Also lived in other countries in Europe for similar or greater periods.
Britain is definitely at least a decade or two “ahead” in this shit, plus they have very specific and highly entrenched problems around classism, hypocrisy, dynastic elites and how the scions of the elites are pretty much sent to the kind of private school (curiously called “public schools” in Britain) that specializes in turning them into sociopaths (being an “English Gentleman” isn’t actually about being honorable, it’s about maintaining a very specific complex image - complete with a unique non-regional accent - that conveys the impression that one comes from the upper classes).
It’s not by chance that the Snowden revelations showed that Britain was even worse than the US and, whilst in the US they actually walked back (for a while) the anti-constitutional elements of their state surveillance apparatus, in the UK they just retroactively made the whole thing legal and sent a bunch of D-Notices (the British censorship mechanism) to newspapers to shut them up.
Britain has great image management wrapped around a rotten core.
All good points. Been here nearly 50 years and not noticed most of it but then again I keep myself to my family. Or maybe it’s because I’m white so I don’t see the worst of it. I do find a lot of people around me are incredibly racist which is a real shame.
I lived in the UK for over a decade.
Also lived in other countries in Europe for similar or greater periods.
Britain is definitely at least a decade or two “ahead” in this shit, plus they have very specific and highly entrenched problems around classism, hypocrisy, dynastic elites and how the scions of the elites are pretty much sent to the kind of private school (curiously called “public schools” in Britain) that specializes in turning them into sociopaths (being an “English Gentleman” isn’t actually about being honorable, it’s about maintaining a very specific complex image - complete with a unique non-regional accent - that conveys the impression that one comes from the upper classes).
It’s not by chance that the Snowden revelations showed that Britain was even worse than the US and, whilst in the US they actually walked back (for a while) the anti-constitutional elements of their state surveillance apparatus, in the UK they just retroactively made the whole thing legal and sent a bunch of D-Notices (the British censorship mechanism) to newspapers to shut them up.
Britain has great image management wrapped around a rotten core.
All good points. Been here nearly 50 years and not noticed most of it but then again I keep myself to my family. Or maybe it’s because I’m white so I don’t see the worst of it. I do find a lot of people around me are incredibly racist which is a real shame.