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Everett True believes in second chances (June 28, 1919)
(lemmy.world)
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.
What is a Hun-Mine layer? I feel that might be helpful on the punchline....
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 😂
So is Atilla the Hun just Atilla the German?
Other way round. The nickname/insult was saying Germans are warlike barbarians like Atila the Hun and the rest of the the Huns.
Kaiser Wilhelm gave a speech encouraging his soldiers to "be huns" on campaign, which led to it being an insult applied to Germans.
“hun” was the “orc” of the pre-Tolkien era
1919 was the Tolkien era. He just hadn't published yet
Ehhh yes, but the stereotype already existed before that speech: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hun_speech