Talk:Pigs in culture

Incredibly bad example

"while in Ireland before the Great Famine, rent for a potato plot was paid for by raising a pig." In every country, commerce generates income that can be used for payment of bills. The notion that there is something specific to Ireland in this, that it was the main purpose of pig rearing, or the main means of gaining money to pay rent, is an ugly stereotype, and unworthy of an encyclopaedia. And how is it meant to tell us anything about a piggy bank. Kevin McE (talk) 15:12, 6 October 2024 (UTC)

Many thanks for discussing, and for sharing your views. However, the material is (extremely) reliably sourced, and the source makes the connection in much the same way as it is made here, placing the information in the context of money and savings. The matter is certainly relevant to this article. I'm not quite sure what to make of your heading "incredibly bad example", as it was thought fine by the BBC; obviously, Wikipedia is WP:NOTCENSORED; and the information is both in context and among many other elements of pigs in culture. Chiswick Chap (talk) 15:18, 6 October 2024 (UTC)

So: Do you believe that there is something uniquely Irish about generating profit from one asset to pay for another? Or that in the case of pigs, this only happened in Ireland?

Do you believe that money raised from the raising of pigs was somehow ringfenced for this purpose, and not used for anything else, like food or clothing? What proportion of "potato plots" do you believe were financed in this way? Does your source render any evidence about this?

And what has the notion of pigs as symbol of fertility in Germany got to do with piggy bannks either? If that comes from the same source (unaccessible from my location), then I think that gives some insight into the degree of serious research involved here. It is neither reliable, serious, proportionate nor relevant. Kevin McE (talk) 18:26, 6 October 2024 (UTC)

I am saddened to see a fellow editor writing such things on a talk page. It is not acceptable to adopt anything like such an aggressive tone, and especially not to violate the clear No Personal Attacks policy, which you have here unquestionably contravened. The focus of this article is exclusively on pigs in culture, not on the status of peoples around the world. For what it's worth, we should respect earlier generations for their hard work, but social issues are far from the scope of this article. I've removed the Germany mention as straying off the topic of the subsection (or it could be moved elsewhere in the article). The BBC is a reliable source. But I think we should await the input of uninvolved editors here for neutral opinion. Chiswick Chap (talk) 07:14, 7 October 2024 (UTC)

Demonstrate where I have violated NPA or withdraw that scurrilous accusation and apologise. I have written not one sinlge word about you or any other contributor. Kevin McE (talk) 19:36, 16 October 2024 (UTC)

Chiswick Chap, I think you are being overly sensitive here. I don't see anything that resembles a personal attack, and making that claim is unhelpful. Vigorously and assertive debate is welcome at Wikipedia, and this falls under that. Dennis Brown - 2¢ 01:29, 17 October 2024 (UTC)

Well of that's what the community thinks then I'm sorry, I must have misread what was said; it's hard to judge emotion or intention from written word. I can only say that I did not find the words and their tone at all pleasant which is all there ever is to go on; and indeed I find the current accusation of scurrilousness totally mistaken and indeed aggressive as well; I'm happy to say that scurrilous naughtiness was nowhere near my mind, I simply felt the words utterly inappropriate in tone and content. All the best, Chiswick Chap (talk) 04:52, 17 October 2024 (UTC)

So you made a bad faith accusation against me without even reading the comments properly. And still no proper apology. Kevin McE (talk) 22:17, 17 October 2024 (UTC)

Rather than labeling it, and laboring it, perhaps it is best to just call it a misunderstanding and get back to discussing the merits of the discussion. Dennis Brown - 2¢ 06:05, 19 October 2024 (UTC)