If you thought Britain had already gone bonkers, it’s about to get so much weirder and so much worse. Whatever your position on the monarchy, it feels epochally significant.
I was sitting in my car, waiting to give a friend a ride to the bank, when a push notification from the Washington Post came up saying that she had died. I feel sorry for her family, and all the people who have loved her for so long. I do wish this were the end of the British monarchy, but I know it's not. I also feel sorry for everyone else who lost a mother or a grandmother today, and how their personal loss is going to be overshadowed by this story.
This is a superstructural cultural phenomenon which leaves the socio-political infrastructure unchanged. It’s significance is emotional and ideological while class power carries on as it did. I feel nothing emotionally but acknowledge the personal sorrow of the family. My life will not be changed one iota, nor will the economic lives of the majority. The same greedy bastards are in charge.
To be honest I spent most of the day angry. While the establishment was trying to ram home the image of a sweet old lady, people with real grievances were being attacked. A large part of the world has justifiable issues with the U.K. and its monarchy. While not ignorant of this fact, her death brought this very much home to me as I spent the day reading about it.
In the end I worked to do my small part to amplify those voices... I also turned off the radio so I wouldn't have to listen to unending tributes.
I came out of a Guardians Of The Galaxy Secret Cinemas interatactive experience at Wembley Park to find her death projected across Wembley Stadium, and I had yo catch up with fou hours of people knowing. I was in a little bubble or non-news playing at being a Ravager. I might go again tomorrow and see what happens next time.
Wistful. End of an era. Add the ordinary slight melancholy that comes from the death of a human being and vibes of public sorrow.
Certainly not feeling any urge to celebrate, as I've seen some fellow leftists do. Tackiness aside, it's classic displacement behaviour and 'plucking the imaginary flower from the chain'.
Intellectually could give a rat's ass, about the Queen. Class all stays put and neoliberalism goes on... but too many coincidences and similarities with my mother led us to joke all her life about how she WAS the Queen... SHe passed a few years ago and I find myself weepy about the Queen's death but certain that it due to the emotional connection to my mother (no big fan of monarchy - just don't care about it)
I am 68 years old, and she was already queen when I was born. Not looking forward to the media shitstorm of the next several weeks. It will dominate the media here in the US, as well as in the UK. I remember the furor when Princess Di died; that'll be nothing compared to this.
One of the most historically consequential deaths of my lifetime. Wild to think that she had already been queen for a decade when The Beatles were first making waves in the UK.
Really, really worried about Northern Ireland. There's a bunch of nutcases there that are very invested in the monarchy and one wrong word could kick off riots there, or worse.
Honestly, I'm pumped at the prospect of Charles stacking this so badly that he's gonna fully turn public opinion against the monarchy and we'll finally see the end of'em! I think a big ol'ostentatious coronation at a time when folks can't afford their heating bills is also going to leave a bad taste in our collective mouths, which will hardly help matters....
I was at work and someone suggested a minute of silence between take 5 and take 6.
I don't like the monarchy, and I share the same sentiment shared by so many others here, I wish she was the last. But even so, it felt right to take a moment to acknowledge the passing of the Queen. I took that moment to think about all the suffering caused (past, present and future) by colonialism, which I am only begging to understand. I want to thank for this space and for what other people shared too.
I woke up (in California) to see a lot of worried muttering on Twitter and the various news outlets so I figured it was just a matter of time before the official announcement came.
I'm no fan of the monarchy but I feel bad for a lot of my friends who really seemed to love Brenda and will mourn as if they'd lost a family member. Given how symbolic the monarchy is, these days, I don't think anything substantial will change with Charles III "in charge" although I'm sure he'll _want_ to be more involved. We'll see how that goes.
The country's been planning for her death for years so I expect it will all go off smoothly and, after a suitable period of everyone being bloody miserable about "Her Maj", things will all go back to "normal", whatever that looks like with a Thatcher "Mini-Me" in No. 10...
Very surreal, even as an American engaged to a Brit. It is strange to think she is gone, that there is a king, and that we likely won’t see another queen in our lifetimes. My last visit was during Jubilee.
Given the length of her life and the moments of history and technology she witnessed, she is symbolic of a particular moment of change.
At work, checking my blog post on the film schedule for our local museum/repertory art cinema.
Indifference would be the best word to describe my feelings. I’ve never lived under her radiance or her lash. And watching “The Crown” was never on my viewing radar. Tbh, the fate of the late queen’s Corgis are of slightly greater interest.
