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50 Historical Facts That Have Completely Ruined The Way These People See The World
Learning history can be a transformative experience. It can challenge your long-held beliefs and assumptions about societies, their culture, and humanity in general.
Discovering that what you've been taught is not the (whole) truth, and that events you thought were isolated incidents are actually part of a broader pattern is jarring. But as uncomfortable as it may be, this process can liberate you, providing you with a new level of clarity and understanding.
So let's take a look at a Reddit post, created by user u/FlickTheSwitch167 that asked everyone "What historical fact have you learnt that ruined everything you ever thought you knew about this life?" And it has received a fair share of insightful replies!
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The more we find out about Native Americans, the more I realize the entire history of the United States is complete white-washed b******t.
I mean, I was pretty young when I learned about the Holocaust. I'm german, and we take this topic really seriously of course. It dawned on me then that the world wasn't as innocent as I thought it was back then. But I'm glad I learned about it at that young age. I was able to gain interest in that topic, and that's pretty important considering the latest events in the East of Europe. And it's important for my generation to really understand and grasp the horrors of the 3rd Reich to ensure that this won't happen again. Sadly it seems not all countries get educated that well in this topic. Not listing any names, there are many countries that now start to go into a rather fascist direction, which is more than concerning.
It worries me, as a Brit, that after defeating the Nazis in WWII (along with the rest of the allied forces, of course), we are now effectively being led by politicians with a very similar ideology, especially when it comes to immigration etc. The conservatives do not represent the whole of the British people.
Hear, hear, Maggz. Same is true in the US. There's some dark magic happening but the majority of us are not in league with those pulling the levers.
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The US had a sitting president openly support a Nazi march in Charlottesville, NC in Aug 2017. He hosted a dinner for several holocaust deniers in November of last year. It wasn't the only time he did either of these things. He's likely to re-win the nomination of his party even though he attempted a coup after his last defeat.
And yet half the country thinks the man is literally 'sent by god'. Half the country wants the us to be a white, nationalist, patriarchal, christian country. It's terrifying. The other half is either working hard to stop it or completely oblivious because they are just trying to eat and keep a roof over their heads.
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I read Night by Elie Wiesel, which is his account of his time in the concentration camp. It's horrifying. But I found the scariest part was not in the camp. It's at the beginning. The Jewish people in his town beloved they were being sequestered and then relocated for their own protection. When an escapee returned and tried to tell them what was really happening, no one believed him. "It's 19xx, no one would do such a thing" and "no one would ever let that happen .." Everyone was sure they were being sent by train to a safe place until they saw the initial horrors right off the train. Then it was way too late. I can hear denials like these being said today. It was not that long ago, it can absolutely happen again. People need to be able recognize the red flags as they appear and remember evil is not in the past, it can be found right here and now.
It's exactly what the barstard Tory's are doing now. With the plan to deport refugees, not to their originating country (which is disgusting enough) but to camps in Rwanda. See first comes the plan, then the camps, we know what comes after that.
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The fact that the USA is banning books about this subject is highly disconcerting to me. Antisemitism is rising again too.
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Every one needs to learn about the holocaust. Let's make sure that it never happens again
The 2nd sentence of your statement is why I stopped participating in that Holocaust memorial culture. That was in 1995, I live close to a former concentration camp. People went there praying that it never repeats itself, while it just did repeat itself at that very moment in a country not far away. Shortly after it did repeat itself in another country. And you know what: people didn't give a dime. It didn't matter to them at all as long as they could go to the memorial and pretend to be in horror. Then it dawned upon me: people life in the past so they don't have to face the present. Yes you need to learn about the holocaust, but you need to understand that this was not a once off in history and you have to apply it in present. And when you look at many comments here you'll see the red flags that lead to it... people don't like to be reminded of it, that's why they downvote the voices of reason here.
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I too am German,but have lived in the US for the last 11 years of my life and my parents had to teach me about that.They don’t teach that in school.
lol at all the racists being downvoted though. You yell that Labour is antisemitic when that bumbling boris you all loved so much literally called muslim women "letterboxes"
Israeli here, horrifically enough the current government in Israel is borderline fascist and openly racist. The resemblance to processes in 1930's Germany is disturbing, to say the least. As an Israeli and a person of Jewish heritage, I find it infuriating and heartbreaking that this is happening not even 3 generations after WW2.
That's why, as an American, I believe American children need to learn about ALL of our history, especially the ugly parts, that way they don't repeat them (as we seem to be doing now with racism and segregation). BTW, it shouldn't matter, but I'm white and I don't feel bad about myself, or guilty (like the GOP fears our kids will be) for what happened because I didn't do any of it and I am working to never let it be repeated or forgotten.
