Thread by @0Calamity

What is #DowntonAbbeySyndrome?
A 🧵

1. This is my Scottish Papa, Joseph Nicol Bell - 2nd from the right in the back row. He lied about his age to sign up to fight in WW1. He was injured in the Somme.

2. He was a Labour man all his life, and worked as a forester after the war. He was in the Home Guard during WW2.

3. He and my Nana lived in a council house all their lives (although in the 80s my Mum and Dad, who by then had done quite well in life, bought it for them so the last decade of their lives they had no rent to pay) (That's my Mum, middle left).

4. In the 80s Nana and Papa rented their telly from Radiorentals. We were up there for summer holidays, and their telly was on the blink.

5. My dad said "Don't worry. I'm going through the town. I will pop in and tell them."
Papa refused to let him. He said if they complained about the telly, Radiorentals might take it off them...
That is #DowntonAbbeySyndrome.

6. I've called it #DowntonAbbeySyndrome because my grandparents and parents were strong royalists who Knew Their Place. Even though my Dad did well in life, they knew what their position was in the pecking order. Class myths constantly reinforced by media-forced deference.

7. We are taught to bow and scrape to our betters from an early age. We are taught to "know our place" from birth. We might work hard to succeed, but we will never be part of that elite stratum of society that governs us. That is the biggest con trick every played.

8. Reject #DowntonAbbeySyndrome.
Call it out when you see it.
Boycott costume dramas and class propaganda that the media force-feeds us.
Know that you have agency, you have rights, and you just as entitled as the Bullingdon Boys to rule this country.
Disrupt the status quo.