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> It feels like we're watching history get written by the most entitled and inept among us. I suspect this is somewhat common in history (this is not meant to

> It feels like we're watching history get written by the most entitled and inept among us. I suspect this is somewhat common in history (this is not meant to excuse it), but we can’t tell because those people still wrote the narrative.

twixfel 1y ago
So Trump will be looked back on as a good president? Highly unlikely, I'd say. Trump is quite uniquely awful in the history of the US.
- VierScar 1y ago
  Japan's WWII history is uniquely bad but they don't learn about it. Can threaten authors with treason for negative books like he did in an EO recently. Change school curriculums. Then Maga can start revising history.. Was the 2025 recession from tarrifs? Nah it was Biden's inflation, or Ukraine aid. Actually.. didn't China impose tarrifs on US and US just reciprocated? The reality will be altered and murky
  - twixfel 1y ago
    The problem is that everyone knows tariffs don’t work. History will not be kind to trump nor his supporters.
  - yobi0h 1y ago
    > Japan's WWII history is uniquely bad but they don't learn about it. I see this claim form time to time, but the unsavory side of WW2 is thought in classes, although not without controversy [1]: Despite the efforts of the nationalist textbook reformers, by the late 1990s the most common Japanese schoolbooks contained references to, for instance, the Nanjing Massacre, Unit 731, and the comfort women of World War II, all historical issues which have faced challenges from ultranationalists in the past. The most recent of the controversial textbooks, the New History Textbook, published in 2000, which significantly downplays Japanese aggression, was shunned by nearly all of Japan's school districts. On the other hand, after the occupation, GHQ had imposed a press code [2], i.e. censorship of mass media, that undoubtedly had an impact on postwar Japan, so you could say that the point still stands. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_history_textbook_controversies https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_history_textbook_cont... [2] https://www.hiroshimapeacemedia.jp/?p=139387 https://www.hiroshimapeacemedia.jp/?p=139387
    - MostlyBad 1y ago
      Having lived in Japan for 2 year and working in what one would hope being a very educated environment (Todai and Rikadai PhD candidates), I can personally account that the number of Japanese who actually know about that bit of their history is few. Culturally, they don't speak about this topic - and there if something is not spoken about then it does not exist. I would not be surprised if some teachers could simply not cover that bit of the programme without any consequences; Japan is specifically good at not following its own laws, when such laws have been written mostly to appease international observers - same with women equality and discrimination of minorities laws.
  - AnimalMuppet 1y ago
    > The reality will be altered and murky The reality is already altered and murky. There has been a full-blown total information war over reality for several years now. But Trump and MAGA, even if they win, won't win forever. There will someday be an end to this particular attempt to impose unreality. Then history (or at least the history of this) can be told honestly. (Or at least without MAGA spin. It may have a new spin, but it will at least be a different one.)
- SequoiaHope 1y ago
  Trump is awful and so was G.W. Bush and Reagan and Nixon and Andrew Jackson and even George Washington[1]. We don’t learn much in school about George Washington burning down Iroquois villages because we focus on other things. It’s entirely possible that Trump becomes so bad that the people who remember his misdeeds get erased like so many Iroquois or Vietnamese people or gays with HIV under these other presidents. Here’s a clip [2] of Noam Chomsky describing the war crimes of every post WW2 president. Many people still regard those people as good presidents because they ignore their misdeeds. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Town_Destroyer https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Town_Destroyer [2] https://youtu.be/5BXtgq0Nhsc https://youtu.be/5BXtgq0Nhsc
djaychela 1y ago
I think your suspicions are wrong. Yes, there are plenty of less competent people in history, but not to this level. Trump is an imbecile who just happens to be good in one direction (bullying and manipulation). Put him in an escape room on his own and he'd die in there. While I can think that many previous UK leaders have not been genius-level, I can't think of one who was anywhere near as stupid and beligerent as Trump. Other than maybe Liz Truss, who is thick as two short planks, but fortunately was ousted quickly. That won't be happening with Trump, and the US (and the larger world) will pay for these pocket-lining morons' mistakes.
- SequoiaHope 1y ago
  George HW Bush, Reagan, Nixon, Andrew Jackson, George Washington. They all did horrible things and their incompetence or evil led to widespread suffering of people most of us have forgotten. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43860662 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43860662
  - int_19h 1y ago
    None of the people you've listed approach the level of incompetence of Trump and his administration.
  - djaychela 1y ago
    Ditto the other response here. Trump is orders of magnitude worse. No other US leader in living memory has had such a negative effect overseas, and everyone I know in business in the UK is looking to move away from dealing with the US as quickly as possible given the unpredictable and capricious nature of the administration.

twixfel 1y ago

So Trump will be looked back on as a good president? Highly unlikely, I'd say. Trump is quite uniquely awful in the history of the US.

