HitchenistaNov 13, 2022
HeavenlyPossum

I very recently learned that the term “boycott” comes from someone’s actual name: Charles Boycott. Boycott was an English land agent who tried, in 1880, to collect unpayable rents from Irish peasants on behalf of an English aristocrat landlord. When he failed to collect the rents, he tried evicting the tenants. The Irish Land League responded with a campaign to ignore Boycott’s orders and isolate him socially and economically.

They not only ignored his eviction orders and threw manure at his process servers, but refused to deliver his mail or sell him food.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Boycott

It was pretty effective—the British government eventually had to deploy a thousand soldiers (naturally, because the state works for the propertied class and none more than the 19th century British state) at a cost of some £10,000 to harvest £500 worth of crops. Boycott had to be evacuated by the soldiers, who even had to drive him out, as no locals would agree to drive his carriage out of the region.

Imagine being cancelled so hard that your name becomes permanently associated with getting cancelled.

Charles Boycott - Wikipedia

Nov 11, 2022 at 3:43pmWeb
Show threadwitchlectical runeterialistNov 11, 2022
@HeavenlyPossum i think its funny how libs think boycotting is just "voting with your wallet" and not like, you know, all this stuff
Show threadOliverUvFeb 14, 2023

@anna @HeavenlyPossum

and also never stopping to think what society would look like if voting with one's wallet was the main mode of decision making. Just hard core anti-democratic.

Telling someone "vote with your wallet" is the same as telling them "I don't think your opinion should matter".

Show threadLevel 98 🇺🇦Nov 12, 2022
@HeavenlyPossum And not Geoff Boycott, the cricketer.😀
Show threadWest Coast BirderNov 13, 2022
@level98 @HeavenlyPossum Sometimes, after watching him bat all day and score 50 runs, I felt like boycotting the test match.
Show threadLevel 98 🇺🇦Nov 13, 2022
@WestCoastBirder @HeavenlyPossum 😀
Show threadTony FlynnNov 13, 2022
@HeavenlyPossum When we learn about Boycott as 10-year olds in history class, every Irish kid feels like Ché Guevara! ☘️💚
Show threadJohn DelaneyNov 13, 2022
@TonyFlynn @HeavenlyPossum pretty much what I was thinking when I read this toot. It’s something that has stayed with me, whenever I hear the word boycott I think of the day I learnt about it in school.
Show threadHeavenlyPossumNov 13, 2022
@johndelaney @TonyFlynn they do NOT teach that in US history class
Show threadToni WidmoNov 13, 2022
@HeavenlyPossum @johndelaney @TonyFlynn I wonder why not? 😜
Show threadEddie RoosenmaallenNov 13, 2022
@johndelaney @HeavenlyPossum
Not in Canadian history classes, either. Uncomfortably close to what we did here, I suspect; until very recently, we did’t teach *any* colonial atrocities.
Show threadTony FlynnNov 13, 2022
@HeavenlyPossum @johndelaney @silvermoon82 Ireland was basically Britain’s R&D lab for its colonial practices.
Show threadBlackDutchSnarkFeb 13, 2023
@HeavenlyPossum @johndelaney @TonyFlynn however, in my English class I taught the origins of that word and other interesting etymologies…hooligan…malapropism…etc.
Show threadMark Wyner Won’t Comply Nov 13, 2022
@HeavenlyPossum what a trip. I had no idea. Thanks for sharing.
Show threadDani 🍁Nov 13, 2022
@HeavenlyPossum Interesting. Thank you for sharing.
Show threadasaxena87Nov 13, 2022
@HeavenlyPossum interesting! Never knew this till now...
Show threadɘniɿTNov 13, 2022
@HeavenlyPossum really interesting little tidbit, and also #newhere how did you make such a long toot?
Show threadHeavenlyPossumNov 13, 2022
@Trine_DK thank you! The character limit on the Kolektiva server is 10,000, which allows me to write mini-essays in single posts what would have required a 25-post thread elsewhere.
Show threadnebuchi_25 Nov 13, 2022
@HeavenlyPossum we should absolutely name more shit after capitalists.
Show threadEddie RoosenmaallenNov 13, 2022
@nebuchi @HeavenlyPossum we’ll always have the Crapper, appropriately named after an English businessman.
Show threadCarey LeningNov 13, 2022
@HeavenlyPossum I love every single thing about this
Show threadKerriNov 13, 2022
@HeavenlyPossum Yet another reason I'm proud to be Irish!
Show threadAutiste à 🌊 #wokeNov 13, 2022
@HeavenlyPossum except that boycott and cancelling are two different things, even if they might seem similar on some aspects. Cancelling is a form of ostracism from a group or movment, usually for lack of ideological purity and therefore for being "problematic". It rarely goes beyond the movement's circles itself. Boycott is the act of refusing to trade with someone as a mean to protest against them, it can be wide-spread, and is not irreversible, contrary to cancelling.
Show threadHeavenlyPossumNov 13, 2022
@ariane (it was a joke)
Show threadAutiste à 🌊 #wokeNov 13, 2022
@HeavenlyPossum I suck with jokes! 
Show threadHeavenlyPossumNov 13, 2022
@ariane no worries! I appreciate the care you put into delineating the two concepts
Show threadDee ToherNov 13, 2022

