On the topic of guillotines and false equivalencies

Naughty!

(I didn’t have a chance to roll out the fainting couches)

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The guillotine was the more humane solution to the oversupply of aristocrats.Those who lost their heads got trials and everything. The mob used more ad hoc methods.

Ah! It’ll be fine, It’ll be fine, It’ll be fine
aristocrats to the lamp-post
Ah! It’ll be fine, It’ll be fine, It’ll be fine
the aristocrats, we’ll hang them!

If we don’t hang them
We’ll break them
If we don’t break them
We’ll burn them
Ah! It’ll be fine, It’ll be fine, It’ll be fine
aristocrats to the lamp-post
Ah! It’ll be fine, It’ll be fine, It’ll be fine
the aristocrats, we’ll hang them!

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People worried about guillotine memes may want to redirect their attention to a recent story from the Times, British newspaper of record (so it aims to be read by lawyers and politicians).

for comparison

But somehow it’s the guillotines that are the problem.

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No, it’s the guillotines GIFS that are apparently the problem… Which is ironic, because everytime these sorts of comparisons are made to Nazi Germany, you have people wringing their hands over making ahistorical comparisons… But as you note, these are well-worn right wing tactics going back to the fascist era in European history. The story you’re linking to is about shaping actually policies by creating a false narrative about students with disabilities unfairly taking resources from the able-bodied.

But guillotine GIFS are the REAL threat to humanity… /s

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Oh, the horror…

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Why do you have civility Melz… why? :wink:

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My civility is but a thin and fragile veneer, over my ingrained primal instincts that dictate the unassailable will to survive: I own that.

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What do people make of this British Tradition?

Skip fo 4:40 for the burning of the Trump effigy.

They had Tony Blair and David Cameron being burned in previous years too. I wouldn’t be surprised if de Pfeffel is burned this year, no matter what he does.

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Oh, heavens to Betsy, the incivility of it all is making me woozy. Why, these effigy burning folks are just as bad as Nazis!

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Burning unpopular public figures in effigy is a far better alternative than burning actual people, so say I.

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Just to add to the horror of that picture, I can imagine what it would smell like because of living in the middle of the British Foot and Mouth disease outbreak in 2001.

I’ll file them both under “please don’t let this happen ever again!”

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Precisely.

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Oh, that’s right… Guy Fawkes day is nigh upon us!

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Found some helpful new meme guidelines for people that don’t want to rock the boat too much:

https://scipunk.tumblr.com/post/188396807687/robocop-2-1990-directive-233-restrain

RoboCop 2 (1990)

DIRECTIVE 233: RESTRAIN HOSTILE FEELINGS

DIRECTIVE 234: PROMOTE POSSITIVE ATTITUDE

DIRECTIVE 235: SUPRESS AGGRESSIVENESS

DIRECTIVE 236: PROMOTE PRO-SOCIAL VALUES

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It’s amusing that there is actually a magazine (non-ironically) called Jacobin, with no apparent consideration of what happened to the original Jacobins.

Almost as funny as a Libertarian magazine called (non-ironically) Reason.

Looking it up, though, I see that the left-wing magazine’s name is more about Tossaint L’Ouverture than Robespierre. So they did give it some thought.

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Libcom.org used to be named after Enragés, they changed their name because a lot of people didn’t get the reference.

Another group styling itself as Enragés emerged in France in 1968 among students at Nanterre University. Inspired by, and closely allied with, the Situationists, these Enragés emerged as one of the leading groups in the May 1968 French insurrection

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“Remember, remember, the 5th of November…”

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