this post was submitted on 25 Jul 2023
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Asklemmy
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Samurai. Literal nobility, regular baths, nice clothes, fitted armor, regular training, and at least during the Edo period, low risk of actually having to go into battle (doesn't apply during the prior periods of course). Good food, good rice wine, poetry and music, good literature, intellectually stimulating conversations.
Contrast a cowboy - saddle sores, dust, caked sweat from weeks without baths, cholera, gangrene, bandits, native raids, long hours, and the blazing desert sun.
And the pirate: nothing to eat but hardtack and freeze-dried cod until you make port or board a merchantman, hunted by the Royal Navy, surrounded by fellow pirates who haven't bathed since the last port call, constantly alternating between seasickness and landsickness, cramped quarters belowdecks, constant risk of drowning, and when you finally go on a raid, you're getting shot at by grapeshot and 16-pounder roundshot at effectively point-blank range.
Samurai, any day. raises cup of green tea
Joke's on you. Anyone can be a literal pirate right now, no boat required. Just grab a BitTorrent client and off you go. ๐ดโโ ๏ธ๐ดโโ ๏ธ๐ดโโ ๏ธ
Honestly, I'd choose that technically correct option because it's probably the one that makes it easiest to get and maintain insulin, which I need to live.
Late in the Edo period, you'd be a poorly paid menial bureaucrat, but that's still a good gig compared to the others.
Damn, that is a pretty persuasive argument, I might have to change my answer to samurai...
I came in here for this comment. When the choices are "criminal fighting the immensity of the ocean", "guy named for all the cows and famous for shooting/being shot by other cow guys", and literal nobility, it's a solid deal. Of all three, one has the lowest chance of death, highest quality of life, and you pretty much got to do whatever you wanted depending on the era. The law that let you kill offending lower classes for twenty days of house arrest was only struck off the books in the mid 19th century.