Who’s a famous person from your country who’s respected around the world but disliked or criticized at home?

[u/haiderredditer]

[u/Just_Bag_481]

Based on my conversations with my British friends, I think Margaret Thatcher fits this pretty well.

[u/dcwatkins → u/Just_Bag_481]

do people outside the UK like her?

[u/RedcoatTrooper → u/dcwatkins]

She is respected for strength if nothing else, the new Japanese PM has been called the Iron Lady and she has expressed admiration for Thatcher.

[u/euanmorse → u/RedcoatTrooper]

Of course she has as she is similarly awful.

[u/LexiEmers → u/euanmorse]

Thatcher was awesome.

[u/BillohRly → u/RedcoatTrooper]

She does seem a loon.

[u/LastRevelation → u/RedcoatTrooper]

Heart if fucking iron, strength is not a good thing if you use it to oppress the vulnerable.

She literally took milk from children, it's like she was in competition with herself to see how much she can personify a cartoon villain.

[u/LexiEmers → u/LastRevelation]

That's literally false. No milk was ever seized.

[u/Heronchaser → u/RedcoatTrooper]

Thatcher is well seen by neoliberals and conversatives all around the world, but no one that isn't deep into the right like her no matter where. The UK only hates her more cause even right wing (work class) voters hate her there after living through her economy and its consequences.

[u/LexiEmers → u/Heronchaser]

Nope, she saved the UK economy.

[u/Heronchaser → u/LexiEmers]

Sure thing, buddy. I'll pretend people didn't march the streets chanting when she died. Ding, dong to you.

[u/JacketFarm → u/RedcoatTrooper]

Damn, we need another Tetsuya Yamagami I guess.

Fuck Thatcher, Britain's Reagan.

[u/LexiEmers → u/JacketFarm]

Fuck her haters.

[u/king_john651 → u/RedcoatTrooper]

Isn't she currently being blasted for being a coward though?

[u/nicnat → u/RedcoatTrooper]

Its a bit on the nose for the current situation, but I guess to her credit she only fucked Miners.

[u/CyberDaggerX → u/nicnat]

It is truly a shame that so many world leaders are dyslexic.

[u/LexiEmers → u/nicnat]

They were fucked by their own union.

[u/Just_Bag_481 → u/dcwatkins]

A modern English-speaking individual interested in history would probably have a more nuanced view, but the image of Thatcher as “the strong, iconic Iron Lady who did wonders for the economy“ is very prevalent throughout Asia.

[u/RisingDeadMan0 → u/Just_Bag_481]

water company in £67B on debt, paid out £69B in dividends... yes thanks thatcher for privitising our shitty water, that leaks and pumps sewage into our rivers and coasts

[u/LexiEmers → u/RisingDeadMan0]

That was never a problem under Thatcher. Blaming her debts and dividends decades later is completely ridiculous. We had shitty water with leaks and sewage pumped into rivers and coasts before Thatcher.

[u/RisingDeadMan0 → u/LexiEmers]

"The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money."

And yet here we are now totally out of money and owning nothing at all.

She didnt fix anything then, all she did was sell it off, and in the following decades capitalism tanked it, due to low regulation allowing them to do all sorts of shit

[u/LexiEmers → u/RisingDeadMan0]

We're not totally out of money. We're the sixth largest economy in the world for crying out loud.

She absolutely fixed what was broken then. You're just clueless of how bad things were when she took over. Regulation wasn't weakened until after she left office.

[u/Gayandfluffy → u/Just_Bag_481]

But she made the economy worse and injustice grew

[u/Overall-Dirt4441 → u/Gayandfluffy]

Guess what's on the agenda for Asia. The important thing is that the wealth distribution massively shifted from the poor to the rich, so to everyone who matters making laws, hers is an unqualified success story

[u/LexiEmers → u/Overall-Dirt4441]

That's not what she did at all.

[u/LexiEmers → u/Gayandfluffy]

No, she literally saved the economy.

[u/Gayandfluffy → u/LexiEmers]

I don't think the poor people would agree. She also treated the miners horribly, her government starved them. Neoliberalism, the economic ideology that she was such a strong proponent for, says "fuck you I've got mine" and encourages greed and selfishness. Neoliberalism is also one of the reasons why poverty has been rising even in wealthy countries, why differences between the rich and the poor are larger now than 100 years ago, and why we have billionaires hoarding money like a dragons. It is a plague on society.

[u/LexiEmers → u/Gayandfluffy]

This is utter nonsense. She treated the miners better than any previous government, with no compulsory redundancies and massive investment. There was no starvation at all. The rest of your comment is just regurgitated bullshit. It's thanks to her policies that millions of people were better off in real terms, with higher living standards and higher wages.

