Constant disparaging remarks are like an endless drip of water on stone. You would think they wouldn't have an impact, but over time they can wear away at the hardest of souls.
Madness string 111226
The Chesapeake bay was once so full of oysters you couldn't sail in it enough. Natives regularly ate oysters so large that colonists said they used the shells as dinner plates - we've found oyster shells 7 inches long. But now, the biggest oysters are a fraction of that size, and if we had seen the original oyster population we'd call them critically endangered.