American author and filmmaker Michael Crichton once said: "If you don't know history, then you don't know anything. You are a leaf that doesn't know it is part of a tree." So let's take a look back at what events and people have 'planted' and 'grown' this tree we're all a part of called the present, shall we?
But since it's Friday, I think we can agree that something more refreshing than a textbook is needed. Luckily, we have just the thing. Two, actually.
Bored Panda decided to put together a follow-up collection to our earlier article and compile the best posts from the history memes Reddit page and HistoryInMemes Instagram account have recently released.
From making fun of the British Museum's never-ending thirst for artifacts to corrupt Presidents, continue scrolling, check the world history memes out, and upvote your favorites!
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A True Hero
Willem Arondeus was a moderately successful painter and writer living in the Netherlands. However, at the time his career began to improve, the Nazis had occupied his nation, and he decided to sacrifice personal success and wealth for the greater good, joining the Dutch resistance. Arondeus's skill as an artist allowed him to make fake ID cards, allowing Jewish refugees to hide more easily. However, the Nazi's Municipal Office for Population Registration made this far more difficult, as they kept exact records. With his resistance team, Arondeus devised a plan to bomb the office, which went off successfully. By doing so, they were able to steal a number of blank ID cards, and destroy enough records that any Jewish refugees could believably pretend to have had their files destroyed.
However, Arondeus was betrayed and captured. He refused to give information on his co-conspirators under torture, but after his home was raided, they found evidence that linked him to his allies. Arondeus then took full credit for the entire plan, allowing two of his friends to escape execution. His last words were "Let it be known that homosexuals are not cowards".
Sad But True
Contrary to what some might think, history memes aren't just for the internet. Historian, college administrator, amateur homesteader, and writer Joshua Wilkey, for example, quite often uses them in teaching. "I even sometimes assign my students to use memes as a way to present what they are learning in the classroom," he told Bored Panda.
These historical memes have been around in some form or another for thousands of years, too.
In 2016, archeologists uncovered a mosaic from the 3rd century B.C. in what was the ancient city of Antiocheia. The piece has three frames and seems to depict a bathing scene. The first frame is of a servant preparing a bath; the second frame, a young man running away from taking the bath, being pursued by an older servant who is unable to catch him; the last scene, a “reckless” but seemingly happy skeleton of the young man is sitting casually with a jug of wine.
The inscription below him reads: "Be cheerful and live your life." So you could say this historical meme is the original YOLO.
History Ain’t Pretty
Sacrifice Sacrifice
It Really Do Be Like That
But why bother with it and create one history meme after another in the first place? Well, Joshua Wilkey said that "as an academic pursuit, history teaches important skills like critical reading and analysis. For the average person, though, history is an important way of understanding the context of what is happening in the present."
"I do not buy the argument that history repeats itself - and I think few professional historians would say that it does. It does, though, as Mark Twain once said, rhyme a lot. When one looks at the world as it is today, one cannot fully understand it absent knowledge of history," Wilkey explained. "One cannot, for example, understand the Black Lives Matter movement without understanding the long history of civil rights activism in the United States. One cannot understand what is happening in Afghanistan without understanding the long history of that particular part of the world, specifically through the lens of imperialism. Current events do not happen in a vacuum. Trying to understand or react to them absent an understanding of the history is detrimental at best."
Hah Get It
Game Changer
Elvis' Chance Of Getting Polio Has Left The Building; Thank You And Good Night!
Typical
Of course, that doesn't mean that you have to be familiar with every period of every civilization. "One of my favorite TV shows growing up was The Andy Griffith Show, and in one episode, Aunt Bee remarked that history must be harder to learn in the present because there's more and more of it being made every day," Wilkey recalled. "However, there are some good strategies to employ to learn the depth of history in a way that is useful for the present."
