RIP Mandela

[Muncey]

When margaret thatcher passed away, like my dad told me, she's did a lot loads of things good.

Lol.

Thatcher is an odd example to choose considering she subscribed to the Milton Friedman way of thinking of freedom so would probably argue against you on the 'you should never joke about death'.

People always have a problem with jokes, you should have a problem with poor taste instead.

[nowaysj]

Was there a Mandela joke in this thread? I honestly missed it?

[Forum]

Was there a Mandela joke in this thread? I honestly missed it?

Never got as far as actual jokes, just arguing about whether it's alright to make them

I'm sure they're doing the rounds on fb and twitter

[magma]

magma where was this respect when thatcher died? as far as i'm aware she was never directly responsible for the death of innocent people?

Margaret Thatcher's legacy is much more questionable than Mandela's. She also arguably caused the deaths of innocents on the Belgrano (ok, soldiers, but retreating soldiers). Anyway, I just searched back to make sure I wasn't being a complete hypocrite:

A great stateswoman, formidable politician and an awful human being.

RIP, ma'am.

I think that's pretty fair and humourless. I waited for several pages before making a "Lady's not for turning" joke and that was in reaction to the jokes others had been making.

Sorry to disappoint.

[garethom]

Margaret Thatcher's legacy is much more questionable than Mandela's.

I really would like this discussion to go further, but honestly, I'm too happy about this being my last day at work in 2013 for something so aggy.

[m8son666]

imo authorising the killing of innocent women and children is the most questionable legacy one could have, along with being bezzies with various dictators, but thats pretty irrelevant.

meh i'm sure you weren't defending her honour like you are with mandela.

Also nice touch with that little snipe at genevieve loool, for someone constantly calling for everyone to grow up a lot of what you post is rather childish.

[magma]

Was there a Mandela joke in this thread? I honestly missed it?

Depends if you can call Genevieve's spray of comedic diarrhea a "joke".

[magma]

imo authorising the killing of innocent women and children is the most questionable legacy one could have but thats pretty irrelevant.

Again, why are we so quick to take his actions out of war context. If you don't want to admit that the struggle against Apartheid was a war, like the leaders during the 70s and 80s, go ahead, but if you have updated your notebook within the last 30 years, you'd hold Mandela to the same standards as Churchill (a war leader who flattened entire cities in the name of freedom, but is venerated) rather than Thatcher (a peace-time leader who dragged the country to war under questionable circumstance and ordered the sinking of a retreating warship).

[wub]

Was there a Mandela joke in this thread? I honestly missed it?

Depends if you can call Genevieve's spray of comedic diarrhea a "joke".

I believe he prefers the term "legacy".

[magma]

Was there a Mandela joke in this thread? I honestly missed it?

Depends if you can call Genevieve's spray of comedic diarrhea a "joke".

I believe he prefers the term "legacy".

That's what I call my skidmarks too.

[nowaysj]

Also nice touch with that little snipe at genevieve loool, for someone constantly calling for everyone to grow up a lot of what you post is rather childish.

See smarm thread.

[mIrReN]

I'm grabbing the popcorn this will be fun! Hopefully some new directions in this discussion that haven't been touched yet so we can all learn and grow up!

[magma]

meh i'm sure you weren't defending her honour like you are with mandela.

Could you create a less appropriate straw man for the argument? I'm not allowed to argue for the respect of a widely-accepted global hero because I didn't stand up for the honour of someone whose policies led to national riots and still divides people decades after leaving power?

If you're going to argue, at least try.

And anyway...

There really is no point in celebrating her death

Catharsis for the masses?
Or do you just mean 'really there is no point'? Like, philosophically, because celebrating doesn't achieve anything...

Quite right. It just doesn't achieve anything for the struggle - it might achieve something for the individual. Personally, I thought she was more of an effective symbol for the Left whilst she was alive - we could accuse Tories of being her lapdogs... even as far as Cameron, people assumed she has a lot more influence behind the scenes than she probably did in actuality.

Now we're without a boogey(wo)man we're all going to have to learn about, like, the issues and shit.

So, again, I'm sorry to disappoint.

[Pedro Sánchez]

RIP for Mandela.
Shouts to Mag.

[m8son666]

I dunno why you're talking about churchill but i do hold him in the same light as mandela and wouldn't really care if people joked about his death should he have died yesterday.

My whole argument was based on the fact i assumed you joked about thatcher's death but u didnt so havn't really got a point now lol

Could you create a less appropriate straw man for the argument?

probably

[Forum]

I watched the history of his life on bbc last night and they completely left out the negative aspects. I understand why but I'd rather hear the whole story..

[magma]

I dunno why you're talking about churchill

Just suggesting he's a slightly more appropriate point for comparison in terms of innocent deaths as a long-time war leader than Thatcher who you brought up, but who never had to topple a nation's government by force.

Tbh, I probably wouldn't have such a knee-jerk reaction to Mandela jokes even tomorrow or if they'd just been kept to a separate thread (have at it in the Celebrity Deaths Come In Threes thread). But crashing the "RIP Mandela" thread within hours of the news breaking to post paragraphs of drivel about Paul Walker? Yeah, I'm afraid that's pretty disrespectful.

[nowaysj]

RIP this thread

[mIrReN]

should've posted it in an other thread gene, then it would've been ok!

[Johnlenham]

Man was all about peace as well and now look at us all arguing about his death. Is this what he would have wanted?