Down with all monarchies

[malaise]

Enough with this useless diversion.
The only good news is that Covid-19 will prevent a circus like funeral.
That is all.

[Celerity]

1. indeed, I have to live as a citizen under two sets of bloody royals

[malaise]

2. We're either equal or we are not

Enough of this bullshit

[Tommymac]

3. Yeah. I feel for the British working class who must support this useless family

Ah well, at least they get an unscripted soap opera in return.

And America gets a preview of what we have so far narrowly avoided, a T**** duck dynasty.

[3Hotdogs]

5. Yah, my favorite was da photo, Fergie getting her toe sucke --- no, scratch that...

Last edited Fri Apr 9, 2021, 10:34 PM - Edit history (1)

My favorite was Charles, his cell phone tapped, telling Camila he wished he could be reborn as her tampon. Now that beats any and all of Shakespeare's sonnets.

[panader0]

8. There was a skit on SNL after that.

They showed a box of tampons with human heads and there was Charles.

[Celerity]

23. here

[LittleGirl]

35. I have never seen that clip

Thanks for sharing.
Weird.

[malaise]

9. Howling with laughter

He really said that?

[Celerity]

24. yes

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100215318043#post23

[certainot]

58. that comedy series 'the windsors' is hilarious

[malaise]

63. Getting up off the floor

[Jack from Charlotte]

53. Another way at looking at the monarchy......

It's a real good money maker for The UK. Queen/King is just like Mickey Mouse is for Disneyland/World. They're an attraction. American's especially love these people. Remember when Windsor Castle burned in the 90's? The repair/rebuild cost was huge. Queen sold tickets to tour Buckingham for a few months that paid for the whole repair. Created thousands of jobs and all paying taxes.

All those "Royal" properties bring in huge revenues. The royals just get to use them while they're alive. BF deal. They don't take them with them when they die.

I'd love to see a full financial analysis of Versailles. Built in the 1600's by King Louie. Last I read it costs $55 for admission and that's a bargain. There are 10 million visitors per year. With the train ride, food etc the income is about a billion $$ per year. It ain't moving to Orlando, either. Have to go to Paris.

So just think of the queen and other royals as the money making mascots of the country.

[AZProgressive]

62. There are a lot of places worth visiting in England

Though I'm not interested in the Queen. They have beautiful landscape & historic sites they don't really need them for tourism.

If England wants to keep them that is up to them but when it comes to the Commonwealth they should probably try to work on unresolved issues with colonalism.

[brooklynite]

4. Last time I checked, the UK, Netherlands, Spain, Denmark, Sweden etc. were democracies...

...and can remove their monarchies if they really want to.

[Mysterian]

29. They maintain their royal families for entertainment

Anyone born into such a family with any dignity would remove themselves from it.

[IrishAfricanAmerican]

44. 👆🏽👆🏽👆🏽👆🏽THIS!!! 👆🏽👆🏽👆🏽👆🏽

[arlyellowdog]

6. It's theater

[Layzeebeaver]

34. NO, it's oligarchy disguised as divine right

The UK Royal Family's wealth is staggering when compared to the plight of the poor and working poor.

If she really was committed to caring for "Her people" there wold be a completely different way of engagement between the "Royal" family and the other families of Britain.

I live here. Can't stand them.

[certainot]

60. the book and theory 'sex on the wrong brain' claims it's a heritable masturbation problem

it's established (Political Conservatism As Motivated Social Cognition, for eg) that authoritarians have a need to avoid and are more easily frightened by uncertainty. authoritarianism is sometimes measured with the Uncertainty Avoidance Index.

what causes people to elevate and worship other people as gods is their i'm-never-wrong royal certitude (trump, etc). the sex on the wrong brain theory claims right handed masturbation can increase the irrational need for certainty (Certainty Deficit Disorder) because the right hand is connected to the left side of the brain, associating impatient satisfaction-demanding finality-demanding reproductive urges with mental processes like logic, etc. that should be patient and objective. greed is another major symptom, caused by associating sex with math, numbers, etc.....

the sowb theory claims that's the secret of authoritarian power and by design or default authoritarian systems repress sex. fear forces authoritarians to create certainty and they do it with with simplification, reduction, absolutism, racism, discrimination, etc. the pyramid - royalty up here, everyone else down here. everyone's scrambling over each other.