"Rather than broad surveys of history, whereby one attempts to learn the entire breadth of history for a given place, I think deeper dives are more useful. I prefer to study history topically rather than by place. For example, one can study the history of conflict, the history of racial inequality, the history of capitalism, or the history of imperialism, and follow the threads of those themes through both time and place, for a more comprehensive look at why things are the way they are."
The historian said that understanding how themes like economic inequality or political power have played out at multiple times and places is more useful for the average human than to learn facts about the history of a given place. "Ultimately, the goal should not be to learn history for the sake of being good at Jeopardy!, but for the sake of developing a more meaningful understanding of why things happened," Wilkey explained, adding that it's much more valuable than simply knowing what happened.
And it makes sense. You start making connections and developing ideas rather than just working on your memory. You start thinking.
Thank You Very Much
Dirty Dog
Lol yeah, like Hera was Heracles loving mother. And Zeus had self restraint. That movie didn't do Greek myths any favours!
Mad Respec
I Am Confusion
Once you decide on a topic you want to dig into, you need to start collecting sources. This, in turn, will help you understand the world history memes, too. "At the risk of having my professional historian card revoked, Wikipedia is a great place to go to learn the basics of a given event," Joshua Wilkey said. "At this point, it's rather more accurate than most easily accessible sources, including most online encyclopedias."
"Apart from that, I am a big fan of podcasts. Dan Carlin's Hardcore History is great for those who can devote substantial time to listening. Slow Burn is also fantastic, as is the podcast that accompanies the 1619 Project. This Land is wonderful for those who are interested in indigenous history. I could go on for days with podcast recommendations, but there are so many good ones out there, the possibilities are limitless. For print readers, ProPublica also has a wonderful deep dive into many important topics. I especially enjoyed their piece a few years ago titled 'Firestone and the Warlord' about the history of the rubber industry in Africa."
There Goes Buck Franklin, The Impeccably Well Dressed Lawyer Who Practices Law Out Of A Tent
Not enough people know about Oklahoma Black Wall Street and the Tulsa Race Massacre. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulsa_race_massacre
This Happened To My Grandfather When He Was Teaching Second Grade. The Kids Were So Traumatized By What They Saw A Lot Of Parents Had To Come Pick Them Up From School
Uhh Sir?
200 Iq
As for sourcing accurate materials, Wilkey said it's important to employ information literacy skills to vet any potential source. That includes these history memes, too.
"While there's much to be said about the elitist and often-problematic nature of academic gatekeeping, the solution is not for anyone to publish anything they want, but rather, for us to engage with the public as much or more than we engage with each other as academics."
The historian likes to tell his students that if they are not engaging members of the general public with their work, then the public will be engaged by idiots, liars, and fear-mongers. "The average reader should make it a point to ask why they should believe any given source (including academic literature!). The fact that they found it via social media is often an argument against believing it," he said.
However, if it's more history memes that you're after, check out our piece on History Memes Explained, a cool social media project that not only collects but also dissects the best memes about our past.
Yoink
Trying To Get Rid Of The Evidence? Not On Mr Eisenhower's Watch!
You Can Always Rely On The Wise Words Of Captain Holt
Brooklyn Nine Nine was a fantastic show and one of those rare gems that only got better in later seasons. I'm so sad this show ended.
Money Money Money Moneyyy
It Do Be Like That
Damn Son
Any Great Historical Figure Would Be Honoured To Be Played By Cillian Murphy, I'm Sure
Uhh Excuse Me
Feels Bad Man
This must be a reference to the famous Greek hero Homercles, like Pythagorous, "Homercles cares not for beans"
If It Ain’t Broke, Don’t Fix It
I seriously think one of the arguments some Americans have against adding Puerto Rico and Washington DC as states is that they don't want to add more stars to the flag. (It's not a good argument.)
Pain
Gotta Do Whatcha Gotta Do
that's all very well but that shows seven women leaders. As a percentage of male leaders (something like 2000 or so worldwide in the same time period ... the first picture being cleopatra I believe) ... means that the chances of a woman starting a war is quite a lot lower. What we'd really need to know is the base rate of women leaders vs women leaders who started wars. I am pretty sure these seven are not the only women leaders in the last 2000 years...
