ppl rly bad at reading thread title questions
― identity politics rooted in tolkienism (darraghmac), Saturday, 3 December 2016 15:40 (seven years ago) link
um I factored in human history
― diary of a mod how's life (wins), Saturday, 3 December 2016 15:47 (seven years ago) link
it's sad, ppl in 1346 never even got to hear Bowie and Prince
― lettered and hapful (symsymsym), Saturday, December 3, 2016 10:06 AM (forty-six minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
this is so great. we are blessed to have been alive during the reign of Bowie and Prince.
and also, not the plague.
― AdamVania (Adam Bruneau), Saturday, 3 December 2016 15:55 (seven years ago) link
the death count for plagues since 1346 has to be somewhere in the hundreds of millions
― AdamVania (Adam Bruneau), Saturday, 3 December 2016 15:57 (seven years ago) link
http://dailypicksandflicks.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/how-very-interesting-come-closer-and-tell-me-more-tiger.jpg
― Neanderthal, Saturday, 3 December 2016 16:01 (seven years ago) link
1945: hiroshima, nagasaki
this was on the original list but it got deleted and when i reconstituted it i forgot to add it
stunning lack of non-western history here - write in vote for 210 BC, the burying of the scholars
stunning lack? i made sure to include a lot of non-western history.
― Mordy, Saturday, 3 December 2016 16:01 (seven years ago) link
xxp Up to 500 million from small pox in the 20th century alone.
― jmm, Saturday, 3 December 2016 16:05 (seven years ago) link
i did not like this year very much! but i'm lucky i had a great thanksgiving
― surm, Saturday, 3 December 2016 16:39 (seven years ago) link
voted the midnight of the century
― difficult listening hour, Saturday, 3 December 2016 16:46 (seven years ago) link
2009 - GAPDY
― ||||||||, Saturday, 3 December 2016 16:48 (seven years ago) link
a scholarly friend told me at the British Museum last week that the Alexandria Library thing is mythical/exaggerated
― Supercreditor (Dr Morbius), Saturday, 3 December 2016 16:54 (seven years ago) link
i'm sure it's exaggerated, it's just the perfect fairy tale of regret for bibliophiles and people who hate Christianity
― brex yourself before you wrex yourself (Noodle Vague), Saturday, 3 December 2016 17:13 (seven years ago) link
it wouldn't be right if this poll threw up a winner that wasn't caused by humans themselves tbf.
― Le Bateau Ivre
Yeah, I kind of feel like my opinion of "the worst year in human history" falls more toward the revelation of how awful humans are/can be, rather than natural disasters befalling them.
― emil.y, Saturday, 3 December 2016 17:22 (seven years ago) link
would consider adding 1941 as well for Operation Barbarossa. you could honestly make a case for every year of WW2.
― ryan, Saturday, 3 December 2016 17:33 (seven years ago) link
just remembered that as well as some 80s pop stars dying 2016 was the year the Premier League was stolen by a gang of mercenary drug abusers who cheated their way past the noble corinthians who normally contest the title so maybe throw that in the scales
― brex yourself before you wrex yourself (Noodle Vague), Saturday, 3 December 2016 17:39 (seven years ago) link
kin right mate
― identity politics rooted in tolkienism (darraghmac), Saturday, 3 December 2016 17:49 (seven years ago) link
without being too callous about it's humungous death toll, the Taiping Rebellion sounds fucking epic and the Hong Xiuquan backstory is very compelling. Deffo need a good book on this one.
― calzino, Saturday, 3 December 2016 17:49 (seven years ago) link
The Crusades were fucking stupid and vile and went on for yonks too and, er, remain current.
― The Doug Walters of Crime (Tom D.), Saturday, 3 December 2016 17:55 (seven years ago) link
After considering the Black Death plumped for 1943.
