QuoteApparently there are parties all across Argentina this evening
Seems Cher has had to issue a statement announcing she is still alive after today's most popular Twitter tag is #nowthatcherisdead.
Apparently there are parties all across Argentina this evening
I wouldn't revel in anybody's death, but I think people vastly overcompensate so they can be seen not to be celebrating somebody's death. As far as I'm concerned, she's just a person who died, but as far as people who died go she's about as disgusting as they come.Originally Posted by DannyInvincible
I don't like the whitewashing of peoples' legacy that happens when they die. It means people don't learn from it. A lot of young people are going to be subjected to Thatcher-worship from the media over the next few days with no balance, because that's not the done thing.
It was the same when Reagan died. People always rabbit on about the media being so liberal, but it seems that when right-wing nuts die, they all lose their nerve. Chavez got the same treatment despite the fact the right-wing press despised him while he lived. Both were horrible human beings and the world is a better place now they're dead.
There was a 32csm party at Free Derry Corner for most of yesterday evening, 50 or so nutjobs there as I passed. Most of our (NI) politicians seem to agree that she was a "divisive" figure, me though, will always remember her as the b"tch that stole the free school milk!
For once maybe someone will call me "sir" without adding "you're making a scene."
Listening to Lord Solooney on Morning Ireland, you begin to realise that there are some care in the community has gone too far. Why Taylor or anyone else should slam middle ground or deny the truth, it opens the door for the shameful scum who profited from the misery on both sides of the Northern conflict. Here in Russia they're being very nice about the woman, which makes sense. Like the current Russian ruler she too slaughtered and promoted the slaughter of her own people. She too, like VVP, made sure to keep conflict zones active to trim the working class population and maintain power. And she too, like VVP, was buddied up with savage butchers (Hussein-Kadyrov, Pinochet-Karimov). Beggars belief.
Article on it here from the Belfast Telegraph: http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/ne...-29182412.html
Falls Road scenes last night:Large numbers of people have gathered in Londonderry to 'celebrate' the death of Margaret Thatcher earlier today.
The crowd - many waving Tricolour flags - gathered at the famous Free Derry Corner in the city's Bogside.
Several Chinese lanterns were also lit as families gathered in the area this evening.
Crowds also gathered on the Falls Road in west Belfast.
Meanwhile elsewhere in Glasgow and London there were similar events.
A crowd of two or three hundred people assembled in Glasgow's George Square where in 1989 protests to the introduction of Thatcher's poll tax took place.
Some wore party hats and launched streamers into the air while a bottle of champagne was opened with a toast to the demise of Baroness Thatcher.
Members of various organisations including the Anti-Bedroom Tax Federation, the Communist Party, the Socialist Party, the Socialist Working Party, the International Socialist Group, were joined by members of the public to mark the occasion.
Meanwhile, More than 100 people gathered in Brixton, south London - the scene of fierce riots in 1981 - two years into her first time in office.
There was also a reaction from music star Morrissey, a long-time critic of Baroness Thatcher, who berated her as "barbaric" and "without an atom of humanity".
True, I was being somewhat facetious. They do like to portray themselves as such and are widely perceived as such, mind, which is dangerous given the extraordinarily flattering treatment they have accorded Thatcher upon her death. The likes of Sky or ITN aren't accorded the same level of undue reverence as the BBC. Peadar highlights exactly why such white-washing and worship should be of concern to critical thinkers.
I think the whole tiptoeing around what you say about the dead is a hangover from a more superstitious age when people thought they were looking over your shoulder, more than out of respect for their bereaved families. Respect for their families definitely didn't even cross peoples' minds when they were alive.
Free Derry Corner after they finished the party last night:
For once maybe someone will call me "sir" without adding "you're making a scene."
Is there something wrong with me that I read that as "You are now Thatcher's Dead- NG, Let's Bury Greed With Her! Y"Free Derry Corner after they finished the party last night:
DID YOU NOTICE A SIGN OUTSIDE MY HOUSE...?
In what sense do they overcompensate? Like posting about it on a forum, you mean?
