More like a bacterial infection imo
from fossilesque@mander.xyz to science_memes@mander.xyz on 11 Jun 18:40
https://mander.xyz/post/31870621

#science_memes

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southsamurai@sh.itjust.works on 11 Jun 19:02 next collapse

Aren’t the Brits more viral historically? Go, inject themselves into another organism and force it to produce more brits.

in4apenny@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 11 Jun 19:04 collapse

They’re more like a malignant bone cancer.

rikudou@lemmings.world on 11 Jun 20:15 collapse

So, the EU got rid of cancer? That sounds about right.

Infamousblt@hexbear.net on 11 Jun 19:29 next collapse

It’s not wrong

yesman@lemmy.world on 11 Jun 20:32 next collapse

A large contributor to Irish suffering were the British corn laws, a tariff that kept the price of barley, wheat, and oats artificially high. So when potato crops failed, the poor Irish couldn’t afford substitutes. Ironically, American maze was exempt from the corn laws, so much of that was imported to Ireland.

Tariffs: never any externalities or unintended consequences; you will certainly not regret imposing tariffs.

Viking_Hippie@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 11 Jun 21:13 next collapse

Not to mention that the Irish people had to sell all of their produce for very little money to their English landlords, who would then graciously offer to sell it back for a lot more than any Irish farmer could afford.

And just in case you ask “why not cut out the middleman and survive penniless on your own produce?”, remember how I said that the English were also their landlords?

Turns out that landlords were even MORE happy to throw poor people out for being unable to pay than they are nowadays and being homeless in mid 1800s Ireland wasn’t very survivable.

Voroxpete@sh.itjust.works on 11 Jun 22:50 collapse

It is vitally important to understand that throughout the “potato famine” Ireland was a major exporter of food to the rest of the UK.

Irish farmers were growing all kinds of crops. Grains, carrots, cabbage, lettuce, etc, etc. All of these were sold to pay for the oppressive rents that they were forced to pay to English landlords who had stolen all of their land.

The potatoes the Irish grew were for subsistence, because all of the rest of their crops went to market. Even when the potato crops failed, there was more than enough food for everyone in Ireland, if the English would simply suspend rent collection for a short while, until the crop failures had passed.

Many motions to do so were put before parliament. All of them were rejected.

The Irish famine was not caused by a disease. It was caused by the intentional cruelty of the English.

khannie@lemmy.world on 11 Jun 23:53 collapse

Hats off to the historical accuracy of this comment chain. Not sure how many of you are Irish but honestly it’s heartening. ❤️

Saleh@feddit.org on 12 Jun 05:37 collapse

Tariffs: never any externalities or unintended consequences; you will certainly not regret imposing tariffs.

That implies that Britain didn’t intend those consequences. But Britain has mastered using starvation as a weapon of genocide, in particular by masking it as an “unfortunate” result of taxes and tariffs.

Britain genocided more than ten million people in todays India about a century earlier and then again about three million in todays Bangladesh during World War II.

Britain murdered the Irish very much deliberately.

T156@lemmy.world on 13 Jun 10:45 collapse

That implies that Britain didn’t intend those consequences. But Britain has mastered using starvation as a weapon of genocide, in particular by masking it as an “unfortunate” result of taxes and tariffs.

We do know that the British did try and get the Irish to renounce their heritage to receive aid during the famine as well. Some families had to renounce their Irish name and Catholicism before they would be given food during the famine.

PotatoesFall@discuss.tchncs.de on 11 Jun 22:53 next collapse

Wait the Brits? Not the English? Ireland is part of the British Isles, doesn’t that make them Brits too?

khannie@lemmy.world on 11 Jun 23:10 next collapse

Don’t start your car tomorrow

(I jest of course).

fossilesque@mander.xyz on 11 Jun 23:45 next collapse

I wouldn’t ask an Irishman that, lol.

