this post was submitted on 28 May 2025
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A Comm for Historymemes

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[–] deathmetal27@lemmy.world 78 points 4 weeks ago (2 children)

The time it took for man to shift from bronze swords to iron swords is longer than the time it took to shift from iron swords to the nuclear bomb.

[–] Gradually_Adjusting@lemmy.world 37 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago) (2 children)

So hang on... It's traditionally poisonous to faeries in folk tales, it heralds the death of stars because it's non-fissionable, and it also rapidly created a society that could end the world in a single day?

Iron has some explaining to do.

iron is just chill like that tbh…

[–] CaptainBlagbird@lemmy.world 6 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] Gradually_Adjusting@lemmy.world 2 points 3 weeks ago

One for the ages

[–] makyo@lemmy.world 1 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] grrgyle@slrpnk.net 3 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

I fukn knew I'd find reference to Malthus in this before I even finished reading the second paragraph lol

[–] makyo@lemmy.world 2 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

Is Malthus problematic or? I'm not familiar actually

[–] grrgyle@slrpnk.net 10 points 4 weeks ago

I don't know about the actual dude, but he is often cited next to reactionary takes--like how there isn't enough food for all of us [so we should let the poor die], general pearl clutching over high birthrates [in the wrong ethnic groups], and just generally very selectively utilitarian ways of viewing [certain kinds of] people.

That said, after clicking around some more on OP's link, I'm not really sure what the author is about at all.

[–] nieminen@lemmy.world 77 points 4 weeks ago (2 children)

TIL the pyramids are closer in time to stegosaurus than we are

Did you mean closer than we are to the construction of the pyramids? Because obviously the pyramids are closer in time, because they were before us, and the dinosaurs were before them.

[–] cjoll4@lemmy.world 128 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago) (2 children)

Personally I laughed out loud because I expected it to be one of those "mind blowing" facts like "Cleopatra was born closer to the release of the iPhone than to the construction of the pyramids," but OP turned it into a shitpost by making a really obvious statement instead. It subverted my expectations. Barvo, OP, brvao

[–] SomeoneSomewhere@lemmy.nz 65 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

There's always this one:

There are more hydrogen atoms in a single molecule of water than there are stars in the entire solar system.

[–] cjoll4@lemmy.world 7 points 4 weeks ago
[–] ccunning@lemmy.world 17 points 4 weeks ago (2 children)

Just to clarify - was your example real?

🤞😖🤞

[–] cjoll4@lemmy.world 70 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago)

Yep! The Great Pyramid of Giza was completed about 2400 years before Cleopatra was born, whereas the first iPhone was released about 2074 years after Cleopatra was born.

[–] rockerface@lemm.ee 14 points 4 weeks ago

The Cleopatra one? Yes, I'm pretty sure that's real

[–] agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works 4 points 3 weeks ago

I think that's the joke. Obviously much less time separates us from the pyramids than separates the pyramids from stegosaurus.

This is definitely a humorous subversion of that variety of fun fact, since two popular versions are that Cleopatra lived closer to the modern day than to the construction of the pyramids, and that T-Rex lived closer to the modern day than it did to stegosaurus.

[–] SARGE@startrek.website 70 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

In those days, in those distant days, in those nights, in those remote nights, in those years, in those distant years; in days of yore...

They really wanted to drive home just how old the tale is...

[–] Viking_Hippie@lemmy.dbzer0.com 13 points 4 weeks ago

Very un-new indeed!

[–] Aeao@lemmy.world 31 points 4 weeks ago

The oldest example we have of the "the butler did it" troupe is a compliant of how old and worn out it is

[–] Auli@lemmy.ca 11 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I mean yeah they happened in the past. Of course they are closer to stegosaurus then we are. Just like 20 years ago is closer to stegosaurus then we are.

[–] sirico@feddit.uk 3 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Right but how does that get us the stegosaurus?

[–] drspawndisaster@sh.itjust.works 3 points 3 weeks ago

It doesn't, and never will, but we got to think about stegosauruses for a moment, and that was really neat.

[–] gay_sex@mander.xyz 3 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago)
[–] xeekei@lemm.ee 2 points 3 weeks ago

Unless we resurrect stegos sometime this millenium.