US Supreme Court, women's bodily autonomy cancelled

[mids]

Good.

"The year was 1927, and Lieutenant-Colonel Reginald Applin, DSO, OBE, was on the warpath. The Conservative MP for Enfield was a man of decidedly robust opinions. In his youth he had served in the North Borneo Armed Constabulary. In middle age he had fought in the Boer War and commanded an Anzac machine-gun detachment at Passchendaele. And now, as he rose to address the House of Commons, he could feel the old fighting spirit surging through his veins. The blood was up, the heart was strong, and Lieutenant-Colonel Applin was preparing to engage his deadliest foe yet — Americanisation."

unherd.com/2022/06/stop-pretending-britain-is-america/

[flatandy]

That’s actually pretty good. There are one or two things I’d take issue with. But on the whole I agree it’s been really f**k**g bizarre to see my British friends rending their hair about judgements that are internal to the US.

I think the author’s probably downplaying how f**k*d the UK is, but the UK is f**k*d in its own special way just like the US is. The UK is not as f**k*d over ridiculous social issues as the US (not even race, despite the UK’s terrible race record). The Tory Party occasionally tries to get into some culture-war nonsense about BLM or statues of slave traders or whatever, but it quickly goes away. Britain’s problems are not the same as the US’s culture war nonsense that the Republicans have been using to motivate their base for decades.

[flatandy]

I had no idea what Unherd was before this. Just looked at the front page. It’s clearly a right-wing UK troll-rag mostly. But the interesting thing considering that article is just how many pieces are about US culture war stuff. An article on Biden and conversion therapy. An article on drug treatment policy in the US. An article about race in the US. An article about American conservatism. An article about Ron De Santis.

If the author of the piece is right - and I think he mostly is - he should address what’s happening in his own medium as well as commenting on left-wing reaction in the UK to domestic US news. None of those pieces have any relevance to the UK any more than someone in Oxford going on a pro-choice march or someone in Northallerton complaining about the Supreme Court’s ruling on the second amendment*.

* part of me does think the second amendment ruling has more potential for harm in the UK because it will increase the number of firearms in circulation in the US which makes it easier from criminals and smugglers to acquire firearms and ship and distribute them around the world to places that have generally more civilised approaches to guns, but that’s going to be a very marginal impact at worst.

[mids]

Britain's great. The clue's in the name. It has been really noticeable though, a weird sort of lionisation of some of the worst thing about America. There was a time, probably only about 7 or 8 years ago that your average lefty despised just about everything American. Now they seem desperate to adopt, in particular, America's race history and current race relations. They're absolutely determined that Britain is like or should be like America in that respect. They're mental.

[Repat Van]

Jun 28, 2022 8:35:36 GMT mids said:

Good.

"The year was 1927, and Lieutenant-Colonel Reginald Applin, DSO, OBE, was on the warpath. The Conservative MP for Enfield was a man of decidedly robust opinions. In his youth he had served in the North Borneo Armed Constabulary. In middle age he had fought in the Boer War and commanded an Anzac machine-gun detachment at Passchendaele. And now, as he rose to address the House of Commons, he could feel the old fighting spirit surging through his veins. The blood was up, the heart was strong, and Lieutenant-Colonel Applin was preparing to engage his deadliest foe yet — Americanisation."

unherd.com/2022/06/stop-pretending-britain-is-america/

“ The plain fact is that if you’re black and you’re British, your chances of being shot by the police are vanishingly small.”

Ha ha ha ha! Well of course. Not arming your police will have that effect. Doesn’t stop people dying in police custody or when being apprehended by police though (such as the mentally ill guy recently where the police thought the appropriate way to deal with him was to take him.

The UK is not America but let’s not act as if we don’t have similar issues (also it’s really boring when middle class white men try to gaslight black people in this manner. It’s not like he will ever be privy to how police generally act when interacting with black and brown Britons.)

Also somethings our Tory Government do look to the US and decide to be worse - I mean our government has actually gone and implemented a two tier citizenship system which I don’t even think the Yanks has managed to get away with. Do I think abortion rights in the UK are at risk - absolutely not, doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be careful.

Also I don’t really see any issue with people caring, caring immensely about the situation in the USA regarding the bodily autonomy of pregnant people.


(Also that article is a master class in Whataboutery. You cannot on the one hand talk about a “special relationship” between the UK and USA and then question why UK citizens are more interested in the internal happenings of the USA as compared to Mexico. Although it’s good to see that the author thinks the USA and Mexico are actually more comparable countries. I have frequently heard it said that the USA is actually a developing country with a Gucci belt.)

