• zaph@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    8
    ·
    1 year ago

    Is “eat the rich” not a death threat in its own right?

    Maybe it is but I always took it as “let’s take their money and redistribute the wealth.”

    • TwilightVulpine@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      10
      ·
      1 year ago

      Frankly that doesn’t sound honest. Especially when picture of guillotines are sent by the same crowd. Even more considering that wealthy people are not going to volunteer their wealth through reasonable debate.

        • theneverfox@pawb.social
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          1 year ago

          Apparently this might have been created recently, even though the phrase goes back at least a few hundred years. Here’s a transcription of the one I was talking about though:

          “We are starving. There is no more bread, and we have nothing to eat.”

          The rich man said,

          “Not my problem you don’t work for your bread,”

          as if he did not snatch away the grain by his own greedy hands and create filling bread for his own overflowing mouth.

          The poor cried,

          “We are dying. There is no more medicine, and we’re all ill.”

          The rich man said,

          “Not my problem you don’t take care of yourselves,”

          as if he did not buy all the medicine and raise prices so high

          the gods themselves would not

          be able to reach.

          The poor people

          stopped crying,

          and the rich man was satisfied…

          Until they came knocking at his door one night;

          their faces were sunken,

          their flesh decaying,

          their eyes sightless.

          They were monsters

          of the rich man’s

          own making.

          As they devoured his flesh,

          the rich man cried,

          “Please, spare me!”

          The ravenous zombies said,

          “Not our fault

          you fattened yourself

          for slaughter.”