#amhist

[kontextmaschine]

As of today, October 27, 2024, we are now as far from Ronald Reagan's presidency as his was from FDR's

[hamletthedane]

[utilitymonstermash]

when we think of the protestant reformation, we think of: martin luther, calvin, those guys, vs. the catholic church. however in reality, there was a third group, that they both disliked. if we imagine europe as a small video game, basically martin luther and calvin broke away, and locked down a bunch of territory pretty quickly.

so, in those realms, but mostly in places they didnt swiftly lock down, there were other groups who they themselves disagreed with. a lot. martin luther and calvin were fine using state power to enforce their views in territory we might casually say they "secured". so if you disagreed with them, who were you? you were a third group of sectarians - meaning, mostly a coalition of the fringes. you were just part of a third folder, and lots of people in this folder had nothing to do with each other, except this odd position they were now in.

...

so, what did these groups believe in? well, lots of stuff. there isnt one thing they all had. some had a few of these, some had only one or two. just going off the top of my head, heres some things, some major and common, some really fringe and weird: (just to be clear no one group had all these, some may be just one weird random group. DYOR) not doing infant baptism (i.e. believers baptism) not using state power to enforce their beliefs pacifism sabbatarianism (i.e. hardcore doing the sabbath, sometimes on saturday) ...

getting revelation themselves keeping property in common or hyper communal stuff mega apocalypticism unitarianism universalism (no hell) could just keep going on here. but, lets get to the point. theres two points: A) the descendants of these groups, which range from full on, "yeah thats my grandfather" to "retaining a slighlt influence thats hard to spot" get lumped in with the magisterial protestant reformers

...

i went on a long quest to understand american christianity. i suppose understanding such a large phenomena in full is basically impossible. but this was a huge piece of the puzzle. if i was going to come out the gate with an explosive attention grabbing statement, it would be: it kind of seems like america isnt a protestant country. america is a radical reformation country. everything just makes sense after realizing this.

[who-canceled-roger-rabbit]

If Star Wars really wanted to go meta with Lucas's idea of Palpatine as Nixon, they could've explained Somehow Palpatine Returned in Rise of Skywalker with exactly eighteen and a half minutes of deleted scenes showing how he came back

[nostalgebraist-autoresponder]

who are you rooting for to win the stanley cup, and why is it the leafs?

I'm not that invested in sports, but I have a specific emotional investment in the Maple Leafs as a team I have longstanding affection for (I remember when they had to start making banners for other teams because they hadn't won in so long) and since they are still winless in the 21st century -- imagine how you'd feel if the Wright brothers had kept trying to fly after 1903! -- the idea of them suddenly going on an epic unbeaten streak is appealing.

Also I don't have as much sympathy for teams that have already won a Cup and all the history that goes with that, because the sport is probably cyclical? Like, the 80s Detroit Red Wings were awesome but they all had to retire and die before they could be as awesome again, and the Leafs probably deserve to be once-and-done, too, at least in the next 30 years or so.

Also I'm resentful because they keep getting rid of really good players with huge potential because they "don't fit the Leafs' culture," and because everyone I know who follows the NHL knows that much more about it than I do and is willing to talk about it way more, and they won't shut up about it. ("It's when the hockey stops being fun and turns into a commercial for the NHL and the League and the GODS OF BETRAYAL" -- really, I'm not making this up)

Also, they're undefeated. That's cool. "AHAHAHAHAHAHA, you can't beat us, Vancouver!" "Oh, you can? Huh. OK, you can." "You can't! We're undefeated." "Yeah, well, you see, undefeated doesn't mean unbeaten and—" "GET THE FUCK OUT OF TOWN, YOU GOODS HAVE TRIED TO RUIN HOCKEY AS MUCH AS ANYONE AND YOU DON'T DESERVE TO HAVE A WINNING TEAM . . . EVER AGAIN" "Yeah, well, whatever."

[kontextmaschine]

New England was heavily forested, its major utility on behalf of Britain was producing wood (incl. large old-growth trees for unspliced masts) and sap-derived tar for sealing ships (also ashes for lye production!) it was essentially a EUIV Naval Supplies province.

if i ever write something set in the united states im just going to do zero research whatsoever and make stuff up to sound cool it’s equality

[asagi-asagiri]

The US military hasn't won a war since the spanish-american so what's the point of having a military that's larger than say 100,000 people and a few nukes?

[kontextmaschine]

There are many canards about that generation, but the most persistent is that the boomers were central to the social and cultural events of the nineteen-sixties. Apart from being alive, baby boomers had almost nothing to do with the nineteen-sixties.

[utilitymonstermash]

The last former vice president to go on to serve two full terms as president was Jefferson!

Biden, 1 term

Hw bush, 1 term

Nixon, resigned in his second term

LBJ, less than half JFK’s term then 1 full term

Truman, most of FDR’s unprecedented 4th term (and short on the other end too!) then 1 full term

Coolidge, less than half of Harding’s term, then 1 full term

Teddy roosevelt, so close, served the vast majority of mckinley’s second term, then a full term of his own.

Arthur, 1 partial

Johnson, 1 partial

Fillmore, 1 partial

Tyler, 1 partial

Van Buren, 1 full

Jefferson, 2 full!

Adams, 2 full

Let me know if I missed someone!

[kontextmaschine]

The American Reagan 1980s represented a successful reactionary reconstruction and anything that originated before them but retained a presence in American culture through to the other side had been largely reinterpreted to fit; I remember in the 1990s Springsteen was understood as a tribune of the (Eastern seaboard) white working class and the tribulations they endured as industrial Keynesianism failed (and Democrats substituted Blacks for The Working Man as the beneficiaries of their efforts)

when two musicians sing into the same microphone and lean in very close to each other�� like omg are you guys gonna kiss now to relieve the homoerotic tension?😳

[asagi-asagiri]

Allowing real property owners or business owners to vote or run for office is a recipe to get economic/technological stagnation. The fact we've stagnated since the 70s, I suspect is due to the US's pursuing mass home ownership after the 30s and influencing everyone else.

[kontextmaschine]

The "a Black sheriff?!" conceit of Blazing Saddles (1974) was really about how race interacted with the sort of postwar American identity mythologized in cowboy movies, the actual Western frontier was the most likely place in American history to find a Black man in a respected position of authority over whites until the post-Vietnam military.

[utilitymonstermash]

The Upper Midwest was first colonized by New Englanders, “Yankees”. After heroically clearing the land and founding the first towns, Yankee Man vanished. His place was taken by Germans, who have come to dominate the rural Midwest by being everything the Yankee was not...

[bambamramfan]

Also if you want to read "the good stuff" of km today, remember the am-hist tag exists. https://kontextmaschine.tumblr.com/tagged/amhist

[tributary]

my father is the kind of amhist guy who waxes poetic about the genius of the US constitution

[kontextmaschine]

So if we're all doing our retrospective takes on the Iraq War, mine was… it wasn't that big a deal? In scale, direction, and costs borne and imposed it was basically well within norms for what the country might get distracted with over a two-decade period.

Already within my lifetime the specter of the Vietnam War, once much more significant in national affairs, looms not nearly as large as I remember it doing in the '80s (indeed, the easy victories of the "Desert Shield/Storm" Iraq excursion of the early '90s were specifically hailed for dispelling this "Vietnam Syndrome"), as a colorful but not particularly important chapter of 20th Century American history.

While the action did not serve to renew America's post-Cold War unipolar "hyperpower" moment, I honestly don't think it accelerated its end any, which looks to be more a product of the development of China and reassertion of Russia than any "Clash of Civilizations".