Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Anti-royal protesters are being arrested in the U.K. as 'Not My King' tag grows

text.npr.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

571–580 of 693 posts

Re: Anti-royal protesters are being arrested in the U.K. as 'Not My King' tag grows

#571

Post by austinjp »

javajosh wrote: post #421
austinjp wrote: post #327

The UK media (not just the BBC) continue to profess "amazement" at the speed and efficiency of the transitioning from a dead monarch to a living one. There's been much speaking in awed tones at the pace of the various proclamations, committee meetings, document signings, etc, as if this pace tells us why we should be impressed. Personally I've found it borderline sickening. If there was a curtain that could have slip…

Quoted post unavailable.

I've heard several variations of this argument recently: that democracy or peace or [other favourable circumstance] are an aberration rather than a norm.

The problem here is that none of us can see the future. We can't know if democracy is a "blip". Let's come back in oooh another 10,000 years and see.

Re: Anti-royal protesters are being arrested in the U.K. as 'Not My King' tag grows

#573

Post by throwaway0a5e »

AnimalMuppet wrote: post #3

For all its faults, I love the US. I can go downtown with a sign that says "Not my president", and I may get some cheers, may get some boos. What I won't get is arrested. This is true no matter who is president. Now, if I were saying this about President Harris, say, when she came to visit Biden's body while it was lying in state, that would be deplorable taste. It would be worse if my sign criticized Biden while his…

> For all its faults, I love the US. I can go downtown with a sign that says "Not my president", and I may get some cheers, may get some boos. What I won't get is arrested.

The situation is not that cut and clear.

I had a joke hat that looked like a MAGA hat (red with white text). I never wore it out of the house because at the time I took public transit everywhere and I didn't want to wind up wearing somebody's coffee or be assaulted (sure it probably would have taken awhile but still, not worth the risk). Were that to happen I can just about guarantee the crime would be pursued by the police about as vigorously as a petty theft report. The government probably would have left me alone but how much is that worth when other people will do their dirty work for them?

Re: Anti-royal protesters are being arrested in the U.K. as 'Not My King' tag grows

#574

Post by austinjp »

staticassertion wrote: post #340
austinjp wrote: post #327

The UK media (not just the BBC) continue to profess "amazement" at the speed and efficiency of the transitioning from a dead monarch to a living one. There's been much speaking in awed tones at the pace of the various proclamations, committee meetings, document signings, etc, as if this pace tells us why we should be impressed. Personally I've found it borderline sickening. If there was a curtain that could have slip…

Did you just notice you're in a monarchy? Have you never seen parliament open? You missed prorogation with the silly Black Rod nonsense? I'm not sure how you can characterize this as some creeky system that's just showing its face now lol it's built into so much of your government, multiple times a year, including one extremely high profile case (the prorogation) only a few months ago. Honestly, be grateful. I watch…

> Did you just notice you're in a monarchy? Have you never seen parliament open? You missed prorogation with the silly Black Rod nonsense? I'm not sure how you can characterize this as some creeky system that's just showing its face now lol

Hehe :) Yeah fair. The accession of Charles has been on another scale though. It's national and public, rather than in a palace.

Re: Anti-royal protesters are being arrested in the U.K. as 'Not My King' tag grows

#575

Post by eternalban »

seydor wrote: post #303
random_upvoter wrote: post #214

I've been a bit disconcerted at the level of unmitigated adulation that's been showered on the late queen by the media. I have nothing bad to say about Elizabeth II but I too do my job every day -- without a staff of hundreds to prepare my breakfast -- and I don't think I will be sanctified the day I keel over. It's all so serious and deeply conservative you'd think we are back in the 1950. In the 1970s Monty Python…

it is weird. Even bloomberg seems to have a newfound religious worship of the british monarchy I understand that it is popular among the general public because fairytales and costumes and stuff , but i have to shake my head at how some reporters talk seriously about "peaceful transition of power", when there is no power

If this institution lacked power, would it be featured 24/7 internationally, whether we like or not? So maybe there is in fact some unspoken power involved here, even though we're told "it is ceremonial". Sometimes makes you wonder, did the British Empire really die or is it like the un-Dead Soviet Union waiting in the wings to make a comeback?

