Queen Elizabeth II

[Broomstick]

Yeah. I have known one and only one actual billionaire, who in "retirement" had made a full time job of finding entrepreneurs and giving them a grant to further their business, without incurring debt. My spouse was one such beneficiary. The man helped literally thousands of people turn small businesses into successful ones, produce a new invention, work as musicians, finish school, and so on. And you've probably never heard of the guy because he didn't attract attention or get in the news, he did it because, as near as I can tell, he genuinely liked to help people.

He also remained a billionaire, and his descendants certainly started their lives with a silver spoon in their mouths.

[Darth Yan]

Fair enough. Class and wealth isn't necessarily a sign of virtue. There are rich people who are absolute monsters (Jeff Bezos, Bobby Kotik), which makes Ralin's fellating them rather bizarre. Likewise there are many poor and working class people who are kind (I've worked in retail; they absolutely ARE entitled to more than minimum wage). But there are nice rich people and asshole working class.

[Batman]

Jub is not wrong though-in a capitalist society it is highly unlikely (though not totally impossible) that one can become a billionaire without exploiting people or inheriting the wealth from ancestors who DID?

[Zaune]

That's a polite way of saying the truth - Prince Andrew is a fucking moron that believes anything presented to him.

Well... yeah. But being a blithering idiot is not a lifestyle choice, you know?

[His Divine Shadow]

You say that in todays influencer world.

[Solauren]

That's a polite way of saying the truth - Prince Andrew is a fucking moron that believes anything presented to him.

Well... yeah. But being a blithering idiot is not a lifestyle choice, you know?

Actually, that might not be the case. It could be that he just got all the bad genes in the family, or suffered untreated brain trauma as a child.

Personally, I think he's just a fucking moron because he's mentally lazy, but it's possible he's not.

That doesn't excuse his behavior, just explains it.

[Lord Revan]

You say that in todays influencer world.

Oh I suspect a lot of those influencers aren't as stupid as they appear but rather are preying on the people who are too lazy to look things up and fall for offers that seem too good to be true.

[Zaune]

Either way, it appears that Andy has been found something useful to do: Looking after the dogs.

[Eternal_Freedom]

Does that make him the Royal Family's official dogsbody?

[NecronLord]

They've traditionally been actually cared for by footmen, no doubt that will continue.

Meanwhile people have been arrested and charged with breach of the peace for heckling at various royal events, lovely. Lese Majeste was apparently too much for them.

[LadyTevar]

They've traditionally been actually cared for by footmen, no doubt that will continue.

Meanwhile people have been arrested and charged with breach of the peace for heckling at various royal events, lovely. Lese Majeste was apparently too much for them.

A shame. Most of the things I've been reading have been quiet morning and subtle applause as the coffin rolls by.

[NecronLord]

In one case it was someone shouting at the Paedophile Prince as he walked alongside. In other cases it's been about Charles' accession to the throne, no one in any of the articles I've seen thus far has been protesting the funeral as such, so much as the continued undemocratic institution now displaying its full pomp and ceremony.

I suspect there may be more protests as events become more about Charles III but the new policing acts in this country are not friendly to protestors.

[His Divine Shadow]

Off to a great start

[Crazedwraith]

That seems sadly inevitable but really really stupid and shitty timing.

[Solauren]

I doubt that was on the order of Charles. Most of the Royal Families stuff is managed by a company (who apparently manage them as well).

[KraytKing]

Well that was a fun discussion to read.

The two things are pretty well linked. Neither billionaires nor Elizabeth reached their position by democratic mandate of the people, they took it through force or inherited it through the force of their ancestors. The battlefield changed, but the incentives did not. Seizing what we now call the Crown or seizing such immense wealth as a billion USD mostly takes a heaping quantity of "asshole." Sometimes, I guess it doesn't, if we take Broomstick's anecdotal evidence. But even that wasn't the full story: I wouldn't be surprised if that billionaire lied, cheated, and exploited his whole life and then changed his ways at the end to try and clear his conscience.