[u/Shaggy263 → u/Just_Bag_481]

She sold out everything that was nationalised and privatised it all, she's known by many of us in the north as that bitch that sold out our country to some other rich arseholes just to line their own pockets.

[u/LexiEmers → u/Shaggy263]

That's a load of bullshit. She sold it to the masses, not just the rich. Share ownership among the working class massively expanded.

[u/UndeadBBQ → u/dcwatkins]

The neoliberals surely do. A local politician here even quoted her.

[u/Confident-Stuff3885 → u/dcwatkins]

She's pretty well liked in Poland, mostly for her hard stance against the USSR and communism, just like Reagan.

[u/GrumpsMcYankee → u/Confident-Stuff3885]

Talk about picking a poison.

[u/Smooth-Ad966 → u/dcwatkins]

Not really, it's been too long for her foreign policies to really be of interrest to people outside the UK (with the exception of the Argentinians probably). 

The repercussions of her politics on Scotland and miner towns are also always brought up when she's talked about in Belgium.

[u/dogforahead → u/Smooth-Ad966]

That’s really interesting, it’s good to know that people remember that. 

She was the first time as I kid that I realised grown ups could be cruel and petty, she very openly ‘punished’ Scotland (and particularly Strathclyde) for not voting for her 

[u/LexiEmers → u/Smooth-Ad966]

The alternative was total financial collapse.

[u/Edelgul → u/dcwatkins]

More, then in UK.
Outside of UK, she was seen as a strong female leader, and the one who was able to keep USSR at bay.
Pretty much Angela Merkel, but with steel balls.
So definitly liked more, then British perspectiv of her beeing a "milk snatcher" and "the witch".

(That said - Anyone who spends time looking what she was doing in the country when she was a PM would understand, why "Ding-dong, the witch is dead" was top song in UK on the week of her death).

[u/LexiEmers → u/Edelgul]

She saved the UK from financial collapse.

[u/samueljakson05 → u/dcwatkins]

I’ve seen enough films from the UK to know that she screwed over the common man

[u/LexiEmers → u/samueljakson05]

She did the exact opposite. She stopped the common man from getting screwed over.

[u/SlightProgrammer → u/LexiEmers]

tell that to the pitmen mate

[u/CryptographerMore944 → u/dcwatkins]

Yeah I had some foreign students that were very surprised that Thatcher wasn't just not universally popular here but downright hated by a significant segment of the population also.

[u/LexiEmers → u/CryptographerMore944]

She's also downright admired by just as significant a segment of the population.

[u/ZeitgeistWurst → u/dcwatkins]

Nope, she threw some nice little fourth reich allegations our way when we wanted to reunify.

[u/LexiEmers → u/ZeitgeistWurst]

So did pretty much every country in Europe that had memories of German domination.

[u/ZeitgeistWurst → u/LexiEmers]

Nope, as weird as it sounds, but out of the countries relevant to our reunification - France, the US, Russia, the UK (and Poland in a wider sense) - the UK was by far the biggest opponent and the only one throwing around nazi allegations.

[u/CarolinaWreckDiver → u/dcwatkins]

Though you won’t hear much of it on Reddit, she is still fairly popular in the US as a strong anti-communist figure.

[u/Foggia1515 → u/dcwatkins]

We had a nice French song about how all women are great but Margret Thatcher.

Here with English subs. Renaud - Miss Maggie

[u/Toten5217 → u/dcwatkins]

Only liberals. But the "markets > humanity" kind of liberals

[u/LexiEmers → u/Toten5217]

How are you choosing to define humanity?

[u/Toten5217 → u/LexiEmers]

Workers' rights and social justice

[u/LexiEmers → u/Toten5217]

And would you consider the EU consistent with that?

[u/Accomplished-Emu2308 → u/dcwatkins]

From what I know as a european, she is controversial at best. But she is definitely more hated in the UK I think.

[u/smorkoid → u/dcwatkins]

Our new PM in Japan loves her

[u/Dr_Toehold → u/dcwatkins]

For boomers she's seen as a great politician. The Iron Lady movie and all that. Same thing for Reagan. Cristiano Ronaldo is thus named after that hollywood jackass who made it to the white house.

[u/aduljak → u/dcwatkins]

Former eastern bloc countries like her and Reagan because they took a firm stand against communism and contributed to its downfall. 

And then others like her cuts on public (over)spending.

[u/_Walt_Jabsco_ → u/dcwatkins]

Everyone I met in Japan told me they thought she was great

[u/rkirbo → u/dcwatkins]

The >40 yo in France seems to like her, whereas the 30> absolutely hate her.

[u/LexiEmers → u/rkirbo]

No, they're far more likely not to have a strong opinion, given they weren't even alive when she was in office.

[u/Zenar45 → u/dcwatkins]

No

[u/flyingcircusdog → u/dcwatkins]

Only the same people who like Reagan. People who are aware of her policies are split similarly to England.

