Podcaster Blindboy Boatclub says he finds it hard to take the British monarchy seriously when they insist on doing such 'silly' things and calling it ritual.

In the United Kingdom right now, preparations are underway for the coronation of King Charles III which is to take place in May.

Blindboy told The Anton Savage Show that, while he doesn't support it, he finds the trappings of monarchy and empire 'fascinating'.

"I find the pomposity and the ritual of English monarchy utterly fascinating because what it boils down to is it's like, 'how can we do the silliest stuff possible while being as serious as possible?'."

"That seems to be how power is legitimised. It's a strange thing that humans do."

He says the medals and "silly costumes" of the military are another example of this serious silliness.

'Symbolic legitimacy'

"It's symbolic legitimacy and it doesn't make any sense", he said.

One of Blindboy's favourite books of all time is Topographia Hibernica, which was completed by Norman monk called Gerard of Wales in 1188.

"What it is is like the world's first fake news or tabloid", he said.

"This monk was trying to think of the most ridiculous things that he could say about Ireland to show how savage we were, to show how uncivilised we were, and to show how we had perverted Christianity so that England could have an excuse to invade."

"If you look at how the coronation of Irish kings was described at the time ... he said that Irish kings used to chop up a horse, then a load of men would climb into a giant bath of hot water with horse pieces in it and they would swim around in horse soup and then eat the soup."

"Terrorism"

"This ridiculous system of legitimacy also justifies the terrorism of colonialism", he said.

On his podcast, Blindboy often compares colonialism to terrorism "because that's what it is, it's one powerful country going to another country and deciding 'you don't have any value as a human being so we're going to kill everyone and take your resources for our country'".

"The pomposity of monarchy is the theatrical underpinning of the terrorism of colonialism."

British Museum

Blindboy says he loves visiting the UK, particularly London's nicer areas, as "the whole city is a museum".

But as a lover of art and history, he still finds it hard to reconcile the fact that many of now Britain's worldly goods were taken from other countries and caused "extreme suffering".

"Within me, that creates a cognitive dissonance", he said.

Listen back to the full conversation here.

Main image shows Blindboy Boatclub speaking to The Hard Shoulder on Newstalk. Picture by: Newstalk