The Holocaust deniers are the crazies.. There is more than enough photographic evidence to prove that it was real, let alone all of the stories of the survivers their tattoos and all of the things they took with them. You can't erase history. And it is nice to hear you take some responsibility. Unlike Americans who take responsibility for very little in the history of the USA.
I was born and raised in Eastern Europe. I'm my village there were a lot of very old buildings with bullet holes in them from WWII and was taught all about the evils of the Nazis. I was also taught: the first country the Nazis invaded was Germany. I now live in the U.S. and it scares me to go to the southern part of the country. I know not many people here will get the reason why but, that is not the point at the moment. I do feel for you friend! Ever since the second half of the 20th century, Germans can't really catch a break. Sorry friend. The way the west is heading it'll be another rise of the Nationalists. Let's cross our fingers and our toes and vote! If there is no one to vote for, one of you go ahead and run for office. You'll have my vote by default! Best of luck...
You shouldn't be afraid of southern US states.... unless you're gay or trans, an immigrant or if you have any values or an ounce of decency or honor. /s
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We first learnt about the Holocaust, in yr 1. I went to a Church of England primary school. And I honestly can’t remember not knowing about it, it’s always been there. Obviously we were young, but it’s important that people know that this has happened, and why it should never happen again. 🥺
It scares me that there are people out there who down right don't believe it happened! I don't understand how those peoples' brains work. How can you look at all the images and hear all the accounts of the events and still be like, nah, didn't happen.
I still don't understand why people say it didn't happen. My stepmom, who was German, pretty much married her first husband because he was an American soldier and she desperately wanted to leave the country and come to America. They'd had 3 sons when she divorced him (he was an alcoholic and abusive), and she was so ashamed of her country's history. She couldn't wait to be a citizen of the US. Also, we have so much that shows us it DID happen. We have pics, we have testimonies, we have publications, as even have some video from that time. How can anyone, with a straight face, deny the holocaust??
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From a Canadian I have heard The German Gov doesn't F-around with any Hitler symbols. A bunch of American student did the Hitler solute in front of some historic site and they got their asses thrown in jail. American were last to join the Allied forces till Pearl Harbour was attacked.
I'm glad you and your country take this history so seriously, so reverently. Germany today can be the example for the world.
Unfortunately, many young people today don’t even know about it because they aren’t taught about it. And still Holocaust deniers. Are you kidding me? In Canada we put a particularly loud denier on trial for hate speech. Found guilty and promptly deported back to Germany. I’m concerned for when there are no survivors left. How much more denial will surge? And the disrespect shown at Auschwitz is infuriating. Selfies are not ok. Not there. Pictures. A few. But it is not a tourist attraction. It’s a place where unimaginable horror occurred. But the ideologies that are more than creeping in all over the world, for me is terrifying. Anger and hatred is growing. The evidence of what that does is all over the world. Pay attention. Do we really want to live in a world full of hate? No matter what the ideology is that brings people to that, please, look at Nazi Germany. That is the epitome of hate. Yes. People are capable of going there. And let’s not just blame game the politicians.
And my final comment. It’s not all about them. It’s about the people who put them there. It’s about all of us. Those who choose peace and those who choose hate. Hate is easy. Peace is hard. It takes work. It takes a willingness to listen. People seem to be so busy screaming at each other listening can’t happen. I don’t know…….. I’m at a loss.
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Even after WW2, the world continued the horrors. Read about people who where made homeless & country less, made to live on floating ships, never allowed to disembark because no country wanted them. The Middle East is a legacy of white countries dividing up the land with no regard to who belonged where.
I am italian, and there is the stereotype "italian good fellows" that is really hard to die. We still believe that nazi where the bad guys and fascist where forced into holocaust and racial laws and all the other atrocities. When the truth is that we did all those things and werent only spectators
Yet American conservatives are too fragile to learn about their ancestors from 200 years ago. Pathetic
Can't make a better future if we don't learn from the past. And clearly many countries aren't up for that, which is why WWIII feels like an inevitability rather than something we've worked hard to ensure never actually happens.
If you mean America, I am right there with you! I didn't learn until college that the Nazis learned some of their worst actions from America.
No, please list those you see going in a fascist direction, I live in one of those fascist leaning countries and we need to hear it from the outside
I´m German, too and I learned about the Holocaust the hard way. When I was in 6th grade (mid 80s) there were new Neo-Nationalistic partys that got more and more popular amongst the backwards thinking part of our society. Since, from the government's point of view, the majority of voters for the new Nazis came from the underprivileged ranks, children from these classes had to be made particularly aware of the atrocities committed by the Nazis, to prevent them from becoming Nazi-Voters. Since I was a low-income kid, my parents had to sign a permit that I "may" watch the films from the concentration camps, which were too graphic for TV. And they did - off course - because they didn't want to be mistaken for Nazis. So I had to watch the films they took through the windows of the gas chambers. It still is the most terrible experience of my life.
