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God save the mailbag

Takes on constitutional monarchy, Martin Luther King, and Padishah Emperor Paul Atreides

Matthew Yglesias
Sep 16, 2022
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God save the mailbag
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The Queen is dead, long live the King!

Lenzy T Jones: In light of the passing of Queen Elizabeth we’ve been bombarded by “the British Empire was evil! So eff that lady!” discourse. And I’m just wondering what’s your take on this almost “anti” Western view that many progressives and moderates hold that basically the USofA and all the Western European nations (usually excluding the Scandinavian ones) are horrible and dastardly because of imperialism, colonialism or some other past instance of an “ism”, while implicitly saying the other countries are and victims? Now I’m not a Royalist, a fan of jingoism or have any particular issue with people holding realistic views of countries (ie warts and all), but this view seems to not only be simplistic and moralistic in way that almost comes across as patronizing to the rest of the world. Like it gives off a vibe that none of the other countries’ governments or leadership have ever wrong anyone else.

Just in terms of the actual arc of Elizabeth’…

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