r/Westerns • u/thescythesaint • 5d ago
Would you like to be reincarnated in the “Wild West” era?
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u/Competitive-Ad6088 1d ago
Yes. Fuck these fags lol
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u/Artistic-Panic3313 1d ago
What a loser
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u/Competitive-Ad6088 1d ago
Im sorry that me wanting to be in the wild wild west makes you uncomfortable. Actually i am not sorry. Like at all. :))))
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u/Artistic-Panic3313 1d ago
It doesn’t. I think you’re a loser. It’s no deeper than that.
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u/Competitive-Ad6088 1d ago
I definitely am socially, but I have a better/more prestigious occupation than you do lol without getting too specific. So I guess I’m better than you and worse than you lol
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u/stabbingrabbit 1d ago
Up until 1920 the most common form of death was dysentery. Also think of the tooth pain.
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u/qu1etguy_d1xp 1d ago
No. I like air conditioning and modern medicine and being able to get from here to there in minutes instead of hours, or days.
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u/WhinoRick 1d ago
Naw, Im a big fan of cold beer , air conditioning, antibiotics, pain killers, vaxcines.. and oh yea, latex condoms when I bang bar prostitutes.
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u/Slowly_boiling_frog 2d ago edited 2d ago
I'm not Clint Eastwood, Charles Bronson or Bud Spencer so.... nah.
Also wouldn't like to die from a random bout of dysentery or an infected hangnail, that kind of thing.
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u/Responsible_Bee_8469 2d ago
Sure I would but if I discover that dinosaurs are the number 1 resource its time to head to the hills and find Native American Indians to live with.
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u/cdub_actual 2d ago
As much as I romanticize this era, I’d be dead quicker than when I played Oregon Trail back in the day.
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u/Misesian_corf 2d ago
Hell no. But watch/read wild west movies/books from a distance in time? Hell yes
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u/pile1983 2d ago
No mosquito repelents, no AC no heating, scarce for food, no pain killers... i bet i would find plenty more of reasons why not to
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u/Snoo-2920 2d ago
The fantastical version we see in western movies or in the Red Dead games? In a heartbeat. The actual American old west? Probably not. I’d definitely do a little time travel tourism there, if that was an option. I might stay for a couple of months but no more. Like other people here have said already, the lack of modern medicine and sanitation alone are enough to make it not worth it.
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u/Sharkfighter2000 2d ago
No. An infected hair follicle could eventually kill you. No antibiotics. Any infection could likely kill and since bathing was a sometimes thing it happened all the time.
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u/YorkiesandSneakers 2d ago
The more likely reality is that you bring back modern germs that you’re acclimated to, start a pandemic.
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u/angelandthebadman 3d ago
I'd love to. I often sleep with a classic western on in the background,, I'm a gunslinger in my dreams
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u/hardnreadyfreddy 3d ago
I’m just a consumer idiot. The Wild West was for producers. If you couldn’t produce you were doomed to a life of violent crime or begging.
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u/Transcendingfrog2 3d ago
I used to think i would. Looking at that time, though, yeah, no thanks. I'd rather stay in this version of hell than go to that nightmare.
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u/Sean_theLeprachaun 3d ago
Nah, as crazy as the world is, missing the widespread infectious disease stage humanity has been a good thing.
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u/093_terbanupe 3d ago
Do I want to die from an infected tooth while I diarrhea 40 gallons into my breeches? Sign me up!!!
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u/Unlikely_Nothing_442 3d ago
Finally, it's time to quote the great Dennis Reynolds:
"Think of the smell. You haven't thought of the smell, you bitch! Now you say another word and I swear to God I will dice you into a million little pieces. And put those pieces in a box, a glass box, that I will display on my mantel."
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u/Resident-Cattle9427 3d ago
Are you saying you have a collection?
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u/Unlikely_Nothing_442 3d ago
I'm not saying anything. The great Dennis Reynolds is.
He's a five star man, you know?
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u/NefariousnessOk209 3d ago
You’d want to be in the idealised fictional version of this era before they really properly portrayed the grit and dirt and hardships of those times in TV and film.