Our grandfather's fought the nazis. We are well aware of the Holocaust. Mengele, giftgas, all of it. There is just a segment of our population willing to ignore it in their greed for power, in fact, much to our horror, they are deploying the same tactics as the third reich. God willing, society won't tolerate them for long.
Sadly, even before the current stenchfest that is the political arena plus the violent current events, there have been people who claimed the Holocaust was faked for decades.
California turned its concentration camps into malls. This says a lot.
California never had concentration camps, they had internment camps. I'm totally not agreeing with what happened, but concentration camps are on a whole different level.
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My friend from commie Europe years ago says the US is already there. SAD
The ideology of what happened back then still remained. It was "hidden" and has been coming back into focus. Think of the totally inane laws that those now in power are putting forth. It's a vicious circle and we as a species will need to figure out how in the world to break the cycle or we will go the way of the dinosaurs.
My family on both sides were here before that..I don't even have the words. When I see what's going on in the world these days, it scares me.
You're talking about the U.S., aren't you? If you're not, then I am talking about it. Our country has always been tumultuous but these days seem worse. They (both school boards and parents) are banning books, history, and human nature. I'm sure it's been happening forever, but it seems more ominous now.
What really baffles me the most is, if you had a forecast of the events of 1940 and following, especially in the east, and had that shown to germans pre 1933 - NOBODY would have believed that THAT could take place here, by their very hands. And yet, it did. It isn't that there are smart peoples and dumb peoples - in great masses, we're gullible, stupid, careless and literally inhumane on whatever scale and with whatever victim is agreed on. We really gotta take care to not repeat that, but understand how to prevent it. Further than already - you won't eradicate antisemitism by banning swastikas, although I don't really want to see them around... More to it, a lot more...
I first learned about it in 7th grade and I knew some of my heritage was German. I got physically ill worrying that one of my ancestors could have had a hand in it. Luckily, they didn't.
I had a linguistics professor who was a German native and immigrated here to America in her 20s. In her youth, the Germans simply didn’t talk about the Holocaust due to national shame over the conduct of Hitler and his subordinates. She only learned about the Holocaust in her university years!
I found out what the Holocaust was at three years old. it was an extremely censored introduction, but it was still introduced young. Ever since then the event has been important for me. These days I try to get every memoir I can get my hands on, because anyone who is brave and strong enough to go through that expirience again to write a book, I want to make sure is heard
Every German grows up hearing about the Holocaust, so they would never be surprised to hear about it. This post has nothing to do on this list.
Every German grows up hearing about the Holocaust, so this post has no place on this list.
Downvoting, as the suffix -voting suggests, is a democratic practice, not an authoritarian one. Welcome to the marketplace of ideas.
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WRONG. Downvoting, as the "voting" part implies, is a democratic process, not a totalitarian one. It's called the marketplace of ideas. Totalitarianism is when your opinion is dictated by a centralised authority. Unpopular opinions being shunned is free speech.
Load More Replies... No, the Tories are definitely worse. They're the ones who want to take away your right to protest and your right to strike. Then when that's done, they'll rip up the European Convention on Human Rights and you'll end up slaving till you die for your corporate owners, like the American workforce. I don't remember the last time the Lib Dems, for example, diverted millions of pounds in vital PPE contracts to their favourite pub landlord. The parties may all be venal and corrupt, but some are still worse than others.
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I am not going to comment state of affairs in the USA nor China, but please tell me which paragraph of Polish law states that talking about Holocaust is illegal?
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Ghandi was a hypocritical pieces of s**t.
Mother Teresa stole loads of money and left people to die.
Thank you so much. Few people realize these 2 were really narcissistic sociopaths
I'm from Texas, born and raised.
I found out within the past few years that the Texas Revolution was mainly due to Mexico outlawing slavery and Texas... not wanting to do that.
So everyone at the Alamo essentially died to preserve slavery. Yay.
i have lived in texas my whole life and i didn't know this even though i took texas history last year-
The church began the vow of celibacy for priests, not for any Biblical reasons, but so the priest didn’t have a spouse or any offspring who could inherit his wealth. This way the Church inherited all of it.
That we domesticated pigeons thousands of years ago and then decided we didn’t want them anymore. People treat them like vermin after we relied on them for so much (food, messengers etc)
The pigeons you see in your cities are not wild, they’re abandoned.
The ending of the last sentence, ‘ abandoned.’ Pigeons are actually highly intelligent!
