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AIBU?

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Original poster

To think this is chilling?

349 replies

Gorgeouslilgirl · 09/06/2021 10:28

Students in an Oxford college did what students do - questioned the status quo and decided to replace a picture that is political, ie a head of state. A measured and inclusive message accompanied this.

And the education secretary has waded in to criticise a student body for actions within their own space? And DM is publishing the student’s photo and family home and much his dad earns! Wtf?!

It reminds me of the Middle East or North Korea or perhaps Thailand where people have a photo of their beloved unelected leader as a sign of patriotism or else they are viewed unfavourably.

I mean, really?!!!

OP posts:
Bloodypunkrockers · 09/06/2021 11:12

The poor kid being the 25 year old lecturer who proposed it?

Original poster
Gorgeouslilgirl · 09/06/2021 11:12

I am old enough that 25 years is a mere kid! But ok, young man. Still doesn’t make it ok, does it?

OP posts:
LeopardHawk · 09/06/2021 11:19

@Gorgeouslilgirl
I can imagine the poor kid is scared

By 'poor kid' do you mean he has a child not mentioned in the article?

You can't possibly have meant the 25-year-old American postgraduate student and university lecturer.

Because that would be one of the stupidest and most ludicrous things ever written here.

Hoppinggreen · 09/06/2021 11:21

I actually don’t agree with taking down the Queens portrait but singling out 1 person for it and publishing details of his family like that is pretty shit but not unexpected from that awful Fascist rant mag
Can you imagine If the student concerned had been female and/or non white?

PenguinIce · 09/06/2021 11:21

Op, you have sensationalised it just as much as the Daily Mail. In reality it is all a big fuss about nothing.

aintnothinbutagstring · 09/06/2021 11:22

Well it's their common room, the students using it voted to take it down so that's that I guess. I don't understand the big hoo-ha in the media about it. Free speech and freedom of choice, the students were simply exercising that. Given that these are a lot of foreign postgrads that are likely paying through the nose to be there, let them stick whatever pictures they want up.

ThePlantsitter · 09/06/2021 11:22

This government is sticking its nose in all over the place where it shouldn't - museum boards, arts funding decisions, and now what is a private space in an institution of learning. If you don't find it chilling that they're trying to control the agenda everywhere then you're not paying attention.

DynamoKev · 09/06/2021 11:22

YABU OP

GuildfordGal · 09/06/2021 11:23

The Tory party will leap to any cause that keeps their insidious culture wars agenda afloat, the fuckers.

And the DM, obviously, is abhorrent. They absolutely shouldn't have done that.

By and large, YANBU OP.

SofiaMichelle · 09/06/2021 11:23

[quote Sugarplumfairy65]@Gorgeouslilgirl

I do two any yo link to the DF one, it is horrendous and the poor kid must be feeling violated and scared ha I guess his picture and personal details splashed in a national newspaper,

He isn't a kid! He's a 25 year old man ffs[/quote]
Quite.

And can you imagine how it would go down if a wealthy British post grad' student at Harvard/Stanford or wherever tabled a motion to remove pictures of Roosevelt, Eisenhower or another ex-president from their common room?

This is a stunt, nothing more nothing less.

Play stupid games win stupid prizes, etc.

Amelia666 · 09/06/2021 11:25

@VodkaSlimline

Why do you keep saying DF? Do you mean the Daily Mail? There is no comparison to the Middle East or Thailand. If anything, the rise of woke culture and the denunciation, shaming and censorship of anything/anyone that might make someone somewhere feel "unsafe", to the point of erasing history, has far more in common with North Korea than what you're upset about. That is what I find "chilling".
This. The irony is that op is finding the wrong part chilling!

Why not just quietly remove it? Instead a pompous, divisive and unnecessary message was issued.

If we’d taken down a Bob Marley poster in the common room it would be a non-event. No one cares. Just redecorate. Stop attention seeking and virtue signalling. It actually mainly just sounds ridiculous and designed to whip up some kind of frenzy. It’s really boring; just remove the picture - no one else needed to know?!