I'm a lifelong Republican & have never supported the sense of deference & subservience to the aristocracy. Having said that< I acknowledge a lifetime of duty undertaken by the Queen, whose passing will sadden a large proportion of the UK's population. So respect to her for that. However, I dread the long period of official mourning, which seems to me a tradition from a bygone age & makes us look what we are, a country forever locked in its past.
I hate this infantile and servile country. 96 for goodness sake - even she couldn't live forever. i will always remember her as the woman who spent millions bailing out her disgraced son.
I am sad that an old lady of 96 has died. I am sadder still that many other old people will die this winter and currently nobody is even supposed to think about them let alone actually do anything that might prevent their deaths. I am sad that a large family have lost their matriarch and patriarch in a short period of time. I am sadder still that we have wall to wall media coverage of, and speculation about, their grieving, whilst not being supposed to give a damn about the family of an unarmed black man shot dead by the Police in London a few days earlier, or the thousands dying in the floods in Pakistan, because we are not supposed to give a damn about those things. I am sad that the establishment are trying to make us all join in a festival of faux grief and nostalgic jingoism whilst a new PM leads her government in slashing and burning the UK economy to extract the last possible profit from us for their wealthy backers so that they can stash it all away offshore in tax havens whilst the rest of us are busy queuing halfway across London or watching TV coverage of the people doing it.
I'm sad that a man who has spent his adulthood saying nice things about the environment and social affairs whilst employing people to run the huge amount of land he owns to engage in criminally abusive practices as a landlord, and dangerously poisonous industrial farming on the majority of the land he owns, whilst we are supposed to laud him for his words and never mention his utter hypocrisy and complete inability to face responsibility.
"Bonkers" doesn't get close. This is major league self destructiveness on a massive scale.
I was shocked to see a passing blurb ‘The Queen is Dead’ at approximately 8:00 PM that evening, and Google results for my search were scant. I had to call my Mom for confirmation.
I live in Canada, she was queen my entire life. It was hard to process the fact that something so seemingly permanent was no more. I can’t even imagine seeing King Charles’s face on my money, I find it very odd even saying ‘King Charles.’
I want the rift between Harry and his family to be repaired. Other than that, all my thoughts on Her Majesty’s passing are muddled. I just don’t know what it means going forward.
The death of a family member is always a sad occasion.
As her job description, less formal said, is figurehead of the UK, she did it pretty decent. As most other players and the structures aren't changed, policies won't change much. Time will tell...
Honestly? I don't care at all. I found out when I saw my Twitter feed this morning and had to check a news site if I actually understood it correctly. I never cared about any monarchy in any country so I am completely unfazed by it. If I start thinking about what this may or may not mean for the UK I might start to worry, but I have stopped trying to make sense of what happens there ever since the vote for Brexit.
I got the news in French, in the middle of a Discord conversation about Quakerism. The BBC had been clearly gearing up so it wasn't a surprise.
Reactionwise, an inevitable sense of loss and a little introspection over why I felt it...rapidly turning to disdain and disgust as Twitter got underway.
I was at a quiz, failing at nearly all the British questions. Appropriate???
It feels surreal TBH? End of an era for sure. No strong feelings on the monarchy. Thought the Queen in and of herself was OK. Was rooting for her to get to 100 and send herself a telegram. All v weird.
I was checking my news feed this morning here in SoCal. I'm pretty conflicted, to be honest.
She was a first hand witness to some of the greatest and most horrible events of the last 90 years (as in she would remember it). Also, the monarchy needs to go. The funeral is going to turn the country into a madhouse and then there's a coronation afterwards and we won't even talk about what this makes Camilla and it just goes on and on.
I feel terrible for her grandchildren. Apparently they lost a really great grandma.
But the rest of it?
I don't know how the country is going to cope either and I'm here in LA. Hang tight.
This is not only simply sad. It's devastating for a country already in crisis. It is weird how people - the government, actually - have forgotten about all manners, and I fear it will get much worse yet.
I believe we shouldn't underestimate what this means.
I was at home, microwaving some pasta. But people at work had been speculating about it all day. Knew I would want to put the news on tonight and find out if the rumours were true.
I only vaguely remember when Diana died, though that was obviously rather more surprising. This one had been coming for a long time, so doesn't have the same power to shock.
The institutions of the British establishment will start grinding their wheels and doing what they do, before anyone has time to ask too many awkward questions.
At least it didn’t happen while Boris was still in charge. Can’t stand watching him trying to keep a serious face…
I’m honestly pretty worried about how the country is going to cope.
