an interview today with the author.

http://gawker.com/shits-gonna-hit-the-fan-talking-to-a-billionaire-abo-1711464448

It's not so much the pitchforks that worry me, it's whoever claims to be in charge after the pitchforks have heads on them, especially if they have lots of dudes willing to commit public and secret acts of violence to encourage you to agree.

That's why we need a to create a fully functional and staffed back up government ready to go on a moment's notice in the event of the current government's collapse.
I suggest we go with a top three elected people who have to share one vote system for representatives.

I think Steele has an almost-functional government ready and waiting when needed.

So... what exactly is the proper use of a pitchfork, anyway? It's become so synonymous with "angry mob" I don't believe I've ever seen it used for farming.

Girl Pitchforking Hay

I want to see that lady clearing a row of investment bankers.

This is porn for some people, isn't it?

Er, yeah... um... "some" people.

Yes.

What isn't?

Watching paint dry?

Though, I suppose there exists some video of "watching paint dry (on a naked woman)"

Moving straw and hay around, mostly. Also handy for breaking up really hard soil.

Garden forks (shorter and thicker/wider tines) are better for breaking up hard dirt than pitchforks. I use a garden fork to loosen and turn soil in our garden and yard.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garden_fork

FWIW,
Dr.F.

Ah. So what was it exactly that made pitchforks iconic for angry mobs? Frankenstein? It's been so long since I've seen that.

Angry mobs are made up of peasants, who have pitchforks around.

They'd have all manner of farming implements that could be used as improvised weapons, I'm just wondering why pitchfork has become the icon.

one handed farm tools would be held down along the leg while walking in a angry mob except then angrily waved above the head, which is just exhausting and you have to work the tool head end free of the surrounding crowd to lift it up.

A pitchfork and other long shafted tools would be carried like a walking stick with the tool head plainly visible, making them more iconic by their visibility.

Long shafted tool would also be preferable since if you have to attack someone with it, you can stand a little further off from anyone trying to hit you back, always a bonus.

The most common long handled tools I can think of would be a shovel, which lakes a sharp edge or point, and a scythe which would have to be swung, not the best choice in a mob.

The pitchfork with 4 sharp point bits that you would thrust straight forward out of a crowd and the ability to tangle up things between the forks, it just seems the best choice to grab out of the barn on you way to the mob rally point

You speak with an unnerving amount of experience.

Spear-like weapons beat out swords, most times. Also, you get to pretend to be Poseidon.

Medieval recreation fighting with the SCA, in a roman close formation marching and shield wall group.

You can call it a phalanx. I'm not that much of a pleb.

Don't call it a Phalanx,
Its been hundreds of years
Rockin my peers and impalin' suckas with spears!

From the epic balad, "Minerva Commands You To Be Rendered Unconscious."

"Long shafted tool would also be preferable since if you have to attack someone with it, you can stand a little further off from anyone trying to hit you back, always a bonus."

Well-hung rapists agree.

It's a European thing - peasants and serfs used pitchforks. In other cultures, the uprising centers on machetes. Or kaiser blades.

Side note here: many Japanese "martial arts weapons" that are not swords were once farming/crafting tools:

Nunchucks: used for threshing rice
Kamas: scythes used for cutting rice
Tonfas: handles for a millstone
Kunais: masonry trowels

The look when she's churning butter on camera "I don't get paid enough for this".

Genius tech billionaire/philanthropist Bill Gates disagrees. He says raising minimum wage costs jobs, because higher wages means more mech. Mr. Hanauer doesn't address this, despite being buds with Jeff Bezos, who is betting on order-picking robots and drone delivery.
I think it's already too late to fix the problem by raising wages. That would have been nice twenty years ago, but now the ground has shifted. Thousands of jobs are already gone, and they won't be back even at starvation wages.

The problem is, workers ARE expendable.
Mech isn't.

The problem is, workers ARE expendable.
Mech isn't.

Easy for you to say.

Mwahahaha