#historical bias

[geopolicraticus]

TODAY IN PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY

George Trevelyan and Historical Objectivity

Friday 16 February 2024 is the 148th anniversary of the birth of George Macaulay Trevelyan (16 February 1876 – 21 July 1962), who was born in Stratford-upon-Avon on this date in 1876.

Trevelyan wrote during the heyday of empire but lived long enough to see the end of empire, and he began as an academic who eventually left academia to become a full time writer of history—very successfully, as it turns out, as Trevelyan became one of the most widely read historians of his time. In this episode I discuss Trevelyan’s 1947 essay, “Bias in History,” which can serve as an introduction to the problem of objectivity in history.

Quora:              https://philosophyofhistory.quora.com/ 

Discord:           https://discord.gg/r3dudQvGxD

Links:              https://jnnielsen.carrd.co/

Newsletter:      http://eepurl.com/dMh0_-/

Podcast:           https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/nick-nielsen94/episodes/George-Trevelyan-and-Historical-Objectivity-e2fs15g

[natalunasans]

wikipedia bias

as a teacher i have always said that wikipedia was just as good as any other encyclopedia for finding the basics of your topic, but now (at least on jewish subjects) i have to reconsider that opinion.

WJC study on wikipedia bias re: zionism / israel tldr of above change.org petition about the wikipedia bias

gif id: people from a variety of ethnicities and genders with a sign that says "the fight against antisemitism is intersectional"

[dawnfelagund]

At the Tolkien at UVM Conference this year, I presented a paper on Grief, Grieving, and Permission to Mourn in the Quenta Silmarillion. The paper is now posted on my website and the Silmarillion Writers' Guild. Here are some highlights:

The Quenta Silmarillion is a dangerous time to be alive! Eighty-eight named characters die ninety deaths in its pages. While some demographics are slightly better off than others, the key word there is slightly. No one is safe.

War is the number one cause of death in the Quenta Silmarillion.

There is a surprising lack of grief and mourning, and what exists reflects the bias of the narrator Pengolodh.

Characters disfavored by Pengolodh (or his patrons) don't receive grief and mourning, which draws attention away from their humanity and toward their deeds as explanations of the history of the First Age. (The Fëanorians, Aredhel, and Maeglin are prime examples here.)

Those who receive the most grief and mourning are those not just favored by Pengolodh and his patrons but often those whose deaths raise moral and ethical questions that threaten their legacy. In particular, Pengolodh likes to attribute some power beyond the grave to kings who make choices that threaten their people's safety but who, politically, are not subjects for his condemnation: Fingolfin, Finrod Felagund, and Elu Thingol. This piling on of grief shows that these kings' people regard their legacy as positive, and the posthumous after-effects negate the argument that they endangered their people with their choices. Instead, they are permitted to protect and restore from beyond the grave.

The complete paper has the full details!

[marzipanandminutiae]

Yknow sometimes I think about collecting more antique clothing to wear but then I remember that I'm 5'10" and ladies weren't that tall back then

Oh, they were! Just fewer of them (throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, average height fluctuated as low as 2" below the modern average, or as close to it as no difference at all). And their clothing is less likely to survive, because larger or longer garments could be more easily cut down to make clothing for smaller relatives and/or children. That's called "survivorship bias," and in clothing history, it's the reason small clothes tend to be overrepresented in museums. There are other factors, like formal milestones for which clothing might be a significant memento happening mostly early in life, when you're at your smallest adult size, but that's the most relevant one to your situation.

Also, don't feel too bad- a lot of antique clothing isn't wearable for not immediately obvious reasons. From concerns about silk "shattering," a form of damage that's literally unrepairable, to iron mordants in black dye making black garments fall apart faster over time, your best bet re: wearing antiques is to stick to things like undergarments and maybe blouses and outerwear. Sad but true.

[leonardoeatscarrots]

BAHAHAHA REALLY THOUGH

It's so goofy to me that there is a very real group of people who just fuckin hate his ass and will try an make any excuse they can to just invalidate his books

Been seeing more people saying "the rasputin assasination is a mystery because history is so biased in Felix’s favor 🤡🤡"

Which would be a valid point except that it's literally not?? Again, most accounts of the assasination leave out major details that Felix has stated or directly contradicts his claims. In fact a lot of adaptations end up STRAIGHT UP CENSORING CONTENT. Which,,, is not really """biased in his favor""" imo. Like it's kinda the other thing.

