this post was submitted on 11 Jan 2026
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Today I Learned

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Also: probably the worse wikipedia page to accidentally send to the family group chat 👀

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[–] gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de 69 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

that is such an italian thing to do

[–] AllNewTypeFace@leminal.space 16 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

The Lucrezia Borgia clause

[–] BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today 63 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (3 children)

The population of Iceland is so small, they have a special app to consult when two people meet, so they can figure out if they are too closely related.

Must make single bars awkward:

"Are you from the South? Because you're the only Tennessee!"

"Yeah, okay Buster, lemme stop you right there. How do you spell your last name?"

[–] AllNewTypeFace@leminal.space 22 points 2 weeks ago

Also, almost no Icelanders have last names (in the sense of family names). Most have just a patronymic that translates as “son/daughter of (father’s name)” (i.e., Björk’s father was named Guðmundur), which is why references to Icelanders in the news refer to them by given name. As the Icelandic name pool is limited (there’s a naming committee which must approve all new names, and they’re somewhat conservative), the population register also includes people’s nicknames.

[–] msfroh@lemmy.ca 15 points 2 weeks ago

Doesn’t Iceland still follow the tradition of using the father's first name followed by "son" or "dottir" for their "last names"?

So, when a Jonson meets a Jonsdottir at a singles bar, they just know that they both have fathers named Jon (hopefully not the same one).

[–] Tonava@sopuli.xyz 15 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

That app thing is apparently not true. Someone did make an app like that but it was never a big thing, some trash news just found out about it and made great headlines out of it

[–] BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today 7 points 2 weeks ago

My story is better.

[–] chocrates@piefed.world 51 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Eh if consenting adults want to fuck each other then who are we to care? I suppose the laws are to reduce the number of birth defects that the system has to help care for.

[–] bobo1900@startrek.website 65 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

That is one case, which is the reason why it's usually culturally/genetically frowned upon. The other reason I guess is to prevent abuse in a parent/child relationship, where it's different because there's a power difference

[–] NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip 63 points 2 weeks ago (12 children)

Yeah. It is less "Oh no. This person I met at the bar and fell in love with is actually my cousin" and more "Oh, dad's been grooming sally since she was 6..."

[–] SpongyAneurysm@feddit.org 9 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Doesn't need any incest laws for that, when child abuse is already illegal, though.

Or do you think the predator in that scenario is gonna wait for her to reach legal age?

[–] NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip 23 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

You DO realize that much of human culture and ceremony is about exactly that, right? Like... "debutante balls" and the like are literally "yo, my daughter is legal so who wants to fuck her?". That is also, largely, the basis for the concept of "grooming"

[–] Duamerthrax@lemmy.world 7 points 2 weeks ago

I once went to a convention that was double booked with a Jewish youth convention. It was pretty obvious the whole thing was for having Jewish kids hook up with each other. Also, lots of Youth IDF shirts if you wanted to know for sure what flavor of Judaism was there. I have nothing but respect for anti war Jews.

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[–] Duamerthrax@lemmy.world 3 points 2 weeks ago

Marriage or even sex doesn't imply pregnancy, but even if it does, if you start legally banning people from procreating based on the possibility of birth defects, you start having to consider other banning people who have conditions they had no control over from procreating. It's an ethical quagmire.

[–] anamethatisnt@sopuli.xyz 36 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (2 children)

Then you have the really weird combos like Jamaica that forbids same-sex couples (regardless of incest) but allows opposite-sex couples (also regardless of incest). So it's okay for John to fuck his sister but not his brother.

[–] bobo1900@startrek.website 16 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I think the best is Italy's, Venezuela's and Uriguay's "Illegal only if it provokes public scandal"

[–] whyNotSquirrel@sh.itjust.works 9 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

yeah, what does it even mean?! It's up to other people to judge

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[–] acockworkorange@mander.xyz 7 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

Look at Ireland or Germany 👀

[–] anamethatisnt@sopuli.xyz 14 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Makes more sense if you're simply trying to avoid offspring from close relatives. John fucking his brother won't result in that after all.

