this post was submitted on 01 Jan 2026
387 points (100.0% liked)
History Memes
1270 readers
1545 users here now
A place to share history memes!
Rules:
-
No sexism, racism, homophobia, transphobia, assorted bigotry, etc.
-
No fascism (including tankies/red fash), atrocity denial or apologia, etc.
-
Tag NSFW pics as NSFW.
-
Follow all Piefed.social rules.
Banner courtesy of @setsneedtofeed@lemmy.world
OTHER COMMS IN THE HISTORYVERSE:
- !historymusic@quokk.au
- !historygallery@quokk.au
- !historymemes@piefed.social
- !historyruins@piefed.social
- !historyart@piefed.social
- !historyartifacts@piefed.social
- !historyphotos@piefed.social
founded 7 months ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Isnβt that basically tax?
Not really. When you pay tax, that money goes towards infrastructure and services that benefit the collective good of where you live. Even when those services aren't necessarily things that you directly benefit from (e.g. Youth clubs if you are an adult who doesn't have any loved ones who are young people) are still indirectly beneficial. For instance, youth clubs and other extracurriculars can help reduce antisocial behaviour (and other petty crime) from teenagers and help support them to be engaged within their community. ^[1]
Greece is not benefitting from these artifacts being held in the British museum. Perhaps once upon a time, one could make the argument that these artifacts are better looked after in the British museum (I believe the Elgin marbles were removed at a time when Greece was experiencing significant political turmoil due to gaining independence from the Ottoman empire), but that claim is pretty dubious nowadays. Greek cultural heritage is being held in the British museum because of the same extractivist philosophy that the British empire was built on.
[1] I realise that in practice, taxes don't really feel like they function in this way, and even those of us who are more than happy to contribute to things they don't directly benefit from are often unhappy at how our governments choose to spend our taxes.