Must’ve Been Sloppy
I Think We Can All Agree On This One
'man, I Love This Skirt! Also, You Heard Khomeini's Latest Speech? That Guy Sure Is Whacky, Huh?'
"If There Was An Allied Hero Who Deserved To Be Remembered And Celebrated, This Was A Person With Few Peers"
Feels Bad Man
Abc News Called It "The Poster Child Of Excessive Lawsuits" But Most People Don't Believe That Anymore
I'm glad I finally know the truth about this case. McDonalds did a great job on burying the details
It did sound silly at first, but once you learn how she was really badly burned and how Mc D kept their coffee at "hot lead" temperature levels while handing it out to people sitting in cars in flimsy paper cups? Not so funny.
AND that Maccas settled 72 other cases out of court prior to this one, but still continued to serve their coffee at, as you said, hot lead temps. The arrogance.
Load More Replies...It was not some random lawsuit. The coffee literally was scalding hot, between 180 and 190 degrees F (82 and 87 C). Multiple people got third degree burnd before this case, but it was cheaper for McD to buy their silence than it was to change the temp. This lady had her coffee sat in a parked (unmoving!) car. The coffee was so hot that her "ladybits" were fused together. She was hospitalized several times and needed care for the rest of her life. She only asked for her medical bills to be covered and a small amount for income loss as her daughter had to take care of her. McD refused all (very extremely reasonable) requests. Also she didn't get all the millions everyone thinks she did. The jury eventually awarded her many millions, but the judge took most of it off
82C-87C AKA the termperature of the coffee I brew every morning.
Load More Replies...Someone : suffers. Everyone else : "STOP BEING SO DRAMATIC YOU PUSSY!"
Terrific,extensive burns in sensitive areas, it clearly was Mc's fault and all she wanted was money to cover her medical bills.
This case was actually heartbreaking. She was basically made disabled and was only suing to get enough to cover medical costs. The judge ruled that McDonalds had been so irresponsible and had already dealt with so many burn cases that he judged they should 2.7 million to not only cover the 8 days she spent hospitalized but also to modify her home for her new disability and also to cover for the nursing care she would now need.
The woman in question suffered burns so bad that her "bits" were fused together. The car was not moving at the time, it was parked (standing still, I cannot emphasize this enough). She only requested that her medical bills were paid for. There were many similar incidents before her case, McD just bought their silence and/or tied people up in court till they were bankrupt and couldn't continue. McD was well aware of the dangers, it wasn't "just hot coffee", it was between 180 and 190 F (between 82 and 87 C) and caused third degree burns for many people. They just preferred to pay people because that was cheaper than serving coffee that was not literally scalding hot
The podcast You’re Wrong About has a fascinating episode (“The McDonald’s Hot Coffee Case”) about this and the myth of the frivolous lawsuit craze in general.
MacDonalds attacked and destroyed this poor, elderly woman's character. She didn't sue for punitive damages, she just wanted to be reimbursed for her expense. This is the evil crap that American corporations do every day, at your great detriment. Corporate America is the root of all evil.
After finding out the facts and seeing the photos I often wonder if the initial media/societal reaction would have been the same if it were a young man whose thighs and genitalia was burnt
Read the comments, here, and then did some research. If the temperature quoted in the comments is accurate, it was slightly hotter than what a quick google search deems as standard practice. It's debatable, of course, as to what is preferred - but commonly served appears to be slightly lower than what she was served. Data taken from multiple sources but cannot speak to the accuracy of those sources.
The fact that 50C (122F) is when 1st degree burns start to occur and 65C (149F) is where second degree burns take only 0.9 seconds to occur, should tell anyone just HOW criminally hot their coffee at over 80C (176F) was and how much she must have suffered. I hate the fact McDonalds managed to successfully turn as legitimate a victim as there could be into some kind of villian for daring to demand her medical bills be covered - and yet to this day have themselves not properly been punished for this entire incident in any meaningful lasting way SO MUCH! It's absolutely horrific on every concievable level.