according to the theory our ape-like ancestors became increasingly right handed over millions of years because sex on the wrong brain gave right handers survival advantages in times of conflict etc. it got really bad in the last few thousand years when populations grew and more of them began to delay the age of reproduction (with the help of non-nature based religion, etc). high-sowb 'old world' meets low-sowb 'new world'. it suggests some populations may have selected for brain structure that favored particular preferred symptoms of sex on the wrong brain and that some racism may be inherited that way..

royalty and the 'high born' were less likely to experience real sex until they were old enough. basically, proud boys, boko haram, isis are masturbation cults.

a favorite bit from the book

Lulu's eyes closed and she dozed off to the rhythmic squeaking.
She went back to Wisconsin, to the little cabin her parents had rented for a summer of fishing and swimming when they were trying to help her get away from the immediate backlash from her phone call to Hack Rimmington.
Now the little one room cabin was floating in mud and covered in grime. It was drizzling and there was junk and trash everywhere. The mosquitoes were big.
A miserable boy in rags, dirty and tired, scraped a hoe in a small dirt patch in the back.
"Fadra! Is that you?"
The young farmer slowly straightened up and looked around. He saw a well dressed boy his own age getting out of a limousine.
"It is I, Gladriel!" said the happy boy. "Remember? We would play together for hours while your mother serviced my father!"
Gladriel hugged Fadra but gagged on the smell.
"Those certainly were wonderful days!" said Gladriel.
"Sure. But then your father outlawed rubbers and abortions and now I have eight kids."
"Eight! Wow! Congratulations! We really need them!"
"I barely even have the energy to jack off."
"Oh, how I envy you! An army of crones watch me like hawks until I can marry the beautiful Ismarelda and rule the county. My father's mansion is full of buxom young slaves and I can do nothing all day BUT jack off!"
He made a right handed pumping motion.
His eyes got bigger and bigger.
"I...am...going...CRAZY, dude!"
Lulu came back to the squeaking, with the zombie cop still pumping away at the front of the van.

[Layzeebeaver]

74. This makes sense from my experience

up until I was about 15 I jacked-off with both hands.
Switch to only my right and voted for Regan in 1980
Switched to only my left after that and voted democratic ever sense.

TRUE!

[certainot]

78. proof! and some people don't believe it. may be why females generally have less sowb - more likely

to use both hands

for guys the general mechanics ensures most will use the dominant hand

[Layzeebeaver]

93. True... but for the fear of getting banned...

...one cannot forget the B^!!$
So there's another hand occupied.

This is hilarious - and must stop now!

[certainot]

99. the alien who came to rescue the planet from sowb had a 'similar' solution

[malaise]

70. THIS

[panader0]

7. Yup. When I got up at 4 this morning and saw that the prince/duke had died,

I knew it would dominate the news today, and probably for days to come. Monarchies are
a relic, a bad relic of the long ago past, and an anachronism in this time.
Just another man, with no more actual importance than your next door neighbor.
He was very lucky to live to 99, and I'm sure he had the best medical care money
could buy.

[malaise]

10. We need to stop telling little girls that they can be princesses

It's all bullshit with deadly consequences

[llmart]

14. "with deadly consequences"

It sure was for Diana.

I am so glad Harry and Meghan are choosing the path THEY want for themselves.

[malaise]

26. Precisely

because he was royally entitled to do as he pleased

[jimfields33]

12. I don't understand how we should have a say in how other countries govern

We don’t like monarch here so we don’t have one. but we should not have a say in other countries.

[Celerity]

15. The OP (Jamaican) is in the Commonwealth, and I am a UK and Swedish citizen

so we have skin in the game. I have a 3rd connection, as my mum is a dual UK/Barbados citizen (Barbados is also in the Commonwealth).

[malaise]

22. LOL

we joke that these fools swear to the queen and her hairs (not heirs). It's twice as funny when they drop the h

[wnylib]

41. Hey! Those are my relatives!

Very, very distant, of course.

I've never worked out the degree of relationship because it is extremely thin. How many generations since 1369 CE? Maybe something like 143rd cousin, 72 times removed. We all have family skeletons to live down.

