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The thesis of the article isn't the point of the article? What? You sound quite defensive for a throwaway account. (If you're the author, your article has lots

• throwaway729 10y ago
  > The thesis of the article isn't the point of the article? What? Kind of like how an article whose "thesis" is that we should eat children probably isn't actually suggesting we literally should eat children, even while making a vigorous argument for its thesis. Or are you also flabbergasted when someone suggests "A Modest Proposal" wasn't an actual proposal? What the author did in this piece wasn't exactly satire, but it is using hyperbole to make a point about a form of bias in historical writing (cultural exceptionalism). > If you're the author I am not. But I enjoyed that article on its own merits, and seeing a nice piece of work trampled over by people who completely missed the point of the piece angers me. >...but making broad claims about history... The point of the piece is not to make broad claims about history, but rather to critique the sorts of broad claims that are often made when history is written from the perspective of a culture that views itself as exceptional. The fact that the claims are so hyperbolic as to make people angry is... kind of the point -- c.f. modest proposal. I thought that was patently obvious from the tone and content of the piece.