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<blockquote data-quote="Jock Ewing Fan" data-source="post: 320159" data-attributes="member: 40536">Lots of strong opinions on this subject, I notice.I don&#039;t know much about the Royal Family, being an American, and I mostly don&#039;t care about them.My impression is that their roles are mostly ceremonial, and the British taxpayers subsidize their lifestyle and activities.I would think that the government leaders are the ones whose actions have more of an impact than the royals on people&#039;s lives.That is not to excuse the deeds of the Royals, and I really can&#039;t make a judgement of what is in their minds about various issues.I would however proceed with caution about labeling anyone a racist, as it has become too easy to use that tagwhen someone expresses an unpopular or perhaps uninformed opinion.It can stifle meaningful debate, and further divide people who are already intense in their opinionsand may harden them in their stance rather than discuss the topics in a reasonable manner.I want to make it clear that I am not excusing bad behavior by anyone,I am only saying we should all be careful about a quick judgement about the subjectExample, in the USA, the media quickly judged 3 Duke lacrosse players guilty of terrible actswithout performing due diligence and reasonable fact checking.When the facts did emerge, the reality was quite different and the media had to admit a failureto conduct reasonable reporting and the public official in charge had to resign, and face responsibilityfor unjust accusations.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Jock Ewing Fan, post: 320159, member: 40536"] Lots of strong opinions on this subject, I notice. I don't know much about the Royal Family, being an American, and I mostly don't care about them. My impression is that their roles are mostly ceremonial, and the British taxpayers subsidize their lifestyle and activities. I would think that the government leaders are the ones whose actions have more of an impact than the royals on people's lives. That is not to excuse the deeds of the Royals, and I really can't make a judgement of what is in their minds about various issues. I would however proceed with caution about labeling anyone a racist, as it has become too easy to use that tag when someone expresses an unpopular or perhaps uninformed opinion. It can stifle meaningful debate, and further divide people who are already intense in their opinions and may harden them in their stance rather than discuss the topics in a reasonable manner. I want to make it clear that I am not excusing bad behavior by anyone, I am only saying we should all be careful about a quick judgement about the subject Example, in the USA, the media quickly judged 3 Duke lacrosse players guilty of terrible acts without performing due diligence and reasonable fact checking. When the facts did emerge, the reality was quite different and the media had to admit a failure to conduct reasonable reporting and the public official in charge had to resign, and face responsibility for unjust accusations. [/QUOTE]

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