Lethos said:
Mr F. said:
Look at the objective posters. The posters from the States, Australia, Canada. The vast majority of their comments are something a long the lines of: "don't really know who she is but celebrating someone's death seems distasteful". Now you can either look at that and come to the conclusion that these people are just ignorant to your plight, or you can look at it and see that when you remove your own emotions from the equation, it doesn't take a genius to see that picketing the funeral of someone is not acceptable behavior.
But no, you're so blinded by your hate and your ideology, you're willing to perform abhorrent actions to try and win people over to your side. First of all most people aren't going to want to associate themselves with you and your ideology once you become contaminated by a reputation of being thugs. Second of all, anyone who does want to associate themselves with you is probably not going to be the type of person who propels your ideology into the mainstream. Beyond that what is picketing a funeral going to achieve? The old lady certainly can't defend herself so you're not exactly sparking a debate. And any attempts to sway over supporters of Thatcherism are going to be dead in the water once they see your behavior.
Honestly though I'm not sure why I'm trying to persuade you not to do this. Anyone who is so out of touch with reality that they think it's okay to picket a funeral probably isn't going to respond to pleas for reason.
Also FYI, but just throwing opinion pieces at me does nothing. Those articles are written by people. Just because they happen to be written down and published online doesn't make them any more correct.
Those opinion pieces have been written by well respected journalists. I was trying to point out a few things that you seem to be ignoring.
1) The idea that we must never speak ill of the dead is damaging and stupid.
2) As I have already said, I would not picket a funeral if it was a private affair. This is not. This is a state funded ceremony and a total waste of money.
3) We shall see what the turnout is. The Met has already admitted it is worried about the scale of a policing operation. Thatcher is not as loved as you would assume.
4) The views of Aussies and stuff does not really matter whatsoever. Sorry. If you have no idea what she did in her lifetime, if you have not grown up with the children of her policies, if you are not living in Thatcherite Britain, your opinion matters very, VERY little to me.
5) Blinded by hate? Well, To a degree, yeah. I am driven by my ideology. Exactly the thing that people loved her for. Strange, isn't it. Well, This man is not for turning.
Picketing a private funeral = Unacceptable.
Protesting at a state-funded funeral for a political figure that is hated by a large amount of the country = Acceptable.
There is a difference. Refusing to see that difference, refusing to acknowledge it, is pointless.
I know, Godwins law and all, but lets say Hitler was given a state funded funeral tomorrow. Would you be irritated at the protestors? Would you call them "thugs", would you declare their actions to be "distasteful".
Thatcher destroyed lives. Since you will not read those articles, I will just snip a few bits out for you. Particularly the following, it applies perfectly to what you are saying.
An outburst of pleasure at the departure of someone who was deeply polarising and gave expression to callous attitudes is both perfectly understandable and justifiable. No quantity of apologetics about the good effects on the economy or the military situation in the world will satisfy someone who saw whole communities devastated by unemployment, livelihoods lost and neighbourhoods turned into wastelands: the felt quality of life is the final measure of the effect on individuals, and they have a right to their say.
And as for why we will be protesting at her state-funded funeral, against both Thacherite policies and the massaging of her brutal legacy?
Britain was one of the most equal Western European countries before the Thatcherite project began, and is now one of the most unequal. Thatcherism is not just alive and well: it courses through the veins of British political life. The current government goes where Thatcherism did not dare in its privatisation of the NHS and sledgehammering of the welfare state.
So yeah. We are thugs because we do not want her to be remembered as something that she is not. We are thugs because we still see her to be a threat. Just gonna drop what I said on FB here.
To put it simply: Some of us hate her and her policies. The Tories are trying to make all of her bad policies go away. Being dead does not magically make her a better person or one worthy of our respect. If the family did not want this to be happening they should be opting for a private funeral, in which case I would be behind you.
However, if during a time of austerity the government is choosing to waste millions on her funeral, are we supposed to roll over and take it? This government has driven over a quarter of a million people into relying on foodbanks to survive and is now taking steps to fleece the poor of what little they have left.