@ariane @HeavenlyPossum it was far more than refusing to trade in the original instance.

It was complete social ostracisation - even physically turned your back on anyone providing support of any means (social or trade) to them.

Show threadAutiste à 🌊 #wokeNov 13, 2022
@DToher @HeavenlyPossum cancelling is a concept that is intimately related to activism and more specifically to left/liberal activism. It is about a deep ideological disagreement and purity. Boycott, by its definition, designates the refusal to engage in a any relationship with someone from outside your group, not inside, as with cancelling. Confusing both can fuel serious political and ideological consequences.
Show threadAutiste à 🌊 #wokeNov 13, 2022
@DToher @HeavenlyPossum Except that, as you said, the lord in question had the full backup of the State authorities and the army. It's not exactly full ostracisation. Actually, it was more of a rebellion from people who were at his service and below his social class. He wasn't ostracised by those of his class and above.
Show threadDee ToherNov 13, 2022
@ariane @HeavenlyPossum essentially he was by locals - as he was the only one of his social class in the area.
The army and others had to come from elsewhere and then the locals also boycotted them.
This area was remote and poorly connected (and still is). Even getting 10km was a trek.
Show threadBernadette KearnsNov 13, 2022
@ariane @DToher @HeavenlyPossum The Land League was a political organisation which agitated for rights and land ownership for tenant farmers. Some of its leaders would have been socially equal or above Boycott. As @DToher says people of the same class who were brought in to break the boycott were ostracised by the locals, as were those who continued to pay rent. It's all much more complex than just a few locals rebelling against a local landlord.
Show threadAutiste à 🌊 #wokeNov 13, 2022
@Bernadette_BookNanny @DToher @HeavenlyPossum That still doesn't mean that boycott can be equated with cancelling. If it was the same, then, we would only be talking about boycott, not cancelling.. Being cancelled means having one's closest relationships definitely turning their back on you and treating you like you have a contagious diseases and demanding everyone else to do the same, or risk being treated the same way.
Show threadBernadette KearnsNov 13, 2022
@ariane @DToher @HeavenlyPossum That's exactly what happened to the locals in Mayo & those who tried to break the boycott. How do you think the boycott succeeded? The situation was more complex & far-reaching within Irish history than just a bunch of locals standing up to a land agent. The definition of 'cancel' in Oxford Dictionaries is to 'publicly boycott ... for promoting beliefs...' So the terms are linked. You've chosen a more specific definition.
Show threadSeanán Ó CoistínFeb 23, 2023
@ariane @Bernadette_BookNanny @DToher @HeavenlyPossum That sounds like the practice of shunning which the Amish do to people who leave their community.
Show threadSafariSara 🌍EU #FBPENov 13, 2022
@HeavenlyPossum Well, you learn something new every day. Thanks for sharing. 🙂
Show threading_hoog 🇪🇺Nov 13, 2022
@HeavenlyPossum very interesting, thanks for sharing!
Show threadxs4me2Nov 13, 2022
@HeavenlyPossum I guess he was boycotted… :)
Show threadCath #FightForDecencyNov 13, 2022
@HeavenlyPossum Love that.
Show threadPepi the Fox Nov 13, 2022
@HeavenlyPossum so when will musk become a word like this 
Show threadHeavenlyPossumNov 13, 2022
@pepijndevos pretty soon, at this rate, but we should all do our part to make it happen
Show threadKiwiBeacherNov 13, 2022
@HeavenlyPossum interesting! thanks
Show threadDee ToherNov 13, 2022

@HeavenlyPossum my mam's family lived in the area at the time. My nan (her mam) did lots of family research so we were able to piece together some of their likely involvement.

