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I got to learn "the other side" of the story, after meeting a few people from nations marketed as our "arch enemies". I became extremely disappointed that histo

I got to learn "the other side" of the story, after meeting a few people from nations marketed as our "arch enemies". I became extremely disappointed that history is never a recollection of facts, rather a narrative to cater to national propaganda.

vmception 5y ago
Yeah I travel a lot, it is surprising how different the facts are. Its like Animal Farm but expanding the universe to a different farm. It can be subtle differences like "Serbia starting WW1" versus "Austria starting WW1" or it can be major consequential differences
drewcoo 5y ago
History, when I studied it in college, was a collection of opinions, claims of varying veracity, evidence of different strengths, lots of missing information, and attempts to find meaning in it all, usually from some current perspective. History professors these days are more often accused of postmodernism than narrative and more often of Marxism than national propaganda. Those electives in college are supposed to expose people to things like that. There is something very unlike that taught before college in the US that's more about memorizing than understanding. It's a similar situation to how the math that people have phobias about doesn't resemble undergrad math major math at all.
twelve40 5y ago
I agree, I really liked history and the humanities back in school but after traveling and living in different countries I found it extremely repulsive how the humanities are basically getting twisted to fit the local agenda everywhere. So I stuck with STEM and really happy I don't have to deal with this BS at least in my professional life.
yakshaving_jgt 5y ago
It's super fun living in Sweden for some time, and then living in nearby Russia for some time. You get to hear exactly the same reports of military aggression, but the perpetrators are always the other side.

vmception 5y ago

Yeah I travel a lot, it is surprising how different the facts are. Its like Animal Farm but expanding the universe to a different farm. It can be subtle differences like "Serbia starting WW1" versus "Austria starting WW1" or it can be major consequential differences

drewcoo 5y ago

History, when I studied it in college, was a collection of opinions, claims of varying veracity, evidence of different strengths, lots of missing information, and attempts to find meaning in it all, usually from some current perspective. History professors these days are more often accused of postmodernism than narrative and more often of Marxism than national propaganda. Those electives in college are supposed to expose people to things like that. There is something very unlike that taught before college in the US that's more about memorizing than understanding. It's a similar situation to how the math that people have phobias about doesn't resemble undergrad math major math at all.

twelve40 5y ago

I agree, I really liked history and the humanities back in school but after traveling and living in different countries I found it extremely repulsive how the humanities are basically getting twisted to fit the local agenda everywhere. So I stuck with STEM and really happy I don't have to deal with this BS at least in my professional life.

yakshaving_jgt 5y ago

It's super fun living in Sweden for some time, and then living in nearby Russia for some time. You get to hear exactly the same reports of military aggression, but the perpetrators are always the other side.