I was thinking of you, Malaise, when I heard about the evacuations. Hope you're in a safe area.

Gotta go now. Getting my 2nd Moderna in about an hour.

[malaise]

82. Hope you have no side effects

[wnylib]

84. So far, so good, but it's only been 3 hours since

the shot. I expect I will feel it this evening.

Did not even feel the first shot, but the arm was sore within a half hour and got worse as time went on. Soreness lasted a few days but was tolerable.

This time I felt a sting as the shot went in. No arm sorenes yet. Actually felt energetic after the shot, but I think that was relief at finally having both of them.

[malaise]

85. Put an icepack on the injection area every four hours

for half a day

[wnylib]

86. OK. Thanks. BTW, I just realized

how much of my ignorance of Caribbean geography I revealed in a previous post. I mentioned the evacuation on St. Vincent because of the volcano and wondered if you were in a safe place.



So, I know the larger islands and their locations - Cuba, Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, and Jamaica. And the Bahamas. But the strings of smaller Caribbean Islands are a jumbled mess in my mind regarding their locations. I had no idea where St. Vincent was until I just looked it up after hearing that the volcano finally blew today. So far from Jamaica that you wouldn't even see the ash in the air.

Oh well. I learned something.

[malaise]

87. LOL

Vincy (as we call her) is in the Eastern Caribbean - part of the Windward Islands in the Lesser Antilles. We're Northern Caribbean.
I posted a Caribbean map on the original volcano thread. The capitol of St Vincent is Kingstown and we're Kingston so I'll give you a break.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=15319069

[wnylib]

88. Thanks. I appreciate the break.

(How embarrassing.)

[malaise]

89. I'd do much worse in terms of locations in the US

Trust me

[wnylib]

92. Yeah, it's a big place. Sad thing is that

a lot of Americans wouldn't do too well on US geography.

[llmart]

16. We don't have a "say" in it...

However, we are allowed to have an "opinion", and that's different.

[Tommymac]

20. +1

[malaise]

17. Clearly you are joking

The US has never had a problem intervening in other countries and pretending that it is about democracy, when (in reality) it is all about controlling resources.

[jaxexpat]

39. The US long ago surrendered to Britain. Thus, they have the peat monopoly and we have QOP.

[IrishAfricanAmerican]

46. HOW ABOUT THAT?!!

[Dream Girl]

25. We do have the right to voice our opinions.

And there is at lest one Brit on this thread. We’re not all American.

[Mysterian]

27. Because the USA should support human rights anywhere and everyewhere?

The concept of royalty is an affront to human dignity.

Some nations are maintaining their royalty as an historical novelty. Other nations have a true monarchy which is just another term for hereditary dictatorship. People in a dictatorship have not chosen their system of government, it has been forced upon them at the end of a gun. The USA should oppose dictatorships everywhere.

[IrishAfricanAmerican]

48. Yes!

Some "historical novelties" need to be erased, (i.e., Confederate flags, statues, "Southern heritage," etc.) That includes the racist, unethical institutions of "royalty."

[kcr]

75. I don't understand how so many don't understand the concept of opinions n/t

[Silent3]

98. Did the OP insist on taking action to end all monarchies?

I sure didn't see that, just an expression of distaste for monarchies.

Do you believe the OP shouldn't even express an opinion on the matter?

[Jon King]

13. The entire 'royalty' nonsense makes my skin crawl.

Why people support and fawn over people whose entire accomplishment was being born is beyond me. No offense but that William and his kids are utterly average and unremarkable in every way yet the media worships their every move.

[malaise]

18. +1,000

and they perpetuate and promote inequality.
Many folks who work in media are royalists.

[Tommymac]

28. Well, Entertainment Tonight and The National Enquirer fit the bill for sure

The US MSM is not too far behind...I'm cringing over the royalist goop that will come out of The Sunday Morning Shows now.

The guy died. May he rest in peace.

As I hope the almost 3 MILLION regular people who have died from COVID globally over the coarse of the Pandemic do too.

But THEY will not get many TV shows to discuss THEIR lives, which I dare say were probably more relevant and productive.

