# The UK telegraph gets invited to tea by the Taliban and the cognitive dissonance is indescribable **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [September 4, 2021, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-uk-telegraph-gets-invited-to-tea-by-the-taliban-and-the-cognitive-dissonance-is-indescribable/950118 "2021-09-04T23:08:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2021, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-uk-telegraph-gets-invited-to-tea-by-the-taliban-and-the-cognitive-dissonance-is-indescribable/950118/1 "2021-09-04T23:08:44Z")
I dont know if every member is like that but there’s a bit of denial of reality going on here that or they were so sheltered in their own echo chambers but here it is > **[The Taliban invited The Telegraph to tea, and issued a chilling warning to...](https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/taliban-invited-telegraph-tea-issued-170159067.html)** > > The neatly arranged office toys and management guru books were still on the desk from the previous government official. But their Taliban replacement had added his own executive touches, including one of the movement's white religious banners and a... ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2021, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-uk-telegraph-gets-invited-to-tea-by-the-taliban-and-the-cognitive-dissonance-is-indescribable/950118/2 "2021-09-04T23:25:58Z")
I don’t get what you are saying. Who is denying what reality? ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2021, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-uk-telegraph-gets-invited-to-tea-by-the-taliban-and-the-cognitive-dissonance-is-indescribable/950118/3 "2021-09-04T23:33:17Z")
or the Taliban footsoldiers in Kabul there was either incomprehension at the protests, or hostility. “Those women are Westernised and they want a Western government and they are against Islamic law. In Islam there’s great respect for women. I wonder why they are protesting,” said one young fighter from Kapisa also standing outside the British embassy. ---
**Author:** ![Kimera757](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kimera757/32/3765_2.png) [@Kimera757](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimera757)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2021, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-uk-telegraph-gets-invited-to-tea-by-the-taliban-and-the-cognitive-dissonance-is-indescribable/950118/4 "2021-09-05T00:37:18Z")
> [@](#): > > In the second chapter of the Quran, Al-Baqarah, verse 2:282 provides a basis for the rule that two women are the equivalent of **one man** in providing a witness testimony in financial situations. A couple of years ago I read the Koran and was specifically angered by this verse. > [@](#): > > _O you who believe! When you contract a debt for a fixed period, write it down. Let a scribe write it down in justice between you. Let not the scribe refuse to write as [Allah](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allah) has taught him, so let him write. Let him (the debtor) who incurs the liability dictate, and he must fear Allah, his Lord, and diminish not anything of what he owes. But if the debtor is of poor understanding, or weak, or is unable himself to dictate, then let his guardian dictate in justice. And get two witnesses out of your own men. And if there are not two men (available), then a man and two women, such as you agree for witnesses, so that if one of them (two women) errs, the other can remind her._ The translation I read was a little less flowery. I also wonder about an “unannounced” visit. I find that hard to believe. ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2021, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-uk-telegraph-gets-invited-to-tea-by-the-taliban-and-the-cognitive-dissonance-is-indescribable/950118/5 "2021-09-05T00:38:57Z")
You seem surprised that they feel that everyone should think just like them. Welcome to the primary causes of war. Everyone thinks that their side is “right” and cannot understand why anyone would not want to be just like them. “My culture embraces X. Of course everyone will want X. It is baffling why anyone would not want X”. Both sides feel the same way. ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2021, 9:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-uk-telegraph-gets-invited-to-tea-by-the-taliban-and-the-cognitive-dissonance-is-indescribable/950118/6 "2021-09-06T09:04:57Z")
My assumption is that there is at least as much and probably far more denial of reality going on amongst Westerners commenting on the Taliban than there is amongst the Taliban. The Taliban are so successful (like the Viet Cong) because they have a lot of local support - far more support than the invading/occupying foreigners appreciate. And that is probably because the locals’ values align with those of the Taliban to an extent far more than is appreciated by outsiders. ---
**Author:** ![Uniqueorn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/uniqueorn/32/2807_2.png) [@Uniqueorn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uniqueorn)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2021, 9:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-uk-telegraph-gets-invited-to-tea-by-the-taliban-and-the-cognitive-dissonance-is-indescribable/950118/7 "2021-09-06T09:15:36Z")
Or could it be some form of learned helplessness, where the people had so many regime changes that their values stop at: “Whose bread I eat, his song I sing.”? ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2021, 10:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-uk-telegraph-gets-invited-to-tea-by-the-taliban-and-the-cognitive-dissonance-is-indescribable/950118/8 "2021-09-06T10:15:28Z")
I don’t know that provides much of an explanation - if the Mujahideen and Taliban didn’t have local support they wouldn’t have had bread to distribute. And who would be the biggest distributor of bread in order to get people to sing their song? ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2021, 11:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-uk-telegraph-gets-invited-to-tea-by-the-taliban-and-the-cognitive-dissonance-is-indescribable/950118/9 "2021-09-06T11:14:22Z")
> [@nightshadea](#): > > I dont know if every member is like that but there’s a bit of denial of reality going on here that or they were so sheltered in their own echo chambers but here it is > [@Princhester](#): > > I don’t get what you are saying. Who is denying what reality? To be fair, the phrase “sheltered in their own echo chambers” could equally apply to the Taliban or the Telegraph. In addition to its actual fighting, the Taliban leadership have been engaged in an aggressive PR campaign in the West to push the narrative that they are not barbaric savages but instead a mature and responsible culture capable of running a country in peace and harmony yadda yadda yadda. A lot of this is blatant bullshit but in this they’ve basically just caught up to what other governments do. As for the rank and file, they’re pretty much just giving us the local equivalent of “U-S-A! U-S-A!”. Like a lot of people who don’t have much experience with or interest in other cultures, they believe their way of life is the correct one and everyone else is weird. With regard to the article, this was some weird phrasing: > [@](#): > > Film of the protest showed the women being jostled and shouting: “Why are you beating us!”. Local news channels later showed a protestor bleeding from a gash on her head. Usually “jostling” doesn’t result in bleeding headwounds.