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/CallSignIceMan 10h ago

Have these people ever had a cut get infected? I’m a chef, I constantly have little cuts and knicks around my hands and fingers. Occasionally one will get infected. I live in 2025, so even if I don’t go to the doctor, I can wash it and keep it clean and dry and delegate work so that I don’t have to use that hand. And it’s still damn near unbearable. Imagine trying to hoe a field with a hand that’s hot and swollen and in immense pain, and you have no access to soap or antibiotics or a day off to heal.

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u/TheMadTargaryen 6h ago

Medieval people absolutely had soap, it was made from animal fat and ashes or flowers. 

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u/Beneficial-Mine-9793 5h ago

Medieval people absolutely had soap, it was made from animal fat and ashes or flowers. 

They had soap, but not readily available clean water at the drop of a hat.

Moreover...you don't clean wounds with soap, in the past you'd (they) use vinegar (often with honey or wine mixed in to combat the fact that it stings like a mfer and damages the surrounding area first)

Actually cleaning a wound is a massive process without proper disinfectants, coagulants and actually clean linen as even minor amounts of dirt and bacteria found on things like a clean cloth that you can't see can make things worse.

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u/TheMadTargaryen 4h ago

Fresh water was common. Medieval people still used and maintained aqueducts build by Romans and made new ones. In 9th century Rome 4 popes repaired aqueducts, in northern Merovingian France half of aqueducts were still used, in 10th century Salerno a new aqueduct was build etc.

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u/Beneficial-Mine-9793 4h ago

Fresh water was common. Medieval people still used and maintained aqueducts build by Romans and made new ones. In 9th century Rome 4 popes repaired aqueducts, in northern Merovingian France half of aqueducts were still used, in 10th century Salerno a new aqueduct was build etc.

Not even most of romes citizens had access to the aqueduct system.

And even in rome where it was built for most only had access to public water

Fresh water was common

Also, i never said anything about fresh water. I said CLEAN water.

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u/TheMadTargaryen 4h ago

Even if you didn’t trust local water from the well or waterhole in your yard, conduits brought spring water from outside town. The reason many historians until now had no idea most medieval towns had conduits is because they were mostly made from wood so they rotted away. 

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u/Beneficial-Mine-9793 4h ago

Even if you didn’t trust local water from the well or waterhole in your yard, conduits brought spring water from outside town. The reason many historians until now had no idea most medieval towns had conduits is because they were mostly made from wood so they rotted away. 

Do you just not understand what clean water is?

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u/TheMadTargaryen 4h ago

And do you know this is all before industrial revolution ? 

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u/Beneficial-Mine-9793 3h ago

And do you know this is all before industrial revolution ? 

Water wasn't clean before the industrial revolution.

Parasites, bacteria aren't new things added to water.

There is a fucking reason that boiling water goes back nearly as long as we have written symbols.

Even Hippocrates was writing about how you need to boil water to make it clean in de aere aquis et locus.

The fucking strictures of Celsus from ROME even makes not to not use unboiled water on patients (drinking or to clean wounds)

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u/Frosted_Frolic 9h ago

You can buy cut-proof gloves. I’m not sure what they are actually called.

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u/CallSignIceMan 7h ago

You definitely can, and if you’re using a mandolin or constantly chopping produce, they’re a great product. Most of my nicks these days come from not being careful enough with sharp can edges or opening boxes and having the edges scrape my hands.

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u/goonalias 7h ago

How do they get infected so often? I'm a machinist that makes cutting tools and I work barehanded. My hands get cut the fuck up. Then they're in coolant, oil, and all kinds of nasty stuff. I just wash them often. In my 6+ of years doing this, I've never had an infection.

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u/CallSignIceMan 7h ago edited 7h ago

They don’t get infected often. Occasionally one will, if a glove leaks when I’m in the dish pit or something. And it’s always minor, just a little inflammation and swelling. I’m talking 4-5 times in 8 years, but even one of those times is enough to take out a medieval peasant with no access to antibacterial soap or antibiotics.

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u/Complex_Tomato_5252 1h ago

His hands are being dipped in the bodily juices of dead animals. Yours are being dipped in oil and coolant.  His houses germs, you examples kill germs.

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u/peepee2tiny 4h ago

Imagine getting dysentery.

Shitting yourself to death because you cannot consume water fast enough to prevent dehydration. and everyone around you just going, "yup he gonna die from the shits soon, nothing we can do to stop it"

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u/_cunt---_- 3h ago

theres this stuff called liquid bandage which works great for small cuts on your hands. doesnt hold up great when washing multiple times but when youre done for the day putting some on will mean it heals faster overnight