[–] acockworkorange@mander.xyz 11 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I think it's more the case that the moral panic didn't think of that at the time the law was created. It's not like you need a law to allow you anything, laws only forbid.

[–] anamethatisnt@sopuli.xyz 12 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I think you may be right of the initial law not including same-sex relatives, but when I checked Sweden (the third country together with Ireland and Germany to allow same-sex incest) the law that includes the part about incestuous sex has been updated in 2022 without changing the wording.
The swedish law only makes vaginal sex illegal btw, so in Sweden it's okay for John to fuck his sister too, but only in the ass?

[–] acockworkorange@mander.xyz 10 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

No, oral is fine too. Better than the loophole.

[–] JohnnyCanuck@lemmy.ca 3 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Fucking in an uncomfortable place?

[–] Drusas@fedia.io 3 points 2 weeks ago

Like the back of a Volkswagen?

[–] altphoto@lemmy.today 24 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

Morality is what we make it be:

Unfortunately I guess its okay to murder me for thinking that way.

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[–] matsdis@piefed.social 20 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

About marriage between cousins: Historically, the christian church has forbidden marriage between even very distant cousins. Intended or not, this has dismantled the power of large family clans.

Over centuries this has a clear effect on psychology: more individualism, a higher willingness to trust strangers (cooperation between non-relatives) and more. Joseph Henrich (anthropologist) has a whole book about this called The WEIRDest People in the World .

[–] DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works 7 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (2 children)

When I got US Citizenship, my mom joked about that I should "marry my cousin¹ in China so she could get a green card" (this was like 2016)

¹she meant like her sister's daughter

I was like:

  1. WTF mom, that's disgusting, pretty sure marrying a cousin is a crime. (well it is in the us)

  2. Also, it's marriage immigration fraud.

wtf is that "joke" lmfao, does she want me ending up in prison or something?

[–] baahb@lemmy.dbzer0.com 14 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

This isn't an "um actually," simply a weird american thing that I've experienced but, marriage to your first cousin is not illegal here. Prolly should be, and you aren't wrong about it being immigration fraud but still, if it was a real marriage, there wouldn't be anything illegal about it.

[–] edgemaster72@lemmy.world 11 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

a weird american thing that I’ve experienced but, marriage to your first cousin is not illegal here

you've what now?

[–] baahb@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 2 weeks ago

Lol, I guess a phrased that strangely. I'm not married to my cousin, but I have definitely been around some people who did.

[–] grue@lemmy.world 9 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Yeah, pretty sure we even had a President or two who married their first cousin. One of the Roosevelts, maybe?

Edit: not FDR (his wife was a much more distant cousin), but John Quincy Adams is an example.

[–] Drusas@fedia.io 4 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

It's actually illegal in most states.

[–] baahb@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 2 weeks ago

Good. Shame on you Texas.

[–] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 3 points 2 weeks ago

Only in most of the US. Some states are very libertine about first cousin marriage

[–] UncleArthur@lemmy.world 10 points 2 weeks ago

Many Western European countries too, such as Belgium, France, the Netherlands and Spain!

[–] webp@mander.xyz 4 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Illegal (mostly) in the "land of the free." Fascinating.

[–] AllNewTypeFace@leminal.space 3 points 2 weeks ago

You know the saying “behind every sign there’s a story”? It may apply to laws as well.

[–] BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today 4 points 2 weeks ago

Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas...

[–] Randelung@lemmy.world 4 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Germany: no unless same gender. Which opens uncomfortable doors in combination with being able to change your legal gender.

[–] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 4 points 2 weeks ago

Iran forcing you to transition to have sex with your assigned sex, meets germany forcing you to transition to have sex with your brother.

[–] daggermoon@lemmy.world 3 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I'm tempted to send this to the family group chat.

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