Old norse runes were found carved up like 20 feet in a cave- when they were translated, they just said "this is very high"
God I love people aksjsj
African kings were the ones who advertised their people as work force/labor to the world.
They died regretting those decisions.
“It says here in this history book that luckily, the good guys have won every single time. What are the odds?”
- Norm MacDonald
History books are written by the winners, I'd love to see history through the loser's pov.
When I got older and realized the countless atrocities the United States has committed. Genocide, collusion, bombing our own cities. I used to feel a sense of safety knowing that I lived with the good guys and we stood for justice. That feeling is fleeting
Not to mention overthrowing other democracies around the world. Read up on Iran.
Ancient Antarctica was actually a rainforest, a lush and verdant paradise, filled with flora and fauna.
Despite the interesting fact that there was a whole continent of animals who lived on this planet that we’ll never know about - as their remains are locked beneath miles of ice - it blew my mind that Antarctica only fully froze over about 35 million years ago, despite breaking from its supercontinent ~ 180 million years ago.
That means Antarctica supported independent life for ~ 145 million years, which ruined any sense I have for time and perspective. We really are specks on this planet.
There's a large lake somewhere under the permafrost in the middle of the continent. Who knows if there's any aquatic life still living in there or if there's any frozen over that is unique to that lake.
If you look at the history of mankind, you quickly see that nobody ever learned from our history.
Can't remember the exact quote but it went something like, If the entirety of human (Homo) history was condensed into a 500 page book, modern anatomical humans wouldn't show up until page 450, and homosapiens wouldn't build empires until page 490, the atomic bomb and the foundation of Rome would be on the final page and only a paragraph apart. And yet in all of this the vast amount of technological advancements from the discovery of the atom to the modern day would fit in the last few sentences, of the last paragraph of the last page. And people wonder why we are reckless, we're still effectively great apes, but with shiny toys.
The inventions of Nikola Tesla and what little Edison actually invented himself
The Irish famine was an opportunity the British took to commit genocide against the Irish. They were intentionally starved, while other crops were shipped off island to the British citizens.
Yes. I have a degree in Irish Studies and this was brought up early and often throughout the course of my degree. It was overwhelming at times to read the individual stories and statements.
Leopold of Belgium,treated congo as "his personal property"
And people who failed to collect enough Cocoa had thier hands/the hands of their kids cut
And france forced Haiti (one of the poorest countries ever) to take a loan from a french bank,to pay the french government "a compensation for kicking the french occupation and slave traders out"
They paid it for nearly 100 years,
I knew humans could be s**t but somehow i thought there was a limit
95% of native people before Columbus died of diseases brought by explorers. That's 19 of 20 people, for two continents.
Columbus was a pr!ck, and all he brought were disease and misery.
There was a Spanish explorer that first visited the Inca empire and saw lots of prosperous cities and a great civilisation, and told his peers about it when he returned home. But when other folks went to visit the siad cities they found nothing but jungle and thought the explorer lied about his story. The fact that blew my mind is that nowadays we discovered that his story was true and the people he encounterd died from diseases brought into the new world and the cities and civilization they build were consumed by jungle in the spam of a few years
I grew up in a conservative hometown. When I was in late college, I began to learn how the Bible is essentially a long game of telephone and one where the members playing telephone purposefully exagerrated and changed what they repeated to the next person.
The Bible was written by men who never met Jesus, who got their information about Jesus from other people, in a time period that relished mystics and it was normal to change facts, did not have any understanding of "facts" in general or reliability. The men also changed what they wrote about Jesus based on political changes at the time.
I spent a lot of time at the library in my early 20's and learned that the Old Testament isn't very old and some of the oldest stories are just copies or much older Sumerian myths. The Exodus has no real world evidence whatsoever, and the Egyptians ruled over the holy land for thousands of years without ever mentioning the Hebrew people until the Bronze Age Collapse.
And that whole baby in the Nile story was REALLY common among the "important" people.
The Japanese murdered more Chinese than the Germans did Jews. We praise Japan for their society and technological advances and despise the Germans because of Hitler. Whats worse? The Japanese boiling babies or the germans corraling jews into gas chambers? Yet the Japanese don't get much mainstream attention for all their atrocities.
We don't despise the Germans any more than we despise the Japanese. Neither Nazi Germany nor Imperial Japan survived past 1945.
As an African, probably learning about all the empires and developments on the African continent. Things that fly in the face of the claim that Africans were backward savages.
We probably know more about the empires in the northern parts of the continent but other developments like the Kingdom of Zimbabwe and Mapungubwe, the latter whose discovery was kept hush-hush because it didn't fit in with the narrative that justified continued colonization of Africans.
