What on Earth is going on in the world today? It's gone mad

[Jelenafan]

I can't believe I'm having to endure conversations about this today

I'm not usually interested in all the "royal stuff" of the UK, but it's almost impossible to avoid hearing/reading all the controversy reprime time Oprah interview with Meghan and Harry, C'mmon Oprah doesn't do these things very often anymore. ; )

Anyways just observing that the two high profile symbolic events of the last 10 years, ie Obama being elected the first Black president of the US and Meghan Markle marrying into the British Family, both which at the time were seen by many as breakthroughs for POC, have both devolved by reactions/consequences into yet more systemic racism debate. : (

 

[Federberg]

I'm not usually interested in all the "royal stuff" of the UK, but it's almost impossible to avoid hearing/reading all the controversy reprime time Oprah interview with Meghan and Harry, C'mmon Oprah doesn't do these things very often anymore. ; )

Anyways just observing that the two high profile symbolic events of the last 10 years, ie Obama being elected the first Black president of the US and Meghan Markle marrying into the British Family, both which at the time were seen by many as breakthroughs for POC, have both devolved by reactions/consequences into yet more systemic racism debate. : (

yes indeed. History tells us that reactionary forces will always resist change. But to be honest I don't know quite what to make of this interview. I think the British media was fairly hostile to Meghan. Equal parts race and the fact she's an American actress I think (you can't underestimate the element of the perception of Americans "lacking class" in the British media). But I think Harry and Meghan telling this story, knowing the tendency of the royal family to keep silent about their private business was pretty horrific. When Meghan's father and step sister were giving their tell alls about Meghan I was appalled and I found their actions a terrible betrayal. But here are Harry and Meghan now, basically doing the same thing. It's a nightmare...

 

[tented]

I can't believe I'm having to endure conversations about this today

 

[Federberg]

the man is an ass. He was out of line here. Although I do agree with his core point that this is a betrayal, and I'm very cynical about their objectives. As a friend of mine said, when they left to go to Canada it felt authentic. But when they ended up in Hollywood you sort of wondered if that was the plan all along

 

[Jelenafan]

yes indeed. History tells us that reactionary forces will always resist change. But to be honest I don't know quite what to make of this interview. I think the British media was fairly hostile to Meghan. Equal parts race and the fact she's an American actress I think (you can't underestimate the element of "lack of class" in the British media). But I think their telling this story, knowing the tendency of the royal family to keep silent about their private business was pretty horrific. When Meghan's father and step sister were giving their tell alls about Meghan I was appalled and I found their actions a terrible betrayal. But here are Harry and Meghan now, basically doing the same thing. It's a nightmare...

Nobody on either side is coming out smelling like roses...the reek of entitlement from all is heavy.

the man is an ass. He was out of line here. Although I do agree with his core point that this is a betrayal, and I'm very cynical about their objectives. As a friend of mine said, when they left to go to Canada it felt authentic. But when they ended up in Hollywood you sort of wondered if that was the plan all along

For a non Anglophile like me,TBH the structure of that institution ( The British Monarchy) is just a weird construct, particularly for the 21st century. Hang tradition, its always been more about its self preservation. During WW1 they literally changed their family name to hide their German roots and when their first cousin and steadfast ally during the the Great War, Tsar Nicholas & family ( who was the spitting image of the King George V) asked for asylum, his life clearly endangered they refused him. Mind you the Russian Provisional Gov was all for letting them leave. For years they let it be assumed that the government of Lloyd George was the reason, but decades later former confidential correspondence confirmed that it was King George V who vetoed, fearing it Could threaten his monarchy. So goodby first cousin !

So while I don’t necessarily think Harry/Meghan are these noble paragons of virtue/self sacrifice I can easily envision that the institution betrayed them too, chewing them up as their focus is in maintaining the FIRM.

As to relocating to Southern Cal I just don't see how that’s some huge secret nefarious move. Her mother lives down there, her friends and business contacts, and Montecito is as close to paradise as you’re going to get, with the exception of the occasional raging fires or devastating mudslides in the area. ; )

 

[Federberg]

Nobody on either side is coming out smelling like roses...the reek of entitlement from all is heavy.