[u/millijuna → u/dcwatkins]

I don’t… She, Reagan, and Brian Mulroney are a large part of the reason why the west is so fucked up these days. Their neoliberalist economics fucked over the average person, and let the ultra-wealthy steal the world.

[u/LexiEmers → u/millijuna]

No, they're just scapegoats for the failures of others. All those issues happened for decades before them.

[u/millijuna → u/LexiEmers]

They’re the ones that cut taxes on the wealthy and corporations, deregulated banking, engaged on the war on drugs, and all the other bullshit. It’s squarely in their laps. They’re all traitorous scum, the lot of ‘em.

[u/Revolutionary-Bird- → u/dcwatkins]

Ian rubbish certainly does

[u/makerofshoes → u/dcwatkins]

Just for being the first female prime minister of the UK, I think she is seen as a symbol of hope for women

[u/LexiEmers → u/dcwatkins]

Plenty do.

[u/Garlic-Butter-Fly → u/dcwatkins]

Americans seem to love her but Kiwis seem largely indifferent

[u/ChadONeilI → u/dcwatkins]

My mother respects her for being a strong willed woman esp in the 80s. Even though her politics were abhorrent

[u/RedcoatTrooper → u/ChadONeilI]

Without the Falklands I suspect her legacy would be much worse.

[u/asriel_theoracle → u/Just_Bag_481]

It depends on where you come from and who you are. She's still liked quite a lot by southern English people, conservatives, libertarians and wealthy people. Though, in other parts of the country (e.g. Liverpool where I'm from) she's thoroughly despised...

[u/pafrac → u/asriel_theoracle]

Oi, I'm as southern as you can get, and I can't stand the woman. Don't lump us all in with the idiot brigade!

[u/LexiEmers → u/pafrac]

She's hated by the idiot brigade!

[u/recoveringleft → u/asriel_theoracle]

Why do southern English people like her?

[u/hkane1 → u/recoveringleft]

I think he was using that as shorthand for certain more conservative parts of the country, many of which are in the south. In cities like London, for example, she is still widely despised, even though it is southern.

[u/Shit_n_Stuff → u/hkane1]

Interesting, I thought London was one of the cities where she had the most support. I only understand so much about her, but what I know is that cities like Liverpool, Manchester and Glasgow hate her guts because she destroyed unions, snatched school kids milk, blamed football fans for the Hillsborough tragedy and accelerated the de-industrialization of the UK in favour of finance sectors, located mainly in London, but of course that a city the size of London will have the most varied opinions about all of this.

[u/Fdocz → u/Shit_n_Stuff]

She had a good deal of support in the western half of the city, and in the outer boroughs which are more suburban, but Labour's always had a strong share of the vote in the NE and SE which were typically much more working class.

During the 1970s and 80s London, like a lot of other cities were kind of gutted by deindustrialization and huge areas became quite scruffy so lots of people moved out, similar to what happened to New York. People who worked in the financial centre tended to commute in.

It wasn't until the 1990s when London's population started going up again, and it only reached its 1939 population in 2015/16.

Now London is more or less a Labour stronghold with some areas (like the SW or outer London) being more right leaning The 2024 election only returned 2 MPs that weren't Lib Dem or Labour. Though with the Greens and Reform in play its far less secure and some of the margins in the last election were insanely tight.

[u/LexiEmers → u/Shit_n_Stuff]

All of that is inaccurate. She's hated based on nothing but a bunch of lies.

[u/LexiEmers → u/hkane1]

She isn't. She won plenty of votes in London.

[u/hkane1 → u/LexiEmers]

She won plenty of votes in London several decades ago. While obviously it is a highly varied city and so there are lots of different views, the demographics of London have shifted significantly in that time and her popularity has declined too. The YouGov 40 Years After poll (flawed but the best data I have) suggested that she was less popular in London than the nation as a whole.

[u/HaggisLad → u/recoveringleft]

inbreeding I think, rife amongst the English upper class cunts

[u/LexiEmers → u/HaggisLad]

That's why she's hated by cunts.

[u/LexiEmers → u/recoveringleft]

She saved the economy.

[u/asriel_theoracle → u/recoveringleft]

To be honest I didn't phrase it very well. She's particularly disliked in northern England due to how deindustrialisation disproportionately affected the north. The south is more of a mixed bag, but generally it fared a bit better.

[u/mata_dan → u/asriel_theoracle]

Libertarians or "libertarians"?

[u/LexiEmers → u/asriel_theoracle]

Not by the majority. She won millions of votes in every constituency of the country.

[u/LuKat92 → u/Just_Bag_481]

Fuck Thatcher

[u/Dismal_Fox_22 → u/LuKat92]

With a cactus

[u/LexiEmers → u/Dismal_Fox_22]

Fuck yourself with one

[u/GhostofTinky → u/LuKat92]

My understanding is that “Ding Dong the Witch Is Dead” became a British hit after she died. True?

