Live data from Hacker News

Queen Elizabeth II has died

bbc.com

541–550 of 1001 posts

Re: Queen Elizabeth II has died

#541
post #333

As a Brit I'm not a huge fan of the royal family on principle, but Queen Elizabeth has been such an excellent head of state for us you really can't fault her. People like to make out her life was easy and that it's not fair that she inherited such a privileged position, but I think the exact opposite. Her life seemed like living hell to me. Every day for the last 70 years she's had to serve this largely ungrateful co…

No post body was provided.

Re: Queen Elizabeth II has died

#542

It's weird, I've never considered myself a "royalist" but this news has affected me quite strongly. I just burst into tears unexpectedly on hearing this news and I don't quite understand why I feel so very sad. I guess I have grown up and lived my whole life (as a Brit) seeing and hearing the Queen, singing "God save the Queen" etc, and this news made me suddenly feel very old, very nostalgic, with the sense that all…

As an American, the news also made me very sad. Though it's definitely not the same thing, we all "grew up" with the Queen.

Re: Queen Elizabeth II has died

#543

Fun fact about English royalty It’s technically easier for a muslim to become king/queen than for a Catholic. Catholics are the only ones who are banned by law to become English royals.

Well yes, Catholics are/were considered to be loyal to Rome. But I'm pretty sure Tony Blair's government successfully repealed that restriction.

Re: Queen Elizabeth II has died

#544
Good riddance. The world is rid of a horrible person who has done horrible things, and who has never once tried to do the right thing in the face of adversity.

She could have done so much more, spoken out against so many atrocities, in her own family and Britain's role in the world in general. She could have attempted to use the last vestiges of monarchical power - likely ending the monarchy in the process - and stopped Brexit, or this turmoil that has ensued because of it.

But she chose not to do any of this. Because the "prestige" of this disgusting tradition was worth more to her than the lives of any of the citizens she "rules" (symbolically) over.

It would have been hard to have had a worse monarch than her.

Re: Queen Elizabeth II has died

#545
post #490

Earlier quoted context omitted.

meanwhile, Irish Twitter and TikTok have been absolutely ablaze with celebration...

Twitter is an echo chamber of edginess and not indicative of the average person in the real world. It's like wondering what 4chan thinks of this.

Average person don't care...

All kinds of republicans(anti-monarchists, not American republicans) are content.

Re: Queen Elizabeth II has died

#546
post #378
post #329

All: please don't post flamebait, including ranting against monarchy or railing against "the nobility" like it's 1770. Such reflexive comments are not on topic here. We want curious conversation. Please review https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html . This story is on topic because it's a major historical event and history has always been on topic here. If it doesn't produce an intellectually curious respons…

is it a malignant comment to point out that the royalty is a malignant influence on the United Kingdom?

The point I made was not really about monarchy, but about comment quality on HN. Low-information, high-indignation comments—such as repetition of well-worn political points—is the classic low-quality case that we're most hoping to avoid here. Especially because they tend to evoke even worse from others.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: Queen Elizabeth II has died

#547
post #85

RIP. I don't look forward to her being replaced by Charles on my money.

Don't worry too much about for money. From what I know, the royal family brings in far more in taxes on merch / tv coverage rights / other revenues than it takes to sustain them. They also have a considerable estate which is likely profitable.

Re: Queen Elizabeth II has died

#548
post #533
post #333

As a Brit I'm not a huge fan of the royal family on principle, but Queen Elizabeth has been such an excellent head of state for us you really can't fault her. People like to make out her life was easy and that it's not fair that she inherited such a privileged position, but I think the exact opposite. Her life seemed like living hell to me. Every day for the last 70 years she's had to serve this largely ungrateful co…

> Every day for the last 70 years she's had to serve this largely ungrateful country This doesn't really address why anyone is "ungrateful"...

seems, if she was really good at her job and service... they'd be more grateful and less ungrateful. I mean, a truly great king or queen would live in a normal cottage home, without servants other than maybe a bodyguard or two.

All that pomp just makes one pompous.

Re: Queen Elizabeth II has died

#549

I was born in the UK, in 1963. Because of my step-father's love of first-wave UK punk, the first thing I did on hearing this news was to play the Sex Pistol's "God Save the Queen". It is remarkable how much the Queen's standing has improved during the time since that song (1977). My (UK) family are (as far as I know) staunch republicans, but the last couple of decades have seen all of us soften our disgust with the m…

I listened to "the queen is dead" by the smith's immediately
Post reply on HN