the family. Hailing from a village town, everyone knew everyone else, and the priest was a well known figure, willing to please his flock in any way possible (ahem!)

Due to the large quantity of young children wishing to take part in the usual Catholic activities involving the body and blood of Christ, he thought it suitable to replace the wine for Blackcurrent squash, much to the satisfaction of the attending parents, keen to see their children learn the ceremony from a young age.

I'll never forget watching my young sister, no more than 7 years old, sipping from the cup then instantly spurting out the dark red liquid all over the Priest's finest white robes!!!

"I hate blackcurrant juice, its disgusting!!!" She screamed at the startled man of God.




And that, my dear fellows, is the first experience I ever had of "Pray-juice-dis".

Ahfankyou.....
(Roddimus_Prime Should be revising, Tue 6 Apr 2010, 13:35, 3 replies)

Agnostics...
I am an agnostic. For some reason on this site saying that I am one means I'm a spineless fence sitter with a lack of danglies who should read more and make a choice. To the vocal minority who hold this opinion I would like to say the following:

Agnosticism is not sitting on the fence. It's saying that you don't have the arrogance or blinkered mindset to zealously follow a single faith or scientific argument's tenets to the extreme, without sound reason to do so.

I think evolution happens, and that intelligent design in its current form is a sack of idiocy tied with a little ribbon of religious desperation. However this doesn't mean there isn't a sky pixie/beard who made all this true. Science doesn't know what actually caused the Big Bang so why is a being of immesurable power which kicked our reality off for fun/boredom/love/as a by product of a fight with a pirate frog of epic size/by doing a massive shit any more outlandish an opinion than "well... it just happened through no actual cause thus negating most of physics and therefore my entire justification for calling those religious types cunts"? If someone comes along with some proof of what happened to create that superdense matter ball which created us then great, I'll assimilate the new data into my viewpoint. (nobody say 'bang crunch' please, there's still a causeless effect to explian away)

I don't sit on my fence and tell everyone I respect their viewpoints like some sort of annoying zen type. I rubbish homeopaths, despise those who use religion as justification for any evil act and really, really hate atheists who don't take a little time to understand what it is people like me believe before going off on one. The gross presumption of many atheists regarding all other religious and scientific viewpoints I find far more nauseating than someone who really feels the presence of their own personal deity. Plus most god loving types see me as an open mind, rather than a twat.

Before you launch a tirade at agnostics in general, ask what they ACTUALLY believe rather than what you've predetermined through ignorance.
(ElectricSexPants would like to be the Sultan of something, Tue 6 Apr 2010, 13:32, 24 replies)

White South Africans
I know I shouldn't, but I can't help thinking that WSAs who were in the UK before apartheid got scrapped were the good guys, because they didn't/couldn't stand living somewhere with such injustice and more than likely benefiting from it.

Now it's over, I can't help thinking that White South Africans who aren't back living in South Africa trying to make it work better must be over here because they can't stand the idea of the "blix" being in charge.

Irrational and a sweeping generalisation, like all good prejudices, but I can't quite shake it.

And the accent still sounds like the one sharks would use if they could talk.
( shinyshinyscalp less a man, more a way of life, Tue 6 Apr 2010, 13:20, 3 replies)

Oxfam Fun
I was in an Oxfams in a relatively middle class area of Sheffield with my bosses wife. We were looking at the kids books, and she pulled out one by Oscar Wilde.
"Why don't you get this one?" She asked
"I would never let my children read a book written by a convicted homosexual" was my reply.
The shop went very quiet, and the bosses wife walked out.
(leancranker, Tue 6 Apr 2010, 13:05, 5 replies)

Hipsters
Those rich fuckers in their early twenties who wear the skinny fit jeans, the fucking dream catchers in their ears instead of earrings, have fucked up facial hair (even thought they aren't old enough to grow anything more than whispy face pubes).

The cunts who's idea of a week's work is going to the cash point and withdrawing the money mummy and daddy put in their for them to get them through a hard week ahead snorting coke and drinking shit imported beer.

Those twats who can't go through a sentence without saying "like" at least five or six times. i.e. "It was like so like you know essential that I like, had to be there in person or, like, they'd never have gotten anything done." ARGGGGHHHHHH !

These cunts can't do anything without saying its 'post-modern' or 'ironic'. Even though they have no idea what either of these mean.

They think anyone who's not a pointless waster living off the wealth of their parents who actually spends their day at work earning a living instead of sitting in a coffee shop reading Sylvia Plath is a think twat.

Only listen to music/read books by obscure artists. Shun and hate anything considered popular and then spend all their time telling everyone they meet how fucking special they are because they listen to/read this obscure stuff. They'll use phrases like: "I liked them before they were popular. Now, like, because they're popular I, like, hate them. They sold out." (Coming from a twat wearing designer cloths and a fucking Rolex bought with daddy's profits from that City job he has). And they're so incredibly opinionated and closed-off to any different point of view they'll throw a hissy fit if you don't like exactly what they like - as if you really give a flying fuck either way.

