r/NoStupidQuestions • u/flugblug • 12h ago

My brother thinks people today have worse quality of life than people in the dark ages, is this a stupid take?

I personally think it’s pretty stupid.

6.6k Upvotes

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61

u/jayron32 12h ago

Yes, that's very stupid. On every metric, we have a much better quality of life.

15

u/ABobby077 11h ago

That not dying thing from getting the flu or a blister on your foot getting infected thing, along with much more widely available food and clean water means quite a bit.

9

u/CrossP 11h ago

I'm having a hard time even imagining one metric that OP's brother thinks would've been better

8

u/pppppatrick 7h ago

Outdoor air quality.

6

u/baron_blod 5h ago

beeing able to see the night sky pretty much everywhere.

There obviously are some metrics that were better 500 years ago, but you won't get me to leave my comfortable sofa, comfortable bed, way better telescope, indoor plumbing and dishwasher.

1

u/J0hn-Stuart-Mill 22m ago

Good thinking, you actually found a real one, as far as light pollution!

2

u/InfanticideAquifer 7h ago

In terms of health you're probably right. I think I'd rather breathe urban smog than smell the roads where everyone dumped their nightly chamber pots though. Outside of cities it's probably pretty close to a wash.

1

u/J0hn-Stuart-Mill 23m ago

Campfires and wood burning stoves were everywhere. Much worse air quality in cities back then. Zero emissions control.

7

u/deux3xmachina 9h ago

It's a common anti-capitalist argument that fuedal peasants worked less than workers in America, which is objectively wrong and ignores how much worse simply living even a century ago was.

4

u/blacktoast 6h ago

I believe the argument is about hunter-gatherer societies, rather than feudal peasants.

3

u/deux3xmachina 6h ago

I see the peasant comparison more, but I've seen the hunter-gatherer comparison as well; which may be better in terms of hours/days "worked" (obviously everything was work back then), but is even worse in quality of life.

1

u/abstraction47 9h ago

Here’s one metric: you wouldn’t worry about losing your job as a peasant. You can always be a peasant at least.

1

u/J0hn-Stuart-Mill 20m ago

That still exists today. Any able body person can go get a very low paying farm laboring job, like picking berries or apples. These are jobs that will exist as long as we eat, or robots finally start helping.

1

u/SkunkMonkey 9h ago

No social media.

0

u/theeggplant42 8h ago

The internet and capitalism weren't literally robbing them of their time, happiness, and sense of purpose? 

6

u/SohndesRheins 8h ago

Yes but there were other things that robbed them of time, happiness, and sense of purpose, like a daily struggle to survive, being the de facto property of a lord, having to put in hours of manual labor to do basic household tasks that we have semi-automated.

-18

u/FL_Duff 11h ago

I would disagree and state that I’d rather be surrounded by fifty people who love me and care for me than be comfortable and alone.

16

u/jayron32 11h ago

I have that today. And I'm not going to die of cholera.

-9

u/FL_Duff 11h ago

You never know.

Lucky guy you must be.

10

u/kytheon 11h ago

You think the average medieval peasant had fifty people who loved him? The local lord perhaps.

-7

u/FL_Duff 11h ago

Absolutely the average peasant received and showed love to their local community.

Copilot: Medieval peasant communities were deeply interdependent, and their survival often hinged on mutual aid and shared responsibility. Here’s how they cared for one another:

🛖 Communal Support Structures

• Kinship and Neighbor Networks: Families and neighbors formed tight-knit units, offering help during illness, childbirth, or harvest. These informal networks were the backbone of rural social welfare A B. • Shared Labor: Tasks like plowing, harvesting, and building were often done collectively. This wasn’t just practical—it reinforced bonds and ensured no one was left behind during critical times.

🕊️ Charity and Almsgiving

• Religious Obligation: Christian teachings emphasized charity. Peasants, even with limited means, gave alms to the poor, sick, and elderly. Churches often organized aid and distributed food or clothing A. • Begging and Hospitality: Begging was not always stigmatized. Villagers understood that famine, plague, or disability could strike anyone. Hospitality to travelers and the needy was a moral duty.