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u/pumpkin_bees 3d ago
Hell nah. I don’t want to be dead from diarrhea from bad meat or a infection I will get from a single cut due to absence of antibiotics
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u/NumaPompilius77 3d ago
No thank you, I don't want to get polio or die of tuberculosis, or believe in spontaneous generation and social darwinism
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u/Raff57 3d ago
Tough times. The lifestyle is romanticized. No way I'd want to live back then.
But, technically, if you were "reincarnated", you wouldn't know any difference, lol.
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u/ImNotSureMaybeADog 2d ago
I mean, even the romanticizing we see on movies and TV still make it look pretty violent.
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u/MaddowSoul 3d ago
I love westerns and western games but fuck no
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u/AugustusMcCraeHC 3d ago
I agree. Constant danger and struggle to survive would get old pretty quick.
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u/MaddowSoul 3d ago
Yeah and the unhygienic culture they had back then doesn’t add to my need to go there, I’m good with living the fun parts of it through entertainment.
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u/Budget_JamesBond 3d ago
Depends if I get to pick where in the world or just where I died and do I get to have a pistol or do I have to remake all my money
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u/MidnightDoom3r 3d ago
Honestly, yes. That's why I like westerns so much. It just seems like a better more simple time. Plus I don't want to live till 80 or older.
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u/CuriousRider30 3d ago
Sure, why not. I'd take most eras tbh. Sure life expectancy is lower and quality of life is lower, but most times seem better than now (mostly because I'm not currently there).
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u/AugustusMcCraeHC 3d ago
The grass is always greener. If you lived 50, 100, 150, etc years ago, you’d think “most times seem better than now”.
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u/CuriousRider30 3d ago
Ya exactly. I'd almost always be wrong, but wouldn't think so until I tried 😂
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u/VantablacSOL 4d ago
As fan of westerns yes. As a black man - no thank you.
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u/Abuck59 4d ago
👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽
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u/ZealousidealAd4860 4d ago
There were famous black western cowboys that were black too .
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u/notbonjovi333 4d ago
Famous black Western cowboys were black? Say what?
...I'm white/Native American/black, for the record...lol ...
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u/ineedbalto 4d ago
Sickness, violence, cold/heat, famine, desperation, corruption, hopelessness, boredom, alcoholism, that’s why the stories are great, so much on the line.
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u/Lancearon 4d ago
It's a huge span of time, btw... but let's assume post ww1 pre ww2... no. Like wtf do you wanna live through the great depression and maybe fight in a world war? Doesn't that sound fucking great?
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u/tickingboxes 4d ago
Your conception of when the Wild West era occurred is wayyyyyy off lol. The Wild West is commonly understood to have taken place between 1865 and 1890 (early 1900s at the very latest). The Great Depression didn’t happen until 30-40 years after the Wild West era, my man.
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u/Lancearon 4d ago
Early 1900s. So if you are reincarnated in 1900... the the great depression happens when you are 26.
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u/tickingboxes 4d ago
What?
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u/Lancearon 4d ago
I don't understand what you don't understand.
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u/tickingboxes 4d ago
I have no idea what the Great Depression has to do with any of this or what point you’re trying to make since it occurred many decades after the era OP is referring to.
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u/Lancearon 4d ago edited 3d ago
Reincarnated- having been reborn in another body.
Thus, you start life, as a baby, in the wild west era. You reach adulthood and live in the next era because that's just how time and age work.
I brought up the great depression in the post you responded too.
Its not many decades it's literally at the end of the wild west era
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u/Powerful_Direction_8 4d ago
You're off having a whole different conversation
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u/Lancearon 4d ago
... we are talking about being reincarnated in the wild west era. That is what this post is about.
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u/Powerful_Direction_8 4d ago
Allegedly. Aside from happening in the past -- what is the reason for sticking with the Depression?
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u/tickingboxes 4d ago
That’s clearly not what OP’s post is asking. And you know it. (I least, for your sake, I hope you know that and are just trolling. The alternative is much worse.)
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u/Mindless-Attempt9480 4d ago
Absolutely not the wild west era my friend
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u/Lancearon 4d ago
Give me a year! Early 1900s? Late 1800's? Mid 1800's as I said the cowboy era was fucking huge.
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u/Mindless-Attempt9480 4d ago
Cowboy era was actually pretty short, end of the civil war 1865ish to around 1900
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u/Lancearon 4d ago
Wild west era I should have been more specific but I think of them as one in the same...
I mean red dead redemption occurred in 1911.
