• Echo Dot
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    41
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    10 months ago

    Yes this they used to use wheel spinal fluid as a base for perfumes. Because of course they did.

    I think that practise was banned years ago mostly because it isn’t remotely sustainable.

    Iceland has this weird thing about wailing. You see all these whaling ships right alongside whale tour boats. It’s like they sort of get it but can’t quite get over the culture of whale hunting.

    Which in fairness is part of their culture but they have a Costco there now as well so…

    • DragonTypeWyvern@literature.cafe
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      38
      arrow-down
      10
      ·
      10 months ago

      Genociding Native Americans and slavery are part of American culture too, but we mostly stopped that.

      Would you accept “ItS tHEiR cUlTuRe” if someone decides whaler hunting is part of their history?

      • Colour_me_triggered@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        17
        arrow-down
        11
        ·
        10 months ago

        Are you seriously comparing the responsible hunting of a sustainable number of minke whales to the deliberate genocide of an indigenous population?

          • cnnrduncan@beehaw.org
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            10 months ago

            Mink whaling is more responsible and sustainable than a lot of commercial fishing - compare the impacts of hunting a species that’s classified as “least concern” with deep-sea trawling, the hunting of certain endangered species of tuna, or the use of the eggs and/or young spawn of endangered fish as caviar or whitebait!

            Whaling definitely needs to go but (non-Antarctic) whaling gets an oversized amount of attention and it’s not unusual for people who are opposed to it to be financially supporting even more destructive forms of kaimoana.

            • stewie3128@lemmy.ml
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              2
              ·
              10 months ago

              Simply being “not as bad” does not make it “good.”

              This is just providing masculine jobs for guys who won’t do anything else, while enriching the terrible people who employ them. There’s no use to whaling.

              • cnnrduncan@beehaw.org
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                4
                ·
                10 months ago

                I very intentionally did not say that whaling is good, because it’s not. However, I believe that it is hypocritical to call for the banning of Icelandic whaling without also applying the same zeal to banning other forms of harmful commercial seafood, and that whaling is somewhat used to distract from the harms of more “normal” seafood.

                • Colour_me_triggered@lemm.ee
                  link
                  fedilink
                  arrow-up
                  1
                  ·
                  10 months ago

                  Or just standard livestock farming. I personally think that if people want to eat meat they should have to kill the first animal they eat in order to get a licence to eat meat.

          • Colour_me_triggered@lemm.ee
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            3
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            10 months ago

            Believe what you want. You’ve already decided that you are both offended and correct, so there’s nothing that anyone can say to change your mind. Just understand that not listening doesn’t make you right, it makes you a zealot.

        • spez_@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          arrow-down
          5
          ·
          10 months ago

          Yes, it’s genocide. They’re barbarians who need to be put in their place for killing whales. I support a coup on the government

          • Colour_me_triggered@lemm.ee
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            10 months ago

            And if you lived in a country that has whaling there might be some legitimacy to your coup. But as it stands you’re going to have to try to bribe the CIA to intervene on your behalf. Good luck paying them more than the Norwegian government does.

      • Echo Dot
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        6
        arrow-down
        4
        ·
        10 months ago

        I don’t think you know what “culture” means. It’s not just stuff that people did in the past, it’s what traditions are based around.

        How do you think Iceland traditionally got food? They’re not exactly surrounded by arable land are they?

      • ComplexDonut@aussie.zone
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        5
        arrow-down
        4
        ·
        10 months ago

        Except can you really say “genociding native americans” and “slavery” are a part of American culture? Is it “customary” of Americans to kill native americans and slavery can be an American trait?

        • Bartsbigbugbag@lemmy.ml
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          14
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          10 months ago

          Yes, it was explicitly part of American culture, and is written into our very foundational documents.

        • michaelrose@lemmy.ml
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          3
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          10 months ago

          If you include the period before we split from England we spent centuries taking land that didn’t belong to us and building our economy at least partly on slavery. If you look at the South in that time frame slavery permeated their culture. It is as fair to say that slavery was if anything much more deeply embedded in Southern culture than whaling in Iceland.

        • escapesamsara@discuss.online
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          10 months ago

          Except can you really say “genociding native americans”

          As a country, the US has spent more of its existence genociding native Americans than allowing women to vote, or having a standing army.

          and “slavery” are a part of American culture?

          The US currently has fully legalized privatized slavery. You, specifically you, can own a slave in the US right now. You can even treat them as if the constitution does not apply to them in any way. Simply buy a prisoner and get a judge to commit that prisoner to you for the length of their sentence. It’s so ingrained in our culture, we’ve never stopped the practice.

      • jcit878@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        10 months ago

        whales have something in their brain cavity that was considered valuable at the time, can’t remember what it was called or what it was used for but I think that was the equivilant thing they were going for in Avatar

        • Roboticide@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          10 months ago

          Whales have been used for a number of resources in the past.

          Oil from blubber was a big one, and used in everything from lamps to soap.

          Ambergris was a perfume base.

          Spermaceti, the substance in the head of sperm whales, was used for candles and also lamps, as it was a higher quality.