[mids]

I think he should also have added that your chances of being shot by the police if you're a black American are also vanishingly small.

[mids]

Jun 28, 2022 11:25:18 GMT flatandy said:

I had no idea what Unherd was before this. Just looked at the front page. It’s clearly a right-wing UK troll-rag mostly. But the interesting thing considering that article is just how many pieces are about US culture war stuff. An article on Biden and conversion therapy. An article on drug treatment policy in the US. An article about race in the US. An article about American conservatism. An article about Ron De Santis.

If the author of the piece is right - and I think he mostly is - he should address what’s happening in his own medium as well as commenting on left-wing reaction in the UK to domestic US news. None of those pieces have any relevance to the UK any more than someone in Oxford going on a pro-choice march or someone in Northallerton complaining about the Supreme Court’s ruling on the second amendment*.

* part of me does think the second amendment ruling has more potential for harm in the UK because it will increase the number of firearms in circulation in the US which makes it easier from criminals and smugglers to acquire firearms and ship and distribute them around the world to places that have generally more civilised approaches to guns, but that’s going to be a very marginal impact at worst.

Yeah you're right, Unherd is a bit of a lefty outfit. Centre left though so they do have some decent pieces.

[Repat Van]

“ Our race relations aren’t perfect, but they’re among the very best in Europe, not that you’d know it from much of the media.”

I mean…obvs. The bar is pretty low.

We also have better gender equality than Saudi Arabia…

[Repat Van]

Jun 28, 2022 11:38:27 GMT mids said:

I think he should also have added that your chances of being shot by the police if you're a black American are also vanishingly small.

That’s ok then. They may commit extrajudicial killings of unarmed black men but it’s not loads so…who cares!

They’re almost never held to account but why should they be…it’s the police!

[mids]

Oh and by the way, in Britain when you see those estimates of people who die in police custody, most of them don't actually die in custody. The activists use the phrase "in or following police custody". The following is either 24 or 48 hours, can't remember which.

[Repat Van]

Jun 28, 2022 11:50:14 GMT mids said:

Oh and by the way, in Britain when you see those estimates of people who die in police custody, most of them don't actually die in custody. The activists use the phrase "in or following police custody". The following is either 24 or 48 hours, can't remember which.

Oh that’s ok though. Tell the families that though their loved ones have died during or following interactions with the police it’s not that big a deal. (And I don’t believe a police officer has ever, ever been held to account for deaths in custody. Random accidents everyone.)

[perrykneeham]

Jun 28, 2022 11:55:00 GMT Repat Van said:

Jun 28, 2022 11:50:14 GMT mids said:

Oh and by the way, in Britain when you see those estimates of people who die in police custody, most of them don't actually die in custody. The activists use the phrase "in or following police custody". The following is either 24 or 48 hours, can't remember which.

Oh that’s ok though. Tell the families that though their loved ones have died during or following interactions with the police it’s not that big a deal. (And I don’t believe a police officer has ever, ever been held to account for deaths in custody. Random accidents everyone.)

fullfact.org/crime/prosecutions-deaths-police-custody/

[voice]

Its been funny seeing the evolution of the likes of mids views on this, starts off being just as appalled as every other clear thinking person, yet the more it's dawned on him those pushing for the ruling and those delivering this ruling are the same kind of ultra far right nationalists that he is, and those condemning it are the rational center and the few actual lefties still around, the very ones he's spent all his time obsessively condemning. So he's gone from outright condemnation to finding ways to support something he knows is abhorrent, but that the rational center opposes. You can almost see him straining to reconcile the conflict.

[happyhammerhead]

I, for one, do not wish to see mids straining to reconcile anything.

[ootlg]

Pugnacious, that's what he is - always looking for a fight, bloody trouble maker. He mixes with the wrong sort.

[voice]

he is the wrong sort

[mids]

By the way the far, far, far extreme left, you've been whooping and cheering at the decisions made by judicial activists for years. This is you reaping what you've sown. Decisions can go the other way.

[Psalms]

www.theonion.com/americans-react-to-roe-v-wade-being-overturned-1849114019?utm_source=TheOnion_Daily_RSS&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2022-06-28

[Repat Van]

Good old Onion:

“ It’s a great day, but women’s autonomy over their bodies can always resurface if we’re not careful.”

:D :D

[Repat Van]

Jun 28, 2022 16:44:14 GMT mids said:

By the way the far, far, far extreme left, you've been whooping and cheering at the decisions made by judicial activists for years. This is you reaping what you've sown. Decisions can go the other way.

This is such a nonsensical statement. It’s fine to support good decisions and be opposed to bad ones.