Ding Dong, The Witch is Dead

[Agent]

[dexeron]

At the end of the day, she was one of those people who preached all of these wonderful sentiments of hard work and self-sufficiency and praising the working class, yet pursuing policies that did nothing but harm them in order to line the pockets of the wealthy, much like all the neocons who were the successors of her and Reagan. Simultaneously, while she is lauded by some for supporting some gay rights measures in the 60s, she was one of those people always standing against "government" in economic matters, but perfectly happy to use government as a club against people she didn't like, passing measures like Section 28 that attacked gays directly. Her actions speak louder than words, and she did tons of harm to working families, labor unions, feminism, gays and other minorities. On top of that, she supported Pinochet and the aparthied regime in South African, calling Nelson Mandela a "terrorist." She did a couple good things: it was supposedly her influence on Reagan that made him so open to talks with Gorbechev in good faith, advancing detente likely far more quickly than it would have happened on its own. She acknowledged climate change and supported action to combat it. But like the Doctor said in "The Impossible Astronaut" when reminded that Nixon did some good things: "Not nearly enough."

Here's someone waxing on about Thatcher and her legacy: class warfare and the Tea Party.

http://www.nationalmemo.com/her-tea-par ... the-world/

[Agent]

[dexeron]

[Samurai]

[HisDivineShadow]

Refreshingly neutral yet objective journalism there, Sam. Well, as far as I can tell from what I know of Thatcher. Which is kinda ironic because she was also the one that helped unleash Rupert Murdoch and his hellspawn of news organizations so jaundiced that you'd think his whole media empire would've died from liver failure long ago.

Frankly, I'm glad that at least some people are literally dancing in the streets guzzling milk and beer, making no soft-spoken tributes out of sheer politeness for a former PM. We here in the states saw how terrifyingly effective Ronald Reagan's posthumous hagiography was in covering up his fetid bullshit, and it's nice to see that Thatcher isn't escaping her reputation the way the Gipper did.

Part of me does feel somewhat out of place commenting on England's politics as an American, but given how Reagan and Thatcher were bosom buddies and pretty much shared the same political philosophies, I'd like to think it's kind of fair. Hell, they fed and spawned each other's public policies, and to this day we still hear Tea Partiers citing Thatcher with dewy-eyed admiration, only ever knowing her as "The Iron Lady" of British right-wing politics. Here's hoping that her name continues to be stained by the blood and tears of all those she wronged, and that we can finally break this cycle of ideological incest.

EDIT: That might sound a bit harsh, but consider this:

But the key point is this: those who admire the deceased public figure (and their politics) aren't silent at all. They are aggressively exploiting the emotions generated by the person's death to create hagiography. Typifying these highly dubious claims about Thatcher was this (appropriately diplomatic) statement from President Obama: "The world has lost one of the great champions of freedom and liberty, and America has lost a true friend." Those gushing depictions can be quite consequential, as it was for the week-long tidal wave of unbroken reverence that was heaped on Ronald Reagan upon his death, an episode that to this day shapes how Americans view him and the political ideas he symbolized. Demanding that no criticisms be voiced to counter that hagiography is to enable false history and a propagandistic whitewashing of bad acts, distortions that become quickly ossified and then endure by virtue of no opposition and the powerful emotions created by death. When a political leader dies, it is irresponsible in the extreme to demand that only praise be permitted but not criticisms.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree ... -etiquette

[HisDivineShadow]

Here's a nice little graph on how badly poverty skyrocketed under Thatcher and how it's yet to go down to pre-Thatcher levels, even after she resigned from office after 20 years:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/data ... ts#poverty

Also mim, I'm kind of curious what led you to think that she wasn't the monster that most people are making her out to be. I know that in the US we tend to be much more deferential to authority figures despite our self-proclaimed adherence to egalitarianism, but it's pretty easy to find information on how heinous her reign was.

[Emoore]

[Despanan]

[Phantomgrift]

There is a reason that contrary to misguided and popular belief that "V For Vendetta" is somehow about American politics, it was actually a direct response to the growing rise of Thatcherism in England at the time.

I for one admire the way she refused to waffle on most of her decisions, despite what anyone thought of them. For better or worse, that manner of authoritative assurance is rather lacking in todays political circles as most of them try to fumble over the other while attempting to kiss up to whatever they think will keep them in office.

And, of course, simply to continue proving to Desperent that I'm somehow evil incarnate, I will offer up a toast to the loss of The Iron Lady.
The eighties were truly a better time for us all.