A Comm for Historymemes

Explanation: Alan Turing was a mathematician and computer scientist whose revolutionary work during WW2 helped the British shorten the war considerably by breaking (and thus having access to) Nazi coded messages.

A little over half a decade after the war, a chance break-in at his house led to him accidentally incriminating himself - by admitting to the presence of his boyfriend. This being the 1950s UK, the courts gave him a choice for the horrific crime of homosexuality - chemical castration, or several months in prison. Turing considered that he would not last in prison, and opted for the chemical treatment. Some time later, he bit into an apple laced with cyanide and died, which many consider to be an act of suicide (though it is still disputed, some believe it was genuinely an accident).

Not to disregard Turing here as I believe he is still one of the greats of computing, but the idea that he "Almost Singlehandedly" did anything is to the discredit of the thousands of workers at Bletchley Park alongside him, and the Polish cryptographers who initially cracked several versions of Enigma in the 1930s and went on to teach the Bletchley how they did it.

Turing aside, the world simply treated gay people horribly altogether.

Gay men were victims of the holocaust much like many other groups but Germany wouldn't recognize this until 4 decades later in the 1980s. We know what the British did to Turing but the U.S. acted similarly due to the Lavender Scare which compared gay people to communists and enacted its own witch hunts for them.

That's why I always feel a little sad whenever he comes up in conversation. He could've done more cool shit.

Can we stop the false notion that he did it on his own? It's just not true. Not even close.

Arne Beurling however DID single-handedly Crack a T52 in 2 weeks with nothing but pen and paper.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arne_Beurling

“And Türing answered another,” Rudy said.

“Who’s that?”

“It’s me,” Alan said. “But Rudy’s joking. ‘Turing’ doesn’t really have an umlaut in it.”

“He’s going to have an umlaut in him later tonight,” Rudy said, looking at Alan in a way that, in retrospect, years later, Lawrence would understand to have been smoldering.”

I couldn't even believe Neal Stephenson wrote that.

And yeah, Alan Turing was awesome and he was treated horribly.

Conservatives would still do this, if it would still be legal.... just saying.

Edit: Stroke avoided ;-)

I just recently watched The Imitation Game for the first time. I dunno how accurate it is, but it was an amazing performance by Cumberbatch.

He wasn't the first person who was a national hero of great Britain, and then driven to suicide for the same reasons.

You know... what they call "the good ol' days" they wax nostalgic about.

At least the queen forgave him for it eighty years later or something.

It wasn't just the British system it was just the culture at the time for everywhere. The United States was far further behind the times at that point in time Britain.

Segregation was still a thing in the 1940s to the point at which American soldiers coming to the UK had to have lessons in how not to be racist. Gay rights weren't even on anyone's radar back then.