this is what happens when you let old people use facebook
I thought what he meant was London has become large and diverse and that it has grown beyond just being an English city into being a seen as international city, that represents the interests of people beyond Britain.
I thought that's why he implies its a EU remain stronghold.
Maybe I am reading into too much?
The previous thing
https://youtu.be/WJheODYpuEI
I suppose there really isn't enough in that tweet to judge one way or the other whether or not he thinks it's a good thing.
He doesn't lambast his observation that London is no longer an English city, and he pines for the good days. And he doesn't celebrate his observation that London is no longer an English city, and is now a shining beacon of diversity that the rest of the world should aspire to.
He just states that he believes London is no longer an English city, and that there seems to be a correlation between London's diversity and its desire to stay in the EU. Which he also doesn't pitch an opinion on in the tweet, either.
Without any more context, I don't know how to construe this tweet. I don't know anything about Cleese's politics, how he feels about Brexit or diversity, to say whether or not the tweet is in poor taste.
As it stands, on it's own, it's really just a bunch of empty words.
He's correct that London is not really culturally English anymore, but I don't care. At any rate, he didn't say it was a bad thing, just that it's the case. It's possible he meant for his comments to be xenophobic, but I don't see anything that indicates that so far. John Cleese is left-wing anyway, as far as I know.
Cleese spent an entire interview railing on The Daily Mail so I don't think his comments were meant to be taken how some have interpreted them.
It's understandable to want to preserve your culture, and London is probably the most English location you can possibly have. I think he is certainly being hyperbolic, or his claims are, rather.
But I definitely can't see John Cleese looking to start some kind of Make London English Again movement.
I mean, native English people have moved out of London because they've gained wealth and so their social mobility has enabled them to move to better living conditions outside of the city. So yeah, of course it's going to be less English. Couple that with foreign direct investment, materialism and modern architecture, of course London is going to be less culturally English. That's not the fault of EU nationals, that's a product of capitalism and globalism in general.
At any rate, if you want cultural retention then you have to make your culture have value - principally by participating in it yourself, which Mr Cleese obviously isn't given he's disappeared halfway around the world.
I saw him live at the start of 2017 and if I remember right he was against Brexit back then, and he was far from a fan of Trump (he made a lot of jokes at Trump's expense).
Cmon man, his words have merit even though he doesn't take a political stance.
It's a really thin tightrope when you grew up in a city with a certain culture, then look at it as an old man as see a completely different culture while also believing that immigration is fundamentally a good/human concept. That's what I got out of his statement. I feel like it's similar to the concept of a publicly-traded company only allowing sale of 49% of it's shares.
His American talk show appearances have pretty much led me to the same thing. That, and he's sharp as hell for his age.
What's wrong with that? America has been a lot less american since around the 1500's or so.
It's sort of a loaded statement.
Cleese has almost eternally famously been the most rancorous old boot who is completely and utterly opposed to any sort of change or anything that doesn't adhere to his incredibly narrow-minded and bitter little worldview. A sad and strange little man whose opinions only seem to matter to absolutely anybody outside of the few square miles around his house because he ended up being famous. I've always admired his work but almost in absolute spite of the fact he made it.
Do you have any form of backup for what you just said? It certainly isn't from this article, or the interviews he has done in America.
What are you talking about? That's the exact opposite of every interview I've ever seen, for Christ's sake I went to one of his shows in the States when he was doing question sessions.
He's not wrong.
I'm not even English and even I see it. The difference between London and the rest of the UK culturally and financially is pretty staggering.
I don't see anything wrong with this. He's just making an observation. A correct one at that. Just like how Paris isn't French anymore.
https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/57985/357ed8d9-fa46-4e77-9355-2c1eca1dd2be/8B4AB5EF-C721-4E90-9DCB-D8B266DC7892.jpeg
Leeds and Nottingham have gone to the French, Liverpool to the Swiss, and London the Hipsters.
Lmao what are you talking about, Cleese is very liberal, holy shit why did you make this post.
The only narrow-minded worldview is yours since you clearly don't know his views
huh... it's an accurate observation. what's so racist about saying London isn't an English city anymore?
it's amazing the kind of mental gymnastics people can go through extrapolating what they want from something just so it fits into their narrative...
I'm from Nottingham and it ain't French Toast, it's Eggy Bread. There's nothing French about it.
That's what they all say...
yes i know french toast isnt actually french but dammit the joke had to be made
I agree with him in a way. I live in the North of England, London may as well be another country to me. Not that London is an inferior, worse place or anything, it's just completely different.
Perhaps when he was younger, London was more like the rest of England, but nowadays not so much. I'd like to visit London again one day.
It's something I've joked about with friends a fair bit tbh, if London wanted to go independent of England they could because of how different it is.
That's not a yikes, London has been hit by several insular communities continuing practices that have been banned from the land itself. There are several reasons, not the least of which being the underfunded police being unable to really do anything about it until it is far too late.
He's not saying, and he's pointed this out before, that all cultures are bad but that it is definitely preferable to want one that doesn't involve violating a person's rights over that which uses it as a cornerstone. The issue here is that you say yikes, start pushing away and you know where he'll end up surrounded by?
Hardly yikes, or have you been blind to the world since birth? The man made world and natural world (to an even greater degree) is not egalitarian. Some things are better than others. There is a hierarchy of preference of which can be viewed in part subjectively and in part objectively.
Subjectively, for example you can state some your preferences to be:
Human rights
Freedom of press
Freedom of speech
And therefore prefer one culture over another. I don't know what would lead you to think otherwise?
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