So, as we now know, Queen Elizabeth II is dead. I don't have much to say on it either way. She was a queen. She was 96. She died. I'm not here to discuss her so much. I'm more interested in discussing the political aspects of things.
The fact is, the royal family these days is a lot more of just this ceremonial thing with no real power. The family is one of glorified celebrities. While still the ceremonial head of the UK due to tradition, they generally gave up their power long ago, and the UK is now a democratic country. They hold elections, there is a legislature, the prime minister is more or less the executive, and there are courts.
As it should be. I'm not one for monarchies. I see them as a form of authoritarianism. More or less a dictatorship. We fought wars against this kind of crap in our revolutionary days here in America (more specifically, against the specific monarchy we're discussing), and many of us on this side of the "pond", don't really care all that much for monarchies. We like democracy, and while I admit the general populace are idiots who don't always know how to use it, I still see it as the least bad of all possible system. Especially when combined with a constitution with separation of powers and a healthy system of rights.
So...what is the royal family? A family of glorified celebrities who people still fawn over simply for cultural reasons. I don't really care much about our American celebrities either. I dont get why we make such a big deal out of peoples' lives. Like, I honestly, genuinely dont care 99% of the time. And the royal family falls into that. Taxpayer subsidied celebrities. But hey, they wanna do it, they like it, let them. I think it's dumb, but whatever.
If I had my way, I'd just abolish the monarchy. It's a dumb idea in the first place IMO. It is an idea that long outlived its usefulness, and a form of government that is effectively obsolete. It's like a vestigal organ under evolution. Something that once had a purpose, but is no longer needed. What it stands for is in opposition of much of what modern society, including the UK's society, stands for these days. Again, wars were fought over this. We had our revolution here in the US, and the French had a similar revolution. And now most of Europe is democratic. UK went the more reformist route if not abolishing it, but taking away its power over time, but yeah. Largely irrelevant to modern politics.
Still, not my country, UK can do what UK does.
Raaaaacism
And now to discuss the other issue I wanna discuss relevant to this topic. The most vocal critics of the royal family in the event of her death arent democracy lovers, it's the postmodernists, screaming she's a racist and doesn't fit their standards of social justice.
I mean, she kind of is, on a personal level. I think much of the controversy surrounding her comes from the treatment of Meghan Markle, who is part black. She married into the royal family, and the family didn't approve. Although honestly, this is not uncommon in families like this. There is a strong emphasis on bloodlines, and you generally need to be "somebody" to marry into the family legitimately. Throughout history, arranged marriages were common in monarchies, and focus on blood purity was so high that there often have been a lot of incentuous marriages to cousins and the like to avoid allowing "commoners" into the family. Yeah, allowing someone from another race into the family is a bridge too far for them.
I'm not approving of this by the way. The fact that I brought up the incest thing should be a sign of how stupid I find this whole thing to be. Like, the whole concept of monarchies is just a weird, bizarre, anachronism in the modern western world. The whole concept of having a royal family and being so obsessed with bloodlines is weird and stupid. I'm just explaining why them being racist in terms of marrying into the family isn't that weird for them. It happens. It's common. It's dumb. But hey, again, all the more reason to abolish the concept.
I just wanted to take a swipe at how the postmodernists are going NUTS over her death and using it as an opportunity to soapbox about racism, applying their cutting edge 21st century standards to a family known for being conservative and obsessed with bloodlines. It's kind of like complaining about the pope being against gay marriage. Like, duh. Of course it's gonna happen. Old people running conservative institutions that have a long sordid history of being against progress. We shouldn't be surprised it happens. But I tend to reserve my criticism for the systems in place than the individuals in them. Individuals like this are mere products of the systems that they are a part of. Individuals' views are largely influenced by their environment. And here you got this old lady who was literally almost 100 years old and who LITERALLY ascended to the throne when Winston Churchhill was still relevant, and the first thing people scream when she dies is that she's a racist? I mean, when she became queen, here in America, we still had freaking Jim Crow in place, and it wouldnt be abolished for over a decade. That's how old she is. Like...idk, cut her some slack I guess?
At least, being merely a ceremonial leader, she wasn't enforcing racism in the UK all that much. Heck she actually came to power after the British empire collapsed at the end of WWII. And while the UK has some issues with racism, let's face it, they're still a lot more progressive than the US is on racism issues. Heck, she literally approved of an anti racism law that they passed in 1965. So idk. She was actually quite progressive for her time. She just ain't gonna meet the crazy purity standards of the SJWs.
Idk. Just had to take a swipe at them because holy crap, most negative stuff coming out of the discourse of her legacy comes from these people and I feel like, much like with other relatively historical figures whose views were formed in a different era with different standards surrounding these issues, she was relatively good for the times. Again. She was 96 when she died. She literally came to power in her 20s. It was literally in the postwar era of WWII. The world has changed A TON over her long 70 year reign. You just can't reasonably expect an old lady from a conservative family obsessed with bloodlines to the point of committing widespread incest to be "woke." At least she didn't use her role for evil on the issue. I really feel like leftists miss the point sometimes. Sometimes you gotta judge people not by modern standards but by the standards of their time, and she wasn't really that bad in that context. And yeah, that's my views on this.
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