Haha. No, I just mean there's a tendency to eulogise people when they die, as if it's not an appropriate time to critically assess their lives, when in fact it's precisely the time that should be done. The result is sycophantic tributes all over the media that will give many people a completely false impression of her and the damage she wreaked.In what sense do they overcompensate? Like posting about it on a forum, you mean?
Ah, yes, I see. The Glenn Greenwald piece to which I linked in an earlier post deals with this "misapplied death etiquette". Worth a read.
I'm dreading the day Tony Blair snuffs it and the media either try and desperately justify the invasion of Iraq, or fail to mention it altogether.
Anyone that doesn't get the celebrating, doesn't get the damage she inflicted, in my opinion.
Her legacy is all around us - continued poverty, the banking crisis, the lack of social housing, sh1thole estates left to rot with children with no hope other than becoming criminals, public health systems collapsing or being privatised, diminished public services, demonisation of public servants, families not able to survive on one wage, people working 2 part time jobs rather than having 1 permenant job, pensioners financially unable to retire etc etc etc. Everything that's wrong with society on these islands can pretty much be traced back to Thatcher and those that follow her ideology (both in Britain and here).
Personally I won't be celebrating until she's in the ground and we get the chance to Tramp The Dirt Down.
If you attack me with stupidity, I'll be forced to defend myself with sarcasm.
I get the celebrating completely; it's an entirely predictable and natural reaction. I understand how divisive and destructive she was and can see why people would be delighted to personally see the back of her. However, can we assume that the many people expressing glee at her death have a reasonable grasp of the consistency of her tenure? I care naught for her myself, nor do I wish to moralise or engage in sanctimony. As you point out though with your list, she might be gone in person, but Thatcherism is still very much alive and well. What are the implications of her death? Her death makes no difference in the sense that her legacy lives on. In fact, it has led to a worrying glossing over by the mainstream media of her character and policies. What's to celebrate about that?
Besides the fact there's nothing constructive in the celebration of death, I'd also feel a bit crass and vindictive celebrating or gloating about the death of another human, no matter who they were. It's not that I feel she in particular is deserving of being treated with a certain reverence in death or anything; it just wouldn't sit easily with me, and I'm not sure I can really rationalise as to why exactly. Does reacting to the death of a perceived tyrant with gleeful gloating set you on any higher a moral pedestal than the one on which you've positioned them? I'd like to be able to think I had a greater respect for life than she had.
Last edited by DannyInvincible; 10/04/2013 at 9:53 AM.
The damage she inflicted as a person or as a politician ? She had to get elected first to inflict damage. How many times did that happen ? I'd understand the celebration if she was pulled weeping from No.10 after being shunted out by her own people, but I don't remember those celebrations. I only see celebrations now of the death a withered, incontinent, lonely, demented old woman. Society is gone to the dogs. Ironically, the celebration of her death is probably a symbol of her legacy - a woman who didn't believe in a compassionate society, who believed that vulnerability was the ultimate weakness. Perhaps the celebration of her death is in some way a manifestation of her policies of misery?
Same thing, unless a politician isn't a person? She wasn't making unpopular decisions forced on the UK, she was following her own ideology. That a flawed electoral system gave her a mandate is a different thing.
I agree with the link to her policies and her vision of society - I made a similar point in Off Topic. Which makes the establishments criticism of it even more hard to take to be honest.
I agree to a degree, and I think some outspoken socialists have made a similar point. However, I would have to add the caveat without the celebrating would there even be a reasoned debate about her legacy? People that were too young to remember may dig a bit deeper when they see the strength of feeling she still engenders, and see the damage she did, and her ideology continues to do.
I personally didn't celebrate yesterday (although my initial reaction was to a certain extent) - I preferred to think of the towns and villages in the North of England she destroyed, for the sake of destroying. When I saw posts on social media criticising the celebrating by saying "it's not like she was a criminal or anything" I thought of the conscripts on the Belgrano, and her support Pinochet. I reflected on the what she left - as I outlined in my other post. We're determined to not learn from history, not helped by there's no proper debate in the media.
If you attack me with stupidity, I'll be forced to defend myself with sarcasm.
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