NigelFrobisher@aussie.zone on 12 Jun 00:16 next collapse

We’ll, they were Brits at the time, but I guess their time in the union was not entirely to their satisfaction.

ohulancutash@feddit.uk on 12 Jun 02:34 next collapse

On a linguistic level yes. The ancient Greeks named the islands after the Prythonic tribes, who were active in Britannia and Hibernia (Ireland).

On a don’t-annoy-the-alarm-clock-aficionados level, nope. This guy isn’t with me. Never met them.

Son_of_Macha@lemmy.cafe on 12 Jun 03:11 next collapse

Ireland is not part of the British Isles

princessnorah@lemmy.blahaj.zone on 12 Jun 07:59 collapse

Ireland is absolutely part of the British Isles, just not part of Great Britain. I would say that it’s generally only considered correct to call someone from Great Britain British, rather than the Isles as a whole though. However, in common parlance I would say that people from Scotland and Wales use Scottish and Welsh more than British, with people from England using English and British interchangeably, and people from Northern Ireland (that are unionist anyway) using the term British over Irish. That’s all to say, you’d probably get a smack upside the head for calling someone Irish British, and rightfully so.

scoobford@lemmy.zip on 12 Jun 03:22 next collapse

I see your argument, but the Irish will absolutely throw hands if you call them Brits. They thing the term should only apply to people on the isle of Britain, not the British isles as a whole.

RedFrank24@lemmy.world on 13 Jun 08:06 collapse

Not really. British are from Great Britain (the island).

khannie@lemmy.world on 11 Jun 23:17 next collapse

We’ve stopped calling it the famine here and now it’s “the great hunger”.

Ireland was producing more than enough to feed itself but the British landlords were forcing the export of non-potatoes and leaving us to die.

The queen at the time politically shamed the Turks into reducing their aid to us because it was higher than hers.

What’s up, Turkey? We haven’t forgotten your generosity.

Massive, massive shout out to our Choctaw brothers and sisters in America who gave what they didn’t have after the trail of tears.

For those not familiar, we have never, ever forgotten that one.

Sculpture in Cork called “kindred spirits”:

<img alt="" src="https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/2d4b65bf-9b5d-4371-98d5-afe12f33ac4d.jpeg">

damdy@lemm.ee on 12 Jun 00:13 next collapse

The vast majority of Brits still hate British landlords.

SkaveRat@discuss.tchncs.de on 12 Jun 00:22 collapse

And when the choctaw faced trouble during the pandemic, Ireland returned the favor

nytimes.com/…/coronavirus-ireland-native-american…

AtariDump@lemmy.world on 13 Jun 11:55 collapse

Thanks for that :-)

I never knew.

gmtom@lemmy.world on 11 Jun 23:49 next collapse

The British didn’t cause the famine, they “just” made it worse.

And really it’s not even “the british” that are to blame. It was the rich land owners that continued to export the food grown in Ireland in order to make profit and the conservative (well, whig, but they are the spiritual predecessor to the modern conservatives and where politically conservative at the time) government that stopped and aid and refused to ban exporting food out of Ireland as they believed the famine was divine providence.

NigelFrobisher@aussie.zone on 12 Jun 00:13 next collapse

Sir, you can’t blame class war rather than entire ethnic and cultural groups in here. How else will people know to fight against each other instead of the oligarchs?

FelixCress@lemmy.world on 12 Jun 07:01 collapse

Or we should just stick to facts?

khannie@lemmy.world on 12 Jun 00:21 collapse

The British didn’t cause the famine, they “just” made it worse.

This is absolutely false. They didn’t cause the potato blight but they absolutely caused the famine by forcing the export of the remaining food stock which was more than enough to feed the population.

We still have not reached pre-famine population levels after 180 years.

Ledericas@lemm.ee on 12 Jun 03:42 next collapse

yup because the blight was affected the low genetic diversity of the potato cultivar were using, this allowed the oomycetes to infect the potatos, aka water molds, which are not related to fungus.

princessnorah@lemmy.blahaj.zone on 12 Jun 07:50 next collapse

Uhm akshually don’t you know that it was a subset of British society and not Britain as a whole. Jeeze, way to not be historically accurate.

