R.I.P. Margaret Thatcher- Page 2

[madbrian]

Posted: 4/8/13 at 1:47pm

The Soviet Union imploded during the Reagan/Thatcher years, then finally collapsed after both left office. It's a gross overstatement to say that they brought down the Soviet Union; it's more realistic to say that they didn't muck up its implosion. Pope JP2 was much more directly influential in its demise.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 4/8/13 at 1:52pm

Someone on CNN Just said Margaret Thatcher was a transformer. I never knew that about her. Maybe she knew Shia.

[suestorm]

Posted: 4/8/13 at 1:52pm

i agree totally about PJPII... i brought that up earlier in the other thread. in russia it is said that Gorby would not have been able to change things without MT, RR, PJPIII.

Updated On: 4/8/13 at 01:52 PM

[Kad]

Posted: 4/8/13 at 1:55pm

I thought in Russia it was said that "my milkshake brings all the boys to the haunted mine".

[songanddanceman2]

Posted: 4/8/13 at 1:57pm

As I said she was a strong woman who stuck to her guns and I admire her for that, but to be working class here in the UK in mining, factory or docklands towns and cities she did wrong by us. Her and RR were all about the rich getting rich, she stabilised the UK economy but at the expense of many. Oh and she totally stole the milk out of all the schools booooh

[doodlenyc]

Posted: 4/8/13 at 2:03pm

She won an oscar, right?

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 4/8/13 at 2:20pm

Regarding her passing, someone on Facebook wrote "Looks like someone destroyed the last horcrux".

Really made me LOL

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 4/8/13 at 2:21pm

^^^ Perfection!

[Yawper]

Posted: 4/8/13 at 2:24pm

"Thatcher let people die for her farcical invasion of the Faulklands"

As if she was supposed to just stand by while a foreign power invaded?

[suestorm]

Posted: 4/8/13 at 2:25pm

so disrespectful. you shouldnt get mad then if someone you admire is mocked in death, like bette, barbara, hilary etc.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 4/8/13 at 2:29pm

Yes cause Bette Midler and Maggie are equivalents.

Even Phil Collins hated her.

[strummergirl]

Posted: 4/8/13 at 2:30pm

Lech Walesa and the Solidarity Movement were also big shakers within Poland not to mention in outside public opinion, earning many supporters and sympathizers on the left.

Thatcher called Mandela and his party terrorists and supported the Pinochet regime. To not include that on her record is a major oversight.

[suestorm]

Posted: 4/8/13 at 2:31pm

ahhh a phil collins fan... explains alot!

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 4/8/13 at 2:34pm

Yeah, the "Even" part of my statement means I'm a big fan. No, it meant even somebody as meaningless as you knew enough about how the world works to know Thatcher was a problem.

[suestorm]

Posted: 4/8/13 at 2:40pm

look lets agree that no politician is perfect... washington had slaves, yeltsin was an alchie, even mlk was a womanizer.... but she prevented GB from becoming a third world country, she was hugely responsible for the end of the cold war and helped make the world a safer place

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 4/8/13 at 2:57pm

Sue has a real problem with syllogistic reasoning.

[suestorm]

Posted: 4/8/13 at 2:59pm

a response or rebuttal would be more constructive then a personal attack.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 4/8/13 at 3:02pm

Pointing out that your reasoning is syllogistic IS the rebuttal.

[suestorm]

Posted: 4/8/13 at 3:05pm

^Lame i guess you have nothing

[Kad]

Posted: 4/8/13 at 3:05pm

"But the key point is this: those who admire the deceased public figure (and their politics) aren't silent at all. They are aggressively exploiting the emotions generated by the person's death to create hagiography. Typifying these highly dubious claims about Thatcher was this (appropriately diplomatic) statement from President Obama: "The world has lost one of the great champions of freedom and liberty, and America has lost a true friend." Those gushing depictions can be quite consequential, as it was for the week-long tidal wave of unbroken reverence that was heaped on Ronald Reagan upon his death, an episode that to this day shapes how Americans view him and the political ideas he symbolized. Demanding that no criticisms be voiced to counter that hagiography is to enable false history and a propagandistic whitewashing of bad acts, distortions that become quickly ossified and then endure by virtue of no opposition and the powerful emotions created by death. When a political leader dies, it is irresponsible in the extreme to demand that only praise be permitted but not criticisms.

Whatever else may be true of her, Thatcher engaged in incredibly consequential acts that affected millions of people around the world. She played a key role not only in bringing about the first Gulf War but also using her influence to publicly advocate for the 2003 attack on Iraq. She denounced Nelson Mandela and his ANC as "terrorists", something even David Cameron ultimately admitted was wrong. She was a steadfast friend to brutal tyrants such as Augusto Pinochet, Saddam Hussein and Indonesian dictator General Suharto ("One of our very best and most valuable friends"). And as my Guardian colleague Seumas Milne detailed last year, "across Britain Thatcher is still hated for the damage she inflicted – and for her political legacy of rampant inequality and greed, privatisation and social breakdown."
Margaret Thatcher and Misapplied Death Etiquette

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 4/8/13 at 3:07pm

Glenn Greenwald and I had the same idea.

[Hulmeman]

Posted: 4/8/13 at 3:07pm

In the early 1980's the cause of gay rights was picking up pace and some of us found our voice, then Thatcher's government introduced clause 28 a law which at one stroke pushed gay rights back 20 years but found favour with small town conservatives (large and small "C"). She threw thousands out of work by pursuing her hatred of unions and lack of understanding of the working class and some of us lost our jobs. She developed the "me first" society. She regarded Nelson Mandela as a terrorist and cosied up to Chile's dictator Pinochet. She won one election on the back of her defence of the Falklands by calling an election when her rating was highest and introduced government by marketing. Yes, she stuck to her guns but some of us had to bite the bullet. No sympathy here.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 4/8/13 at 3:09pm

Nobody's perfect! replied a poster who isn't very bright.

[suestorm]

Posted: 4/8/13 at 3:09pm

Kad you make some good points, but thats politics, thats life. look at all the tyrants the USA has supported starting with the Shah or Iran and the Banana Republics in Latin America. Dont forget, America tolerated hitler, mussolini until pearl harbor forced their plan.... years after the Soviet Union was fighting both.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 4/8/13 at 3:21pm

"Maggie Thatcher, at least she wasn't 'the Shah or Iran'!" -- sueschnell