[CaptainTruth]

56. Me too. I can't stand it. It's worship of gross unearned inequality.

[Mysterian]

19. The concept of royalty is abhorrent

Anyone born a "royal" with any shred of dignity would throw down the trappings and reject the titles.

This is why I admire Henry David.

[CaptainTruth]

57. +1

[FSogol]

21. K&R n/t

[multigraincracker]

31. Vive la rvolution

[lastlib]

32. "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal...

Last edited Fri Apr 9, 2021, 10:51 AM - Edit history (1)

...That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men...that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it..."

Res ipsa loquitor.

[malaise]

73. It's one or the other

Can't be both

[Roisin Ni Fiachra]

33. Sick of birth entitled English with hereditary titles getting shoved down my throat

by the news media 24/7.

My grandfather's brother sold an English Lord/Landlord a red mare with the stipulation that he could buy it back from him as soon as he got the money to buy her back. When the revolution drove the Lords/Landlords out of Ireland the nasty entitled POS burned his stable with all the horses in it, because he said "the Irish don't know how to treat their animals".

I am owed much beer and travel money, and a good horse.

Down with all monarchies, hereditary titles, and other such nonsense.

[Loki Liesmith]

36. How very DU.

[Demnation]

37. Mind your ethnocentricity. The monarchy is foundational to British citizenry.

Americans would be wise to try to understand the nations of others, rather to dismiss their ways out of hand. The British monarchy is archaic and needs some serious reworking, but to demolish it would be a serious mistake.

The British are our friends and they should be respected. I guarantee you, Britain is in mourning today.

With respect.

[Tommymac]

42. The OP lives in the Commonwealth. And see#34 above. Not all Brits agree with you.

With respect, monarchies are obscene.

[kcr]

77. Americans would be wise

to try to understand that not everyone else is American.

[Jon King]

38. We coach both junior tennis and basketball....

Basketball is brutally even, we have kids living out of cars who come to the gym and dominate every other kid, no matter the other kids socioeconomic status. That poor kid spends hours each day practicing by himself on a broken basket with no net.

Junior tennis is the opposite. The rich kids show up with a variety of coaches, trainers, 6 new racquets and play against a poorer kid with an old racquet and who is lucky if the local coach at the park knows a forehand from a serve. The rich kids may be way less athletic but they have such advantages, they can win matches.

The Royals remind me of the rich tennis kids, the only way they can compete is when they have tremendous advantage over others.

[luvtheGWN]

69. But the Royals don't have to compete.

Whenever I see a photo of Charles, I remember reading that his valet spreads toothpaste on his toothbrush for him.

Yes, The Queen is to the UK what Mickey Mouse is to Disneyland. And she knows it.

[lagomorph777]

40. +1000

Looks like I'll spend the next few days trashing wasted threads about the latest Royal boils here.

[Treefrog]

50. Yes, you're so right.

I’ve learned du is extremely predictable.

[mwooldri]

43. Okay. I disagree.

UK Royal family provide a service. England has tried a Republic before, didn't like it, went back to monarchy. Plus all the power is at Number Ten, not Buck House. There are advantages to a constitutional monarchy - and the way the current setup is the monarchy can be abolished or reformed at any time.

Personally I will never be a Republican - neither politically nor constitutionally. But then my view is biased by growing up in the UK for my first 24 years of life. No I don't want Lizzie Windsor-Mountbatten to come back and rule the USA because the Republic is working for the United States. America has this nice saying "if it ain't broke don't fix it".

The US news media will not be all in on the death of the Duke of Edinburgh. There's too much going on here.

[Journeyman]

45. How dearly I remember, when Charles & Diana wed, we Irish lined the parade route and shouted . . .

"Up Chuck, and Di! Up Chuck, and Di!"

[Chautauquas]

54. I got banned from a forum when Diana died

because I posted this comment - "I got a tie-dyed Princess Di died t-shirt". I thought it was funny. The moderators did not.

[Journeyman]

55. It seems our sense of humor runs in the same vein . . .

[lonely bird]

47. Intriguing

Down with the royals.

Does that include the Kennedys, the Bushes, the Gates’, the Buffets, Elon Musk, every fucking celebrity, those famous for being famous and so on?

Societies organize themselves in various ways. Everyone is entitled to an opinion regarding how their own society is organized as well as how others are organized.