For a non Anglophile like me,TBH the structure of that institution ( The British Monarchy) is just a weird construct, particularly for the 21st century. Hang tradition, its always been more about its self preservation. During WW1 they literally changed their family name to hide their German roots and when their first cousin and steadfast ally during the the Great War, Tsar Nicholas & family ( who was the spitting image of the King George V) asked for asylum, his life clearly endangered they refused him. Mind you the Russian Provisional Gov was all for letting them leave. For years they let it be assumed that the government of Lloyd George was the reason, but decades later former confidential correspondence confirmed that it was King George V who vetoed, fearing it Could threaten his monarchy. So goodby first cousin !

So while I don’t necessarily think Harry/Meghan are these noble paragons of virtue/self sacrifice I can easily envision that the institution betrayed them too, chewing them up as their focus is in maintaining the FIRM.

As to relocating to Southern Cal I just don't see how that’s some huge secret nefarious move. Her mother lives down there, her friends and business contacts, and Montecito is as close to paradise as you’re going to get, with the exception of the occasional raging fires or devastating mudslides in the area. ; )

that's fine. I can fully understand hostility to the very concept of the institution of the Royal family. There's a not insignificant number of Brits who would happily see it end. It's certainly not a surprise that there was a vastly more acceptance of the interview on that side of the pond. A lot of us over here see things differently

 

[Jelenafan]

that's fine. I can fully understand hostility to the very concept of the institution of the Royal family. There's a not insignificant number of Brits who would happily see it end. It's certainly not a surprise that there was a vastly more acceptance of the interview on that side of the pond. A lot of us over here see things differently

To be clear, I don’t think it’s some nefarious evil institution, just that like any other one some people fit in and some are chewed up by it.

As an American, any tradition is considered “long standing” if it’s 100 + years , can’t even imagine a tradition that dates back to almost a thousand years.

 

[Federberg]

I have a horrible feeling there's politics behind the European reaction to the AstraZeneca vaccine. It seems light on data. If EU countries keep this up, the UK will achieve herd immunity long before the EU is even half way there.

 

[Federberg]

thought this was interesting....

The EMA covid-19 data leak, and what it tells us about mRNA instability

Leaked documents show that some early commercial batches of Pfizer-BioNTech’s covid-19 vaccine had lower than expected levels of intact mRNA, prompting wider questions about how to assess this novel vaccine platform, writes Serena Tinari As it conducted its analysis of the Pfizer-BioNTech...

www.bmj.com

 

[tented]

thought this was interesting....

The EMA covid-19 data leak, and what it tells us about mRNA instability

Leaked documents show that some early commercial batches of Pfizer-BioNTech’s covid-19 vaccine had lower than expected levels of intact mRNA, prompting wider questions about how to assess this novel vaccine platform, writes Serena Tinari As it conducted its analysis of the Pfizer-BioNTech...

www.bmj.com

Ugh ... this is just going to get the anti-vaccers ranting at new levels.

 

[britbox]

If I was a gambling man, my money is on the Russians.

 

[El Dude]

For my Irish friends, @Front242 and @Kieran

 

[Kieran]

For my Irish friends, @Front242 and @Kieran

View attachment 6094

Only seeing this now, but yes! Our fishermen sailed out to see - and chased the Russkies away! Putin had non-provocatively, and with no intention at all of pissing anyone off, decided to play war games in the sea, not far from the fair and beautiful Emerald Isle. To protect the fish, and their livelihoods for that day, and any other future day where the Russians decide they want to do someone so harmless again, our fishermen sailed out to meet them - and the Russians backed down. They decided against. The lads won.

The more serious part of all this is that Russians often race their jets down along the Irish coast, in Irish airspace, to show the Brits they can, and we can’t do anything about that. The British do, though - they scramble fighter jets and chase them off. True story.

 

[tented]

This is a new low.

The Royal Shakespeare Company should be ashamed of its campaign to tarnish Britain's greatest writer with the woke obsessions of our age

 

[Kieran]

This is a new low.

The Royal Shakespeare Company should be ashamed of its campaign to tarnish Britain's greatest writer with the woke obsessions of our age

It’s depressing, but hopefully there’ll be a blowback of Shakespearean proportions.

When Shakespeare's Globe in London put on Romeo And Juliet last year, the director, Ola Ince, announced that she couldn't relate to the characters and had decided to base the play on the theme of mental health. (How refreshing: another subject we never hear about!)