― The Doug Walters of Crime (Tom D.), Saturday, 3 December 2016 17:59 (seven years ago) link
ppl be fighting other ppl for money or cos different can we be getting over this pls
― identity politics rooted in tolkienism (darraghmac), Saturday, 3 December 2016 17:59 (seven years ago) link
― Supercreditor (Dr Morbius)
a lot of stuff here is exaggerated. nobody even knows for sure _when_ the library was destroyed! (they could have looked it up in a library, but...)
the "burying of the scholars" is dubious in kind of the same way. that's the thing with ancient history- you have a serious lack of reliable sources.
― xiphoid beetlebum (rushomancy), Saturday, 3 December 2016 18:06 (seven years ago) link
The disasters in communist countries have a sickening irony about them -- alleged "worker's movements" rooted in a political tradition derived from hegel and the enlightenment leading to wholesale extermination of communities -- that make them harder to grasp than the holocaust, which emerged out of an ethno-nationalist movement that, from the start, would have seemed sinister from my own perspective. The disaster of global communism also seems to have crushed any energy human beings might have had for collective action, especially on a global scale, which is a shame as climate change is on the verge of swallowing our fragile civilization if nuclear war doesn't get to us first.
― Treeship, Saturday, 3 December 2016 18:08 (seven years ago) link
Still voted for the Holocaust.
― Treeship, Saturday, 3 December 2016 18:10 (seven years ago) link
i don't see why the failure of communism would be any more permanent than the failure of fascism was.
― xiphoid beetlebum (rushomancy), Saturday, 3 December 2016 18:11 (seven years ago) link
Idk if we need communism, just an understanding that the prerogatives of profit shouldnt outweigh that of survival. That and kill all rich people.
― Treeship, Saturday, 3 December 2016 18:15 (seven years ago) link
note to future communists: avoid mass collectivisation plans unless you have an amazing food distribution system and shitloads of grain in reserve
― calzino, Saturday, 3 December 2016 18:16 (seven years ago) link
and an actual will not to let masses of your population starve to death.
― calzino, Saturday, 3 December 2016 18:17 (seven years ago) link
That Platt book on the Taiping Rebellion looks a good un. Could anyone advance a better option?
― calzino, Saturday, 3 December 2016 18:21 (seven years ago) link
it's funny to imagine someone in the siege of leningrad or whatever being like "1941 is just the worst!"
― ryan, Saturday, 3 December 2016 18:41 (seven years ago) link
"oh god not Paderewski too fuck 1941 man will this year never end"
― brex yourself before you wrex yourself (Noodle Vague), Saturday, 3 December 2016 18:44 (seven years ago) link
http://www.biography.com/people/groups/died-1941
this shits on your 2016 celeb death list btw fucking babies
― brex yourself before you wrex yourself (Noodle Vague), Saturday, 3 December 2016 18:45 (seven years ago) link
that was angrier than it need be sorry, just found out James Joyce and Jelly Roll Morton have died, had a bit of an Amanda Palmer moment
― brex yourself before you wrex yourself (Noodle Vague), Saturday, 3 December 2016 18:46 (seven years ago) link
"Another bombardment? This is definitely the darkest timeline."
― jmm, Saturday, 3 December 2016 18:49 (seven years ago) link
The General Government actually issued a tourist guidebook to occupied Poland in '43. And it wasn't unheard of that middle class German families would travel to sites of genocide and point and stare. I'd guess this type of behaviour isn't unprecedented throughout history.
― calzino, Saturday, 3 December 2016 18:57 (seven years ago) link
Great Bengal Famine. Good old British Empire, gawd bless you, Ma'am.
