Queen Elizabeth II has died

I reckon having to endure listening to whatever moron PM is currently in power every week for seventy years is a decent achievement. In all seriousness though, I'd say that not fucking up for an entire reign is a pretty big achievement. Can you name any other celebrity (for lack of a better word) that hasn't really put a foot wrong in all that time?

Put aside what you think about monarchies and royals and look at the actual person. She was completely dedicated to serving other people in the same way that the very best of our uniformed services are and it's why she gets so much respect from just about everyone.

In a way, it reminds me of musicians who aren't particularly known for their collectivism. I don't know for sure, but I can't imagine it's particularly fun to play the same song that made you famous in your twenties and play it every night for the next 50 years. A lot of them can't stand it and stop playing their old songs. Or stop touring all together.

This is kind of what the Queen has done but rather than just every night for an hour and a half, it's literally been every single day of her life. But she went to all those events and met all those people because even though it was the millionth time for her giving a medal to someone, it was the very first time for the other person receiving it. They were overjoyed getting to shake her hand and tell all their friends and family that they got to meet the Queen. And that's what she cared about.

She's done all this every day and not moaned once about it. Put yourself in her shoes. Yes, you get a fancy house and free money. But the life you have to live in exchange for it is not your own. You don't get to pursue your own individualist desires and dreams. All of those are put aside for your duties. At all times in public and most likely a lot of the time in public, you must act completely dignified. No emotional outbursts, you must be the rock that others lean on. You don't really get to retire, you just carry this on until you die.

There have been countless monarchs both in Britain and across the world who have not been up to the job. They've blamed others, shirked duties and abused their powers. But not this one. She really was the real deal.

>Yes, I understand she was a fake Queen of a country, but so what?

She was a real queen, albeit with little power. What is a fake queen?

>Why do we feel we need to worship these people, be it royalty or celebrities?

Can you point to anybody worshipping her? Talking about a person or showing them respect is not worship.

>People are dying in Gaza too, maybe spare a tear for them.

Can people not do both?

He says not to "rant against monarcy". Criticism of elizabeth is fair game I think, although still early for that. We ll see a lot of criticism of her and monarchy in general in the next months.

Personally i can see why brits may have feelings for her, but i dont consider her remarkable. Her legacy is basically that she lived in 96 of the most impactful years in human history and oversaw (from a distance) the end of the british empire. None of that was her making, she merely stood there as a prop. Her greatest achievement was that she led a conservative life, married only once, never participated in anything progressive, meshing well with the anachronistic rituals of monarchy.

> please don't post flamebait, including ranting against monarchy or railing against "the nobility" like it's 1770

> Positive-empty comments aren't substantive either, but as pg pointed out way back when HN was getting started (https://news.ycombinator.com/newswelcome.html), those are benign

Pro status-quo bias. Monarchy isn't as relevant as it used to be but trusting the judgment and leadership of the elite is as relevant as ever and allowing positive-empty comments just reinforces that belief here. I guess that's just the sort of bias HN is ok with.

They're a popular couple for sure. I expect King Charles will be more 'active', in lieu of a better word, than the Queen was and thus more controversial. He's long been vocal in eco/green/environmental subjects in particular, which might be very interesting.