There's another more newly discovered civilization, named the BoKoni, that's still subject to all sorts of rumours just because it couldn't have been Africans that did that.
That even the "huts" some Africans lived in were a proactive choice because of certain advantages they held such as their ability to deal with the local climate and not simply because that's all they knew.
A bunch of little things that make history seem a lot less "black and white".
Also, Timbuktu. I took a couple of courses from a woman who became an Urban Anthropologist, in Africa. This teeny, tiny Jewish woman from Connecticut (as she described herself) received quite a few raised eyebrows when she voiced her career intentions. She spent years in Africa studying urban cultures, and of the past cities, before most people even recognize that people in Africa were capable of great civilization. The knowledge was there, but most people didn't want to hear it.
Victorian era London was a terrible place to be alive as a member of the working class. If I recall correctly. You could pay a penny to sit indoors on a bench but no sleeping! Two Pennies and you could swing your arms over a rope and sleep standing up or if you made hella money that day you could pay 4 Pennies and sleep in a coffin. The water is undrinkable and children expected working hours were 12 to 18 a day starting at 4 yrs old. By those standards a lot of us would look like royalty to them.
I once heard a saying that goes *“if you trace someone’s ‘land’ back far enough in time, it was bought in blood.”*
Prior to 1976 student loan debt could be discharged immediately after graduation by filing for bankruptcy. Then the "education amendments of 1976" stipulated that student loans could not be discharged in bankruptcy until five years of repayment, barring proof of "undue hardship." 1984 this was extended to cover private student loans as well. The "crime control act of 1990" extended the period before which bankruptcy proceedings could commence to 7 years after repayment began. And in 1991 the six year statute of limitations on collection was finally eliminated after it had been enacted in 1985. By 1998 there was a big push to eliminate any methods of discharging student loans via bankruptcy and seven years later, in the year 2005, all qualified student loans (including most private) were excepted from discharge with the passage of the "bankruptcy abuse prevention and consumer protection act."
Since then there have been a few attempts to give modern college educated people the same fighting chance that the old college educated folks had, but to little avail. Many of the same boomers that vote against helping college grads get out of exorbitant debt are the same ones who had their own college education funded by taxpayers. Still think those old folks in politics have the people's best interest in mind?
There are graffiti that got preserved in Pompei and Herculanum. Because they didn't have paper, public announcement were directly painted on the walls.
Some of those graffiti are on par with what you can find on the toilet's wall of trucker's stop. "i f****d the barmaid", "Felix f***s like a god", "Take of your clothes and show us your hairy privates"
That Oxford University is older than the Aztec empire.
Okay bored panda, I don’t really like being ‘that guy’, but… This is a photo of a Mayan architecture (temple at Chichen Itza), not Aztec.
Learning about the depth and breadth of slavery in human history was a real eye-opener. We have really detailed documents from more modern history to show WHY that idea is so heinous, but it's always been a significant part of cultures all around the world serving as anything from a social construct to the very currency of war and with autonomy ranging from that of livestock to that of a low caste. Evidence of slavery predates written records and is even included in the code of Hammurabi where it was already an established institution and we still haven't stamped it out today, April 10th 2023, where slavery affects an estimated 46 million people (that's more than the total population of California, and approximately the population of Spain). It's crazy how awful humans have always been to one another and that we still can't seem to hold each other accountable for basic human rights, despite indelible proof.
Humans and a few monkeys are the only species, I believe, who kill for reasons other than survival. Our big brains do us little favor.
No one outside of America thinks the Puritans were a bunch of sweet, oppressed, morally-pure goody-goodies.
Puritans were clearly religious fanatics. They were thrown out of 3 separate places.....England, Holland, Brazil.....before settling in New England at a time of year when it was too late to plant a crop.
When I learned that NASA had discovered over 100 billion GALAXIES and seeing the image to put into perspective that our entire solar system is only about the size of a coin compared to our galaxy which in relation would be the size of the United States.
We are so incredibly small within the universe.
Edit to add: Here’s a [photo](https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2021/hubble-gazes-at-a-galactic-menagerie) of just a snippet of the various galaxies. Keeping in mind, we haven’t even ventured outside of our solar system which is within our Milky Way galaxy, just a grain of sand in context to the universe.
That Napoleon wasn’t cartoonishly short. All those cartoons were a lie…
British rule of India caused at least 10 famines yet we almost hear nothing about it
The issue is more complex than this. Famine occurred on the Indian subcontinent in the areas ruled by English interests AND in areas ruled by Indian princes. It was also the English who first studied how to prevent famine and came up with the Indian Famine Code guidelines that were modernised by the Indian government..