― The Doug Walters of Crime (Tom D.), Saturday, 3 December 2016 19:04 (seven years ago) link
"The disaster of global communism also seems to have crushed any energy human beings might have had for collective action, especially on a global scale, "
tris do u really believe that humans have never acted in a collective manner outside of the historically applied frameworks grouped under communism
do u also separately think that humans have been subject to a 'global scale' - if that is any different than any notional scale of magnitude encompassing the attention bounds of yr homo sapiens ito where dinner is coming from on any timeline u wish- for long enough to be making generalities about it as a concept also lads trump is kinda a dead horse will ye fucking stop
― identity politics rooted in tolkienism (darraghmac), Saturday, 3 December 2016 19:04 (seven years ago) link
Pages in category "1941 deaths"The following 200 pages are in this category, out of 3,099 total. This list may not reflect recent changes
oh ferfuxsake
on the other hand:
Pages in category "2016 deaths"The following 200 pages are in this category, out of 6,206 total. This list may not reflect recent changes
so there you have it, 2016 is clearly more than twice as bad as 1941.
― xiphoid beetlebum (rushomancy), Saturday, 3 December 2016 19:23 (seven years ago) link
i think it's more like, throughout the cold war capitalism was seen as the economic system that went along with democracy. fighting despotism meant fighting communism. being part of the global community meant embracing certain kinds of free trade ideals, or securing the rights of corporations to do business with each other across state lines. this paradigm has more to offer it than communists would admit -- trade helps secure peace; growth, even when achieved under exploitative conditions, pulls people out of poverty -- but it's not enough to really secure global peace and prosperity in a meaningful way. most people get left out of the decision process, and some things -- like environmental destruction -- just cannot be addressed without hurting profits and growth
― Treeship, Saturday, 3 December 2016 19:25 (seven years ago) link
most Marxists wouldn't argue that capitalism hasn't enriched people more than earlier forms of economic organization, just so we're clear
― brex yourself before you wrex yourself (Noodle Vague), Saturday, 3 December 2016 19:27 (seven years ago) link
no, not marxists, but a lot of anti-globalization adbusters types do
― Treeship, Saturday, 3 December 2016 19:29 (seven years ago) link
consider that Trump won't be president till 2017
― That's when I fired off my 2 Tweets to Dr. Phil (crüt), Saturday, 3 December 2016 20:06 (seven years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OO9LloDSJo
― Josh in Chicago, Saturday, 3 December 2016 20:08 (seven years ago) link
when did people start to get interested in assessing individual years in this way?
― ogmor, Saturday, 3 December 2016 22:44 (seven years ago) link
december 2, 2016
― Treeship, Saturday, 3 December 2016 22:45 (seven years ago) link
I'm on team An Lushan
― Camaraderie at Arms Length, Saturday, 3 December 2016 22:49 (seven years ago) link
probably a media thing, stuff like yearly reviews, time mag etc. but there's been a lot of it about now, things like http://www.foreveryyear.eu/ and in academia too, my fav example being
https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51pLy9X8-8L._SX324_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg
― ogmor, Saturday, 3 December 2016 22:51 (seven years ago) link
http://www.biography.com/people/groups/died-1941this shits on your 2016 celeb death list btw fucking babies― brex yourself before you wrex yourself (Noodle Vague), Saturday, December 3, 2016 6:45 PM (four hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― brex yourself before you wrex yourself (Noodle Vague), Saturday, December 3, 2016 6:45 PM (four hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
Also try 1977 - http://www.biography.com/people/groups/died-1977 - Elvis, Marc Bolan, Maria Callas, Bing Crosby, Joan Crawford, Groucho Marx, Vladamir Nabokov, Peter Finch, Zero Mostel, Steve Biko, Anais Nin, Howard Hawks, Wehrner Von Braun, Roberto Rossellini
― Camaraderie at Arms Length, Saturday, 3 December 2016 23:03 (seven years ago) link
yeah but star wars
― identity politics rooted in tolkienism (darraghmac), Saturday, 3 December 2016 23:28 (seven years ago) link
there's no way that 1587 book can live up to its title
― ryan, Saturday, 3 December 2016 23:30 (seven years ago) link
that's how I justify not reading it
― ogmor, Saturday, 3 December 2016 23:33 (seven years ago) link