Not to take the work or to sell goods to him and people he brought in was a real hardship but an important act of solidarity with those who were evicted.

Show threadchriszanfNov 13, 2022
@HeavenlyPossum Similar to the phrase "your name is mud" meaning your character has been sullied comes from Samuel Alexander Mudd Sr, one of the co-conspirators in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.
Show threadBjørnar (he/him)Nov 13, 2022

@HeavenlyPossum I knew that, but only learned yesterday (from an old episode of Sawbones) that there was an undertaker in the mid 19th century who started a dieting fad whose name was William Banting, which was conveniently formatted for making "banting" a word for following his suggested diet.

The word only stuck around in Sweden, where the verb for dieting is still "banta".

Show threadTC Won't Give In To LiesNov 13, 2022
@HeavenlyPossum
Yet the radical right pretend like “cancel culture” is a new thing 😂
Show threadBen EvansNov 13, 2022
@HeavenlyPossum See also "Rachman" - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Rachman
Peter Rachman - Wikipedia

Show threadmgeriqueNov 13, 2022
@HeavenlyPossum It is said that the word sabotage has its origin in the French word sabotage and this in turn in sabot, which means wooden shoe. Factory workers would insert their clogs into the gears of the machinery they were working with in order to disable them and express their protest.
Show threadM. K. BrollNov 13, 2022
@HeavenlyPossum So, some day we will musk a service if we want to show the owner that we do not agree
Show threadHeavenlyPossumNov 13, 2022
@MartinK Or perhaps musking will entail showing your whole ass in front of the entire world in a spectacularly catastrophic fashion.
Show threadMarc HodgkinsonNov 13, 2022
@HeavenlyPossum I just learned that last week too. What an odd coincidence... really cool bit of history though.
Show threadanarchotrannyNov 13, 2022
@HeavenlyPossum one of my favorite historical anecdotes that sounds fake is that boycott is called that cuz a dude named Captain Boycott got bullied by an entire country so hard that he had to leave ireland(and then apparently was still fucked with back in England by Irish immigrants)
Show threadkyrlNov 13, 2022
@HeavenlyPossum learned about him in school in Dublin 60 years ago.
Show threadJustRosyNov 13, 2022
@HeavenlyPossum If someone could find Rom's profile on a Star Trek mastodon instance, it would be epic to forward this to him!
Show threadLoisLoisNov 13, 2022
@HeavenlyPossum I'd wondered about this because of the cricketer Geoffrey Boycott, a veteran misogynist
Show threadToast CongerNov 13, 2022
@HeavenlyPossum I know it's Monday but this one is too good to resist as a #TriviaTuesday Thank you!
Show threadAlessa Giampaolo KeenerNov 13, 2022

@HeavenlyPossum Much to the horror of all #Quakers, the term "lynching" comes from a Virginia Friend who helped found a Meeting ~1760. Judge Charles Lynch was eventually writ out of Meeting for having taken an oath of office, but his extrajudicial decisions live on in infamy. #etymology #USHistory

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1901/12/the-real-judge-lynch/636286/

The Real Judge Lynch

The Atlantic
Show threadbossandnova 🔺Nov 19, 2022
@alessa_ed @HeavenlyPossum a Thanks for posting. Will enjoy the article
Show threadHarry CallahanNov 13, 2022
@HeavenlyPossum fun fact
Show threadFrank O'MAHONYNov 13, 2022
@HeavenlyPossum Thanks for surfacing that story. One of many instances where Britain failed to understand its first colony.
Show threadKeith WhyteNov 13, 2022
@HeavenlyPossum
I was surprised when I first found out that the history of Charles #Boycott is so little known. I have been met with solid disbelief when telling it. It seems to be standard lore in Ireland. I suppose that he is mentioned in school or something as part of standard curriculum.
Anyway, glad you found out about it and thanks for pointing out that cancel culture has been around for more than 100 years, although maybe deployment reserved for somewhat more justified cases in the past.
Show threaddeasún 🇮🇪🇵🇸Nov 13, 2022

@HeavenlyPossum if interested u should read up on one of the most effective organisers of the land league - Michael Davitt. A fenian, prison reformer, land league organiser, trade union organiser and journalist. Absolute giant of a figure & tactician who remains under appreciated imo. Fascinating life

http://www.thelandleague.org/history/

History - Haslingden Davitt IDL Club: The Land League

Haslingden Davitt IDL Club: The Land League