(no subject)

[shadowhive]

Well I’d hoped these daily posts would be mostly cheery and yet here we are, a few days in and this one isn’t gonna be.

Discussions of politics/the monarchy under the cut.

So yesterday the queen died.

I had a feeling something was wrong when there was an interruption in what ep we were watching (even though it wa sleds than half an hour till the news). It was innocuous really, an announcement by the doctors that she was under observation or something…. And yet the news dragged that out for the rest of the afternoon.

So it didn’t surprise me that it was announced she’d died, though it did seem a little fast. I feel bad for her that her last official act involved meeting Boris and Truss on the same day (fucking hell).

I’m not a royalist or anything, I have no love for the monarchy but I’ve found some of the peoples responses to it to be crass. Like people were hoping she was going to die the minute she was under observation.

And then when it was announced she’d died people were acting like they were glad, rattling off all the bad things that happened during her reign. Reading them you’d think she spent her time cackling evilly while personally signing off each and every bad thing the government has done. (I’ve even seen some people act like things were her fault, despite said things occurring before she was even born.)

The thing is though, the queen had little real power. Yeah she was ‘head of state’ but what did she actually do? Mostly ceremonial or diplomatic stuff. (So by blaming her for every bad thing that’s happened is both inaccurate and takes the blame away from the actual people responsible.)

There may technically be power in the office but do you think if she’d ever tried to wield it anyone have listened?

It reminded me of something from a few years back. Prince Charles made a public comment, disagreeing with some government policy (I can’t remember what, most likely environmental) and he was crucified for it. The royals are just figureheads, they’re not supposed to say anything about the government or politics publicly like that.

It’s possible she made comments privately during meetings with PM’s but we’ll never know, but I don’t think so.

And the thing is too, I think there was a level of fondness in the country for her, something that just isn’t there for Charles and whoever comes after him. I think, with her passing, the royal family will start to fade. But who knows, I could be wrong.

Now we enter a ‘state of mourning’. Apparently the next ten days at least have been planned for a long time (though who knows if what I read is what will actually happen). What it’ll mean is anyones guess (last night had 4 of the 5 main channels dedicated to stuff about the queen, I expect that to be the case for the next few days at least).

The thing is that this is truly awful timing. We’ve got a cost of living and energy crisis, that needs attention and answers (not least because the government has been a zombie government since Boris resigned). The new government just started earlier this week and the cabinet is a mix of the incompetent, the evil and the greedy (typical for tories). I have no doubt they’ll use this as an excuse to delay any response (thus making the crisises worse by inaction) or they’ll try and use everything as a smokescreen to push through something awful, or to bury things. I mean I’ve already seen someone call the energy crisis ‘insignificant’ compared to the queens death.

But instead of focussing on those things, people are making cheap jokes.

Comments

[turps]

I don't like the jokes and the glee about her death either.

I understand if you don't like the monarchy, and believe the Queen made mistakes in her time. But she gave her all to this country and is still someone's mam, someone's nanna, and I don't get anyone that's pleased that an old woman has died, or thinks that's worthy of a joke.

[shadowhive]

Me either, it’s just so… ugh.

I can understand if it was critiquing the things that she actually did, but most of them are like ‘she’s to blame for x y z’ despite her having nothing to do with them. Personally it bothers me because it takes the blame from the people who actually did x y z.

Yeah absolutely, they don’t seem to get that

[antontobias86]

I get what you mean about people talking bullshit about her passing. It really pissed me off. Like, one person I considered to be a friend, they were immediately on Twitter saying "So long, bitch!" and another person I follow because I like their writing tweeted something like "About time, good riddance," and it's like... I feel really awkward about knowing them or reading their fics now. I seriously don't understand all the hate for her when most of, if not all of the bad stuff happened when she was really young and naive or before she even became queen.

I'm like you, I don't care for the monarchy but... You know. 70 fucking years. People should have some respect. It's just disgusting 😠

[shadowhive]

That’s so awful, I just… don’t get it. It’s as if they’ve completely forgotten that there are people who were actually responsible for bad things… but she isn’t one of them

Yeah people have been so shitty about it and it’s so disrespectful

[hitokage]

It's like, on the one hand I can understand where people are coming from ... and on the other hand, some people have really taken the jokes too far. Like you said, she was a figurehead with very little power but a whole lot of visibility that makes it easy for others to blame her for all manner of things. It'd be nice if some of the people complaining would stop long enough to remember the Tories were never going to spend that money on poor people in the first place, death of the queen or not.

[shadowhive]

Yeah the jokes have really gone too far in some ways.

This is true! People blaming her for all these issues forget that it’s not her that caused these things, but people like the tories whose whole thing is to make peoples lives miserable and hoard wealth

[turlough]

I can understand raging at the monarchy as an institution because it's such a fucked up thing but doing it at a dead queen is just stupid and as you say, cheap.

[shadowhive]

Yeah it’s so… and the thing that bothers me most, like I say, is that they’re blaming her for things that she didn’t do, that she was not responsible for. And it’s just… ugh

[wenchpixie]

I have muted and blocked quite a lot of people... like, someone is dead, people are upset, maybe just... don't, right now? They may have all sorts of political or other opinions but all posting the bullshit is doing is upsetting people who are already more upset than they expected to be. It's remarkably unempathic

[shadowhive]

Yeah it’s like people just… have lost all sense of decency and it’s so… odd. It’s not as if she’s like Putin or someone like that, whose death would deserve such celebration.

I’ve generally come to realise that people are truly awful and this is just another example

[dreamersdare]

Yeah, largely. I have a high level of ambivalence about both the monarchy as in institution (in principle; I have quite a lot of issue with the cost versus reward of it) and about the queen in particular, so mostly I sit in the "96 year old died, that's sad, so what else is going on?" mentality.

But what really bothers me is the media narrative of a population who are weeping, wailing, gnashing teeth and beating their chests with grief because... I'm not seeing it. Sure, there's a vocal minority who seem to be heavily invested in it, but for the most part? I'm not seeing anyone who really cares in either my social or my professional circles.

And like you say the problem is, while we're dominating ALL OF THE NEWS with the fact that an old woman has died, things like "met police being investigated to see if they murdered a man because they're racist" and "PM has basically decided that public preference is irrelevant in the face of Her Mate's Money, so she's gonna bring back fracking" are shoved right to the end of the news reels and they're not getting the attention and public scrutiny they should be getting.

[shadowhive]

That’s largely my mentality too

I mean I think it’s sad that an old lady has died, that someone lost their mother and grandmother but…. That’s it really. I don’t know anyone that’s really, deeply affected by it, but if you look at the news…

I agree, the government closing down in a time of crisis (and this new government being completely awful) is an issue that’s just gonna get buried. And you know, I had no idea that the met police had murdered a man… until I saw a tweet with a pic of a protest in London about it…. Cept it was on the news and said news was acting like it was some mourning thing and I just… wtf??

[dreamersdare]

I presume there are people deeply affected (although I think some of the people who are very invested in it are more interested in being part of the historical moment rather than mourning - and I say that as an observation rather than a judgement, honestly, whatever makes them happy). But I do think those genuinely affected people are a small minority, so all the OTT responses from the media/government/business do feel really weird.

Oh my god, I heard about that, I think it was Sky News? Shoddy journalism at its finest, because as fas as I can tell, they didn't realise what they were reporting on!

[shadowhive]

Yeah I have to agree with you there. It does feel odd checking websites and it feels like literally every uk based on has some tribute on the front page… it’s just weird.

Yeah! It’s kinda like they couldn’t even comprehend something else was could be going on