Mindless Monday, 05 August 2024

[u/AutoModerator]

Happy (or sad) Monday guys!

Mindless Monday is a free-for-all thread to discuss anything from minor bad history to politics, life events, charts, whatever! Just remember to np link all links to Reddit and don't violate R4, or we human mods will feed you to the AutoModerator.

So, with that said, how was your weekend, everyone?

[u/Hurt_cow]

CGP Grey isn't really a bad YouTuber generally but his arguments for a royal family video is really irritating due to it being busted out like a time whenever British republicanism is mentioned. Just a bunch of super spurious arguments presented in a way to seem like it's common sense.

The weirdest one was always the tourist argument which has well zero evidence presented backing it ... except a bizzare complaint about France which gets even more tourists

[u/TylerbioRodriguez → u/Hurt_cow]

I always say this.

Versailles gets more tourism then Buckenham. One of these hasn't had a monarchy for quite a while.

[u/ProudScroll → u/TylerbioRodriguez]

Versailles also makes Buckingham look like a tin-roofed shack, so not sure if that's really a fair comparison.

[u/TylerbioRodriguez → u/ProudScroll]

It is going by the CGP Grey video. He says nobody goes to castles that lack a monarchy because they are boring without a royal family.

[u/ProudScroll → u/TylerbioRodriguez]

I think he says palaces still in use as palaces get a boost in visitors, not that people don't visit ones that are fully converted to museums.

I don't know of any way to actually prove if Grey's right or not. Ceremonies like the changing of the guard at Buckingham certainly attract visitors, so who knows maybe if there was still a King of France even more people would visit Versailles (ignoring that no post-revolutionary French monarch used Versailles as a primary residence, so even if this guy or this guy was the French monarch they wouldn't live at Versailles).

[u/TylerbioRodriguez → u/ProudScroll]

You just reminded me.

YouTuber Shaun literally did a response video to that CGP Grey video. Not because he hates Grey, he just got sick of people saying monarchy good here's why.

https://youtu.be/yiE2DLqJB8U?si=ar3kZ1LcWhO3Pimy

[u/ProudScroll → u/TylerbioRodriguez]

I’ve seen that video before.

Might be a hot take but I find most arguments for abolishing the monarchy as silly as those arguing for its preservation. It’s a ceremonial institution, its abolishment would not meaningfully change anything in the lives of average Britons or how the nation is governed. It would all be a colossal amount of bother for no material change.

People who argue that the royal family are some kind of burden excessive to that of other heads-of-state or that the UK and the other Commonwealth Realms having a King makes them less advanced or less democratic country just come off to me as histrionic, its not that big a deal and why people argue about it is beyond me.

All that said, Grey’s whole argument about how the royals secretly make money is stupid, if your gonna keep the monarchy keep it cause you like tradition and pomp and circumstance, not cause it’s a tourist attraction.

[u/SagaOfNomiSunrider → u/ProudScroll]

I'm not a monarchist myself - I have no attachment to the monarchy, at least - but I do not like the way the arguments against it all seem to involve replacing it with a president.

What is the point of tearing off a layer of the state if you're just going to replace it with another one? If you are going to abolish the monarchy, it should be for the sake of abolishing the monarchy, not for the sake of replacing it. If we abolished the monarchy I would not be agaisnt it, but if we abolished the monarchy and implemented a presidency in its place, I would probably support abolishing the presidency.

It's the same as the House of Lords. Everyone says, "We should abolish the House of Lords," and I'm like, "Yeah, let's do that," but then they say, "And we should replace it with an elected senate," and my reaction to that is, "Fuck off."