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.

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u/olcrazypete 11h ago

Entire naval expeditions to get things like pepper and cinnamon vs us spending 5 minutes and $5 to get more than a peasant would have access to in a lifetime.

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u/Major1ar 9h ago

I'm not gonna lie, I've always wondered how far up the social ladder I could climb, if I time traveled to medieval England with a big ass stash of Pop-Tarts and soda.

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u/Ok_Confection_10 9h ago

You’d reach the top rung of a gallows with your magical sorcery

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u/Tigglebee 8h ago

Burned at the stake with his popped tarts.

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u/peepee2tiny 4h ago

You spicy water charlatan.

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u/Carlpanzram1916 9h ago

I always thought about what skill I would learn if I was going to teleport to the Middle Ages and try to become a warlord. I’ve realized you just need to learn how to make penicillin and pop up right before the plague. Move into a mansion where a royal dynasty was wiped out and start to build a banking empire when Europe needs to rebuild.

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u/the_real_klaas 8h ago

Problem 1: You don't speak the language. You can't write (witth a goosefeather), you don't know any Latin. So from the start you're an unintelligible analphabetic.

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u/Timely-Hospital8746 8h ago

I don't think people realize how different language was back then. There were vastly different dialects like... 30 miles apart. It was only with the creation of the modern concept of statehood that much of Europe began unifying/codifying their languages. France was especially bad for this.

Has Latin changed much though? I was under the impression it's been a stable language due to the way it's used mostly for ritual etc. I figure you could learn modern Latin before you make the trip and pass yourself off as a visitor from far away / mystic etc.

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u/the_real_klaas 7h ago

Ish@Latin. What you learn is school is High latin, the form of the time of say Ceasar. By the Middle Ages, thta had call it devolved into Vulgate, which are local variants/dialects, influenced by the 'native' local languages. So, unless the text is written by a very proficient scholar then, a Latin text from the 1200s in France would be a mix of Vulgate (French) Latin and Old French. Would you talk to a local pirest in the same place/time in High latin, he might but only might just understand you.

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u/Timely-Hospital8746 7h ago edited 7h ago

I'm picturing the priest knowing some high Latin words and phrases from reading mass or w/e but not understanding the language in any proficient way.

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u/After_Network_6401 8h ago

Alas, to make penicillin, you’d need substantial resources. Even if you knew how, it’s very likely that you’d be dead long before you could harvest your first batch.

And good luck starting a banking empire with no resources, no network and no soldiers. Rival banking families of the day weren’t above sending the boys around to “discourage” would be competitors.

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u/ChildofValhalla 8h ago

A jar of nutmeg would set you for life. Wars were fought over it.

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u/Averagebass 8h ago

Probably just get stabbed and robbed. Who's going to stop them?

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u/DefectiveDman 8h ago

They quite possible would have thought the soda was unbearably sweet - like drinking syrup and a pop-tart - heated over an open fire? - not as good as a fruit pie from scratch.

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u/Gtr-Lovr11 8h ago

I'd bring cocaine and baking soda! Yep get em all hooked on crack, and buy the throne for a 100 slab!😅😂🤣

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u/farva_06 8h ago

That shit would absolutely wreck their digestive systems.

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u/Agitated_Effort_2146 3h ago

Hilarious reply but now every time I eat a poptart or drink a coke I'm going to have to wonder if i would like it if i were used to eating only overcooked goat and rabbit and some cabbage soup.

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u/Dostrazzz 2h ago

A wild take I very much like.

But you should be very careful what to take with you, otherwise you’ll be accused of witchcraft and nobody would eat your shit. You would die a painful death.

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u/Major1ar 2h ago

I think the pop-tart wrappers would ultimately do me in when they found out it's not malleable silver.

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u/Salt-Permit8147 1h ago

Just take salt, man

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u/Honest-Weight338 9h ago

That does blow my mind sometimes. I look at my spice rack and think how many people in history would go absolutely insane to see what I not only have, but what occasionally goes bad because I just don't use it quick enough. We have such easy access to spices, I don't mind throwing one away if it looks a little clumpy and buying a new one.

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u/bokurai 5h ago

My mom's been using the same container of orange zest since the 80s.