LalalalalalaLand123 · 09/06/2021 11:26

OP yours is one of the biggest, and most ridiculous, over-reactions I've ever seen on MN.
A 25yo lecturer from the US tabled a motion to remove a photo of the Queen, our head of state, because it was deemed 'unwelcoming' and 'colonial'. If he has the strength of conviction to do that, he can't then expect to hide behind anonymity when other people have opinions about this action. And he's not a kid, he's a grown man.

MaxiPaddy · 09/06/2021 11:27

I think we found said 25 year old child's mother... Hmm

Famousinlove · 09/06/2021 11:29

Yes YABU to think this is 'chilling'

OchonAgusOchonOh · 09/06/2021 11:31

I'm assuming none of you going on about the cheek of him actually read the article. He is the president and proposed the motion in that role, as he does for all motions. There is nothing that says who originally suggested the motion.

Personally, I think good on them. It's not an attempt to cancel the queen but a decision to ensure that all students feel comfortable in the room. Many non-british people would not feel comfortable with the portrait. It would be one thing if there was always a portrait of the monarch in the room but it was a decision made in 2013. I would wonder about the message those who decided to put it up originally were trying to send.

everybodysang · 09/06/2021 11:31

I think it's actually extremely chilling and also quite daft.

warmandtoasty2day · 09/06/2021 11:31

bloody hell op, untwist the knickers they must be hurting, what a lot of drama over nothing, obviously another person who makes a point of looking out for DAILY MAIL items to link and be offended about.
Calling this person a 25 year old 'kid' is demeaning in itself, and as an older person you should have a few more manners.

warmandtoasty2day · 09/06/2021 11:32

it's also in the guardian too apparently so you can slag them too.

JustbackfromBangkok · 09/06/2021 11:32

Robert Jenrick was on television this morning saying that by and large students can do what they want in their own space and we shouldn't get too worked up about it.
I am far more disturbed about the level of ignorance about history and the desire to erase it among young people who are supposedly clever enough to go to university.
People in Thailand have pictures of the royal family in their homes because traditionally and culturally they loved and respected the old king. This is changing with the younger generation. The older members of my family all have pictures of the late king and his father and grandfather. It isn't compulsory.
Pictures of the king in public and government buildings in Thailand is traditional.
Comparing Thailand with North Korea is insulting.

1starwars2 · 09/06/2021 11:32

My DBro had his photo, and lots of personal details published on the front page of a broadsheet newspaper because of his work with a climate change organisation (not XR).
It was an eye opener how inaccurate it was. It described the other person in the photo as his girlfriend, when she is an acquaintance, described my Dad's occupation entirely falsely (said he was a civil servant, never worked in the civil service) and published most of my Dad's address (luckily several years out of date).

There's lots of lazy and pointless journalism going on and in my DBro case, I think it was an August slow news day.

I am sure the Daily Fail is no exception.

ddl1 · 09/06/2021 11:32

To add: this is not about a public display. Students in the college MCR (graduate common room) a few years ago decided to put up a picture of the Queen. Now the current MCR students have decided to take it down. It was their decision both times, and nothing to do with the college, the university, the city, the country or the Education Secretary. Gavin Williamson needs to worry more about all the children in this country who, if they don't come from families that can provide sufficient home education, will have missed out on months of schooling,

DynamoKev · 09/06/2021 11:34

Many non-british people would not feel comfortable with the portrait.
Why?

SirVixofVixHall · 09/06/2021 11:35

[quote Gorgeouslilgirl]I do two any yo link to the DF one, it is horrendous and the poor kid must be feeling violated and scared ha I guess his picture and personal details splashed in a national newspaper,

Here is the guardian www.theguardian.com/education/2021/jun/09/president-of-oxford-college-defends-students-right-to-remove-photo-of-queen[/quote]
He is 25, hardly a “kid” !! That is an adult man.

araiwa · 09/06/2021 11:35

It's not compulsory to have pictures of the king in your home in Thailand ffs

aintnothinbutagstring · 09/06/2021 11:36

It's not just daily mail, it's BBC who linked their own article on Facebook too. Thankfully they did not name the American student. And several politicians have commented, but it's not even a political issue Hmm

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