Going Viral, Medieval Edition

468 points · 16 comments · view on lemmy.world

16 Comments

ImWaitingForRetcons@lemm.ee · 33 pts · 1y (4 replies)

And to be fair, Europe thrived a lot more after the plague, since massive labour shortages meant the value of labour shot up dramatically, improving the quality of life and culminating in the Renaissance.

TankovayaDiviziya@lemmy.world · 18 pts · 1y (2 replies)

The plague is actually what ended feudalism in Europe.

ZombiFrancis@sh.itjust.works · 9 pts · 1y

Not having to worry about managing your surplus sons helped a whole lot. Sending them out to crusade against the heathens took a lot of coordination and energy. Plague reversed that problem real fast.

theUwUhugger@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 1y

In the west! In the east? They switched to less laborious methods if need be, in fact laws were passed so that serf could no longer migrate away from their lords; making them the closest we have ever had to slavery with exception to the slaves we had

lepinkainen@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 1y

IIRC the plague was also the thing that invented surnames.

Before you were just John, but after you had to travel to other cities and there might already be a John so you became John Smith or John

andros_rex@lemmy.world · 18 pts · 1y (1 reply)

More of the fleas’ fault than the rats.

General_Effort@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 1y

Yersinia pestis actually kills fleas. It causes a blockage in their intestines, causing them to starve. That means they will sting a lot in a futile attempt to get sustenance, but all that happens is that they regurgitate YP into the victim. It's a really neat mechanism but very unethical. I hope modern bioweapons labs have vegan alternatives.

BetaBlake@lemmy.world · 15 pts · 1y (5 replies)

It wasn't actually the rats that caused the plague, fleas and other people were the largest vectors not rats. rats are actually really similar to cats and spend a lot of time cleaning themselves

DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social · 7 pts · 1y (4 replies)

If a carrier's planes sink an enemy ship, is it not a kill for the carrier as well?

CheeseNoodle@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 1y (3 replies)

Iirc the plague killed rats too so the rat isn't exactly a willing carrier. Besides that logic works for human to human transmission too.

FooBarrington@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 1y (2 replies)

I don't think rats are ever willingly carriers of disease. Almost no one is (except for very weird people)

daniskarma@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 3 pts · 1y (1 reply)

I don't think rats are ever willingly carriers of disease.

Skavens lore it a nutshell.

DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social · 2 pts · 1y

Even they don't really like the Nurgle Rats. There's an appropriate amount of plague spreading and they get way too into it!

Darjuz@feddit.it · 5 pts · 1y

It was not the rats who bringed the plague but the flea/parasite what the rats hosted.

NeilBru@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 1y

"Thriving" is a bit strong.

LanguageIsCool@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 1y
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Jerb322@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 1y

The Misadventures of Flapjack has an episode where the kid has a rat that flings ticks at people that fuck with the kid. It uses it's tail like a whip.They all instantly get the black plague. So fuckt up and funny.