just small circles 🕊
@smallcircles@social.coop  ·  activity timestamp 4 weeks ago

> Young #Europeans losing faith in #democracy, #poll finds

> Support is lowest in #France, #Spain and #Poland, while 21% back authoritarian rule under certain circumstances

🤯 😱

@EUCommission and member states governments must finally heed the calls of the progressives and urgently DARE TO INNOVATE their democratic institutions to make #people feel their voice still matters.

Stop the navel-gazing, the infighting, silly political power plays.. tend to #DemocracyNow!

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/jul/04/young-europeans-losing-faith-in-democracy-poll-finds
Mx. Luna Corbden
@corbden@defcon.social  ·  activity timestamp 4 weeks ago

My sources in the images.

#poll #polls

https://jannagnoelle.com/2015/11/30/making-rent-in-the-middle-ages-medieval-mondays-4b/

For example, whenever he called upon his villeins to perform a bene, the lord was required to provide either food, drink, money, or all three. These occasions therefore took on the character of social gatherings of which another feature was the "sporting chance" - an opportunity for villeins to compete for prizes like a bundle of hay or a sheep for roasting. The lord was also obligated during times of attack to take in his villeins inside his castle walls for their protection. The lord likewise owed protection to his vassals. According to the Gieses: An important reciprocal obligation of every lord toward his vassals … was that of defending them when they were accused in other courts - for example, in those of the Church. (p. 49) As well, the lord was beholden to a standard of behaviour laid down centuries earlier during the time of Charlemagne, namely that he not try to kill or wound his vassal, not rob his of part of his land, not make him a villein, not rape or seduce his wife or daughter, and not fail to defend him as required. jannagnoelle.com
For example, whenever he called upon his villeins to perform a bene, the lord was required to provide either food, drink, money, or all three. These occasions therefore took on the character of social gatherings of which another feature was the "sporting chance" - an opportunity for villeins to compete for prizes like a bundle of hay or a sheep for roasting. The lord was also obligated during times of attack to take in his villeins inside his castle walls for their protection. The lord likewise owed protection to his vassals. According to the Gieses: An important reciprocal obligation of every lord toward his vassals … was that of defending them when they were accused in other courts - for example, in those of the Church. (p. 49) As well, the lord was beholden to a standard of behaviour laid down centuries earlier during the time of Charlemagne, namely that he not try to kill or wound his vassal, not rob his of part of his land, not make him a villein, not rape or seduce his wife or daughter, and not fail to defend him as required. jannagnoelle.com
For example, whenever he called upon his villeins to perform a bene, the lord was required to provide either food, drink, money, or all three. These occasions therefore took on the character of social gatherings of which another feature was the "sporting chance" - an opportunity for villeins to compete for prizes like a bundle of hay or a sheep for roasting. The lord was also obligated during times of attack to take in his villeins inside his castle walls for their protection. The lord likewise owed protection to his vassals. According to the Gieses: An important reciprocal obligation of every lord toward his vassals … was that of defending them when they were accused in other courts - for example, in those of the Church. (p. 49) As well, the lord was beholden to a standard of behaviour laid down centuries earlier during the time of Charlemagne, namely that he not try to kill or wound his vassal, not rob his of part of his land, not make him a villein, not rape or seduce his wife or daughter, and not fail to defend him as required. jannagnoelle.com
Additional liabilities of the villein included the following: • He had to pay a fee (merchet) when his daughter got married • When he succeeded his father, he paid both relief and heriot, which was usually the best beast of the deceased's flock • He couldn't leave his land or sell his livestock without the lord's permission • During times of crisis, he was required to leave off farming his own land to instead work the lord's above and beyond his usual week's work (known as "boons" or benes) • He wasn't protected by the royal courts, instead subject to his lord and the manor courts without recourse
Additional liabilities of the villein included the following: • He had to pay a fee (merchet) when his daughter got married • When he succeeded his father, he paid both relief and heriot, which was usually the best beast of the deceased's flock • He couldn't leave his land or sell his livestock without the lord's permission • During times of crisis, he was required to leave off farming his own land to instead work the lord's above and beyond his usual week's work (known as "boons" or benes) • He wasn't protected by the royal courts, instead subject to his lord and the manor courts without recourse
Additional liabilities of the villein included the following: • He had to pay a fee (merchet) when his daughter got married • When he succeeded his father, he paid both relief and heriot, which was usually the best beast of the deceased's flock • He couldn't leave his land or sell his livestock without the lord's permission • During times of crisis, he was required to leave off farming his own land to instead work the lord's above and beyond his usual week's work (known as "boons" or benes) • He wasn't protected by the royal courts, instead subject to his lord and the manor courts without recourse
They go to explain that this work included everything from plowing, mowing hay, reaping, shocking and transporting grain, threshing and winnowing, and washing and shearing the lord's sheep, and that, By the thirteenth century labor services were often commuted into money payments. But in cash or kind, approximately half of all the villein's efforts ultimately went, in one way or another, to the lord's profit. (p. 154) Image of medieval art depicting Villeins reaping, from the Luttrell Psalter (c.1320-1340, Lincolnshire, England) jannagnoelle.com
They go to explain that this work included everything from plowing, mowing hay, reaping, shocking and transporting grain, threshing and winnowing, and washing and shearing the lord's sheep, and that, By the thirteenth century labor services were often commuted into money payments. But in cash or kind, approximately half of all the villein's efforts ultimately went, in one way or another, to the lord's profit. (p. 154) Image of medieval art depicting Villeins reaping, from the Luttrell Psalter (c.1320-1340, Lincolnshire, England) jannagnoelle.com
They go to explain that this work included everything from plowing, mowing hay, reaping, shocking and transporting grain, threshing and winnowing, and washing and shearing the lord's sheep, and that, By the thirteenth century labor services were often commuted into money payments. But in cash or kind, approximately half of all the villein's efforts ultimately went, in one way or another, to the lord's profit. (p. 154) Image of medieval art depicting Villeins reaping, from the Luttrell Psalter (c.1320-1340, Lincolnshire, England) jannagnoelle.com
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Mx. Luna Corbden
@corbden@defcon.social  ·  activity timestamp 4 weeks ago