They literally ignored the huge safety warning. 79 year old woman served coffee over 180 degrees farenheit, more than 20 degrees hotter than any other coffee found in that city. Woman lost 20 lbs, spent over $10k on her first visit (not including follows, and MCD offered her $800.
I can't tell you how many people I had to explain that to b/c they thought the same thing ("Coffee is supposed to be hot" argument all the time).
I'm a barred attorney: Liebeck was rightly entitled to the compensation she won. Tort outcomes are supposed to be based on how foreseeable (predictable) the harm was, 'multiplied', (not literally but conceptually), by the gravity of the harm (how serious it was). McDs acknowledged that their coffee could srsly injure people - hence, to them as a big business, this was very foreseeable. The burns fused her vagina - so HIGH gravity of the harm. The reason that the case was seen as excessive was that the jury went nuts & ramped up her award to $6M. Most think the jurors did that as an 'F*** you' to McDs, seeing them as a big powerful, corporate, soulless empire and Liebeck as the mistreated, average person, (which was arguably true). McDs appealed & the $6 M was reduced, to around $400k (if I remember correctly) as well it should have been. Subtract from her $400k the 1/3 she had to give her lawyers & her almost $90k of med. expenses, and all in all, it's a fairly rational outcome.
I wonder how "rational" you'd find a $90k judgement if your d**k and balls were burned so badly that they fused together. Rational, my ass.
Load More Replies...To the media here, drama and lies makes gets more views and clicks, you can never believe in what you see or hear
Their coffee was exactly the same temperature as every coffee maker in the US. They have no control over the temperature, it's preset from the factory; 192 degrees. The lawsuit was a complete fraud from the beginning, which is why no one actually talks about the facts in the case. Dumping a fresh cup of coffee on your lap while wearing sweatpants is always going to be your fault.
Maccas admitted they could adjust the temperatures but doing so meant they had to throw coffee out more often. Have a listen to the podcast You're Wrong About. It provides a really great breakdown of what happened and how the media treated this woman.
Load More Replies...$2.9 million dollars. But what's being off by a factor of 150? (The fact that she went to lawyers seeking $20,000 and they ended up having her sue for $2.9 million hardly makes the case that lawyers don't make lawsuits excessive,)
Initially she asked for $2000 to cover the wages her daughter lost taking time off to care for her because she couldn't afford to stay in hospital for more than a week. Then a lawyer with previous form representing others burnt by Maccas coffee offered to take on the case after she heard how badly this poor woman was burnt.
Load More Replies...I. Hate. McDonald’s. Not just because of this story, but it’s unhealthy, they literally put animal fat in everything including milkshakes, half of the ads are fake and the food tastes horrible.
a milk shake is made with milk, it already has animal fat by default
Load More Replies...Many lawsuits are caused by people without insurance suddenly needing it. Also many bankruptcies. Both the medical and legal professions benefit immensely by voters freaking out at the idea of "socialist medicine"
You're missing an important perspective. If your insurance company does in fact have to pay out, this is exactly what happens. If I build a deck wrong, the customer falls and breaks a leg, they aren't the ones who will sue me, their insurance company will.
Load More Replies...Coffee should NOT be 180-190 degrees. She was burned so badly she needed skin grafts. Do not blame this on her.
Load More Replies...No Fair
Don’t Give Into Peer Pressure
Does Mythology Count?
Dammit, Marilyn! Not In Front Of The Democratic Party!
A woman exploited since childhood self-destructs in front of millions while they laugh. Wonderful that we’re so far beyond that today
Greek Fire Was An Incendiary Substance Developed By The Byzantine Empire Around 666 Ad. It Would Mainly Be Used In Naval Battles, And Would Be Sprayed From A Nozzle Onto Nearby Enemy Ships
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