I was sitting in my car, waiting to give a friend a ride to the bank, when a push notification from the Washington Post came up saying that she had died. I feel sorry for her family, and all the people who have loved her for so long. I do wish this were the end of the British monarchy, but I know it's not. I also feel sorry for everyone else who lost a mother or a grandmother today, and how their personal loss is going to be overshadowed by this story.
Enough with royalty already.
This is a superstructural cultural phenomenon which leaves the socio-political infrastructure unchanged. It’s significance is emotional and ideological while class power carries on as it did. I feel nothing emotionally but acknowledge the personal sorrow of the family. My life will not be changed one iota, nor will the economic lives of the majority. The same greedy bastards are in charge.
🎉
Hoping this drives anti-monarchist sentiment in Canada
To be honest I spent most of the day angry. While the establishment was trying to ram home the image of a sweet old lady, people with real grievances were being attacked. A large part of the world has justifiable issues with the U.K. and its monarchy. While not ignorant of this fact, her death brought this very much home to me as I spent the day reading about it.
In the end I worked to do my small part to amplify those voices... I also turned off the radio so I wouldn't have to listen to unending tributes.
I came out of a Guardians Of The Galaxy Secret Cinemas interatactive experience at Wembley Park to find her death projected across Wembley Stadium, and I had yo catch up with fou hours of people knowing. I was in a little bubble or non-news playing at being a Ravager. I might go again tomorrow and see what happens next time.
Wistful. End of an era. Add the ordinary slight melancholy that comes from the death of a human being and vibes of public sorrow.
Certainly not feeling any urge to celebrate, as I've seen some fellow leftists do. Tackiness aside, it's classic displacement behaviour and 'plucking the imaginary flower from the chain'.
Intellectually could give a rat's ass, about the Queen. Class all stays put and neoliberalism goes on... but too many coincidences and similarities with my mother led us to joke all her life about how she WAS the Queen... SHe passed a few years ago and I find myself weepy about the Queen's death but certain that it due to the emotional connection to my mother (no big fan of monarchy - just don't care about it)
I am 68 years old, and she was already queen when I was born. Not looking forward to the media shitstorm of the next several weeks. It will dominate the media here in the US, as well as in the UK. I remember the furor when Princess Di died; that'll be nothing compared to this.
One of the most historically consequential deaths of my lifetime. Wild to think that she had already been queen for a decade when The Beatles were first making waves in the UK.
Really, really worried about Northern Ireland. There's a bunch of nutcases there that are very invested in the monarchy and one wrong word could kick off riots there, or worse.
Honestly, I'm pumped at the prospect of Charles stacking this so badly that he's gonna fully turn public opinion against the monarchy and we'll finally see the end of'em! I think a big ol'ostentatious coronation at a time when folks can't afford their heating bills is also going to leave a bad taste in our collective mouths, which will hardly help matters....
...it's definitely popcorn time, ha.
I was at work and someone suggested a minute of silence between take 5 and take 6.
I don't like the monarchy, and I share the same sentiment shared by so many others here, I wish she was the last. But even so, it felt right to take a moment to acknowledge the passing of the Queen. I took that moment to think about all the suffering caused (past, present and future) by colonialism, which I am only begging to understand. I want to thank for this space and for what other people shared too.
I woke up (in California) to see a lot of worried muttering on Twitter and the various news outlets so I figured it was just a matter of time before the official announcement came.
I'm no fan of the monarchy but I feel bad for a lot of my friends who really seemed to love Brenda and will mourn as if they'd lost a family member. Given how symbolic the monarchy is, these days, I don't think anything substantial will change with Charles III "in charge" although I'm sure he'll _want_ to be more involved. We'll see how that goes.
The country's been planning for her death for years so I expect it will all go off smoothly and, after a suitable period of everyone being bloody miserable about "Her Maj", things will all go back to "normal", whatever that looks like with a Thatcher "Mini-Me" in No. 10...
Very surreal, even as an American engaged to a Brit. It is strange to think she is gone, that there is a king, and that we likely won’t see another queen in our lifetimes. My last visit was during Jubilee.
Given the length of her life and the moments of history and technology she witnessed, she is symbolic of a particular moment of change.
At work, checking my blog post on the film schedule for our local museum/repertory art cinema.
Indifference would be the best word to describe my feelings. I’ve never lived under her radiance or her lash. And watching “The Crown” was never on my viewing radar. Tbh, the fate of the late queen’s Corgis are of slightly greater interest.
I'm a lifelong Republican & have never supported the sense of deference & subservience to the aristocracy. Having said that< I acknowledge a lifetime of duty undertaken by the Queen, whose passing will sadden a large proportion of the UK's population. So respect to her for that. However, I dread the long period of official mourning, which seems to me a tradition from a bygone age & makes us look what we are, a country forever locked in its past.
