lol people bringing up the extremely obvious eye safety hazards in the comments are being screamed down by whimsical brits
this post was submitted on 20 Aug 2023
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GenZedong
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We have a long tradition of doing silly and dangerous things. Particularly in small towns. Some have formed out of old oagan (pre-Christian traditions), some for more questionable or objectionable reasons like this one. They keep going because a lot of people have good memories of them and it becomes part of a local identity.
I watched this video, and lots of people make mention of how the tradition started, and how the pennies used to be actually hot. And why. Its referred to multiple times. Your post implies this was glossed over, but you clearly got the info from the video, so it's not exactly hidden. Maybe that's why OP says, "no need to watch it", bevause they know they're telling fibs for outrage bait?
Look up The Cooper's Hill Cheese-Rolling and Wake. People get really hurt doing that.
A cold penny to the eye could still mean a trip to the hospital, so I don't see why that matters. Some safety squints don't seem unreasonable, but anyone who mentioned it was shouted down for ruining everyone's fun.
Yeah it's quite dangerous, there is moderate risk of mild injury and very mild risk of serious injury. But everyone participating knows that.
I summarised the video and didn't do outside research. The point is that they're celebrating something that should be shameful. They explain the mechanics of how it's horrible but not that it is or that it shouldn't be celebrated. The closest they get to a condemnation is saying they've adjusted the tradition to be safer.
They didn't say "and that is wrong". But I think that's because it's obvious. There were a few raised eyebrows or a change to the tone of voice, so it was certainly implied.
Like if there was a documentary on the slave they might not actually say, "and this was a bad thing", bevause obviously it was a horribly bad thing.
And so obviously they stopped celebrating it, right? The last line in the video is
We're about making certain that these wonderful old quaint customs continue.
Backed by the sound and visual of Tom clapping.
If you think I've misunderstood this documentary designed to bring awareness of a social ill, then fair enough. In that case my criticism is that Tom didn't make a video that communicated that well enough, and my criticism of the town remains unchanged.
Least pyschopathic day in Britbong Land
not every tradition need have a nice origin for it to be ingrained into the community.
this particular tradition is not still nobles trying to hurt poor people for their amusement, it's the townspeople throwing their pocketchange at each other in a vague remembrance, so long as they're having fun with it and wish to continue i don't think it's very problematic.
Why keep things with negative backstories? We should firmly reject anything that came from negative ideas or negative times
i don't think it'd take very long at all for us to single out something you like & engage in with problematic origins. everyone's all for complete cultural revolution until someone correctly associates something useful, harmless, or personally fond of with the bourgeois/feudal culture.
a lot can and should be critically examined, reinterpreted, and rejected, but this is a democratic process. the greatest argument for hot pennies is the voluntary perpetuation and participation in the event.
Sure, I might. But that doesn’t mean I should intellectually defend it. If people consume media with wealth differences or racism, it normalizes those things. Even if someone currently enjoys that, they should still understand the issue with it.
what materially does hot pennies reinforce? are the people throwing pennies nobles? are the people catching them doing so to avoid starvation? what is being normalized that is so offensive to our sensibilities here?
This is exactly my thought process. I really don’t see a big deal here.
I didn’t put forward an argument in my original comment because I genuinely thought there was nothing much to argue about.
It’s so trivial.
Let the people have fun and participate in community events.
It is, from what I gather, a small town anyways. It will affect like, what, 0.0001% of the entire population?
The idea of money, the idea of the nobles. We shouldn’t do things that started as a nobel activity
the idea of the nobles
it clearly isn't, the elected mayor and citizens are distributing the coins
The idea of money
no-one's eliminated that one yet, you'll need to be a bit more patient on expecting people to not put cultural purchase on the medium for modern life, even in AES
We shouldn’t do things that started as a nobel activity
turn over your keyboard comrade. writing was invented for the noble class' record-keeping and taxes. <---specious but i want to illustrate why we need to exercise restraint on stuff like this, especially before it gets to points like 'urbanism and intellectualism are bourgeois'
Obviously certain inventions can benefit everyone but was just available to the bourgeois first. Same with medical treatment. And no, this is a minor issue for now but overall we shouldn’t defend the use as a concept. The difference is that this encourages the past ideas whilst writing does not
writing absolutely encourages past ideas, when people have access to those old ideas written down, or advocate them through writing.
and is the transformation of this ritual not a sign of encouraging ideas of the present? a female mayor, the ceasing of the heating of the coins, the lack of noble participation, couldn't i argue that this festival has been 'reclaimed' and embraces democratic values now?
Oh, if a writing encourages the ideas of the past then it also must be rejected and suppressed. Writing isn’t inherently reactionary but this is as it can’t be used for anything else. There is no reason to reclaim concepts that we do not need
I was thinking about this video for some time now. Wonderful, old, quaint custom my ass. I'm sure all those collected pennies add up to a decent sum of money, couldn't that be used for idk at least feeding the homeless or smth? Also what's that mayor even wearing? The brits really went ahead and saved every deeply shameful tradition they ever had.
Jesus fucking Christ, I knew there was something wrong with brits but not this wrong.
There is a pattern I have seen in Tom Scott videos, he only makes videos about the "international community" countries.
Ah, western culture
Edit: I watched the video and the op actually does misrepresent it. Both Tom Scott and another interviewee both separately mention the origin of it. Also, I thought it was going to be folks just pegging pennies at each other on street corners, but no it’s a one day festival that people willingly participate as Pennie’s are tossed from balconies in an organized manner.
So although the origins are shit, it doesn’t seem to be the worst thing. The main issue I can see is safety. Tom Scott gets hurt at one point, and at another says “I hope I don’t get hurt.” You can see a couple shots of people covering their heads in the crowd, and Tom Scott also notes one of the throwers is not tossing pennies but rather throwing them down on people. One of the interviewees even says “we just have to hope nobody gets hurt.” So sort of fucked up, I probably wouldn’t participate, but not the worst thing that exists
For a whole bunch of "Good salt-of-the-earth Christians" WASPs are some of the most gleefully evil shitbags in human history.
The barbaric traditions of western tyrannical monarchies
I want to know which psychos idea it originally was to heat up a penny to scalding temperatures before tossing it to be fought over by the desperately poor?
"Traditions deserve to be preserved."
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