It broke me the first time I learned that the library of Alexandria burnt down, and the scholars at the time still were trying to decipher parchment from even older and more ancient civilizations. I heard that and instantly realized we don't deserve our own intelligence
That, during WW2, all the other countries did not help the Jews escape from Nazi Germany, but on the contrary, closed their borders! For instance, the St. Louis was denied at a number of ports, until they finally had to return to Denmark, which was under Nazi occupation. They COULD have let those Jews on board in, say, Cuba or Florida or wherever!
That when the pyramids were being built, mammoths were walking the earth. Woolly mammoths lived there until 1700 BC. The Great Pyramid was completed around 2560 BC.
As someone who grew up going to an evangelical church at least 2 times per week, Alan Turing's story is the one that made me re-examine what I thought I knew about homosexuality being immoral/unnatural/sin. I was probably 19 or 20 at the time.
It's probably the most pivotal thing that led me to question more about my faith despite it being so vitally important to my parents.
I think the two things that convinced me religion wasn't real was original sin (ie: a baby wouldn't automatically get into heaven) and that dogs wouldn't be there either. I was pretty young at the time but it was like "you're saying this place is perfect", "Yes", "But my dog won't be there.", "No he doesn't have a soul". "Well I'm out".
More of a fun one, but lighters predate strike matches by a couple centuries. They originated from repurposed flintlock pistols that ignited tinder shoved in the barrel that were set aflame by the trigger mechanism.
That actually makes a lot of sense… kinda sad that we have more advancements from weapons than other useful items.
I always grew up thinking that something like 50-75% of all white Americans owned slaves during the 1700s/1800s, my mind was kind of blown when I learned that it was closer to 1-3% of Americans.
edit: for context since this comment has received some upvotes..
25% of white families in the south likely owned a slave. In a few southern states (Mississippi for example) that number is closer to 45-50%. However, I was speaking about all Americans and not just those in the south.
It's possible if not likely that the overall number of whites in America owning slaves were closer to 5-10% rather than 1-3%, however my point stands that I always assumed it was closer to 50-75%.
Think about it. The majority of white immigrants arrived in the US during the 19th century. Most white Americans are only 3-5 generations away from being immigrants, whereas black Americans' families had been there at least double or triple that time.
I saw this in a WWI documentary. It's not so much a "historical fact" as much as "holy s**t I never thought about that"
We are taught that during the Great War, the allies were the good guys and the central powers were the bad guys. There were no good guys. Both sides used chemical warfare, both sides experimented with new tactics, both sides tortured and killed each other.
WW1 was basically a family squabble between European royal families. Except instead of throwing plates or slamming doors, they sent millions of poor people to their deaths
That I'd been living in the same society with all of those people who hatefully protested racial segregation in the 60s. They just went into hiding when it became socially unacceptable to wear your bigotry loud and proud. I no longer wonder what makes such a person as I get to watch the actual people announce their bigotry loud and proud today. Ignorance was bliss.
As a white male growing up in the south I always wondered why if the klan was so proud of what they represented why did they hide behind the hoods? Show your faces, you cowards!
Willing to see Japanese folks to share what they learnt about the relationship between Korea. From what Japanese were taught in school, they “industrialized” Korea when they actually colonized and tortured millions of Koreans.
That the Middle East was once then center of knowledge and learning, particularly Bagdad. As well as the amazing extent and advanced civilizations in South and Central America prior to the 1500s.
Ruined in an interesting, not bad way: ancient Greek and Roman polychromy.
The Parthenon temple looked a bit like Disneyland.
Being raised in all catholic schools it was really surprising to me to learn that a lot of sections in the bible and a lot of religious practices were instated by people who basically decided so and justified it with ideas that were hammered to fit whatever they said
Like it wasn't always that priests had to be celibate. Some pope decided that they should be and that was that but really all it would take to reverse that is a pope to say otherwise and a bunch of cardinals to support it. And it doesn't really matter what religious texts say, since the chuirch basically controls the "official interpretation", they can say whetever they want
edit: to the based redpilled people out there being all "oMg dId YOu ThINk rElIgionS aRe ReAL", yeah no, the surprising part was to learn how easily the church can change any aspect of their dogma when they actually manage to agree on it. And if their own texts refute said change, they can just say "oh we looked at it again and it actually means we are right now"
Thus Martin Luther's rebellion, and the Protestant Movement...which really changed nothing, because most people still rely on other people to tell them what the Bible says and what it all means. But at least it is no longer illegal or heretical to translate it into any language, and to read it for one's self, if one is so inclined.
Not necessarily a historical fact but more of a fact of history; out of everything we know, there is so much more we don't know and simply never will know.