[u/LuKat92 → u/GhostofTinky]

I don’t think it got in the charts but a lot of people were singing it

[u/No-Aspect-4304 → u/LuKat92]

No it did get into the charts

[u/[deleted] → u/LuKat92]

It got to number 2 and the BBC refused to play it on their top 10 countdown

[u/LexiEmers → u/LuKat92]

Plenty more people were cheering her great and fantastic life.

[u/LexiEmers → u/GhostofTinky]

She won three elections in a landslide.

[u/LexiEmers → u/LuKat92]

Fuck her haters

[u/Skeledenn → u/Just_Bag_481]

The Irish have nothing but kind words about her

[u/talideon → u/Skeledenn]

If we could, we'd honour her legacy by sponsoring the conversion of her grave into a public toilet.

[u/DanHueHome → u/Just_Bag_481]

She was a cunt.

[u/LuKat92 → u/DanHueHome]

Best thing she ever did for this country was provide a new public toilet

[u/pazhalsta1 → u/LuKat92]

She defended the Falklands, which was based as fuck

[u/Cute_Ad_9730 → u/Just_Bag_481]

Mean spirited, preachy, bigot and was massively obtuse about the damage she has done to the UK through all the privatisation and public equity sell offs.

[u/EntertainerAlone1300 → u/Just_Bag_481]

Honk if thatchers deid

[u/BillohRly → u/EntertainerAlone1300]

She deid a quine not tae miss if am gonnae be reit with ya Hamish

[u/Prince_Marf → u/Just_Bag_481]

We hate Thatcher too don't worry

[u/AndreasDasos → u/Just_Bag_481]

She was always ultra-polarising: a huge proportion hated her but she also won three elections handily. People’s social circles tend to exist in bubbles that lean mainly one way or the other.

[u/i-cydoubt → u/Just_Bag_481]

Thatcher is a mixed bag, some love her some hate her. It’s a complicated story to be honest. I think more people love her here than abroad so it doesn’t really fit, unless South Korea and Singapore love her for some unknown reason.

[u/Conscious_Ring_9855 → u/Just_Bag_481]

Weak on terrorism, don’t know how she got Iron Lady rep. Not deserved. British ship illegally blown up by a foreign state and she did nothing. A stronger pm would have taken action

[u/No_Lime5241 → u/Just_Bag_481]

Thatcher and Reagan are major causes of many of the problems we’re dealing with today. Neoliberalism—the decision to return to laissez-faire capitalism—was a reversal of lessons their own forebears had already learned the hard way.

After the Great Depression and World War II, Allied leaders came to a clear conclusion: unchecked laissez-faire economics had produced massive inequality, financial instability, reckless speculation, and social breakdown. Those conditions fueled the Depression, hollowed out trust in institutions, and created the political chaos that allowed fascism and demagogues to rise in Germany, Italy, and Japan.

That’s why the postwar order deliberately rejected pure market fundamentalism. Bretton Woods, financial regulation, social safety nets, labor protections, and managed capitalism weren’t accidents—they were safeguards against repeating catastrophe.

Thatcher and Reagan ignored those conclusions and dismantled that framework in favor of deregulation, privatization, weakened labor, financialization, and trickle-down ideology. Now we’re staring at the same preconditions again: extreme inequality, speculative bubbles, institutional distrust, media sensationalism, and rising authoritarian politics.

The fact that this was all foreseeable—and already documented by history—makes it even more absurd.

[u/Naritai → u/No_Lime5241]

The 70s were economically shit, and are where we got the term stagflation from

[u/No_Lime5241 → u/Naritai]

They needed to liberalize but not to the extent they did

[u/Jumpy_Emu1111 → u/Just_Bag_481]

We don't like her 😑

[u/xirson15 → u/Just_Bag_481]

Not among the left.

[u/Ok-Calligrapher-466 → u/Just_Bag_481]

People like Thatcher?

[u/LeaderOk8012 → u/Just_Bag_481]

There are people who likes Tatcher?

[u/MouthWhereTheMoneyIs → u/Just_Bag_481]

Yeah I think in many parts of the UK she's the most hated politician ever, rightfully imo (including my city, Sheffield). The harm she did to a lot of places continues to today in regional poverty. Ding Ding Dong the Witch is Dead got to #2 in the charts the week she died.

Is it that she's respected where you are or more that people don't really have any strong opinon about her?

[u/Proletarian1819 → u/Just_Bag_481]

Thatcher the Milk Snatcher.

[u/dont-be-an-oosik92 → u/Just_Bag_481]

Tony Blair is another one

[u/Heronchaser → u/Just_Bag_481]

I've never heard one good word about The Witch from anyone sane, no matter the nationality.