VierScar 1y ago
Japan's WWII history is uniquely bad but they don't learn about it. Can threaten authors with treason for negative books like he did in an EO recently. Change school curriculums. Then Maga can start revising history.. Was the 2025 recession from tarrifs? Nah it was Biden's inflation, or Ukraine aid. Actually.. didn't China impose tarrifs on US and US just reciprocated? The reality will be altered and murky
- twixfel 1y ago
  The problem is that everyone knows tariffs don’t work. History will not be kind to trump nor his supporters.
- yobi0h 1y ago
  > Japan's WWII history is uniquely bad but they don't learn about it. I see this claim form time to time, but the unsavory side of WW2 is thought in classes, although not without controversy [1]: Despite the efforts of the nationalist textbook reformers, by the late 1990s the most common Japanese schoolbooks contained references to, for instance, the Nanjing Massacre, Unit 731, and the comfort women of World War II, all historical issues which have faced challenges from ultranationalists in the past. The most recent of the controversial textbooks, the New History Textbook, published in 2000, which significantly downplays Japanese aggression, was shunned by nearly all of Japan's school districts. On the other hand, after the occupation, GHQ had imposed a press code [2], i.e. censorship of mass media, that undoubtedly had an impact on postwar Japan, so you could say that the point still stands. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_history_textbook_controversies https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_history_textbook_cont... [2] https://www.hiroshimapeacemedia.jp/?p=139387 https://www.hiroshimapeacemedia.jp/?p=139387
  - MostlyBad 1y ago
    Having lived in Japan for 2 year and working in what one would hope being a very educated environment (Todai and Rikadai PhD candidates), I can personally account that the number of Japanese who actually know about that bit of their history is few. Culturally, they don't speak about this topic - and there if something is not spoken about then it does not exist. I would not be surprised if some teachers could simply not cover that bit of the programme without any consequences; Japan is specifically good at not following its own laws, when such laws have been written mostly to appease international observers - same with women equality and discrimination of minorities laws.
- AnimalMuppet 1y ago
  > The reality will be altered and murky The reality is already altered and murky. There has been a full-blown total information war over reality for several years now. But Trump and MAGA, even if they win, won't win forever. There will someday be an end to this particular attempt to impose unreality. Then history (or at least the history of this) can be told honestly. (Or at least without MAGA spin. It may have a new spin, but it will at least be a different one.)
SequoiaHope 1y ago
Trump is awful and so was G.W. Bush and Reagan and Nixon and Andrew Jackson and even George Washington[1]. We don’t learn much in school about George Washington burning down Iroquois villages because we focus on other things. It’s entirely possible that Trump becomes so bad that the people who remember his misdeeds get erased like so many Iroquois or Vietnamese people or gays with HIV under these other presidents. Here’s a clip [2] of Noam Chomsky describing the war crimes of every post WW2 president. Many people still regard those people as good presidents because they ignore their misdeeds. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Town_Destroyer https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Town_Destroyer [2] https://youtu.be/5BXtgq0Nhsc https://youtu.be/5BXtgq0Nhsc

djaychela 1y ago

I think your suspicions are wrong. Yes, there are plenty of less competent people in history, but not to this level. Trump is an imbecile who just happens to be good in one direction (bullying and manipulation). Put him in an escape room on his own and he'd die in there. While I can think that many previous UK leaders have not been genius-level, I can't think of one who was anywhere near as stupid and beligerent as Trump. Other than maybe Liz Truss, who is thick as two short planks, but fortunately was ousted quickly. That won't be happening with Trump, and the US (and the larger world) will pay for these pocket-lining morons' mistakes.

SequoiaHope 1y ago
George HW Bush, Reagan, Nixon, Andrew Jackson, George Washington. They all did horrible things and their incompetence or evil led to widespread suffering of people most of us have forgotten. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43860662 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43860662
- int_19h 1y ago
  None of the people you've listed approach the level of incompetence of Trump and his administration.
- djaychela 1y ago
  Ditto the other response here. Trump is orders of magnitude worse. No other US leader in living memory has had such a negative effect overseas, and everyone I know in business in the UK is looking to move away from dealing with the US as quickly as possible given the unpredictable and capricious nature of the administration.