Even worse, the a lot of the things we believe we know are from commonly accepted theories that are held onto by elitist, ageing historians which only become refuted and debunked as they literally die off. The field of history as much as history itself is so ridiculously fascinating.
This is why I think Heaven has a giant library. So we can learn what we missed, if we want to. Hear that, God? Books! I want books in Heaven.
Not really ruined, but have you read Ben Franklin's diaries and s**t? Dude was a dirty horn dog.
Bed Franklin had an estimated 60 children out of wedlock. I think Franklin was the real Father of our Country.
That Cleopatra is closer in time to us than the construction of the pyramids.
That African Americans were "bred" once the slave trade was banned. I was so sad once I learned that. Those poor people. I cry sometimes when I think of that. No wonder there is so much hate.
95 percent of our species' history is lost forever.
Judging by much of the examples above, that may not be an altogether bad thing.
Note: this post originally had 69 images. It’s been shortened to the top 50 images based on user votes.
It is widely known that at the end of WW 2 the Russian army raped hundreds of thousands of German women and girls, the youngest victims not even 3 years old. What is not that widely known is that American,British an French soldiers also raped their way through the western part of Germany. There were 900 000 reported cases of rape committed by allied soldiers (USA, UK, France and Russia), but the numbers might be in the millions. Most women did not report the assault, because the people they had to report to were also members of the Allied Forces and they were afraid of the consequences.
Japan too. The concept of “comfort women” is horrible.
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That, by his own account, Christopher Columbus was evil. His own logs talk about selling young native girls into sexual slavery. There's more that I don't remember, but that alone is enough. I wish we could end Columbus Day in the US. It's starting to be called Indigenous People's Day, and I like that much better.
Most Spanish took Native girls and women as wife or just raped them. That's why their is now mestizo in Latin America.
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I find it concerning that some as calling out certain counties, religions, parties when in a tual fact if you look I to it every country has its dark past. We all have committed atrocities in our past. The only important thing is we choose not to repeat our ancestors and do our best to act like decent human beings.
It is important to study history in depth and form our own thoughts from it, ask questions, and research the real facts behind events, not just believe what is in our school history books. Also, no one alive now is responsible for what happened in history, and should not be held accountable. Hold people accountable for their own actions, not those of ancestors that they have no control over.
Lots of revisionist history going on here....the internet is not a quality source of information
had a great professor in college that made a statement when it came to history that is on spot: "a written history never remembers - an oral history never forgets." the people who write it down can always insert an agenda of how it is meant to be perceived. but, those who pass history by verbal rote learn it verbatim as to how it unfolded such at the griots of africa.
I wouldn't say it ruined my perspective, but it did throw me for a loop. Gruel wasn't nasty poor people food. It was literally just oatmeal or grain meal that was milled into flour instead of bits. It could be thick or thin, and it could be made with sugar and cream and spices. It could be eaten for breakfast or fed to kids, and was considered a comfort food for invalids. The reason we think bad about it now is because it always gets referred to as a 'thin gruel' in novels. We don't realize that the adjective is completely seperate. Oatmeal would also suck if it were thin. Technically speaking, storebought mashed potatoes are gruel!
To the person who downvoted me about the 7 books....are you saying it is not true???
Idk about your comment, but downvote sucks in practice, I try not read too much into it. They upvote my bad comments and downvote the good ones, I don't care anymore.
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Robespierre (of French Revolution fame) was not an evil dictator, he was framed by a group of financial fraudsters and (what would now be called) war criminals. Look up Joseph Fouche and Jean-Lambert Tallien. As for Robespierre, he didn't even sit on the tribunal that decided who went to the guillotine. He literally never sentenced a single person to death, and couldn't even issue an arrest without the approval of the rest of the committee he was part of. History really is written by the winners.
Re "yet in all of this the vast amount of technological advancements from the discovery of the atom to the modern day would fit in the last few sentences, of the last paragraph of the last page. And people wonder why we are reckless, we're still effectively great apes, but with shiny toys." Since we ARE totally reckless we are evidently NOT "great" in any humanitarian sense. At the core of homo sapiens is unwisdom (ie, madness) and so the human label of "wise" (ie, sapiens) is a complete collective self-delusion --- study the free scholarly essay “The 2 Married Pink Elephants In The Historical Room" ... https://www.rolf-hefti.com/covid-19-coronavirus.html Once you understand that humans are "invisibly" insane (pink elephant people, see cited essay) you'll UNDERSTAND (well, perhaps) why they, especially their alleged experts, perpetually come up with myths and lies about everything ... including about themselves (their nature, their intelligence, their origins, etc).
The word 'great', when used in this context, refers only to size. The people who stand out in history didn't tend to be the kind, gentle ones--those were trampled by the ones we read about. That's why homo sapiens sapiens is a misnomer, too--we're hardly thinking creatures.
