• I don’t think most Europeans would think their royals are classy at all. Even if we stripped them of their power now they’d just be rich people living in large houses their family could already afford anyway. They’re basically government pawns we keep around for tradition and to make deals with vain foreign leaders. China does something similar, but they used pandas. If you’re a good little friend of the totalitarians, you get to have a panda in your zoo.

    You think the leaders of shit holes are going to be interested in presidents? Nah, they meet presidents every day. If you want to placate them, you take our the big guns. You go “Who’s a big boy president? That’s right, it’s you! You can have a sleepover in a real palace just like in the Disney movies! Everyone thinks you’re such an important big boy!” These leaders aren’t rational-thinking, they’re coming from (sub)cultures where displays of wealth and status mean something, and I bet nothing makes a vain guy happier than to say they made a king entertain them. They feel like they’re such big shits pushing around our stage puppets.

    You’d think those foreign leaders would feel belittled but sending royalty to shitholes works great, politically. The national news broadcaster has this trick where they’re officially “royal Dutch news” (because of weird laws, you don’t need to be related to royalty in any way to be granted that title as a company) and yelling “royal Dutch news” instead of “Dutch news” when trying to ask questions actually works. Even in countries with presidents. It’s extremely stupid but it’s been proven to work.

    I don’t think the royals are anything special but I also don’t think the political circus around electing a president and the endless drama that follows will be any cheaper (or better, for that matter). With the way things are going in this country, I’ll take King Wimlex over President Wilders, thank you very much.

    • SkunkWorkz@lemmy.world
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      7 hours ago

      Also Trump was super delighted that he could sleep in a Dutch palace. The charm offensive by the Dutch royalties worked on him since he wasn’t as belligerent at the NATO summit as he normally is, so the adults in the room could do the talking.

  • SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca
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    14 hours ago

    Americans: Our system is the best because we don’t have royalty, we have a President instead!

    American President: Plating his palace with gold and being completely above the law.

  • edgemaster72@lemmy.world
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    18 hours ago

    Thought the gun was a squirt gun connected to the (wine? champagne? w/e) bottle, now that would’ve been classy

  • Nalivai@lemmy.world
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    18 hours ago

    Nobody’s saying that our royals are classy, except themselves, their paid weirdos, and, weirdly enough, americans.

  • solsangraal@lemmy.zip
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    19 hours ago

    is that really a “mom” tattoo? i guess might as well if you’re going the sick ass panther route

    also is that an airsoft gun? and is he drinking champagne in a coffee cup?

    • shalafi@lemmy.world
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      17 hours ago

      Pretty sure my .22s have a larger bore, and I have a shitload.

      Funny story:

      Black dude runs up in the local redneck bar and starts waving a BB pistol around. “You’re money and your jewelry!”, kinda talk. People were like, whatever dude, that’s a BB gun. “I’m fucking serious!” One the guys playing pool walked up behind him and clocked him over the skull with the blunt end of a pool stick. Fin.

  • WoodScientist@sh.itjust.works
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    20 hours ago

    Being a royal of any kind is a crime against humanity. The French and the Bolsheviks knew the right way to treat monarchs. Every last one of them deserves to have their head rolled into a basket.

    • CXORA@aussie.zone
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      11 hours ago

      Sure, but they’re on the way out. Get rid of the billionaires a d the most problematic royals will be caught up in that as well.

    • cosmicrookie@lemmy.world
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      20 hours ago

      Chill… Royals aren’t what they used to be. They are more like well paid circus clowns than power tripping maniacs now.

      • WoodScientist@sh.itjust.works
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        19 hours ago

        Constitutional monarchs are even worse. They’re slimy, mincing predators, scavengers sitting on the sidelines.

        Modern royals remember the power their ancestors have, and they yearn for that power back. They play pretend that they’re happy being ceremonial monarchs. But really, they’re just biding their time. Monarchies are used to thinking in centuries. So they sit there, waiting on the sidelines, waiting for some crisis of democracy, something that causes people to lose faith in the system. Then they’ll step in and reclaim real power. They’re a bunch of mincing pedophiles just waiting for someone to lose sight of their kid.

    • Almonds@mander.xyz
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      19 hours ago

      Well, his Wikipedia article is horrifying

      He asserts that casual sex attracts subterranean spirits that make an impression on the inside of women’s vaginas and offers exercises to “clean out” said vaginas; he writes that children get cancer because they want it;

      I hope her first husband kept their daughters away from him