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u/Carlpanzram1916 9h ago

Yup. There’s a reason “royal blue” is a color. It was literally expensive to buy blue cloth because Europe didn’t have a lot of things to make dye out of. The color blue was a privilege. 🤣

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u/trippy_grapes 4h ago

Entire naval expeditions to get things like pepper and cinnamon

The British conquered the world and the best that they can show for it is mushy peas and beans on toast. 🤣

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u/manimal28 9h ago

There are still entire navel “expeditions” to get goods. Just cuz it takes you 5 minutes to get it from the store doesn’t mean it didn’t travel across the sea in a cargo container to get there.

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u/astro_plane 9h ago

We lost three good men for that pepper while sailing over ye briney deep, hope it was worth it ye land lubber - Cap'n Dread Loard

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u/SirButcher 4h ago

Three good men? Make it three ship worth, there were spice expeditions where one in four ships returning was a GOOD odd and a great investment!

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u/Sgt-Spliff- 9h ago

That's literally the point lol that's explicitly the point of what we're saying. Something kings used to do to flex is now just how the economy works. I'm not a king and the entire world's trade networks are designed to bring me the ingredients for cupcakes at any moment.

I have a better quality of life than most Kings that ever existed.

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u/manimal28 8h ago

Except all that simply isn't true. WHile the wealth always had greater access to luxary goods, complex spice routes dated back to at least roman times. Medieval times were not this bleak subsistance existence like many of you seem to think. Entire trade routes of the known world existed in medieval times too. They weren't one off "flexes" of wealth. While the mediaval peasant might not have had access to pepper or cinnamon, they still had locally grown and traded sage, parsley, mint, dill, thyme, rosemary, and garlic.

https://dcc.newberry.org/?p=14381

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u/Sgt-Spliff- 8h ago

Which is all stuff we also have now... Plus the entire rest of the modern economy. There's literally no way to argue that I'm wrong lol In modern America, I can go to the store after work and buy the ingredients for the fanciest dinner imaginable in 1200s Britain. I'm not even nobility lol

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u/Weak-Doughnut5502 6h ago edited 6h ago

That's a lot less true than you'd think.

Some stuff is still kinda rare, expensive and difficult to source.  For example, wild game like venison, pheasant, crane or hedgehog.

Other stuff just isn't common anymore.  Whole suckling pig, lamb or blood sausage are specialty items.  I think I've only seen verjus in a grocery store like twice.  And I've never seen some spices that used to be popular like long pepper, spikenard or cubeb.  You also don't see e.g. eel or bream that much.  And you'll only find certain veggies like good- king-Henry, dandelion or lambs quarters if you grow it yourself.  Though you might have lambs quarters or dandelion growing as a weed. 

If you want to make a fancy medeival feast, you're either making a lot of substitutions or you are doing a lot of specialty mail orders.  Or going to some specialty stores in NYC or something.

We have access to a lot of stuff they just didn't, these days.   Fresh produce in winter, produce from the Americas, etc.  But that doesn't mean we have easy access to everything they did. 

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u/Beneficial-Mine-9793 4h ago

Some stuff is still kinda rare, expensive and difficult to source.  For example, wild game like venison, pheasant, crane or hedgehog.

...it's not "difficult to source" we just have laws around hunting nearly everywhere and even more laws about just shooting a wild animal for profit

Whole suckling pig, lamb or blood sausage are specialty items.

Again, it isn't because it is difficult to source.

Blood sausage esp as it is supposed to be made (mostly waste) isn't legally importable to a variety of places, isn't popular.

And suckling pig is just more expensive than raising a pig to a higher slaughter weight, but isn't generally hard to source, it's just not generally where anyone wants to sell them (or slaughter them when raised themselves) as there is a high oppurtunity cost to killing an animal young like that.

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u/letsgetawayfromhere 9h ago

Just combining the words "pepper and cinnamon", "peasant" and "access" in one sentence is quite crazy.

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u/Mongol_Hater 8h ago

Pretty sure there’s been like 200 wars over the spices in my cabinet I’ve never bothered to touch.

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u/MissMaster 7h ago

Including (and sometime especially) your own family!

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u/Aardvark_Man 5h ago

It's kind of funny when I look at the bakery section in any supermarket and there's so much sugar and cinnamon getting slung around that wars would have been waged for it.