Comment on Anon goes to dinner with coworkers

ZombiFrancis@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

• Juice@midwest.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

  During the American War of Independence the reins were loosened a little. Further concessions had to be granted during the French Revolution. Ireland rose so quickly that her people threatened to outstrip the English. The English government drove them to rebellion and achieved the Union [390] by bribery. The Union delivered the death blow to reviving Irish industry. On one occasion Meagher said: all Irish branches of industry have been destroyed, all we have been left is the making of coffins. It became a vital necessity to have land; the big landowners leased their lands to speculators; land passed through four or five lease stages before it reached the peasant, and this made prices disproportionately high. The agrarian population lived on potatoes and water; wheat and meat were sent to England; the rent was eaten up in London, Paris and Florence. In 1836, £7,000,000 was sent abroad to absent landowners. Fertilisers were exported with the produce and rent, and the soil was exhausted. Famine often set in here and there, and owing to the potato blight there was a general famine in 1846. A million people starved to death. The potato blight resulted from the exhaustion of the soil, it was a product of English rule.

  Through the repeal of the Corn Laws Ireland lost her monopoly position on the English market, the old rent could no longer be paid. High prices of meat and the bankruptcy of the remaining small landowners further contributed to the eviction of the small peasants and the transformation of their land into sheep pastures. Over half a million acres of arable land have not been tilled since 1860. The yield per acre has dropped: oats by 16 per cent, flax by 36 per cent, potatoes by 50 per cent. At present only oats are cultivated for the English market, and wheat is imported.

  With the exhaustion of the soil, the population has deteriorated physically. There has been an absolute increase in the number of lame, blind, deaf and dumb, and insane in the decreasing population.

  Over 1,100,000 people have been replaced by 9,600,000 sheep. This is a thing unheard of in Europe. The Russians replace evicted Poles with Russians, not with sheep. Only under the Mongols in China was there once a discussion whether towns should be destroyed to make room for sheep.

  – International Workingmen’s Association 1867 Record of Speech by Karl Marx

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• 0laura@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

  honestly I just read it as Irish people liking potatoes, similar to the stereotype that Germans like sauerkraut

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  • TheSlad@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    Irish people were forced to eat potatoes because they were subjugated by british lords who took everything else they farmed. When the potato “famine” happened, they were actually still producing plenty of other food, just that the British lords didnt care and still forces them to hand it over.

    Admittedly this is the extent of my knowledge on the situation, so you should look it up yourself if you want to know more.

    The “Joke” at the irish guy in the greentext is actually pretty insensitive and rude, much moreso than asking a german why he didnt order sauerkraut.

    Potatoes aren’t even native to Ireland.

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    • Dasus@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      Yeah about a million Irish died and a million emigrated.

      Ireland lost a quarter of it’s population.

      If the story wasn’t gake and fay, and if that joke about bombing hospitals gets someone into trouble, then the potato joke definitely should as well.

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      • ToyDork@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

        [deleted]

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    • TriflingToad@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      well they didn’t teach that in school 🤯

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      • TheSlad@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

        Theres a lot they don’t teach in school! Its been over a decade for me but from what I remember “world history” class was basically just WWI and WWII.

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• some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

  Racism was the cause.

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  • Juice@midwest.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    It was colonialism and the primitive accumulation stage of capitalism, but racism often runs in the same circles

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