this post was submitted on 05 Feb 2024
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I don’t know if it’s that you don’t know anything about the royal family, or that you don’t know anything about how power works, or both.
They have influence, not governing power. Sure you could argue they don't deserve the influence they have just for being in that position. The main point however is questioning the /hate/. I know you're not the poster who I was replying to, but I didn't want to distract the point of my post. Why should we hate the monarchy so much?
We shouldn't hate the monarchy, necessarily. We should hate monarchy as a concept.
It's archaic, it formalises and legitimises unbelievable levels of inequality and elitism, and it gives rise to at least the strong possibility (and in the UK's case at least, the actuality) of a tiered legal system, with some laws simply not applying to some people because of their position.
It's a repulsive idea, based on historical might and hereditary right, and with no regard for democracy or equality of all people.
That makes sense. I agree with that. Thank you.
I felt somewhat disheartened that the response of a guy announcing he has cancer is filled with such toxicity.
The old man that this post is about literally does have governing power, not only in the UK but also in 14 other countries including Australia and Canada. A common argument made by monarchists is that the monarch's actual influence is negligible, and their governing power should be ignored because it is only ceremonial.
As Wikipedia puts it:
But... there is a catch:
It turns out that there is also a less formal process (or a "parliamentary convention"; another part of the UK's heritage is having an "unwritten constitution", whatever that means) called King's Consent whereby the monarch, in secret, is consulted before parliament is allowed to debate anything which might affect their personal interests. And it turns out, a lot of things might affect their personal interests, so, this procedure has been and continues to be used to review, shape, and in some cases veto, numerous laws before they are allowed to be debated by parliament. You can read more here.
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