Josèph Andrée Chouanard, Purse, 1928. Silk. Woven by the 17th century tapestry factory at Beauvais, France. Via Cooper Hewitt. It shows the popularity of air travel, automobile touring and cross-country racing in the 1920s.
“Authors can’t use it in fantasy fiction, eh? We’ll see about that…”
–Terry Pratchett, probably
Try to implement anything but a conservative’s sixth grade education level of medieval or Victorian times and you will butt into this. all. the. time.
There was a literaly fad in the 1890′s for nipple rings for all genders(and NO, it was NOT under the mistaken belief that it would help breastfeeding–there’s LOTS of doctors’ writing at the time telling people to STOP and that they thought it would ruin the breast’s ability to breastfeed well, etc). It was straight up because the Victorians were freaks, okay Imagine trying to make a Victorian character with nipple rings. IMAGINE THE ACCUSATIONS OF GROSS HISTORICAL INACCURACY
people just really, REALLY have entrenched ideas of what people in the past were like
tell them the vikings were clean, had a complex democratic legal system, respected women, had freeform rap battles, and had child support payments? theyd call you a liar
tell them that chopsticks became popular in china during the bronze age because street food vendors were all the rage and they wanted to have disposable eating utensils? theyll say youre making that up
tell them native americans had a trade network stretching from canada to peru and built sacred mounds bigger then the pyramids of giza? you are some SJW twisting facts
ancient egypt had circular saws, debt cards, and eye surgery? are you high?
our misconception of medieval peasants being illiterate and living in poverty in one room mud huts being their own creation as part of a century long tax aversion scam? you stole that from the game of thrones reject bin
iron age india had stone telescopes, air conditioning, and the number 0 along with all ‘arabic’ numbers including algebra and calculus? i understand some of those words.
romans had accurate maps detailing vacation travel times along with a star rating for hotels along the way, fast food restaurants, swiss army knives, black soldiers in brittany, traded with china, and that soldiers wrote thank-you notes when their parents sent them underwear in the mail? but they thought the earth was flat!
ancient bronze age mesopotamia had pedantic complaints sent to merchants about crappy goods, comedic performances, and transgender/nobinary representation? what are you smoking?
If you wanted to see how many people don’t know what taxes are or how they work, read the notes
I think my only problem with continued joke— tech bros just invented busses tech bros just invented renting etc— is that it assumes these guys are just clueless idiots who don’t know how the world works. The reality is these guys know exactly what they’re doing and what they’re doing is creating a lifestyle that deliberately excludes the poor. Re-invent the bus system so you don’t have to sit next to the poor. Re-invent renting to be even more exclusive.
Re-invent taxes so you be sure your money is only helping “your community” ie other wealthy people and then vote to lower actual taxes so that none of that money goes to help anybody else.
This is absolutely a purposeful plan. Nobody wants to drive on roads with potholes or walk on broken sidewalks but why should our tax money go to *those people* I know let’s create a “community startup” so we can cut taxes without personal inconvenience.
I think the above is hitting the nail on the head:
In the world the United States has been creating for decades now, arguably longer, this is how the rift between the rich and the poor opens further. You think “tech bros are the worst, ugh,” and they are; it’s just that we are, too, because we consume their tools to split society.
I take a Lyft home late at night, because I don’t want to deal with the vomit and feces and homeless men whistling and shuffling toward me at Civic Center in San Francisco. It’s a perfectly reasonable choice for me as an individual.
But overall?
One, I take that money away from BART, the light-rail system of the Bay Area, which at that hour is perfectly fine and not crowded and could easily accommodate me without incurring extra costs.
Two, I no longer share space with other riders of the BART train. Just think of me as a body that is missing to them as human beings who wish for safety in numbers: a somewhat clean, moderately sane, not particularly smelly body. A body that is not intrusive to fellow riders at all.
Three, my turnstile click no longer registers on the BART system – the very real, inescapable need to cross the San Francisco Bay becomes invisible to the public transit system. BART is struggling to loop around the Bay; this is mostly because of property owners in Silicon Valley (yes), but numbers and statistics of demand play a role.
Now imagine hundreds and thousands of people making my choice that night, every night. Who is left? What environment does it create? One that keeps only the people who struggle in some way, shape, or form on BART. What does it mean? More of the people who do not struggle think, “Hey, let’s take a Lyft, although it’s more expensive, the experience is better.”
