Linus’ thread: (CW: bigotry and racism in the comments) https://social.kernel.org/notice/AWSXomDbvdxKgOxVAm (you need to scroll down, i can’t seem to link to the comment in the screenshot)
historically speaking, when you consider its domestication by indigenous people in South America, its appropriation by Spanish colonizers, its resistance to looting by marauding armies compared to grain crops, and the freaking Irish potato famine, I think it becomes quite clear that the potato is a politically relevant crop and could reasonably be considered political.
The existance of potatoes in western diet might be politically motivated (just like every food, not just potatoes), but that’s not the same as saying that potatoes are political.
Also, even if the potato had never been involved in any of that and had been always peacefully and respectfully used… wouldn’t that history also be political? Why would violent conflict be more of a “political” thing, when non-violence is as much of a political movement?
you are out here acting like something being political is a high bar when it really isn’t.
EVERY food meets that same criteria. So of course the bar is not high under that categorization.
The problem is that calling a physical object “political” just because it can be placed in a political framework makes no sense, because then everything is “political” at that point, thus making the term pretty meaningless.
It would be like saying “potatos are emotional” just because it’s possible for someone somewhere to get emotional about a potato.
What’s political are human opinions, intentions and actions. Not a chunk of metal, nor the root of a plant.
it’s not more of a political thing, therefore they would both be political. although I’m not convinced that a crop that’s strictly nonviolent would even exist
Exactly. If you use that criteria to categorize physical things (instead of human intentions/goals), then you’ll find everything is political, and thus that classification would be totally useless.
Even numbers and mathematics would be political by that criteria… even regions of space we haven’t visited would be. It’s trivial to find a political frame from which to see anything, all you need is to have an opinion about how it has affected / can affect humanity. So that criteria makes it a pretty useless term.
Physical objects aren’t any more “political” than they are “emotional”. Are potatoes also emotional?
