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>Unusually weak? They will not want to feed you. Unusually strong? They will send you to fight an impossible war. Unusually clever? They will accuse you of witc

>Unusually weak? They will not want to feed you. Unusually strong? They will send you to fight an impossible war. Unusually clever? They will accuse you of witchcraft and burn you at the stake. Yes, there were some exceptions (for example, "freaks" kept as curiosities by the kings), but the general rule for the vast majority of the population was: don't be weird, or get killed. To me that sounds like a very post-romantic interpretation of the past, where everything that happened before now, the enlightened times, was savage,cruel and retrograde. It's my understanding that things were a lot more subtle than that and that's a very simplistic approximation. I don't think Da Vinci, Vauban Euclid or Grosseteste were burnt to the stake, not even Galileo was.

randysalami 1mo ago
Well be weird and be careful. Easier said than done. Because yes most people would rather want to bring you down to their level than try to rise up to yours e.g. Jesus Christ. Because of fear, doubt, and insecurity that they can not stand alone or that you standing alone is a threat to theirs.
- butlike 1mo ago
  Keep the weird in the art. People don't mind as much if the weird is bounded by 4 corners and a frame; they secretly want to view it.
boonzeet 1mo ago
Galileo may not have been burnt at the stake, but he was placed on house arrest for the rest of his life for his beliefs.
- altho123 1mo ago
  Sure, where he was free to pursue his researches. Not saying it was right, but hardly what the article claims.
stillpointlab 1mo ago
I think this is a narrow take, a bit like suggesting that women weren't historically discriminated against and putting forward Cleopatra as an example. Surely, rich and noble eccentrics have existed in the past with several notable examples. But to point at exceptions and then suggests that this proves that no underlying trend is present seems like incorrect reasoning.
- altho123 1mo ago
  I think the burden of proof would be on the one making the claim than in the past (so I guess from now to 6000 years ago ? In which region ? Which circumstances ?) being weird would result in having you killed. To my knowledge this is a common take in popular culture, but I don't think we have much evidence that this was the case. Modern medievalists know tend to say that the Spanish inquisition resulted in between 3000-5000 over it's 350 years of existence. That's about 14 a year on average. For comparison, since 1819, the state of Texas executed 1,349 people.
  - stillpointlab 1mo ago
    I think we might just end up in an argument about what constitutes "weird", or an argument about how good record keeping for killings over the last 6000 years have been. Although I think we could agree that Texas keeps better records about such things compared to villages in the dark ages. Even then, no record of why a violent act was committed likely would have mentioned "weird" and might only mention a dispute between neighbors, or an individual targeted by a mob. Then we might argue over per-capita or some other nit-picky thing. At any rate, it appears the Witch Trials of 1400-1775 saw ~40k-60k people killed [1]. And in modern times, it is reported for example that ~20k people have been put to death in Tanzania for witchcraft [2]. While poking around Google and Wikipedia for this, it appears that in more stable societies the prevalence of these kinds of mass hysteria are low. However there appears to be sufficient evidence that during times of severe economic hardship, standard societal protections falter. In those circumstances, anyone deemed a burden or an omen of bad luck was at risk. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witch_trials_in_the_early_modern_period https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witch_trials_in_the_early_mode... 2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_witch_hunts#Tanzania https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_witch_hunts#Tanzania
2snakes 1mo ago
Dean Radin talked about psi genes that witches may have had in an interview with Rogan. When someone is acting truly unpredictably then normies are afraid.

randysalami 1mo ago

Well be weird and be careful. Easier said than done. Because yes most people would rather want to bring you down to their level than try to rise up to yours e.g. Jesus Christ. Because of fear, doubt, and insecurity that they can not stand alone or that you standing alone is a threat to theirs.

butlike 1mo ago
Keep the weird in the art. People don't mind as much if the weird is bounded by 4 corners and a frame; they secretly want to view it.

boonzeet 1mo ago

Galileo may not have been burnt at the stake, but he was placed on house arrest for the rest of his life for his beliefs.

altho123 1mo ago
Sure, where he was free to pursue his researches. Not saying it was right, but hardly what the article claims.

stillpointlab 1mo ago

I think this is a narrow take, a bit like suggesting that women weren't historically discriminated against and putting forward Cleopatra as an example. Surely, rich and noble eccentrics have existed in the past with several notable examples. But to point at exceptions and then suggests that this proves that no underlying trend is present seems like incorrect reasoning.

altho123 1mo ago
I think the burden of proof would be on the one making the claim than in the past (so I guess from now to 6000 years ago ? In which region ? Which circumstances ?) being weird would result in having you killed. To my knowledge this is a common take in popular culture, but I don't think we have much evidence that this was the case. Modern medievalists know tend to say that the Spanish inquisition resulted in between 3000-5000 over it's 350 years of existence. That's about 14 a year on average. For comparison, since 1819, the state of Texas executed 1,349 people.
- stillpointlab 1mo ago
  I think we might just end up in an argument about what constitutes "weird", or an argument about how good record keeping for killings over the last 6000 years have been. Although I think we could agree that Texas keeps better records about such things compared to villages in the dark ages. Even then, no record of why a violent act was committed likely would have mentioned "weird" and might only mention a dispute between neighbors, or an individual targeted by a mob. Then we might argue over per-capita or some other nit-picky thing. At any rate, it appears the Witch Trials of 1400-1775 saw ~40k-60k people killed [1]. And in modern times, it is reported for example that ~20k people have been put to death in Tanzania for witchcraft [2]. While poking around Google and Wikipedia for this, it appears that in more stable societies the prevalence of these kinds of mass hysteria are low. However there appears to be sufficient evidence that during times of severe economic hardship, standard societal protections falter. In those circumstances, anyone deemed a burden or an omen of bad luck was at risk. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witch_trials_in_the_early_modern_period https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witch_trials_in_the_early_mode... 2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_witch_hunts#Tanzania https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_witch_hunts#Tanzania

2snakes 1mo ago

Dean Radin talked about psi genes that witches may have had in an interview with Rogan. When someone is acting truly unpredictably then normies are afraid.