[deleted]
Queen Elizabeth II has died
601–610 of 1001 posts
Re: Queen Elizabeth II has died
#602I was in London during Covid, and the Queen's Speech to the nation during the pandemic was a pivitol and powerful moment.
"We should take comfort that while we may have more still to endure, better days will return: we will be with our friends again; we will be with our families again; we will meet again."
Re: Queen Elizabeth II has died
#603I am a republican i.e. very anti-monarchist but it is a historic moment and I feel sad for some reason. The end of an era. A constant throughout the postwar period in this country. Someone my gran loved too and looked up to, so I feel pretty sad as a Brit.
Yep. A good time to end it all on as much of a high as they're likely to get.
Charles should abdicate to the young and more relatable William and Kate.
Re: Queen Elizabeth II has died
#604No post body was provided.
Re: Queen Elizabeth II has died
#605As 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…
She could have abolished the monarchy and quit at any time. Monarchies are inherently undemocratic and she was the head of that undemocratic class system for decades while people suffered under the British empire. I don’t doubt your sincerity, but these feelings in you and others were intentionally cultivated by decades of propaganda. There is no such thing as a rightful king or queen, and certainly no such thing as…
I would say that expecting a queen or king to remove his own power and influence by abolishing the monarchy is not very reasonable. If then it's the job of the people.
Re: Queen Elizabeth II has died
#606Earlier quoted context omitted.
I feel the same. I think it’s because it really represents the end of an era. The 20th and early 21st century ushered in unprecedented improvements to quality of life in Britain but it has felt of late that that has peaked and the country is facing a serious decline: Brexit, the increasingly visible effects of climate change, the aftermath of covid, the possible break up of the union, rising costs of living, recessio…
I think humans have evolved to need rulers and hierarchy to look up to to some extent. Look at what happened to Americans -- once the UK royalty was gone it was replaced with celebrity. It's just human nature.
[flagged]
Re: Queen Elizabeth II has died
#607As 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…
She could have abolished the monarchy and quit at any time. Monarchies are inherently undemocratic and she was the head of that undemocratic class system for decades while people suffered under the British empire. I don’t doubt your sincerity, but these feelings in you and others were intentionally cultivated by decades of propaganda. There is no such thing as a rightful king or queen, and certainly no such thing as…
I had never considered before what the right course of action for the Queen (and now Charles) would have been, but this is it.
That said, I do think it’s an unrealistic ask of someone who’s entire life and all those around her are dedicated to reinforcing her (absurd) status.
Those I really fault are the BBC who report her term heading this fundamentally antidemocratic institution so uncritically. Monarchy in the UK has majority support, but it is much more evenly split that you would imagine from our media.
Radio 4’s correspondent was on just now fondly telling tales of how the Queen had intervened by “raising an eyebrow” to save a favoured army regiment. If true this should be a national scandal in a constitutional monarchy. That it is reported with so little awareness of the media’s role in entrenching privilege is unforgivable.
Re: Queen Elizabeth II has died
#608As 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…
Quoted post unavailable.
We've banned this account for posting flamewar comments. That's not allowed here, and you've been doing it repeatedly (e.g. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32502544, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32287960).
If you don't want to be banned, you're welcome to email hn@ycombinator.com and give us reason to believe that you'll follow the rules in the future. They're here: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html.
Re: Queen Elizabeth II has died
#609As 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
#610I don't understand why all criticism is being considered flamebait. Yes some of it is flamebait, but the worship is some pretty juicy bait too.