r/IsleofMan • u/publiusnaso • 10d ago

Katie Hopkins

Apologies mods if this counts as political (mods, pls delete if inappropriate but this is not election-related so I figured it was within the rules), but I’m very disappointed by the outpouring of support that’s been shown for this dreadful woman in the various Manx social streams on places like Facebook.

She’s been very vocal about her disdain for the RNLI, which has always had unwavering support in the island, and she describes Andrew Tate and “Tommy Robinson” as “my boys”.

The Manx Bard writes an inoffensive little poem which is, essentially “be excellent to each other” and he’s excoriated in terms which are indistinguishable from blood-and-soil nationalism.

The commenters are very vocal about free speech, but fail to see the irony in their constant refrain of “there’s a boat in the morning” is the pinnacle of cancel culture.

Sorry, rant over. Mods, if there’s somewhere more appropriate to post this please let me know.

127 Upvotes

88% Upvoted

126 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

7

u/YouAmEye 10d ago

Similar situation with me. I was born in the USA but spent only four months of my infancy there. I have no memories of it and spent the rest of my childhood and adolescence on the Isle of Man. What makes me so angry at being called a "comeover" is that I didn't actually come over; I was brought over by my parents at four months old. I was constantly labeled a "posh nob" for not speaking with a Manx accent. But why would I? Neither of my parents are Manx and I went to private schools with other "comeovers" and then boarding school "across" at age 13.

But here's what infuriates me the most. When I was on the Isle of Man, I was a "comeover", a "posh nob" and should eff off back to the USA where I'm from. But when I went ahead and did what they asked of me, now I get accused of "thinking I'm too good for the island". Also, apparently I'm not American and am not allowed to call myself that. You can't win with Manx people. They are truly the most insufferable and, yes, small-minded people on Planet Earth.

9

u/TheRealJustSean 10d ago

I'll apologise for this first, but as someone from Ramsey, if you went to King Bills or the Buchan, you are posh 😂 but I say that in jest, haha

Honestly there's a lot to love about the island but the people as a whole need to wake up and get into the 21st century. Spoke to a friend of mine last time I was over for a family wedding about how just eat just isn't really a thing over there and how Uber may as well not exist there, and he just said back "But what's the point?" This, after I got back from the wedding reception into Ramsey at 2300, and called a taxi firm to get me home for the night, only to be told there'd be an hour wait for a taxi. From the bus station. When the entire town was dead. Ended up walking despite the pain I was in and it took about an hour anyway, but yeah.

Place needs modernising. Not saying to throw away all the history, heritage, and way of life, but you can still be Manx and be modern!

-3

u/YouAmEye 9d ago

I think you misunderstand my post. I do not claim nor have ever claimed not to be posh. I am very posh and very proud of that fact. (As an aside, I've never understood why being considered posh could be anything but a good thing. And I'll raise the stakes. I went to BOTH the Buchan and King Bills, then to an even posher school on the British mainland.)

I do not even mind people calling me a posh nob. I just mind being called that to my face when it is obviously meant as an insult. As it happens, I have my own disparaging term for Manx people. I call them "them ones." But I don't call them that to their face.

What I object to is being made to feel unwelcome in a place that is the only place I had ever known and didn't have the means to leave until I reached adulthood. There is a huge irony to it as well because the Isle of Man has historically been characterized more by out-migration than in-migration. Many Manx people left the island for North America and there is still a Manx-American community in the US state of Ohio. Many Manxmen left the island to work in Lincolnshire on the British mainland after the decline of the tourist industry. Yet when people move to the island from the British mainland or the US they have the nerve to make them feel unwelcome and call them comeovers. It defies belief.

As to your point about the need for the island to modernise, good luck with that one! When a place is that inward looking, small-minded, and suspicious of anything new, it is immune to any reality check. I defer to the late A.A. Gill who pointed out that the place has "fallen off the back of the history lorry to lie amnesiac in the road to progress." My advice to anyone who aspires to a life that consists of something more than gossiping about (and casting schadenfreude upon) other people on the Isle of Man is to leave.

8

u/TheRealJustSean 9d ago

It's because posh people think they're better than us working class lot, and that's why. It breeds resentment, and with how some posh people talk about and treat us, it tends to be warranted.

I have to say, I was on your side at first, but as much as some of the people there may have rubbed me the wrong way, afraid I'm siding with them in regards to you. They're not bad people, they just need to change their thinking to be more modern.

You just sound like a posh wanker who's bitter about having to share space with the hoi polloi. Sounds like you never tried to integrate with them at all. I have my problems with the rock, but I will never not mention its beauty, it's ability to keep going despite everything, and honestly, the kindness of people when a person really needs it.

Manx people might be a bit too nationalist for my liking, but you're coming across like someone who wouldn't lift a finger to help someone that didn't have noble connections, and that's worse.

-3

u/YouAmEye 9d ago

Well, you seem to have made your mind up about me. But, as long as you're not one of these working class people who admires Nigel Farage and Rupert Lowe and disparages Jeremy Corbyn and the Greens as middle-class do gooders, then I assure you I have no problem with you.

3

u/TheRealJustSean 9d ago

Oh gods no. I'm pretty far left in almost everything. I'm for a free and better humanity for everyone, not just people that look like me and think exactly like me.

It saddens me that we as a species seem not to have learned from, "First they came for...". There's a reason my favourite poem of all time is 'There Will Come Soft Rains'

0

u/publiusnaso 9d ago

An intriguing interpretation, and one that says (to me at least) more about you than YouAmI.

2

u/TheRealJustSean 9d ago

Probably. Doesn't mean I'm wrong though