5 ms·
I once read a very cynical take that the Nazis had not done anything particularly novel; their big mistake lay in doing that sort of thing to melanin-deprived p
by aebtebeten 4y ago
I once read a very cynical take that the Nazis had not done anything particularly novel; their big mistake lay in doing that sort of thing to melanin-deprived people.
(that said, I don't think the brits went in for obviously direct genocides; they seem to have been more the sort who would choose indirectly genocidal policies, eg encouraging opiate addiction or buying up all the potatoes?)
- jodrellblank 4y agoI don't think Britain bought up all the potatoes in Ireland, Britain bought all the beef leaving the Irish only potatoes and cabbage to eat. Then with a monocrop of potatoes as the staple diet, the potato blight caused a famine and mass deaths.
- aebtebeten 4y agoMy bad. However, my understanding of the situation is that there was a british debate at the time as to what to do, if anything. The bleeding hearts suggested food relief for the starving irish, but were overridden by the libertarians of the day, who were horrified that anyone should attempt to trump economic considerations with moral ones, and insisted that one should not tamper with markets: the price of foodstuffs was the price. (if the irish could not afford to keep that beef or to import other food, they had obviously made a poor decision when selecting their parents!) Therefore nothing was done. Edit: in the case of government response, my recollection does seem to have been a reasonable oversimplification. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Famine_(Ireland)#Government_response https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Famine_(Ireland)#Governm...