Marching from Omelas.Nov 30, 2023
Baldur Bjarnason

The myth about the origin of the Nobel prizes is that when Nobel’s brother died, newspapers mistakingly thought the wealthy, warmongering arms dealer had died and the obituaries were so uniformly awful and condemning that he decided to do something to make sure he would be remembered for something other than his actions

So he made sure the Nobel prizes would be founded after his death

All of which is to say that celebrating when monsters finally die saves lives

So, mock them mercilessly

Nov 30, 2023 at 9:56amWeb
Show threadBaldur BjarnasonNov 30, 2023
(I say ‘myth’ because there is some uncertainty on whether it’s actually true, but it’s a good story and as we say here in Iceland: “Hafa skal það sem hljómar betur.”)
Show threadPaulNov 30, 2023
@baldur
"se non è vero, è ben trovato"
https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/se_non_%C3%A8_vero,_%C3%A8_ben_trovato
se non è vero, è ben trovato - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

Show threadBaldur BjarnasonNov 30, 2023
@threedaymonk Thanks! I didn’t know that 🙂
Show threadclacke: exhausted pixie dream boy 🇸🇪🇭🇰💙💛Nov 30, 2023
@baldur or "never check a good story" 😇
Show threadRick CogleyNov 30, 2023
@baldur interesting. I recently shared that. So it’s not true?!
Show threadBaldur BjarnasonNov 30, 2023

@rick It’s technically unconfirmed. Apparently the order of events is true. The mistaken obituaries followed by the announcement of the Nobel prizes, but there’s no documentation on whether the obituaries factored into Nobel’s motivation for founding the prizes.

So, it could be true, which is honestly good enough for me. 🙂

Show threadRandi EEANov 30, 2023
@baldur @rick Post hoc ergo propter hoc? 😁
Show threadRick CogleyNov 30, 2023
@Reea I blew stuff up three days in a row and got a chicken dinner, and it’s my fave, so imma go blow more stuff up. lol
Show threadmatzipanNov 30, 2023
@baldur you hold an idealistic view of the Nobel prize
Show threadBaldur BjarnasonNov 30, 2023
@matzipan There’s more than one prize.
Show threadmatzipanNov 30, 2023
@baldur your view of them is idealistic. The reality of it is not so great.
Show threadB.I.L.L. the AlienNov 30, 2023

@baldur

On the day of his funeral, there ought to be a competing outdoor music festival and celebration.

Show threadBenjaminNov 30, 2023

@baldur Isn’t the actual message that you should periodically tell awful people just how they will be remembered? Not every day; they would start to ignore it.

But once every 5 years or so, the leading story in all the news should be how awful Mr Xyz is.