apparently I have an opinion about opinions about the royal wedding

[kindkit]

I didn't particularly follow the royal wedding; I'm not that kind of Anglophile. But it was impossible not to hear about it. The parts of Twitter that I frequent were full of honorable British leftists saying true things: the monarchy is regressive and involves a massive transfer of wealth from ordinary people to a tiny aristocracy, the royal wedding is a distraction from more important issues, the whole purpose of the royal family is to foster a sentimental attachment to inequality, the cost of Meghan Markle's wedding dress could have housed or fed people who have nothing, etc. etc.

And yet I can't help thinking, "This is why leftists have a reputation as puritanical killjoys." It reminded me, to some extent, of fandom purity culture, in which legitimate criticisms get dulled down into the very blunt instrument of "That thing you are enjoying is Bad and Wrong." Which is an accusation that people, unsurprisingly, often react badly to.

I kept wanting the honorable leftists saying true things to shut the hell up.

Plus, I have noticed a tendency for the honorable leftists not to notice, or to gloss quickly over, the fact that a black woman marrying into the British royal family is not meaningless. Its meaning may be mostly symbolic, but symbols are important, as witness the angry British racists who hated the whole business. Anything that makes the typical Daily Mail reader fume that much can't be all bad, can it?

Comments

[sovay]

the couple chose to emphasize the African-American side of Meghan Markle's heritage (with for example the choice of preacher and the gospel choir). I like the symbolism of that foregrounding, too.

Yes. Nice.