I hate this infantile and servile country. 96 for goodness sake - even she couldn't live forever. i will always remember her as the woman who spent millions bailing out her disgraced son.
I am sad that an old lady of 96 has died. I am sadder still that many other old people will die this winter and currently nobody is even supposed to think about them let alone actually do anything that might prevent their deaths. I am sad that a large family have lost their matriarch and patriarch in a short period of time. I am sadder still that we have wall to wall media coverage of, and speculation about, their grieving, whilst not being supposed to give a damn about the family of an unarmed black man shot dead by the Police in London a few days earlier, or the thousands dying in the floods in Pakistan, because we are not supposed to give a damn about those things. I am sad that the establishment are trying to make us all join in a festival of faux grief and nostalgic jingoism whilst a new PM leads her government in slashing and burning the UK economy to extract the last possible profit from us for their wealthy backers so that they can stash it all away offshore in tax havens whilst the rest of us are busy queuing halfway across London or watching TV coverage of the people doing it.
I'm sad that a man who has spent his adulthood saying nice things about the environment and social affairs whilst employing people to run the huge amount of land he owns to engage in criminally abusive practices as a landlord, and dangerously poisonous industrial farming on the majority of the land he owns, whilst we are supposed to laud him for his words and never mention his utter hypocrisy and complete inability to face responsibility.
"Bonkers" doesn't get close. This is major league self destructiveness on a massive scale.
My friend sent the following tweet: 'I'm no fan of The Queen but meeting Liz Truss and immediately dying is a move I respect.'
I was shocked to see a passing blurb ‘The Queen is Dead’ at approximately 8:00 PM that evening, and Google results for my search were scant. I had to call my Mom for confirmation.
I live in Canada, she was queen my entire life. It was hard to process the fact that something so seemingly permanent was no more. I can’t even imagine seeing King Charles’s face on my money, I find it very odd even saying ‘King Charles.’
I want the rift between Harry and his family to be repaired. Other than that, all my thoughts on Her Majesty’s passing are muddled. I just don’t know what it means going forward.
The death of a family member is always a sad occasion.
As her job description, less formal said, is figurehead of the UK, she did it pretty decent. As most other players and the structures aren't changed, policies won't change much. Time will tell...
Honestly? I don't care at all. I found out when I saw my Twitter feed this morning and had to check a news site if I actually understood it correctly. I never cared about any monarchy in any country so I am completely unfazed by it. If I start thinking about what this may or may not mean for the UK I might start to worry, but I have stopped trying to make sense of what happens there ever since the vote for Brexit.
What do you mean it’s going to get ‘worse’?
I got the news in French, in the middle of a Discord conversation about Quakerism. The BBC had been clearly gearing up so it wasn't a surprise.
Reactionwise, an inevitable sense of loss and a little introspection over why I felt it...rapidly turning to disdain and disgust as Twitter got underway.
I was at a quiz, failing at nearly all the British questions. Appropriate???
It feels surreal TBH? End of an era for sure. No strong feelings on the monarchy. Thought the Queen in and of herself was OK. Was rooting for her to get to 100 and send herself a telegram. All v weird.
I was checking my news feed this morning here in SoCal. I'm pretty conflicted, to be honest.
She was a first hand witness to some of the greatest and most horrible events of the last 90 years (as in she would remember it). Also, the monarchy needs to go. The funeral is going to turn the country into a madhouse and then there's a coronation afterwards and we won't even talk about what this makes Camilla and it just goes on and on.
I feel terrible for her grandchildren. Apparently they lost a really great grandma.
But the rest of it?
I don't know how the country is going to cope either and I'm here in LA. Hang tight.
This is not only simply sad. It's devastating for a country already in crisis. It is weird how people - the government, actually - have forgotten about all manners, and I fear it will get much worse yet.
I believe we shouldn't underestimate what this means.
Strange that I heard it from friends first and I don’t even live in the UK.
It’s sad to me that she’s gone.
But I have to admire her timing. It’s so classy that she left us before the heating season started. ;)
I was at home, microwaving some pasta. But people at work had been speculating about it all day. Knew I would want to put the news on tonight and find out if the rumours were true.
I only vaguely remember when Diana died, though that was obviously rather more surprising. This one had been coming for a long time, so doesn't have the same power to shock.
The institutions of the British establishment will start grinding their wheels and doing what they do, before anyone has time to ask too many awkward questions.
At least it didn’t happen while Boris was still in charge. Can’t stand watching him trying to keep a serious face…