To want to tell old school friend she’s being thick?

[StillCoughingandLaughing]

I won’t, because I haven’t seen her in 20 years and she’d think I’d gone barmy, but I really, really want to.

She’s just shared this poem on Facebook. For a start, most of it is total nonsense. Take pride in being ENGLISH, yet wave the Union Jack?! Kids don’t learn Shakespeare any more? Since when? And kids never did learn Milton or Shaw at school - I didn’t cover Shaw until ‘A’ Level or Milton until degree level. I’d put money on her not knowing who they even were.

But this isn’t what annoys me most of all. What really gets my goat is this: Where does this true patriot, misty-eyed for the days when we all sat around discussing Saint George and Agincourt whilst eating Yorkshire pudding, live?

Texas.

The existence of stupid morons like this is the main reason there should never have been a referendum in the first place. People who are too thick to understand what they’re voting about shouldn’t be allowed to vote.

The line 'but don't call yourself English"'

Have yet to meet anyone Scottish who would describe themselves as English.

There's a procedure for this, OP. You unfollow or you unfriend. You don't get into an argument via Facebook, it'll just get ugly.

Texas!

hahahahahahahahahaha

I wouldn’t unfollow or delete. I would pick apart every single part of the poem to show how it’s utter crap

George Bernard Shaw was an Irish writer.

what Thanos said.

Also, I believe poor children are still subjected to the interminable prose of dear William

I'd be concerned about the ideals of a "friend" like this. They'd be no friend of mine.

I would have to point out that Shaw was Irish.
Then I'd unfriend her

She sounds racist AF. Defriend her.

"You don't get into an argument via Facebook, it'll just get ugly."

This is true, but no reason not to call someone out on a blatantly Xenophobic post.

This is true, but no reason not to call someone out on a blatantly Xenophobic post.

If you've time for it, go ahead. Ultimately it will change nothing except potentially becoming very aggravating and raising your blood pressure somewhat IME. People who post things like that on Facebook are often looking for an argument and you won't change their minds or get an admission that they're in the wrong. For me, it's not worth the aggravation.

An older family member of mine has started littering nonsense like this all over her FB. I honestly think she's losing her marbles when these gems pop up on my feed.. All this "patriotic" stuff which actually makes zero sense and is full of contradictions, inaccuracies and downright barminess. She was always a very intelligent person but is now completely sucked in. Makes me a bit sad as now she comes across as daft and obsessive. Baffling.

Mons rhymes with sons? Those damn teachers again, can't even teach rhyming .

My daughter’s nursery have a display of union jacks surrounding the compulsory ‘British values’ part of the curriculum. Shakespeare is compulsory in secondary school. My DS’s school did projects on WW1 battles last year. She’d know these things if she didn’t live in Texas. Though it’s pretty weird to have pride in England’s history of colonialism.

I must have imagined DS1 ploughing through Macbeth for his GCSEs.

I have heard that the EU have demanded that the England Rugby team rename themselves as the Land Mass Adjacent to Scotland and Wales Rugby Team - Trufact #not FakeNews

Oh, shit, it's only a matter of time until my friend's husband posts this pile of wank on his page.

I need to unfollow him, but it's almost fascinating to see how these people's "minds" work...

God, that song, I feel like having a whip round to buy Citizen Steve some guitar lessons!

It's a pile of bollox but it does seem hard to choose English as descriptor. Surveys often have Scottishs/Welsh but not English as a choice.

Block, delete, etc. I don't have anything to do with anyone I know voted leave.

I don't want to waste my time with people who's values are so far removed from my own.

Why does that bother you so much about the person you haven't seen for last 20 years? They are just a stranger.

It doesn’t really bother me on a personal level I suppose; I’ll probably never see her again. It’s more that this kind of stupidity - and hypocrisy - depresses me. It’s the same with my mum’s cousin. He’s gay and nearly 70, but has started drivelling on on Facebook about how ‘they should bring back National Service’. A (very camp) gay man in the Army in 1970? He’d have been torn to shreds. He doesn’t seem to have given that a moment’s thought.

Please challenge every line. A couple of years ago I made a New Year's resolution to fact check every wrong assertion made on facebook. In that time its only lost me one SIL (out of 10 total) & one nephew in law (out of 11) SIL has now returned but isn't sharing anything racist anymore :) Nephew-in-law is no loss whatsoever - thick and racist. On the contrary I've had loads of thank-yous - turns out most people would rather not be broadcasting their ignorance

Thick as mince.

My 13yo will be stunned she isn’t taught Shakespeare, having spent last term doing R&J.

OMG - what a load of old shit that "poem" is. It's factually wrong in so many places, to say nothing of being a trite load of old propaganda, written by someone who swallows the Daily Heil whole every day.

You can't say anything to her though - if she truly thinks like that, she's a lost cause already. Just either Hide her or Defriend her.