The United Kingdom shamelessly prostrated itself at the feet of Donald Trump on Wednesday, throwing a lavish welcoming party for his state visit to Windsor that resembled less diplomacy and more fealty.

In doing so, the U.K. has revealed something deeply unflattering about itself—in the scramble to keep America close, it will debase itself and its values completely.

It will silence dissent, empty out its traditions, and rent out its monarch like a sex worker, deployed to flatter the ego of a man who has spent much of his political life suggesting he should be treated like one, a monarch, not a sex worker, that is.

As stage props go, the monarchy is unbeatable. But if this is what the “special relationship” between the U.S and the U.K. now means, it looks to many in Britain less like a partnership and more like groveling, feudal servitude.

archive article: https://archive.is/DxOAv

  • TheJesusaurus@sh.itjust.works
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    15 hours ago

    Hey, Britain sucks ass for sure compared to parts of the EU but it’s still lightyears ahead of America so maybe sort your own shit out. People in glass houses and that

    • Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      4 hours ago

      Britain has some very particular quirks in their Fascism that America doesn’t have, most notably huge and centuries old class stratification well entrenched in its culture (“people should know their place” style), reflected in things such as the very high land ownership concentration in Britain.

      Also the elites in Britain go to special schools (known as “public schools” even though they’re private, a detail which itself should hint at how deceit is commonly used in Britain to present one impression of something which is something else) were they get taught amonsgt other things techniques to deceive others (plus some weird sociopathic shit in how to related to others, that for example means that pointing out to somebody with that upbringing that they “look a bit down” is actually taken as a gloating that “I’m not”).

      Further, the country has long had subtle power control mechanisms in place, such as how over 90% of high court judges attended those expensive “public schools” which only the scions of the upper middle and upper class can afford to attend - something which gets reflected in very different legal outcomes depending on which social class one comes from - or how over 70% of people who enter Oxford or Cambridge also went to “public schools” even though only 11% of children attend those (the entrance criteria for those universities is an interview rather than a purely meritocratic one like a test or grades, and I know of people who were literally told “you went to the wrong school” as reason to reject them). Essentially and except for a short period after WWII (back when Social Security and the National Health Service were created) the various levers of power have always been in the hands of the upper middle and upper class and access to opportunities for social mobility have always been highly restricted - a dumb, lazy scion of the upper class will get a degree from a top university and maybe a judgeship on a high court, whilst a smart and hard-working working class lad or lass can pretty much forget about either and this is just on class discrimination even without taking in account the actual wealth discrimination.

      Fascism in Britain has a different expression and is anchored of a vast foundation of image-managed authoritarianism that tends to control by constraining people’s options, and a subtler use of the Law for suppression under the cover of Lawfulness, rather than overtly the jackboot (though, as you see right now and was also on display at certain points during Thatcher’s days, they sometimes use the jackboot overtly), whilst American Fascism is loud and brash, on top of a tradition of self-reliance and independence: basically at its most naked and overt, British Fascism looks like the way Occupy Wall Street was suppressed in the US, though that expression is but the tip of a very large iceberg.

      All this to say that it’s very hard to pin down just how bad Fascism in Britain is compared to America.

    • DNS@discuss.online
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      15 hours ago

      I’m fully aware America is a dingleberry that came from the shit pile of Britain

      • jaupsinluggies@feddit.uk
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        14 hours ago

        That was hundreds of years ago. All the shit over there is your own doing now, nothing to do with us.

        • 3abas@lemmy.world
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          12 hours ago

          What do you mean nothing to do? You’re fully committed and supportive of the genocide and pervious genocides criminal wars too, you might not be funding as much as America, but you’re fully complicit.

          Queen Elizabeth was the devil, that racist cunt and her underlings have destroyed most of the global south for their benefit, the world hasn’t recovered from the destruction your expansionist empire caused.

          Just because Trump is literally worse than Charles today doesn’t mean you’re good. You pay taxes to a monarch who follows a line of monsters who are directly responsible for most of today’s political landscape, and instead of overthrowing the monarchy when the evil witch died, you allowed an old fart to take over ruling you.

          And now your monarch is treating Trump like a monarch, which sure looks like a pledge of fealty, so the only thing left to figure out is what motivated that? What does Trump have on Charles, or is Charles simply celebrating that Epstein is gone?

          You’re knee deep in this shit, bud.

          • jaupsinluggies@feddit.uk
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            5 hours ago

            What do you mean nothing to do?

            The USA has been self governing nation for long enough for them to solve their own problems, especially as they have a staggering amount of wealth and security.

            Quite a few ex-colonies have done rather well for themselves too, so “the destruction our expansionist empire caused” can be recovered from. One can only wonder why it’s our fault some places haven’t recovered yet.

            I also wonder which destructive expansionist empire you’re part of, Mr Pot.

            • 3abas@lemmy.world
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              4 hours ago

              The USA has been self governing nation for long enough for them to solve their own problems, especially as they have a staggering amount of wealth and security.

              Agreed. And the UK is complicit in its support of the genocide… How does holding the US accountable for its own actions free the United Kingdom from its own?

              You fully support the US, your labor party has doubled down on fascism and genocide, and your king just treated Trump like royalty… What do you mean you have nothing to do with it?

              One can only wonder why it’s our fault some places haven’t recovered yet.

              Only an ignorant person who refuses to learn anything about the world would wonder… You divided our lands and installed foreigners as monarchs and taught them how to use propaganda to train our youth to celebrate the new puppet rulers as “independence”.

              I also wonder which destructive expansionist empire you’re part of, Mr Pot.

              Ha! I’m Palestinian! Always under the rule of expansionist empires, never done it ourselves. And everything we’re suffering today can be tracked back to your Balfour.

                • 3abas@lemmy.world
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                  3 hours ago

                  What did I revise? Accuse me with clearly articulated words and refute the facts I presented, don’t just throw an insult.