• brisk@aussie.zone
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    2 days ago

    In Australia: yes and it’s commonplace. But like 70% of our media is American so unsurprising.

  • Treczoks@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    Not many countries had to arm the person next to the coach driver to fight off natives defending their country against foreign invaders.

      • bier@feddit.nl
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        2 days ago

        No, no, no, this is all wrong. When we discuss immigration and the current situation in the US all Americans are European immigrants.

        When we talk about the genocide of the natives Americans, it was done by Americans, Europeans had nothing to do with it.

        ;-)

    • Bluewing@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      No, but many needed to protect those passengers from bandits and other assorted outlaws.

      • ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        Fun fact: Joseph Stalin first became known to Lenin when he organized the successful robbery of a bank stagecoach in Russia. The stagecoaches were heavily protected by armed men riding on the outside of the coach as well as riding horses alongside, but Stalin observed that they tended to relax their guard upon reaching a densely-populated city, on the assumption that revolutionaries would not be willing to injure or kill innocent bystanders.

        This assumption was very wrong in Stalin’s case. He had his people lob satchel bombs at the coach and riders after they reached the city, killing most of the guards as well as nearly 100 innocent bystanders in the vicinity. They made off with a huge amount of money, and Lenin congratulated Stalin although he had only planned the operation and not participated in it. The importance of delegation!

        • ArcaneSlime@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          2 days ago

          Huh, who knew that violent bank robbers who indiscriminately kill bystanders would do a bunch of genocide after their violent takeover complete with secret police and gulags I mean create the best goverbmont in history, praise USSR or something.

            • ArcaneSlime@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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              2 hours ago

              Word? Lemme get your bank’s address and the times you go, so I can rob it and shoot you in the fucking face in the process, y’know since killing innocent people in bank robberies is “cool” to you it should be pretty sweet for all involved. Put your money (or in this case, life) where your mouth is.

    • trxxruraxvr@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      I’m the times coaches like that became common it wasn’t really safe to travel in most parts of the world.

      • Saleh@feddit.org
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        2 days ago

        Weren’t these coaches a thing in the 19th century US, from which time the term comes? From what i could find quickly, Highway robbery became less of a thing in the UK and mainland Europe by the end of the 18th century.

    • uienia@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      There was once a theory that the reason for the difference in which side a vehicle is driving on the road today, stems from whether a country had many stretches of untamed wilderness with lots of bandits. So if there was a high likelihood that whoever you met on the road was a danger, the horsecart driver preferred passing them on the side of their sword arm (right hand as default), while if you did not have to take that into account, you would pass them on the left hand side.

      The theory has now largely been abandonded as spurious, but it does remain a fact that there were dangerous stretches of roads in older times in Europe as well.

    • Wilco@lemmy.zip
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      2 days ago

      That’s not what it was for. They fired a shotgun before turning onto a road. If two wagons came head to head on a crappy old western road it could cause hours of delay because the horses would have to be hitched to the back of one of the wagons a pull it all the way back to the crossroad.

  • Shotgun is an America thing, coming from the stagecoach era. The shotgun in question has a shortened barrel for reduced storage footprint.

    The BMW R12 has a sidecar mounted with an MG 42 light machine gun. But no-one calls sidecar gunner

  • Geodad@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    That is purely an American thing.

    Not saying my family had someone in the passenger seat with a shotgun to protect their batch of white lightning…also not saying they did.

  • S_H_K@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    2 days ago

    Years ago I read “shotgun wedding” and thought it was common to see a guy having to marry a girl he fucked while her father was there at the side with a rifle.

    Capaz son asi andá a saber…

    • oatscoop@midwest.social
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      2 days ago

      It means “quick marriage because the bride is pregnant” and that is 100% the origin of the phrase.

      Particularly in poorer, rural parts of the USA having a child out of wedlock was incredibly shameful, and the financial burden of a single motherhood was intolerable. So the bride’s family would ensure the man responsible married their daughter … regardless of how he felt about it. Sometimes that meant having a shotgun at the wedding to ensure he didn’t run off.

  • rumba@lemmy.zip
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    2 days ago

    That’s like an amazing American showerthought, I never even considered it

  • lime!@feddit.nu
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    3 days ago

    you know, it just never comes up. mostly because i’m over 190cm so there’s no question of where i get to sit when not driving…

  • redwattlebird@lemmings.world
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    2 days ago

    This phrase has confused me so much when I heard it in one of Taylor Swift’s songs.

    Then my Texan cousins explained it to me on a visit one day. I was still confused. Now I’ve found out it’s a stage coach thing. Interesting.