Anyway. The Queen is dead. She was a person, nothing more. She might have been a cunt who helped shield her pedophile family members, she might have failed to use her influence to save human lives in other ways, or maybe she was great and the world would have been a worse place without her. Doesn't matter. She had power and influence afforded to her by no merit nor popular mandate, only circumstance of birth, and this is almost the only source of the mass mourning for her death. We didn't know her, we wouldn't have known her if her ancestors weren't monstrous cunts, and to me that seems to mean we shouldn't treat her death any differently from the 15 million or so others who've died since she did.

Here's hoping they dissolve the monarchy. Also, there's no way Charles makes it another ten years, let alone twenty. Has anyone seen his fingers? His heart is fucked. Not all monarchs live forever.

[Darth Yan]

Well that was a fun discussion to read.

The two things are pretty well linked. Neither billionaires nor Elizabeth reached their position by democratic mandate of the people, they took it through force or inherited it through the force of their ancestors. The battlefield changed, but the incentives did not. Seizing what we now call the Crown or seizing such immense wealth as a billion USD mostly takes a heaping quantity of "asshole." Sometimes, I guess it doesn't, if we take Broomstick's anecdotal evidence. But even that wasn't the full story: I wouldn't be surprised if that billionaire lied, cheated, and exploited his whole life and then changed his ways at the end to try and clear his conscience.

Anyway. The Queen is dead. She was a person, nothing more. She might have been a cunt who helped shield her pedophile family members, she might have failed to use her influence to save human lives in other ways, or maybe she was great and the world would have been a worse place without her. Doesn't matter. She had power and influence afforded to her by no merit nor popular mandate, only circumstance of birth, and this is almost the only source of the mass mourning for her death. We didn't know her, we wouldn't have known her if her ancestors weren't monstrous cunts, and to me that seems to mean we shouldn't treat her death any differently from the 15 million or so others who've died since she did.

Here's hoping they dissolve the monarchy. Also, there's no way Charles makes it another ten years, let alone twenty. Has anyone seen his fingers? His heart is fucked. Not all monarchs live forever.

Like Edward VII he was cursed with the eternal mother.

[His Divine Shadow]

Spot on...

https://twitter.com/Karl_Was_Right/stat ... 5167997952

[Broomstick]

Sometimes, I guess it doesn't, if we take Broomstick's anecdotal evidence. But even that wasn't the full story: I wouldn't be surprised if that billionaire lied, cheated, and exploited his whole life and then changed his ways at the end to try and clear his conscience.

Mostly, he bought into a small, start-up company that no one had ever heard of and few people understood called "Microsoft"....

I'm not claiming the man was a saint, but mostly he made a decision in the right time and place that paid off immensely down the line. One can certainly argue that the billions made by Microsoft came at an unfair cost to many, but I don't think it was the same level of violence as that which led to the British Royal Family being worth billions.

[Elfdart]

Spot on...

https://twitter.com/Karl_Was_Right/stat ... 5167997952

That's just ridiculous. North Korean dictators don't get to be head of state by being descended from a fictional character like Uther Pendragon, you lowly serf!

Considering the Queen was at the head of a crime family with a looong record of blood and cruelty, I think celebrations are in order. Look at the social media from countries and continents which used to be under the heel of the crown. Solid material there.

Patrick Freyne nailed it last year:

The Irish Times

Having a monarchy next door is a little like having a neighbour who’s really into clowns and has daubed their house with clown murals, displays clown dolls in each window and has an insatiable desire to hear about and discuss clown-related news stories. More specifically, for the Irish, it’s like having a neighbour who’s really into clowns and, also, your grandfather was murdered by a clown.

Beyond this, it’s the stuff of children’s stories. Having a queen as head of state is like having a pirate or a mermaid or Ewok as head of state. What’s the logic? Bees have queens, but the queen bee lays all of the eggs in the hive. The queen of the Britons has laid just four British eggs, and one of those is the sweatless creep Prince Andrew, so it’s hardly deserving of applause.

The contemporary royals have no real power. They serve entirely to enshrine classism in the British nonconstitution. They live in high luxury and low autonomy, cosplaying as their ancestors, and are the subject of constant psychosocial projection from people mourning the loss of empire. They’re basically a Rorschach test that the tabloids hold up in order to gauge what level of hysterical batshittery their readers are capable of at any moment in time.