Neil / Mark / religious content

Neil Jones neil at nwjones.demon.co.uk
Fri Apr 12 16:47:11 EDT 2002


On Friday 12 April 2002 09:43 pm, James Kruse wrote:
> Here are some snips, out of context, but you see the pattern.

You can make any pattern you like if you taken anything out of context.

>
> on 4/12/02 2:41 AM, Neil Jones at neil at nwjones.demon.co.uk wrote:
>
> (snip)
>
> > This was signed with a name that used a reference to British
> > slang which the Americans didn't understand.
>
> (more snips)
>
> > American and British people have a different cultural attitude towards
> > nudity.


NOTE American  AND British. I meant they were both different to the 
Scandinavians. Read the comment in  context again! Here it is.

"Your being Norwegian may explain things. American and British people
have a different cultural attitude towards nudity."

i.e The British _and_ Americans are different from the Norwegians!

Before you consipracy theorise in any way look for an alternative explanation.

> (more snips)
>
> > Americans have a different and much more old-fashioned
> > attitude towards religion than we British (and for that matter most
> > western Europeans ) do.
>
> (snippets from another post)
>
> > Here in Britain we are generally not religious at all. One statistic that
> > I saw recently is that less than 2% attend Christian churches.
> > It is absolutely _normal_ not to be religious here.
> > It is also not unusual amongst good American scientists.
>
> You neglected to mention the cowboy hats, blue jeans and hamburgers.

I wear blue jeans most of the time myself.  I have spent more time on holiday 
(vacation) in the USA than anywhere else. AND On-line I post more often in 
the American dominated Leps-l than on the UK list.

> I can't attribute the significance of these things to much of anything,
> especially Leps-L. I am far from dispirited for not knowing British slang
> for genitalia.

I don't expect you to know British slang but it was relevant to the
explanation. The reason you all responded was you didn't understand
what this joker was up to. It was probably deliberate on his part.
That is what Trolls are like, posting something controversial that will get 
most people going but someone will see through.

> Nor do I envy the 2% religious rating of your countrymen. I
> am not particularly religious myself, but even so, I find that figure
> somewhat lamentable.

Now I could accuse you of running down the British.

>
> I have had close and mutually useful collaborative working relationships
> with the British in the past. I observe that your 'insights' into American
> culture might occasionally ring of some vague degree of truth, however, the
> polite British I have known might chide Americans that they know as
> friends, but would never be seen overtly chastising all Americans on a
> public forum merely for the sake of it. 


I wasn't. I was stating facts and statistics. OK we all have our biases but 
your conclusions are plainly wrong.  For goodness sake! Just because I say 
someone is different from me I am not saying they are bad.


I think it has become much more in
> vogue to do this sort of thing as memories of historic cooperation between
> our countries fade and current ones are criticized and/or discounted.
> Anyhow, Neil, it is not obvious what your intentions or motivations are by
> making such remarks, yet you take every opportunity to do so.

The reason it is not obvious is because there is NO intent there at all.

> I'd prefer to take additional exchanges on this matter offline. I really am
> curious about Neil's response, if it doesn't include additional
> stereotyping. Responses from 'America-haters' (especially the American
> ones) are also interesting, if not predictable, but not specifically
> solicited.

American America-haters ?
Perhaps I need to say this and every one in the group should follow :-)
" I am not now, and never have been a member of the communist party".



> Jim

--
Neil Jones- Neil at nwjones.demon.co.uk http://www.butterflyguy.com/
NOTE NEW WEB ADDRESS
"At some point I had to stand up and be counted. Who speaks for the
butterflies?" Andrew Lees - The quotation on his memorial at Crymlyn Bog
National Nature Reserve

 
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