this post was submitted on 17 Sep 2025
548 points (98.8% liked)

World News

49866 readers
2072 users here now

A community for discussing events around the World

Rules:

Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.


Lemmy World Partners

News !news@lemmy.world

Politics !politics@lemmy.world

World Politics !globalpolitics@lemmy.world


Recommendations

For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

The United Kingdom shamelessly prostrated itself at the feet of Donald Trump on Wednesday, throwing a lavish welcoming party for his state visit to Windsor that resembled less diplomacy and more fealty.

In doing so, the U.K. has revealed something deeply unflattering about itself—in the scramble to keep America close, it will debase itself and its values completely.

It will silence dissent, empty out its traditions, and rent out its monarch like a sex worker, deployed to flatter the ego of a man who has spent much of his political life suggesting he should be treated like one, a monarch, not a sex worker, that is.

As stage props go, the monarchy is unbeatable. But if this is what the “special relationship” between the U.S and the U.K. now means, it looks to many in Britain less like a partnership and more like groveling, feudal servitude.

archive article: https://archive.is/DxOAv

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] But_my_mom_says_im_cool@lemmy.world 25 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

There’s nothing the British monarchy loves to do more than to indulge and please a child molester

[–] andallthat@lemmy.world 20 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

To be fair all kings initially became kings exactly the way Trump is trying to do. No matter how they try to paint it as a God-given right or create elaborate origin myths, it all started with violence, marrying into power, betrayal, political scheming and a lot of inbreeding.

It's kind of appropriate that a kingdom recognizes this (although that was probably not what they were trying to do).

[–] Bronzebeard@lemmy.zip 19 points 2 days ago

Damnit. Now he's going to demand this shit happens back in the US.

[–] Jikiya@lemmy.world 14 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Aren't the royal sex workers? Isn't their job to have sex and produce heirs so the cycle can continue? Country pimps them out to show up to events and smile, and then to go back home and continue the line.

[–] zalgotext@sh.itjust.works 9 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Honestly I have more respect for sex workers than monarchs. Sex workers actually work hard and provide a valuable service, monarchs simply exist. The comparison falls flat for me

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] ShaggySnacks@lemmy.myserv.one 168 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Labour "Vote for us cause we're not the Conservatives." Proceeds to do everything like a conservative

[–] WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.world 65 points 2 days ago (3 children)

Starmer is a conservative/neoliberal from 10 years ago. There is no "left" party in mainstream UK politics anymore. There is only a fascist party, and a conservative party.

Same with Australia, Canada, and most of 14 eyes. Weird... Almost like we said this Overton shift towards fascism was occurring the entire god damn time.

[–] Hacksaw@lemmy.ca 15 points 2 days ago

Yeah our "Liberal" PM was asked by the conservative government 13 years ago to be the finance minister. The Overton window is completely fucked up, we have neofascism on one side and the opposite side is neoliberals who are okay with neofacism as long as it keeps the progressives away from taxing the rich and regulating multinationals. Any suggestion that the systemic problems destroying society should be addressed with structural solutions, or even that genocide and ethnic cleansing are bad, has now become tantamount to terrorism.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/mark-carney-stephen-harper-1.7460897

[–] copd@lemmy.world 6 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

Wait, you think green party isn't left leaning? They gained seats last election with their 2 million votes. who's to say they are not a mainstream political party

[–] xor@lemmy.blahaj.zone 6 points 2 days ago (1 children)

They gained seats, yes, but 4 seats isn't exactly a landslide. They're a force in local politics, but at the national level, they're just really not a major player - at least not yet

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 18 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

America's poodle, not just for joining invasions of Middle Eastern countries.

Also on display in Starmer's policy of arresting old ladies as terrorists when they demonstrated against the Genocide being done by America's pupetter.

[–] shittydwarf@piefed.social 115 points 2 days ago (2 children)

The royal family and child rapists name a more iconic duo

[–] ironhydroxide@sh.itjust.works 28 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Is it a duo when they're the same thing?

[–] Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world 21 points 2 days ago (1 children)
load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] Treczoks@lemmy.world 9 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

FTFY: The United Kingdom government shamelessly prostrated itself

The people in the streets played quite a different tune...