Tap for un-circlejerk

Hope the /s is implied but just incase. If you’re British and upset by this take, maybe your ancestors should have rolled out some guillotines when the French did. It’s not too late to get rid of Charles, Starmer, Farage, Johnson and the rest of these chucklefucks.

khannie@lemmy.world on 12 Jun 09:08 next collapse

Ah yeah. I’m Irish and I don’t blame modern folks over there for it. I know it was the ruling class but damn were they cold AF. To be fair though there were lots of acts of brutality from British soldiers over the centuries who I have to guess were working class. Well beyond just “following orders”.

We do remember the acts of kindness at the time, especially the Choctaw as I mentioned in another comment. Just goes to show it’s nice to be nice. You will be eventually be forgiven the sins of your ancestors they you do bad things, but you will forever be remembered as kind if your ancestors do nice things.

gmtom@lemmy.world on 12 Jun 14:07 collapse

And I’m sure you personally have made moves to execute your worst politicians right? And have no ancestors that have done anything wrong in the past?

princessnorah@lemmy.blahaj.zone on 12 Jun 14:15 collapse

Oh no, I absolutely have ancestors in my past that have done horrendous things. And I’m Australian, so they were also British subjects ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

As for the executions, well I’d love to get my hands on Charles! #NotMyKing

javiwhite@feddit.uk on 12 Jun 14:34 collapse

You don’t need to look that far back in all honesty. The Australian treatment of aboriginals has been abhorrent; and continues to this day.

Time to get your guillotine out.

princessnorah@lemmy.blahaj.zone on 13 Jun 05:31 collapse

Australians were considered British subjects right up until the ‘Australia Act’ of 1986. I still very much blame Britain for much of the way Indigenous Australians have been treated. In the same way that I put a lot of blame on Britain for the current war in Gaza. Or the escalating conflict between Pakistan and India.

javiwhite@feddit.uk on 13 Jun 06:06 collapse

Well yeah, it’s an easy cop out to blame a country the other side of the world for your fellow countryman’s treatment of aboriginals.

Introspection is hard; but deflecting the blame will do nothing to resolve the issue.

Edit: Australia gained Responsible government (IE: making their own rules independent of the UK; though subject to higher laws like taxes etc) between 1855-1890… with full autonomy granted in the 1930s.

So you lot have had around 100 years; and the treatment hasn’t budged… Let me guess; still not the Aussies fault eh?

princessnorah@lemmy.blahaj.zone on 13 Jun 06:48 collapse

I never said it wasn’t Australians fault as well. This is a really reductive take that shifts the blame for colonisation. Fluffing hilarious that you’re a feddit.uk user. Cope much for your country destroying the world?

Edit: Also, no, the Westminster Act was not full autonomy, it was the dual Australia Acts in both countries parliaments in 1986 that granted that.

javiwhite@feddit.uk on 13 Jun 07:25 collapse

“as well”.

You’re still deflecting. The current treatment of aboriginals is wholly down to your country. I ask again, why haven’t you got your guillotine out yet?

princessnorah@lemmy.blahaj.zone on 13 Jun 07:33 collapse

There’s no statute of limitations on genocide.

javiwhite@feddit.uk on 13 Jun 07:43 collapse

Exactly. And your inaction during the ongoing issues in your country aligns you with our common ancestors who did nothing way back when; so when’s the guillotine coming out?

princessnorah@lemmy.blahaj.zone on 13 Jun 09:31 collapse

What the fluff makes you think that I fail to act? You know literally nothing about me. I can both take responsibility, blame YOU and your country, and act to change things for the better. I am pretty consistently out protesting, and out there donating my time and money to causes looking to change the status quo, even though I am disabled and on a pension.

THIS attitude is why people blame your shitty country for these things. Grow up.

javiwhite@feddit.uk on 13 Jun 09:50 collapse

Ohhhh you’re so close to getting it.

Now, with all of that emotion about how I know nothing about your activism, try applying that same logic to the British people you’re so vehemently against.

