this post was submitted on 24 Aug 2024
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Everett True Comics

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A place to appreciate the twentieth century comic character Everett True of "The Outbursts of Everett True." Feel free to check out the sticky.

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On June 28, 1919, the day this was printed, the Treaty of Versailles was signed in France ending the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers of World War I. That's the context for the "hun mine-layer" comment.

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[–] rayquetzalcoatl@lemmy.world 43 points 2 months ago (3 children)

I am pretty sure "Hun" was a way to refer to the Germans in WW1, so a Hun Mine-Layer would be a German who laid mines... But could be totally talking out of my arse so will look it up πŸ˜‚

[–] Tar_alcaran@sh.itjust.works 44 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Lots of fishing boats and merchant men were used (by all sides) to secretly drop off naval mines during WW1, it became synonymous with someone who is being treacherous and secret sabotaging.

All sides would constantly accuse eachother of secretly laying mines with civilian vessels, and all sides would constantly blame the other for accusing innocent people of laying mines. It was probably a constant source of news articles.

[–] rayquetzalcoatl@lemmy.world 4 points 2 months ago

Oh that's actually super interesting :o thanks!

[–] Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 10 points 2 months ago (2 children)

So is Atilla the Hun just Atilla the German?

[–] OhNoMoreLemmy@lemmy.ml 26 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Other way round. The nickname/insult was saying Germans are warlike barbarians like Atila the Hun and the rest of the the Huns.

[–] eestileib@sh.itjust.works 20 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Kaiser Wilhelm gave a speech encouraging his soldiers to "be huns" on campaign, which led to it being an insult applied to Germans.

[–] AllNewTypeFace@leminal.space 17 points 2 months ago (1 children)

β€œhun” was the β€œorc” of the pre-Tolkien era

[–] Tar_alcaran@sh.itjust.works 12 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

1919 was the Tolkien era. He just hadn't published yet

[–] Tar_alcaran@sh.itjust.works 8 points 2 months ago

Ehhh yes, but the stereotype already existed before that speech: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hun_speech

[–] Ordo_Bellatores@lemmy.world 5 points 2 months ago (1 children)

'atilla' meant something like 'little Daddy' in visigothic.

Do with that what you will

[–] topherclay@lemmy.world 4 points 2 months ago

That's a little unfair because "daddy" is already a diminutive version of "dad" so you are double dipping on diminutives. It'd be more accurate to say that "atilla" is either like "little dad" or "daddy".

[–] Rolando@lemmy.world 6 points 2 months ago

Yeah, that's how I understood it.