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Largely incorrect. History is « surprisingly » not the same depending on the country where the historian comes from and where the book or study is published. And I’m not even talking about the history class books used to teach children or students. English really think they had a glorious empire to be proud of. Americans really think they’re bringing democracy to the world. Russians really think they have some rights on Ukraine or the Baltic states.
Load More Replies...
It is widely known that at the end of WW 2 the Russian army raped hundreds of thousands of German women and girls, the youngest victims not even 3 years old. What is not that widely known is that American,British an French soldiers also raped their way through the western part of Germany. There were 900 000 reported cases of rape committed by allied soldiers (USA, UK, France and Russia), but the numbers might be in the millions. Most women did not report the assault, because the people they had to report to were also members of the Allied Forces and they were afraid of the consequences.
Japan too. The concept of “comfort women” is horrible.
Load More Replies... That, by his own account, Christopher Columbus was evil. His own logs talk about selling young native girls into sexual slavery. There's more that I don't remember, but that alone is enough. I wish we could end Columbus Day in the US. It's starting to be called Indigenous People's Day, and I like that much better.
Most Spanish took Native girls and women as wife or just raped them. That's why their is now mestizo in Latin America.
Load More Replies... I find it concerning that some as calling out certain counties, religions, parties when in a tual fact if you look I to it every country has its dark past. We all have committed atrocities in our past. The only important thing is we choose not to repeat our ancestors and do our best to act like decent human beings.
It is important to study history in depth and form our own thoughts from it, ask questions, and research the real facts behind events, not just believe what is in our school history books. Also, no one alive now is responsible for what happened in history, and should not be held accountable. Hold people accountable for their own actions, not those of ancestors that they have no control over.
Lots of revisionist history going on here....the internet is not a quality source of information
had a great professor in college that made a statement when it came to history that is on spot: "a written history never remembers - an oral history never forgets." the people who write it down can always insert an agenda of how it is meant to be perceived. but, those who pass history by verbal rote learn it verbatim as to how it unfolded such at the griots of africa.
I wouldn't say it ruined my perspective, but it did throw me for a loop. Gruel wasn't nasty poor people food. It was literally just oatmeal or grain meal that was milled into flour instead of bits. It could be thick or thin, and it could be made with sugar and cream and spices. It could be eaten for breakfast or fed to kids, and was considered a comfort food for invalids. The reason we think bad about it now is because it always gets referred to as a 'thin gruel' in novels. We don't realize that the adjective is completely seperate. Oatmeal would also suck if it were thin. Technically speaking, storebought mashed potatoes are gruel!
To the person who downvoted me about the 7 books....are you saying it is not true???
Idk about your comment, but downvote sucks in practice, I try not read too much into it. They upvote my bad comments and downvote the good ones, I don't care anymore.
Load More Replies... Robespierre (of French Revolution fame) was not an evil dictator, he was framed by a group of financial fraudsters and (what would now be called) war criminals. Look up Joseph Fouche and Jean-Lambert Tallien. As for Robespierre, he didn't even sit on the tribunal that decided who went to the guillotine. He literally never sentenced a single person to death, and couldn't even issue an arrest without the approval of the rest of the committee he was part of. History really is written by the winners.
Re "yet in all of this the vast amount of technological advancements from the discovery of the atom to the modern day would fit in the last few sentences, of the last paragraph of the last page. And people wonder why we are reckless, we're still effectively great apes, but with shiny toys." Since we ARE totally reckless we are evidently NOT "great" in any humanitarian sense. At the core of homo sapiens is unwisdom (ie, madness) and so the human label of "wise" (ie, sapiens) is a complete collective self-delusion --- study the free scholarly essay “The 2 Married Pink Elephants In The Historical Room" ... https://www.rolf-hefti.com/covid-19-coronavirus.html Once you understand that humans are "invisibly" insane (pink elephant people, see cited essay) you'll UNDERSTAND (well, perhaps) why they, especially their alleged experts, perpetually come up with myths and lies about everything ... including about themselves (their nature, their intelligence, their origins, etc).
The word 'great', when used in this context, refers only to size. The people who stand out in history didn't tend to be the kind, gentle ones--those were trampled by the ones we read about. That's why homo sapiens sapiens is a misnomer, too--we're hardly thinking creatures.
Load More Replies... Largely incorrect. History is « surprisingly » not the same depending on the country where the historian comes from and where the book or study is published. And I’m not even talking about the history class books used to teach children or students. English really think they had a glorious empire to be proud of. Americans really think they’re bringing democracy to the world. Russians really think they have some rights on Ukraine or the Baltic states.
Load More Replies... 