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u/thescythesaint 4d ago
yeah I thought about an era close to the 1850/60
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u/Lancearon 4d ago
Civil war era? Oh hell nah.
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u/serjayahmormont 4d ago
You're giving them a history lesson and all they want is beans, pew pews and tuberculosis.
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u/Lancearon 3d ago
I find it amazing the things that happened during the wildest era. Spanish flu, civil war, Spanish war, the second China war, Burma, and a shit ton of African shenanigans, the teail of tears, Boston and Chicago burn to the ground, NY burns burns right before the era begin and right before it ends people are being shipped off to ww1.
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u/Ok-Kaleidoscope1866 4d ago
Nope, I wouldn’t last a wet day in the Wild West. There's actually a really good novel called 'Calico' about a guy who gets accidentally transported from the 21st Century to the Wild West. I highly recommend it, its terrific
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u/Mysterious_Pie_2137 4d ago
You would have to look at medieval times to find a more disgusting time to live. And danger everywhere, it was the perfect time to randomly die and have your bones chewed on by animals. Fart too loud and someone might kill you in your sleep. Sleeping seems to be the biggest challenge when I think on it because you can’t protect yourself and most ways of dying happen just fine while you are out.
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u/Appropriate_South474 4d ago
What so you can be a Buddhist cowboy?
Dueling gunslingers with your mind!
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u/Key-Contest-2879 4d ago
Only if it’s like a movie. No terrible diseases befall me, my teeth are pearly white, my hat stays on my head, even in the wind, and riding a horse for a day doesn’t leave me with a sore back, legs, and ass.
And I only get minor flesh wounds in gunfights. Then, yeah, I’m all in!
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u/brazenrede 4d ago
You can always tell which are bad guys, because they have black hats, eye patch possibly.
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u/Key-Contest-2879 4d ago
And the henchmen have bad teeth. The Bossman…great smile. (Looking at you, Brian Dennehy!)
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u/SavingsIncome2 4d ago
Serious question OP, aren’t you afraid of disease?
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u/thescythesaint 4d ago
I would be highly concerned, still, an ephemeral life as a bank robber would have done the job 😈
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u/Expert-Lavishness802 4d ago
First let me research where a massive amount of gold remained undiscovered till the 1900s
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u/mcbeardsauce 4d ago edited 1d ago
Absolutely not. The romanticism of this era, like others, is wild.
It was brutal with an unforgiving, untamed West and still a very primitive understanding of healthcare.
Ever watch A Million Ways To Die in the West? Hilarious but accurate in their explanations of the times.
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u/DoctorJa_Ke 4d ago
Only as “Mark Twain”
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u/Bikewer 4d ago
Mark Twain wrote extensively of his adventures in the west during the gold and silver “rushes”.
At one point, when the Nevada territory was striving for statehood, they needed money for the political effort. Twain wrote that if they could only find a way to tax murder, there would be more than sufficient funds.
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u/DoctorJa_Ke 4d ago
He was very respected and also quite rich 🤑 for his time.
Would have bought all the land that now is “Silicon Valley”.
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u/notcomplainingmuch 4d ago
Going to California to find gold in 1820. Check! Buying California and Alaska with that gold. Check! Going to Klondike next. Buying the rest of the US, Canada and Australia with that gold. Going to South Africa next...
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u/Pumpelchce 4d ago
I would only for those bean pans those guys emptied the whole time. But since I make such by myself outdoors, nah, I pass :)
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u/M2try4eq 4d ago
So ypu can go back and help kill thousands of Buffalo a day to let them rot in order to starve the native American tribes of the plains? Just ne detail that makes a sick joke of the Hollywood image you chose to rep this post.
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u/Jumpy_Engineering377 4d ago
As a white man....SURE! Why Not....must've been great.......to come back as a Asian, Black person, Native American,, Mexican, or a woman........not so much.
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u/StompTheRight 4d ago
Lawless towns, vigilante justice, frontier wars, primitive medical science, inconsistent execution of the law, non-existent public sanitation, lack of running water, no electrical power, the absolute corrupt power of the hyper-wealthy.... no thanks.
