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saberience ◴[] No.32769157[source]
It's weird, I've never considered myself a "royalist" but this news has affected me quite strongly. I just burst into tears unexpectedly on hearing this news and I don't quite understand why I feel so very sad. I guess I have grown up and lived my whole life (as a Brit) seeing and hearing the Queen, singing "God save the Queen" etc, and this news made me suddenly feel very old, very nostalgic, with the sense that all things pass in time, which makes my heart ache deeply.
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orobinson ◴[] No.32769695[source]
I feel the same. I think it’s because it really represents the end of an era. The 20th and early 21st century ushered in unprecedented improvements to quality of life in Britain but it has felt of late that that has peaked and the country is facing a serious decline: Brexit, the increasingly visible effects of climate change, the aftermath of covid, the possible break up of the union, rising costs of living, recession, possibly even war. The death of Elizabeth II coincides with the end of a long period of stability and comfort and is not only a poignant point in history itself but a marker for a transitional point in history for our country.
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rikthevik ◴[] No.32773063[source]
My understanding is that the late 70s and early 80s in England was a hopeless place. As evidence I submit Alan Moore's introduction to V for Vendetta and Ghost Town by the Specials.

- https://slendertroll.tumblr.com/post/66114152363 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_Town_(Specials_song)

"Naivete can also be detected in my supposition that it would take something as melodramatic as a near-miss nuclear conflict to nudge England toward fascism. Although in fairness to myself and David, there were no better or more accurate predictions of our country’s future available in comic form at that time. The simple fact that much of the historical background of the story proceeds from a predicted Conservative defeat in the 1982 General Election should tell you how reliable we were in our role as Cassandras. It’s 1988 now. Margaret Thatcher is entering her third term of office and talking confidently of an unbroken Conservative leadership well into the next century. My youngest daughter is seven and the tabloid press are circulating the idea of concentration camps for persons with AIDS. The new riot police wear black visors, as do their horses, and their vans have rotating video cameras mounted on top. The government has expressed a desire to eradicate homosexuality, even as an abstract concept, and one can only speculate as to which minority will be the next legislated against. I’m thinking of taking my family and getting out of this country soon, sometime over the next couple of years. It’s cold and it’s mean-spirited and I don’t like it here anymore."

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cloutchaser ◴[] No.32776330[source]
"My understanding is that the late 70s and early 80s in England was a hopeless place."

Yet Thatcher is basically remembered as the devil.

I can't fathom the complete cognitive dissonance of people who believe these two things at once.

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1. benj111 ◴[] No.32776477[source]
I don't see how they contradict. Crap time, crap prime minister
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2. automatic6131 ◴[] No.32776548[source]
It's that dissonance between the "crap" prime minister and the ending of the crap times. Thatcher was after the 70s, lad.
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3. benj111 ◴[] No.32776715[source]
Thatcher became prime minister in 1979 which isn't after the 70s. Old fogie.

The 70s were crap because of high inflation and fuel costs. Winter of discontent etc.

The 80s were crap because Thatcher basically dismantled the working class.

Is it dissonance about Germans complaining about interwar issues and complaining about the leader they ended up with?

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4. robertlagrant ◴[] No.32776949{3}[source]
Yes. The Thatcher era marked the end of a lot of stagnation, and while at the time people might have linked her and the era, plenty of subsequent people don't like Thatcher despite the marked increase in quality of life post her era.
5. gadders ◴[] No.32777019{3}[source]
The 80's weren't crap. The 80's saw a massive increase in wealth for the working class. There was even a whole comedy character about it - https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/loadsamoney
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6. benj111 ◴[] No.32777725{4}[source]
It was also the end of the mining industry, and many other manufacturing industries. There's documents discussing the managed decline of Liverpool.

Some people who were working class may have done well, but the working class as it was basically ceased to be.

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7. gadders ◴[] No.32777753{5}[source]
I think it depends which end of the country your piece of the working class was in.