this post was submitted on 13 Feb 2026
161 points (100.0% liked)
History Memes
1946 readers
673 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.
-
History referenced must be 20+ years old.
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 9 months ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Explanation: In pre-modern societies, there is a tendency to assign the cause of natural disasters to the displeasure of supernatural forces with the behavior of mortals. When a disaster was widespread enough, it would often lead to the ruler losing legitimacy and being overthrown.
In Imperial China, this was known as "The Mandate of Heaven", but you see variations of this general line of thinking in nearly every pre-modern society, from Greece to Egypt to India to Germany.
I hate that I know about this already because Ive read an ungodly number of xianxia/xuanhuan novels.
Hell with that.
Home the Emperor responsible. He should have invested in the necessary institutions during the fat times to prepare downturns.
Damn straight he lost the Mandate of Heaven and the people should hold him appropriately accountable.
Damn, you right tho
Additionally now we better understand how much of an impact human activity has on climate.
"Pre-Modern"
Yeah, we are not as far past this as you might think - much of the anti-lgbt moral panic included allusions that natural disasters of all sorts were because we were becoming to "morally deficient" by treating the LGBTQ community as people.
It has been quieter in the last decade or so, but the 2000s were bursting with that attitude.
tbf many of those people are pre-modern relicts who would gladly burn people at the stake too
And how hurricanes and tornadoes are caused by "the gays".
Where I live far-right politicians blame natural disasters caused by climate change on the (non-white) immigrants. While simultaneously denying climate change.