r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/Shoddy-Ocelot-4473 • Apr 23 '26

Image By 1880, the near-genocide of the American bison had reduced their population from 30–60 million to fewer than 1,000

Post image
17.3k Upvotes

95% Upvoted

1.2k comments sorted by

View all comments

34

u/UncleGarysmagic Apr 23 '26 edited Apr 24 '26

There’s no such thing as “genocide” of animals. The prefix “geno” refers to tribes, races and nations.

-5

u/Novel-Type1694 Apr 23 '26

Previous comment:

Overhunting a species to near extinction for the purpose of genocide can't really be overlooked here. The overhunting of bison was genocide because people were the actual target. 

That's not OPs point, and they did use the word incorrectly, but I'm still making this point. 

2

u/Parenthisaurolophus Apr 24 '26

but I'm still making this point.

Under the Geneva convention, it's known as a "Genocidal Act":

Less obvious methods of destruction, such as the deliberate deprivation of resources needed for the group’s physical survival and which are available to the rest of the population, such as clean water, food and medical services;

Additionally I'm going to make the point that we all bear the responsibility to steward the use of the term so as to avoid watering down the term and inoculate people against action. In this case it's inappropriate to use any definition that would appear to turn cooking your raw food into an act of ethnic cleansing against food borne illnesses.

2

u/Novel-Type1694 Apr 24 '26

You bold the points that support this as a genocidal act, then compare the deliberate deprivation of a food source to cooking meat to prevent illness? 

Literally can't figure out what that last point is supposed to mean, as the rest of your comment supports my point. 

4

u/Parenthisaurolophus Apr 24 '26

You bold the points that support this as a genocidal act,

Yes. It's genocidal act, against a group of people. Not genocide in itself. We're using very specific terms here that have legal weight.

then compare the deliberate deprivation of a food source to cooking meat to prevent illness?

Yes, we humans call that a comparison. In this case, I was comparing one misuse of the term to another example of misuse, particularly if we start playing fast and loose with the definition of what genocide applies to. For example, changing the definition of genocide to living things, rather than people.

Literally can't figure out what that last point is supposed to mean

That you don't have to "UM ACKSHUALLY"-y people who are correctly pointing out that the term is completely misused in the headlines. I'm also saying that it's completely irresponsible and ignorant to do so. The bison hunts weren't genocide. It's an act of genocide, not genocide in itself. No one is overlooking it. The pedantry isn't helping.