this post was submitted on 02 May 2026
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I realised I still haven't made the trip to see Marx's tomb in Highgate cemetary despite being around 30 minutes from King's Cross, which I have to pass through in order to get to London.

With public toilets being scarce in London, I generally try to find options in advance. I checked to see if there's a consensus among leftists who've made the pilgrimage about who's the worst person in Highgate cemetary. I couldn't find anything, but I figured that with it being full of famous English people, the place was bound to full of monsters.

I took a look at the Highgate cemetary Wikipedia page for ideas. I don't have the time to view the page of everyone listed there, but the obvious answer seems to be Herbert Spencer. The one line summary of "evolutionary biologist, sociologist, and laissez-faire economic philosopher" makes him sound bad enough, but from glancing at his Wikipedia page, he was also heavily associated with Social Darwinism, respected by Murray Rothbard, and coined Margaret Thatcher's favourite catchphrase. His tomb is also directly opposite Marx's, which makes it the most convenient.

The only other person who seems deserving from the one line summary on the Wikipedia page is a teacher who beat one of his students to death, but he's on the opposite side of the cemetary to Marx.

Does anyone else have any ideas, or are we going to go with Herbert Spencer?

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[–] Wertheimer@hexbear.net 4 points 3 months ago

Bob Thoms, the greatest Victorian cricket umpire

All refs are bastards.

On the other side there's a Lord Chancellor who, "with regard to Catholic emancipation and the agitation against the Corn Laws, he opposed reform".