A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.
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This is a science community. We use the Dawkins definition of meme.
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.
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.
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.
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.
I'm assuming "ass harmful" is a typo but prefer to believe it's an historian term applied to British ideological aims
It was a typo but honesty, I think it fits perfectly so amma keep it.
This constitutes a period of British policy which we now know as "Ass Harm", harm perpetuated by asses
- some fake historian
???? Fake news made up by the liberal media. They probably ruined their own crop. Glug glug if you know what I mean.
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":
And when the choctaw faced trouble during the pandemic, Ireland returned the favor
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/05/world/coronavirus-ireland-native-american-tribes.html
Thanks for that :-)
I never knew.
The vast majority of Brits still hate British landlords.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
Hats off to the historical accuracy of this comment chain. Not sure how many of you are Irish but honestly it's heartening. ❤️
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.
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.
Aren't the Brits more viral historically? Go, inject themselves into another organism and force it to produce more brits.
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
The laugh this gave me was appreciated
Wait the Brits? Not the English? Ireland is part of the British Isles, doesn't that make them Brits too?
Don't start your car tomorrow
(I jest of course).
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.
I wouldn't ask an Irishman that, lol.
Not really. British are from Great Britain (the island).
