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German #folklore is _full_ of tales of evil, prideful nobles who were eventually punished for their sins.

So why is modern media - starting with #Disney , and moving on from there - so full of pro- #monarchy propaganda instead? Lots of "Just Kings", "Plucky Princesses", and so forth. Why is the implication in media nowadays that being exalted by the circumstances of your birth is likely to make you a good person? Instead of being totally oblivious to your own class privilege - and that's probably the _best_ case!

I wonder if anyone has done any scientific research on all these "pro-monarchy" narratives in modern media, and how they came into existence.

Gregaro McKool

@juergen_hubert Americans, especially earlier in their history, are obsessed with monarchy. It’s heredity rule they don’t like. There’s something in American culture that deeply wants a hierarchy, they just need the hope that ‘democracy’ or ‘success’ could allow them to be the top regardless of the family they were born into. That desire somehow bleeds into everything they do be it expensive elite schools, the high budget risk-averse media, two party system, etc.

@gregarofence @juergen_hubert

The US forked British Monarchy™ in 1776, but froze the dev branch with Constitution 1.0, so didn't bother to backport any of the subsequent bugfixes and security patches (1831, 1918, 1938, etc.) from the main British branch.

Anyway, you've got a bunch of British Monarchy™ users who instinctively want to tug the forelock but don't have anyone to tug it *at* and it upsets them because homebrew is no good—it takes 700 years of inbreeding to roll your own nobility.

@gregarofence @juergen_hubert You've got to grow up in a monarchy in order to truly hold it in contempt

@cstross @juergen_hubert I bet there’s more royalists here in Canada than The UK because the stakes are so low.

@gregarofence @juergen_hubert I'm in Scotland where support for the monarchy finally dropped below 50% after Liz cacked it. As it's generationally stratified (the elderly are more royalist) I expect by the time Scotland gets independence it'll be on course to do so as a republic.

@gregarofence @cstross @juergen_hubert I think that a lot of Canadians, particularly among older generations, had loyalty and love for Liz, but now that she‘s passed, it’s changing, despite the media gushing over the RFs every move. The problem is that fixing it will open up the old can of constitutional worms that has been sitting on a shelf since 1992. and I don’t think that it would be reopened solely over the monarchy issue.

@Lynnd @cstross @juergen_hubert Change is certainly in the air. I like having a Governor General in Canada. I wouldn’t include it in a new system but as a legacy feature it’s nice having someone dedicated to diplomatic wining and dining for a set term with a veto that will trigger a constitutional crisis. You know that if it ever gets used it’ll be used for something good. I’m also worried that in the absence of the crown we’ll just move over to the American monarchy which is far less healthy given that most of them don’t acknowledge it exists. I’d really like it if Canadians finally figured out how cool we are and stopped trying to play catchup to the dysfunctional older kids.

@gregarofence @Lynnd @cstross @juergen_hubert I like the ideals the Governor General, and since we would need a head of state anyway, there is no reason that we couldn’t keep that position. I agree with you about the risks of moving from one dysfunctional monarchy to another. Amen to Canada finally, and at long last, ditching both our British and American colonizers and figuring out our own path!

@cstross @gregarofence @juergen_hubert

Certain non-european monarchies arose w/o the 700 years of inbreeding. I heard Osman Bey and his sons have had a good innings for around 643 years although towards the end, there was a bit of inbreeding, and all of that nobility was promptly destroyed and replaced by something else.

@cstross @gregarofence @juergen_hubert
Weirdly, about 100 years later, they are having a bit of a comeback, I presume we're due for the declaration of Erdogan the First pretty soon.

@cstross @gregarofence @juergen_hubert Maybe our aristocracy doesn't go back so far, but it's kind of surprising how many presidents were close relatives of other presidents, and there were a lot of bumperstickers calling for the Obamas to become a dynasty.