They are always right even though they know abolutely nothing about anything.

They are, in short, mouth-breathing idiots, like.

Cunts.

EDIT: Check out Look At This Fucking Hipser dot com. You'll see what I mean.
(Lizard King, Tue 6 Apr 2010, 13:00, 38 replies)

Is it prejudice to dislike Hummer drivers/owners?
Particularly the ones with the full twat pack; massively stupid tyres, spinning neon hubcaps, chrome exhausts that belong on trucks? Or am I just being precious?
(Bear Pookie The Frankly Challenged. Halloween is coming to town., Tue 6 Apr 2010, 12:48, 3 replies)

Creationists
Make me want to know through my fingers and start chewing my knuckles to avoid punching them full square in the face.

The most recent discussion I had with one when challenging their "heaven and earth made in six days" bollocks was "well, in those days, a day wasn't 24 hours in duration" -- what the ... ?

If there are any intelligent design followers or creationists amongst the B3TA readership I apologise if the next statement is considered to be either inflammatory or in some other way unkind / unhelpful but if you want proof for evolution, look at your hands. See those opposable thumbs there?
(JohntheDane, Tue 6 Apr 2010, 11:55, 61 replies)

"Well, I'm not racist, BUT..."
I fucking cringe when I hear that.
(Bear Pookie The Frankly Challenged. Halloween is coming to town., Tue 6 Apr 2010, 11:54, 2 replies)

I'm prejudiced against atheists...
... because whenever a believer starts on about God they pitch in with their "mythical sky being" nonsense. Atheists are just as big a bunch of religious nutcases as the hardcore believers - but somehow they manage to be even more annoying.
(gordonjcp, Tue 6 Apr 2010, 11:53, 17 replies)

Scientologists
There's just something about their weird perversion of scientific method and ethos that rubs me up the wrong way.
( Amish Information Systems hates misplaced, commas, Tue 6 Apr 2010, 11:47, 8 replies)

I believe that
the same bit of brain that recognises song lyrics also handles accents. I also think that part of the brain in my head is not very well developed. Mrs SLVA gets ticked off because I keep singing the wrong lyrics to songs.

Back in the early 90s I registered at a new medical centre with a new doctor. They just assigned one to me at random. I noticed that every doctor I saw about the place was of a Middle Eastern to South Asia (India, Bangladeshi etc) origin and they all had quite strong accents to match.

I began to get tired of asking them to repeat themselves as it was quite embarrassing, so I stopped asking and then struggled in silence to decipher what they were saying; it was like an audio version of shorthand. I then hit upon an idea.

I thought if there was an English doctor, I might be allowed to switch to them and make my visits easier. I approached the reception and asked:

"Are there any white doctors I can see?"

Not English, white. I didn't even qualify the question with my problem with the accents. The receptionist who, like all the other admin staff, (and all the nurses I saw there) were white, looked quite uncomfortable.
"Err, no there isn't"
"Ah, ok then, thanks anyway" said I and left. When I got home, I was about to mention it to my missus when it dawned on me what I had said.
17 years later, and I am still cringeing at the thought.
( sandettie light vessel automatic New Twitter - @bollocksreally, Tue 6 Apr 2010, 11:45, 2 replies)

Think about what you've just said . . .
At college I used to know this bloke who was a nice enough guy, but not the sharpest tool in the box.

He once uttered the immortal line: "I hate facists. They should take all the facists and put them on an island with all the poofs!"

He couldn't work out why everyone was pissing themselves laughing at him
(Barry Subchimp, Tue 6 Apr 2010, 11:37, Reply)

religious people
They might look normal. They have a normal job. They might dress just like your or I and then suddenly, apparently innocuously they say something like

"Well, I'm not very religious but I do believe in [insert mythical sky being here]"

And my eyes glaze over and all I can hear is

"Burble burble burble flibble"

And I imagine a small child is talking to me, a child who might as well be blowing spit bubbles and describing something they've just found up their nose.
( rofl harris, Tue 6 Apr 2010, 11:37, 6 replies)

I know people who believe white women who have children with West Indian men are being fooled
because the men won't marry them.

Or rather, they won't marry them until they've had three, or sometimes five children with them. By which time the man will have started another family with a different woman.

Anyone else heard this one, or is it peculiar to my northern town?
(Juan Quar is clinging to her front teeth on, Tue 6 Apr 2010, 11:24, 2 replies)

Be Gentle - First Timer!
I like to think I'm a fairly laid back, chilled out Dane.

That having been said when members of the Islamist community in my home country went crazy about a cartoonist drawing a picture of their prophet - what on earth was that about?
(JohntheDane, Tue 6 Apr 2010, 11:21, 13 replies)