[–] SoftestSapphic@lemmy.world 59 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Charles fucked kids with his brother Andrew, and was friends with Epstein.

[–] DNS@discuss.online 22 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Britain is a pathetic redneck country of EU. Remember they sent their worst people over to the America's. Absolute garbage ass country and extremely racist.

[–] TheJesusaurus@sh.itjust.works 8 points 2 days ago (8 children)

Hey, Britain sucks ass for sure compared to parts of the EU but it's still lightyears ahead of America so maybe sort your own shit out. People in glass houses and that

[–] Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Britain has some very particular quirks in their Fascism that America doesn't have, most notably huge and centuries old class stratification well entrenched in its culture ("people should know their place" style), reflected in things such as the very high land ownership concentration in Britain.

Also the elites in Britain go to special schools (known as "public schools" even though they're private, a detail which itself should hint at how deceit is commonly used in Britain to present one impression of something which is something else) were they get taught amonsgt other things techniques to deceive others (plus some weird sociopathic shit in how to related to others, that for example means that pointing out to somebody with that upbringing that they "look a bit down" is actually taken as a gloating that "I'm not").

Further, the country has long had subtle power control mechanisms in place, such as how over 90% of high court judges attended those expensive "public schools" which only the scions of the upper middle and upper class can afford to attend - something which gets reflected in very different legal outcomes depending on which social class one comes from - or how over 70% of people who enter Oxford or Cambridge also went to "public schools" even though only 11% of children attend those (the entrance criteria for those universities is an interview rather than a purely meritocratic one like a test or grades, and I know of people who were literally told "you went to the wrong school" as reason to reject them). Essentially and except for a short period after WWII (back when Social Security and the National Health Service were created) the various levers of power have always been in the hands of the upper middle and upper class and access to opportunities for social mobility have always been highly restricted - a dumb, lazy scion of the upper class will get a degree from a top university and maybe a judgeship on a high court, whilst a smart and hard-working working class lad or lass can pretty much forget about either and this is just on class discrimination even without taking in account the actual wealth discrimination.

Fascism in Britain has a different expression and is anchored of a vast foundation of image-managed authoritarianism that tends to control by constraining people's options, and a subtler use of the Law for suppression under the cover of Lawfulness, rather than overtly the jackboot (though, as you see right now and was also on display at certain points during Thatcher's days, they sometimes use the jackboot overtly), whilst American Fascism is loud and brash, on top of a tradition of self-reliance and independence: basically at its most naked and overt, British Fascism looks like the way Occupy Wall Street was suppressed in the US, though that expression is but the tip of a very large iceberg.

All this to say that it's very hard to pin down just how bad Fascism in Britain is compared to America.

load more comments (7 replies)
[–] SethTaylor@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago

The UK is somewhere in the middle

Now Romania... THAT'S where the real rednecks are (I live there, it's more conservative that any US state lol)

[–] HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 13 points 2 days ago

appeasement is kinda their thing

[–] MonkderVierte@lemmy.zip 12 points 2 days ago (1 children)

The brits want to be colonialized for a change?

[–] gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

more like colonized, i.e. fucked in the ass

colonized, analyzed, rectified.

[–] RedFrank24@lemmy.world 33 points 2 days ago (2 children)

If there's one thing the UK is good at, it's making rich people feel important. It's how all those Russian oligarchs feel so comfortable in London, comfortable enough to spill their secrets. Nobody suspects the butler, nobody suspects that behind the pomp and ceremony there's a knife waiting for you.

Trump likes to be flattered, so flatter him, and then get as much cash out of the US as possible! $150bn investment so far as a result of this little bit of pageantry, since all those tech companies are now dancing to Trump's tune.

[–] Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

From my experience living there for over a decade, including meeting some people from the landed wealth, such warm welcomes to the ultra rich aren't some kind of 5D chess strategy to get their secrets, they're pure and simply a mix of greed and no scruples whatsoever by people who are trained since their teens in image management.

If the English Gentleman stereotype of honorable behaviour was ever true (rather than an image crafted by films, which frankly seems more likely), nowadays it's only about "projecting the right image", which is quite independent of "doing the right thing" (given that the upper classes are literally taught in their private schools to be fake and tell people what they want to hear, being a "posh gentleman" might actually be negativelly correlated with "doing the right thing").