Poll with Preface

We're often told that taxes/rents (often the same thing in a feudal manor) for medieval serfs was crushing, and that we should be grateful under capitalism.

I've been lucky to dodge housing rents/mortgages for awhile, but that's not available for most, and I'm thinking to when I lived a "normal" American life. I was lucky if rent was less than half my monthly income, and typically I was paying far more than half my income just in rent or mortgage, not counting taxes. This was true even back in the late 1990s when I paid $400 for a 2-bedroom apartment. That was about 50-60% of my minimum wage income.

(I'm including mortgages in this, because 90%+ of any 30 year mortgage in the first years is going to interest, NOT to owning, so it is a form of rent, and most people refinance or move before they pay significant principle.)

Today I looked it up, and generally rents/taxes for an unfree medieval serf (next step up from a slave) were around 50% of their labor, plus incidentals for special occasions. In exchange for "rent" they received many benefits that taxes provide, like policing and military protection. (This percent went up in times of war.)

In pure terms of rents+taxes, it doesn't seem like we're any better off, and in fact as of 2025 it seems like we're much worse off.

Now that I've biased you, the post contains the poll.

#poll #polls
Cassian [main]
@cassolotl@eldritch.cafe  ·  activity timestamp 4 months ago

A quick survey, by me, about birthdays and brains:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdLm0kRO91cESux9maqWeo8o10CXHGBzZFSRkqPMUNroDX0oQ/viewform

Closes no sooner than Monday 14th April 2025 at 12pm noon UK time.

It is a Google Form. It doesn't require you to sign in to Google or anything else, and it doesn't visibly store your email address, IP, or any other identifying information in the spreadsheet of responses.

Edit: You can see the number of people who have taken part updating in real time here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1C7VW40bBuob_itTv6cASoFINbXuhvfx4DnfPRksEmSs/edit

#survey #poll