This entire conversation has been an attempt to point out your hypocrisy.

princessnorah@lemmy.blahaj.zone on 13 Jun 09:53 collapse

No.

javiwhite@feddit.uk on 13 Jun 10:14 collapse

Ah so I’m responsible for my government, but you’re not responsible for yours. Got it.

princessnorah@lemmy.blahaj.zone on 13 Jun 10:17 collapse

Jag off mate. I’ve said I’m responsible for my country several times. Do you have any responsibility for yours?

javiwhite@feddit.uk on 13 Jun 10:27 collapse

You said you would use the guillotine on multiple British politicians; and even went as far as to deflect the blame for the ongoing persecution of aboriginals to british citizens. Not once have you suggested you even hold Australia accountable for its ongoing systemic issues with racism towards natives, let alone yourself.

princessnorah@lemmy.blahaj.zone on 13 Jun 10:34 collapse

You’re arguing in bad faith. I have literally, multiple times now, said I take accountability on behalf of my country. I just refuse to absolve yours of guilt and that seems to be upsetting you quite a bit.

Also I forgot that Charles was a British politician and not the King of Australia, a title he holds independently due to the Westminster Act you discussed.*

javiwhite@feddit.uk on 13 Jun 10:45 collapse

I’m the one arguing in bad faith? Yet more hypocrisy

Edit: I didn’t feel the need to bring up Charles, because I agree with you that the monarchy needs to be abolished. So not sure why you think that would have riled me up. It’s just your hypocrisy that I find difficult to swallow

princessnorah@lemmy.blahaj.zone on 13 Jun 10:50 collapse

I never said it wasn’t Australians fault as well.

I can both take responsibility…

Edit: You’re doing great mate, keep trying to frame this as my fault.

javiwhite@feddit.uk on 13 Jun 11:07 collapse

Australians were considered British citizens is you initially shirking all responsibility elsewhere, which is how this entire conversation started.

Frame what as your fault? The racism? I thought you said you were taking responsibility… Now I’m just confused. Are you responsible or not?

princessnorah@lemmy.blahaj.zone on 13 Jun 11:08 collapse

I’ll ask you again, are you going to take any responsibility? Otherwise I’m just blocking you, I’m tired of the sealioning now.

javiwhite@feddit.uk on 13 Jun 11:22 collapse

For the Irish famine or the aboriginal persecution? try to be more specific with your questions, Block away. You refuse to acknowledge my questions let alone answer them, so I fail to see why I shouldn’t show you the same courtesy.

princessnorah@lemmy.blahaj.zone on 13 Jun 11:44 collapse

Irish famine; Invasion of so-called Australia; Israel’s persecution of Palestinians; Indian-Pakistani conflict. Pick your poison.

javiwhite@feddit.uk on 13 Jun 12:09 collapse

Sure, I can make it real simple and just explain the concept.

I don’t believe I’m responsible for stuff that happened hundreds of years before my birth; that’s a dangerous precedent to set and leads to rampant persecution of entire nations (like you inciting violence upon British people for example, and feeling like that’s an okay stance to take).

As for current events, I believe we do have a responsibility to call out and work to correct any injustice at every juncture, and pride myself on trying to doing so. That being said; much like you haven’t magically fixed the persecution of aboriginals in Australia, or Israel’s persecution of Palestine (which Australia is complicit in too btw…) ; there is only so much we commoners can achieve.

So instead of flinging muck at 70 million people because of their nationality, try finding common ground. Your abrasive nature serves nothing but sowing discord.

I appreciate this will likely fall on deaf ears, and you’ll probably resort to further projecting of your own feelings of frustration, so this is the last time I attempt to appeal to your better nature; I’m not fortunate enough to be retired, so I can’t waste any more energy on attempting to help you see reason.

princessnorah@lemmy.blahaj.zone on 13 Jun 12:12 collapse

like you inciting violence upon British people for example, and feeling like that’s an okay stance to take

😂😂

javiwhite@feddit.uk on 13 Jun 12:16 collapse

It’s the same logic Israel uses to justify it’s actions against Palestine; Or how Russia justifies it’s attacks on Ukraine. I can’t help you understand why tarnishing an entire nation is a terrible precident to set. But equally, I think you already understand this, And are just continuing to act in bad faith.

gmtom@lemmy.world on 12 Jun 14:05 collapse

They didn’t cause the potato blight but they absolutely caused the famine by forcing the export of the remaining food stock which was more than enough to feed the population.