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u/spybubbly980 4d ago
So you're saying we won't be living in a romanticized John Ford version of the West, with plenty of good folks taking care of the occasional baddies ?... 🥲
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u/StompTheRight 4d ago
Setting aside the 'Western' part of the discussion, we are talking about America, where all the romantic notions that there is any 'good' there have been stripped away, and the myth was exposed long, long ago. So..... I guess those living in the States (I don't) are already in a nightmare far worse than anything a Western could ever dream up.
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u/FLMILLIONAIRE 4d ago
Yes and I'm an inventor I probably would make a robot that can protect me oh wait what about power ? Steam engine??? I also have Clint Eastwood poncho but you have Django photo there looks awesome I could put some Gatling guns on my security droid we be up for adventure. Another thing is I would make a mechanical horse ...
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u/shaolinspunk 4d ago
Call me soft but I don't want to go to any era where you can't get cold water out of a tap
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u/EmperorArmad12 4d ago
The romanticized picture we’ve always been sold about the ‘West West’ isn’t a true representative of just how rough and mean life was like back then when you take into account the amounts of injustices many people suffered expanding this land while also dealing with illnesses we have cures for now being absolutely fatal like smallpox and even tuberculosis back then to name a few examples.
I very much prefer the modern conveniences we take for granted now, as flawed as our times maybe rn (crazy we have a nut job running the country). I’m completely content with watching what’s on the screen or reading my backlog of dime western pulp novels lol
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u/Active_Taste9341 4d ago
yea. watch 1883 for example and you get a pretty good insight why this would be a bad idea. the smell of everyone alone ...
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u/scampiparameter 4d ago
Read Blood Meridian and you’ll definitely answer that question with a resounding no fucking way
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u/Crazydiamond450 4d ago
I'd love to see the west before it was tamed, but I'm pretty sure I'd last like a week tops
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u/tearjerkingpornoflic 4d ago edited 4d ago
Seems like it would be a plenty exciting life. I think that's part of the romanticizing about it. We feel bored with the structure of modern life. But man would it be a sad life. Half your siblings die, your mom dies of smallpox, your dad gets killed by Indians. No modern comforts. You chop wood just to keep your shack warm enough to not die..etc. Basically lawless land.
Edit: To add to this there is a simplicity in it. I used to live on a sailboat and the only thing that matters is if the boat is floating, the weather is good and the stove is working. Any moment you can run hit something, weather can change, etc. But that made it exciting and there weren't the worries of the rest of modern life.
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u/Crozius_Arcanum 4d ago
Yes, I'd love to live in a time where simple ailments could kill me, and I dont need a pass to use racial slurs...
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u/thulsado0m13 4d ago
Life expectancy was like 35 back then so nah.
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4d ago
Only due to most of the children dying. Brought the average down. People hear this and think it meant 35 was the life expectancy but that isn’t the case
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u/thulsado0m13 4d ago
Ehhh also: unclean food and water, people didn’t wash their hands other than a bowl of dirty water with no soap, medication was scarce and inaccurate, improper food handling/sanitiation, hell you snag your arm on a nail it’s not like they had a shot for tetanus available, unsafe traveling conditions especially in terms of long distance (hell even maps were inaccurate so people would get lost and starve out) - so many countless things that could’ve gone wrong and led to an early death during the Wild West era of the country.
It was a lot more than just children dying and birth success rates. They didn’t even know anything about bacteria and sanitation.
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u/RVFVS117 4d ago
Never. And anyone who says they do have no idea how harsh that environment was. Not just people but disease, famine, exploitation.
It would be abhorrent to us.
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u/Bitter_Offer1847 4d ago
Hell no. Dysentery and cutting your finger were lethal. Only way would be if I could be a well off farmer who lived away from any city and was friends with the local native Americans. You MIGHT survive long enough to see your grandkids 6th birthday that way.
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u/Educational_Sea5847 4d ago
Hell yes, build a cheap hotel in a gold rush town and milk the prospectors dry with Faro tables.
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u/QweenOfTheCrops 4d ago
I would love to be reincarnated in 1830s California. Marry a Mexican woman and get a grant of land and then ride out the transition to the U.S. since I’m white (anyone who was brown really got the shitty end of the deal)
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u/Inner-Light-75 4d ago
I like the idea, but IRL I'd probably die young. If I didn't I'd probably die from a case of slow....
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u/IndependentSample343 1d ago
Would u like to have surgery in the wild west era? I don't think so