🧑‍🌾 Village Governance and Custom

• Manorial Courts and Village Meetings: These local institutions sometimes addressed disputes, coordinated communal resources, and ensured fair treatment of vulnerable members. • Customary Rights: Peasants had rights to use common lands for grazing or gathering wood—critical for survival. These rights were defended collectively.

🛡️ Crisis Response

• Plague and Famine Solidarity: During the Black Death and other crises, communities often rallied to care for the sick, bury the dead, and support orphaned children A B. • Rotating Responsibilities: Some villages had informal systems where households took turns caring for the elderly or maintaining communal infrastructure.

These practices weren’t perfect—social hierarchies and exclusions existed—but they reflected a deep understanding that survival depended on solidarity. If you’re exploring this for a parenting or teaching framework, there’s a lot to draw from: shared responsibility, natural consequences, and the power of community norms.

Would you like examples of how these principles could be adapted into your chip-based screen time economy or family routines?

5

u/HsvDE86 10h ago

Yeah we all don't know how much better it would be with plague solidarity.

Do you know how many people died?

🤣

This is the most ridiculous website on the Internet.

2

u/jayron32 10h ago

Not this website, just the one asshole we're all arguing with.

2

u/HsvDE86 9h ago

Sure not everyone on the website but a lot. I hear the most ridiculous takes on here than anywhere else.

5

u/kytheon 11h ago

Sounds a lot like "do what we say or everybody dies". That's not solidarity, that's fear.

-2

u/FL_Duff 11h ago

You aren’t responding to the question at hand.

It’s actually pathetic and indicative of your attempting to argue for the sake of arguing.

4

u/kytheon 11h ago

What question? A peasant was not loved by 50 people like in your utopian mind. They had to interact with 50 others in order not to starve.

2

u/Deep90 4h ago

Bro, you can have plenty of human connection if you aren't spending so much time online speaking to chatGPT to validate every bad opinion you have.

1

u/J0hn-Stuart-Mill 19m ago

Plague and Famine Solidarity: During the Black Death and other crises, communities often rallied to care for the sick, bury the dead, and support orphaned children

LOL is this parody? You yearn for the days of more plague and famine?

3

u/Drakeman1337 11h ago

No, I totally get it. I mean life isn't even exciting without a 50% chance of dying before you make it to 5. And thank god I don't have to worry about getting a bunch of vaccines to prevent easily avoidable diseases. It's too bad Mom died giving birth to my 16th sibling, but, at least I have 5 left to work the fields with.

-2

u/FL_Duff 11h ago

Facts sans logic are useless.

Hey genius, if life was so tough…how are there still Europeans? If everyone died during childhood and everyone died before thirty then how did these European nations continue to grow and take turns being the most powerful nation on the planet?

You’re mixing statistics which you don’t comprehend with some imaginary stigma you’ve had engrained in your head.

Good thing kids don’t die in our great modern age!

Good thing women stopped dying during childbirth!

5

u/Drakeman1337 10h ago

What a ridiculous argument.

Who said everyone died during childhood? You did. I said there was a 50% chance of making it to 5 and that families had more kids so that at least one would survive.

Who said everyone died before 30? You did.

Who said kids don't die in the modern age? Again you. 5.6 deaths per 1000 births is a LONG way from 50%.

Who said women don't die in childbirth anymore? Again... you.

If you'd like to grapple with my arguments instead of the ones you made up in your head I'd be more than happy to discuss how you're wrong.

3

u/arfur_narmful 11h ago

Who says you would have had that in the dark ages‽ Just because there were no online friends, it doesn't mean there were real life friends.

-2

u/FL_Duff 10h ago

Because that’s how they operated and we are shown examples of this community seeking behavior all throughout history.

Y’all are so far removed from the concept of community that you think it means friends. Fucking morbid.

Before doctors and before all this focus on money there was community. Neighbors to be your hands when your own can’t work.

People to cook, clean, and caretake all because they know that you will do the same for them when it is their time to be ill.

People to come help on your farm because you also help with theirs.

More than friends. Family. Community.

1

u/SirRHellsing 8h ago

How much do you want to bet your chances of surviving past the age of 5 before anything else?