My opinion is that I don’t give a shit if other countries have a monarchy. That is their business. We have our own royalty that the masses gawk at and waste time and other resources bashing/fawning over. It helps distract them from the economic royalists (to borrow from FDR) who are screwing them while shrieking that there is no alternative political economy to live under. Oh, don’t let us forget to shriek “freedom!” while being shackled.

This country is more class ridden than the UK.

[VGNonly]

49. People will never be free

until the last king is strangled by the entrails with the last priest.

[malaise]

76. THIS

the truth

[Treefrog]

80. Nice!

[VGNonly]

81. From Denis Diderot

The French philosopher, some attribute it to Voltaire.

[VGNonly]

83. Bloody peasant!

[HipChick]

51. feeling nothing...Philip was a right little

wanker...aka bit of a prick

[Paladin]

65. Sounds as if you watched "The Crown," like I did. (nt)

[FakeNoose]

52. Well, OK - but this isn't our concern though

We already fought that battle, and won.

[GulfCoast66]

94. Ironically thanks to France! Which had an Absolute Monarch!

They fixed that not long after. With mixed results.

[BradBo]

59. Hell yes. One closer to seeing the monarchies die off.

[PatrickforB]

61. I have little sympathy for the British royal family after the

Last edited Fri Apr 9, 2021, 11:37 AM - Edit history (1)

racism they had toward Meghan Markle.

They had lost me before when Lady Diana got killed, and that whole Camilla thing.

And then wondering how dark Meghan's baby will be?

Eff-em.

As to Prince Phillip, may he rest in peace.

As to the living 'royals,' perhaps they should be stripped of wealth and have that money go to help fund Britain's National Health Service. I know that, silly me, if given the choice between nursing a 'royal family' into the twenty-first century, and having a national healthcare system, I wouldn't even have to think. I've envied the Brits their NHS system for decades, especially as ours has worsened.

[oregonjen]

72. I think you mean Meghan Markle, not Kate Middleton

[PatrickforB]

79. OMG! I stand corrected. Thanks for the heads-up. I have

inserted the correct name.

[malthaussen]

64. As celebrity entertainment goes, they're less offensive than US politicians.

I'm not into hero worship, especially when the heroes are, you know, not even my country's. Funny that monarch-loving is not seen as a form of "cultural appropriation" in the US.

-- Mal

[mnhtnbb]

68. I was just about to post something similar.

I'll take the British Royal Family over Trump and his ilk--including scum like McConnell, Lindsey Graham, Cruz, and other Trump humping Republican enablers--any day.

[jalan48]

66. Careful Malise, you'll upset the soap operatic fantasies of some here on DU.

[lindysalsagal]

67. I never met a brit who was a royalist.

I love history, though, so, there is a little romance in seeing that unbroken line from the beginnings of the world.

But it has not been worth the cost: "England" has gone out of it's way to hurt Ireland, Scotland and Wales, using up their resources and young men in nasty battles. WWI was beyond horrific and totally useless. It decimated the continent, making a ripe fruit for the rot of the Nazis to flourish.

No one likes to admit that their role in WWI probably caused WWII.

[malaise]

71. If they hadn't broken our family line and enriched themselves

with the Atlantic slave trade, I might enjoy their romantic history.
I refuse to celebrate monsters

[hunter]

90. Norton I, Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico...

...seemed mostly harmless.

On January 8, 1880, Norton collapsed at the corner of California and Dupont (now Grant) streets and died before he could be given medical treatment. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, upwards of 10,000 people lined the streets of San Francisco to pay him homage at his funeral. Norton has been immortalized as the basis of characters in the literature of Mark Twain, Robert Louis Stevenson, Christopher Moore, Morris and René Goscinny, Selma Lagerlöf, G.S Denning, and Neil Gaiman.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emperor_Norton

[malaise]

91. I learn something new every day

Thanks

[tenderfoot]

95. But tourism!!!

FWIW, I went to visit Britain for the pop culture (Beatles, Abbey Road, the Who, punk rock, etc.) but that's just me.

[WarGamer]

96. the Monarchy in the UK is pwerless and a mere figurehead.

[malaise]

97. If you believe that you don't understand

class power