Re: Anti-royal protesters are being arrested in the U.K. as 'Not My King' tag grows

#576

Post by austinjp »

NonNefarious wrote: post #449
austinjp wrote: post #327

The UK media (not just the BBC) continue to profess "amazement" at the speed and efficiency of the transitioning from a dead monarch to a living one. There's been much speaking in awed tones at the pace of the various proclamations, committee meetings, document signings, etc, as if this pace tells us why we should be impressed. Personally I've found it borderline sickening. If there was a curtain that could have slip…

Quoted post unavailable.

I hope from my comments here and this of others that recent events are not just a "pageant". If you can explain how there is really "nothing more" to it and why we shouldn't care, I'd be grateful for the revelation.

Re: Anti-royal protesters are being arrested in the U.K. as 'Not My King' tag grows

#577

Post by HyperSane »

brutusborn wrote: post #537
HyperSane wrote: post #475

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is sickening when the transition is from one unelected, parasitic, hereditary monarch to her child.

As I replied to the other poster, if you dislike monarchy then thats fine. But you're basically saying you don't like certain rituals because they remind you of a political system you despise, which is a hilariously roundabout way of shoehorning your hatred of monarchy into a thread.

Silly rituals are a pretty big part of monarchies, IMHO because monarchs have always understood they have no legitimate right to rule so they use the pomp and circumstance as a form of fake legitimacy.

Re: Anti-royal protesters are being arrested in the U.K. as 'Not My King' tag grows

#578

Post by austinjp »

javajosh wrote: post #572
morelisp wrote: post #497

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Monarchy is a human default government. There is literally no evidence for this.

Quoted post unavailable.

There are plenty of issues with this line of argument. Black swans (monarchies everywhere we look), crystal ball gazing (we can't see the future so we can't identify if we're living in aberrant times), might is right (the powerful are the first to take control, which is interpreted as governance), elitism (power passes to the powerful), and probably more.

Although "proof by Civ" is incontrovertible, of course.

Re: Anti-royal protesters are being arrested in the U.K. as 'Not My King' tag grows

#579

Post by kamaal »

HyperSane wrote: post #483
hindsightbias wrote: post #459

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My Jr High history teacher in TX was apparently a royalist, said the revolutionaries were just a bunch of whiners. The older I get, the more I agree.

Anyone who can tolerate being ruled by self-professed "Royalty" has no self-respect.

"Royalty" never really ruled anything completely in history. There were always ministers, even a prime minister, bureaucracy under the King/Queen. The King/Queen only maintained enough political power to veto any decision in any branch of the government. That's pretty much it.

Nothing much really changed per se after Democracy. Bureaucracy still remains the largest and still a unelected branch of the government. You still can't interfere with anything to do with Armed Forces and Judiciary, and they too are unelected. Only thing the public got was a way to elect the (prime-)minister(s). But even the merits of this are up for a debate, Democracy doesn't work well if your masses are not empowered to make good decisions, or they have all the empowerment or they just can't make right decisions for themselves.

Ask yourself this, why would anybody want to be elected? To serve the people? People do anything because its personally profitable to them, that begs the question, do they even have your best interests in their decisions and work?

Regardless a huge range of decisions remain outside the control and scope of the common masses.

Also beyond all this, these are political definitions, just like boundaries they expand and contract every century or so, this is with any country. So you really have to ask at the end of the day, what are you fighting for?

Re: Anti-royal protesters are being arrested in the U.K. as 'Not My King' tag grows

#580

Post by bluehatbrit »

HyperSane wrote: post #483
hindsightbias wrote: post #459

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My Jr High history teacher in TX was apparently a royalist, said the revolutionaries were just a bunch of whiners. The older I get, the more I agree.

Anyone who can tolerate being ruled by self-professed "Royalty" has no self-respect.

It's possible to disagree with something and yet tolerate it, especially when you've got bigger problems like affording food and warmth this winter. While they may not have your respect, I suspect those who tolerate the monarch have plenty of self-respect.
Post reply on HN