'We wanted to be anti-tradition,' she explained, adding that her cast had taken out dialogue they considered 'racist, inappropriate or insensitive', and put in new lines exploring issues such as the 'impact of the patriarchy'.

Very generous of the cast, saved the rest of us rewriting The Bard. What an ignorant bunch of people, and how they even got to the position that they could subject the rest of us to this crap says a lot about how the prevailing culture isn’t very cultured at all, they’re more satisfied when they’re dumbing down and celebrating their own mediocre ideas, ahead of Shakespeare, who they “couldn’t relate to.”

How do you get to direct a great and famous play, if you can’t relate to it? And if she can’t relate to it, why does she feel that modish ideas will be good enough? We get enough of this nonsense from virtue signalling “stars.”

Imbeciles. Morons. Animals…

 

[Horsa]

This is a new low.

The Royal Shakespeare Company should be ashamed of its campaign to tarnish Britain's greatest writer with the woke obsessions of our age

I agree. You can't really call it Shakespeare if it isn't played as it was written to be played. What next? Simplifying all the words & metaphors etc. so it's that easy a 5 year old could understand it or bringing it completely up-to-date? I think that it's absolutely dreadful.

 

[tented]

It’s depressing, but hopefully there’ll be a blowback of Shakespearean proportions.



Very generous of the cast, saved the rest of us rewriting The Bard. What an ignorant bunch of people, and how they even got to the position that they could subject the rest of us to this crap says a lot about how the prevailing culture isn’t very cultured at all, they’re more satisfied when they’re dumbing down and celebrating their own mediocre ideas, ahead of Shakespeare, who they “couldn’t relate to.”

How do you get to direct a great and famous play, if you can’t relate to it? And if she can’t relate to it, why does she feel that modish ideas will be good enough? We get enough of this nonsense from virtue signalling “stars.”

Imbeciles. Morons. Animals…

I agree. You can't really call it Shakespeare if it isn't played as it was written to be played. What next? Simplifying all the words & metaphors etc. so it's that easy a 5 year old could understand it or bringing it completely up-to-date? I think that it's absolutely dreadful.

I took three Shakespeare courses in college — that’s how much I love him. To discover this ridiculous blasphemy being done by the frickin’ Royal Shakespeare Company — THE ROYAL SHAKESPEARE COMPANY! — is gut wrenching.

We need the great British Shakespearean actors to come out against this en masse: McKellen, Dench, Maggie Smith, Jacobi, Branagh, etc. That would be a start, but we also need younger actors to do the same, otherwise the older ones would be dismissed as out of touch and old fashioned: white supremacists, guilty of colonialism. That’s the best weapon I can think of, since actors have the necessary reach to get the message out.

 

[Horsa]

I took three Shakespeare courses in college — that’s how much I love him. To discover this ridiculous blasphemy being done by the frickin’ Royal Shakespeare Company — THE ROYAL SHAKESPEARE COMPANY! — is gut wrenching.

We need the great British Shakespearean actors to come out against this en masse: McKellen, Dench, Maggie Smith, Jacobi, Branagh, etc. That would be a start, but we also need younger actors to do the same, otherwise the older ones would be dismissed as out of touch and old fashioned: white supremacists, guilty of colonialism. That’s the best weapon I can think of, since actors have the necessary reach to get the message out.

I love Shakespeare's sonnets best though I do like some of his plays. I can imagine how you must be feeling & absolutely agree with you.

I think that's a good idea. I played Juliet in Romeo & Juliet & loved it. Drama was my 3rd favourite subject at school & the 1 I found most enjoyable.

I think that instead of doing what they're doing they should make the time of his play viewings longer & educate people about what life in the world was like when Shakespeare was writing as well as something about his life so that they could admit that some of the words & phrases he used & some of the behaviour shown by the people in his plays were acceptable then but it isn't now & that people thought very differently then to what they do now.

 

[tented]

@Kieran @Horsa — Since mentioning suicide would require a trigger warning for these imbeciles, I guess they’ll have to elide Hamlet’s “To Be or Not to Be” soliloquy.

 

[Horsa]

@Kieran @Horsa — Since mentioning suicide would require a trigger warning for these imbeciles, I guess they’ll have to elide Hamlet’s “To Be or Not to Be” soliloquy.

I guess so, unfortunately, as well as the end of Romeo & Juliet.