That’s litterally exactly what I said.

khannie@lemmy.world on 12 Jun 15:42 collapse

It’s not though.

The British didn’t cause the famine, they “just” made it worse.

It’s a common misconception but there are a few issues with “didn’t cause the famine” for me:

  1. Potato blight != famine. There was a potato blight across all of Europe at the time. Ireland still produced more than enough food to feed itself even in 1847, the worst year of the blight. It wasn’t a case of making it worse, they literally wouldn’t have gone hungry at all.
  2. The only reason Irish peasants were so dependent on a single food crop to feed themselves was because it was what produced the most calories for a given area of land. The British stole the land from the Irish then forced payment at such a high rate from the people they stole it from that it left no choice but to use that single crop to feed themselves. They had to use their remaining non-potato land for higher value cash crops to pay rent on the land that was stolen from them.
  3. An enormous number of people died from exposure after being fucked off their land and having their homes burned to the ground because they couldn’t afford to pay rent to those landlords.

So the British did cause the actual famine in it’s entirety and the deliberate lack of relief was seen as an act of God / retribution to reduce the population here (which they 100% left to starve, with some kind landlord exceptions).

It’s why the Irish don’t call it “The Famine” any more. It’s “the great hunger” here because there wouldn’t have been a famine at all if we’d just been left the fuck alone to grow a variety of crops instead of being raped and pillaged for hundreds of years.

gmtom@lemmy.world on 13 Jun 13:21 collapse

That’s a very good point and a distinction well worth making, thank you.

khannie@lemmy.world on 13 Jun 16:59 collapse

No worries :) I appreciate the back and forth.

TacoButtPlug@sh.itjust.works on 12 Jun 08:21 next collapse

The laugh this gave me was appreciated

epicstove@lemmy.ca on 12 Jun 14:25 next collapse

The Irish potato famine wasn’t exclusive to Ireland. It actually first appeared in the US and spread to Europe.

The issue was, unlike other nations, the Irish ONLY had potatoes as all other crops were cash crops for tax.

The British government could have 100% minimized the damage. But they didn’t.

Good Job PM Peel. You fucked up.

beejboytyson@lemmy.world on 13 Jun 07:40 next collapse

??? Fake news made up by the liberal media. They probably ruined their own crop. Glug glug if you know what I mean.

ztwhixsemhwldvka@lemmy.world on 13 Jun 07:50 next collapse

My understanding is the Tories actually tried to provide relief by importing food which was discontinued by the liberals. So more PM Russell who fucked up.

epicstove@lemmy.ca on 13 Jun 15:17 collapse

Iirc they imported Corn from the US since it was cheap. But corn is a odd crop, it’s difficult to digest especially for the Irish who weren’t accustomed to the crop. So it provided minimal nutrition for the Irish.

This was framed as “Look, we give them food and they’re still starving! We’re wasting money, giving it to the Yanks, all for nothing! This is clearly god punishing the Irish for their sin!”

I don’t remember the exact responses by different groups in Parliament, infect Peel was probably wasn’t ass harmful as the others.

Although, I think it’s funny to know that the British PM at the time was named Peel.

ztwhixsemhwldvka@lemmy.world on 13 Jun 15:41 collapse

I’m assuming “ass harmful” is a typo but prefer to believe it’s an historian term applied to British ideological aims

epicstove@lemmy.ca on 13 Jun 15:57 collapse

It was a typo but honesty, I think it fits perfectly so amma keep it.

ztwhixsemhwldvka@lemmy.world on 13 Jun 16:02 collapse

This constitutes a period of British policy which we now know as “Ass Harm”, harm perpetuated by asses

- some fake historian

CalipherJones@lemmy.world on 13 Jun 15:30 collapse

The Brits actively shipped beef out of Ireland while people starved. The Brits also forced the Irish to labor in pointless workhouses to “earn” their food. For instance the Brits would force the Irish to build roads that led to nowhere. Apparently those pathways to nothing are still littered around Ireland.