In summary, do not expect honorable behaviour from the present day British elites, especially not the English ones - want to find honor in that country, try the Northern England and Scottish working class (maybe also Northern-Ireland, but I'm not as familiar with those) and a few amongst the middle and lower-middle class in multi-cultural large cities like London.

[–] funkless_eck@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 day ago (2 children)

In summary, do not expect honorable behaviour from the present day British elites, especially not the English ones

I mean, read Wilde, Wodehouse, Austen, Dickens... That's always been the case.

[–] melsaskca@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 day ago

People used to be dishonourable. They still are, but they used to be too. (R.I.P. Mitch Hedberg).

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 59 points 2 days ago (3 children)

Made up ceremony

Wait till the Brits find out its all made up and the nobility doesn't matter.

[–] roguetrick@lemmy.world 20 points 2 days ago (8 children)

The problem is if they decide that William the conqueror didn't actually have allodial rights to the land, then all property rights in the UK are made up too and that's a bridge too far.

load more comments (8 replies)
load more comments (2 replies)
[–] ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de 24 points 2 days ago

Ya buncha cunts

[–] bigbabybilly@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago

Who knew I could respect the royal family even less than I already did?

It will silence dissent, empty out its traditions, and rent out its monarch like a sex worker

Considering their monarch went to the US for people who were rented out as sex worker, it seems only fair for him to return the favor

[–] AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago

I hope they knighted him, or something. I can't wait for him to request being called Sir Donald by everybody.

[–] gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

England has nothing else to do. England is the ruins of an once great empire. It can't go back to its own glorious past, and it has therefore no way forward. If england does not adhere to the USA, it is nobody, it has nothing, and it can do nothing. At least that's what they're thinking.

[–] NotKyloRen@lemmy.zip 6 points 1 day ago

Especially after Brexit.

[–] NABDad@lemmy.world 28 points 2 days ago

rent out its monarch like a sex worker,

I don't know if they've been paying attention, but their monarch is too old for our President Pedophile. They'd have to offer up Princess Charlotte to interest him.

They should ask Prince Andrew. He knows.

[–] etchinghillside@reddthat.com 33 points 2 days ago (3 children)

I don’t know – is this really a “UK bending” thing?

I think this is just how NATO officials have realized how to play the game with him – fluff up his ego a bit and then get to the business talks – you play the game of politics with the hand you’re given.

I guess it might be the greatest public showing so far by a NATO Country(?)

[–] tburkhol@lemmy.world 30 points 2 days ago (3 children)

Honestly, as acts of appeasement go, a fancy dress party seems about the least humiliating thing a country can agree to. Play king for a day, like Make-A-Wish for senile fascists. If that settles the tariff negotiations, then well done.

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] cygnus@lemmy.ca 13 points 2 days ago (3 children)

I guess it might be the greatest public showing so far by a NATO Country(?)

By far, although to be fair, most of the rest of us don't have a royal family.

load more comments (3 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] selkiesidhe@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 day ago

Stop fellating this old sick fuck!!!

[–] MapleEngineer@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago

Stop appeasing fascists. It only emboldens them.

[–] MonsterMonster@lemmy.world 19 points 2 days ago (4 children)
load more comments (4 replies)
[–] kami@lemmy.dbzer0.com 26 points 2 days ago

Disgusting...

[–] AllNewTypeFace@leminal.space 16 points 2 days ago (1 children)

To be fair, by being rented out, the monarch finally gets to earn his keep.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] Kyrgizion@lemmy.world 15 points 2 days ago (1 children)

If ghosts were real, Guy Fawkes would've come back to haunt these guys by now.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] ohulancutash@feddit.uk 13 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Weird take. Britain is simply taking advantage of Trump’s ego.

[–] shalafi@lemmy.world 12 points 2 days ago (5 children)

No shit. Been saying for years that he's as easily manipulated as a toddler, and I mean that literally, not even as an insult. Best part? He's too dumb to ever know when he's getting played.

load more comments (5 replies)
load more comments
view more: next ›