OrteilGenou@lemmy.world on 12 Jun 14:28 next collapse

Random observation, I had no idea how many languages are spoken in the British isles…

LanguagesEnglish, Welsh, Cornish, Irish, Manx, Scots, Scottish Gaelic, French, Guernésiais, Jèrriais, Sercquiais, Shelta, Ulster-Scots, Angloromani, British Sign Language, Irish Sign Language

Crampon@lemmy.world on 12 Jun 15:10 next collapse

Equals to calling a study on the corona virus SarsCov-19 dumb because it should be a study on the Chinese instead.

Seems different then.

Jax@sh.itjust.works on 12 Jun 17:39 next collapse

The answer is that it’s complicated, and the British made decisions that needlessly complicated things further.

Just so we’re clear, the Irish did too — there were many different bad actors that took advantage of what happened in Ireland. It just so happens that the worst of them were British.

[deleted] on 13 Jun 10:28 collapse

.

Objection@lemmy.ml on 13 Jun 09:48 collapse

The British were responsible for those deaths while the Chinese were not.

Crampon@lemmy.world on 13 Jun 10:29 collapse

How does that make any sense?

If the paper was on the micro organism. Then its a paper on the micro organism. It’s completely irrelevant to the situation surrounding it.

Weaponized brain rot take.

medgremlin@midwest.social on 13 Jun 11:37 next collapse

The Irish people were growing tons of crops besides potatoes, but the British landlords took everything besides the potatoes as cash crops/taxes, leaving them only the potatoes to actually eat. There was more than enough food to prevent those deaths, but the Irish people weren’t allowed to eat it.

Crampon@lemmy.world on 13 Jun 20:11 collapse

Doesn’t change the fact that the paper was about the fucking organism and not about the political schemes going on at the time.

How did this forum gather so many dense brains in one place?

medgremlin@midwest.social on 14 Jun 21:01 collapse

The issue is that the title of the story implies that it was entirely due to the organism that the Irish people suffered so many deaths. Context matters and they framed this in the worst way possible.

Objection@lemmy.ml on 14 Jun 03:51 collapse

Do you not understand that it’s a joke?

Obviously we all know the paper is talking about the microorganism, but since the real cause of the famine wasn’t the microorganism but the British, it’s funny to act like the paper is insulting the British rather than talking about the microorganism.

That’s the only way I can interpret your comment in any coherent way, that the joke just went completely over your head.

Crampon@lemmy.world on 14 Jun 08:31 collapse

I do understand it.

It’s just bad. But you guys eat up any bad joke if the purpose is to blame the US, GB or Israel for anything. It’s predictable and lame.

So lame.

Objection@lemmy.ml on 14 Jun 11:00 collapse

The wordplay is clever. Somebody’s big mad that people are blaming the British for something they did

<img alt="" src="https://lemmy.ml/pictrs/image/688ffbee-5899-4664-9212-ab749f80640d.png">

Might want to examine why people making fun of one of the most blatantly evil empires of all time offends you.

Sam_Bass@lemmy.world on 13 Jun 11:23 collapse

I’m just coming off a severe staph infection that could have cost me my right leg below the knee, so can relate to devastating bacteria. Was hospitalized for a couple days to rehydrate and get iv antibiotics that appear to have knocked it out now. If you develop a skin infection that seems to be spreading fast, don’t jack around and have it checked

DeathsEmbrace@lemmy.world on 13 Jun 13:22 collapse

Once you learn microbiology you basically go through the process of cleaning the wound ASAP. There are opportunistic pathogens that are just waiting to be pathogens because they moved and that scares me.