But I guess "biased in his favor" is a vague term so anything goes or something.

Maybe historians are just homophobic. Haha.

I'm not kidding, unfortunately.

But no. I'm SURE it was all fake and he made it all up, and they made the murder bad on purpose and all the letter correspondence was fake too and it was all just an elaborate cover for the British to do it. /s

But honestly, that would just be an even more impressive feat.

Don't even get me started. (I have already started)

But honestly, don't even trust me. I'm not ""professionally educated"" or anything. This is a meme page. I feel like I can't even provide a good argument because I haven't even read La Fin De Raspoutine. My toolbox is half empty here. I genuinely want to have a better picture of what the truth is but umm easier said than done ig.

Tldr:

They hate to see a girl boss winning 💅

(Also I'm mad about it)

Love reading about Rasputin's death and seeing shit like "We have nooooo idea what hit Rasputin on the head" or some other detail like that that was absolutely mentioned in Felix’s memoirs.

Like I get that Felix’s memoirs aren't entirely reliable. Shit just happens that way. But you can't honestly tell me you have NO clue when the guy who did it says, "Oh yeah, it was a rubber bat, lmao." And doesn't have a reason to lie about it.

It's not definitive proof in any way, but that's still better than nothing.

I also love when folks give me the whole "I think the reason he talks about himself so much before the murder is to make you trust him even though hes a murderer" as if he's some kind of big-brained mastermind manipulator. This is Mr Felix "Purishkevich shot my dog" Yusupov. He has the persuasion of a kindergartener.

""That's exactly what he wants you to think.""

Honestly, idgaf if Lost Splendor is exaggerated or inaccurate. In my opinion, the accounts from there are pretty reasonable if you take out the rich layer of devoutly religious. Far better than any other adaptation I've seen.

But besides that it's funny. It's actually entertaining. It's well constructed.

It's biased, but there's something distinctly human about that.

It is a. Good. Book.

[chicago-geniza]

Keep undergoing this process where I'll be enjoying The Marriage of Figaro for a minute or so during a soaring aria where nobody is enunciating and then the music recedes into the background and the characters exchange a few lines of expository dialogue and I remember they're speaking German and react like this every time

[ducktracy]

How much Daffy and Porky merch do you own?

more than the average person

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

What's your opinion on malewife/house husband Adrien posts? I asked this to another blog, and like I said to them, I find them a guilty pleasure: The concept is cute, but I know that would be the last thing Adrien would ever wanna be after all his dad put him through.

I don't think that it would be the last thing that Adrien would ever want. I actually think it suits his character in a lot of ways, you just have to handle the topic with care.

First let's talk about why it suits him.

Miraculous has totally failed to give Adrien any sort of career-based passion and - if we ignore the senti complication - I honestly love that for him! I want more characters with no major life ambitions to balance out the Marinettes of the world!

I think that society places way too much pressure and value on finding the perfect career that fulfills us in every way while also allowing us to put food on the table. Most people will never find that and that's okay. It doesn't mean that you've failed or that you're lesser. For most people, the goal is to find a career that pays the bills and that you enjoy enough that you don't hate doing it 40hrs/week. Along similar lines, for most people, your passion will be something that doesn't make money. It will be something like a hobby or spending time with those you love or analyzing badly written French TV shows.

This brings us back to Adrien.

Adrien seems to get a great deal of joy from being around his loved ones and making them happy, so I can absolutely picture him finding a lot of joy in running a home. This is extra true because Marinette is pretty clearly career driven and she's planning to go into a creative field, so she'll probably have a pretty crazy schedule and struggle to stay on top of it all. Having a loving husband to take things like cooking and cleaning off of her plate would be a blessing and a gift that she'd greatly appreciate, but that would feel unbalanced if Adrien was working, too. (Yes, they could hire staff, but that risks the secret identity thing, so I don't see them doing that.)

If they both have power careers, then they'd barely see each other and I hate that for them. I think that it would make Adrien incredibly sad and depressed. Plus, while Marinette thrives off of competition and staying busy, only needing occasional breaks before diving right back in, Adrien seems to hate busy schedules and heavy work loads.

Given all of that, I think that there's a lot to be said for Adrien stepping away from the working world. Especially since he's been in it for years and being a child celebrity is no joke! I think it would be nice for him to escape from strict schedules and expectations. Dinner fails? Order takeout!

While we're on the topic of food, I really like the idea of Adrien falling in love with cooking. Dude needs a creative outlet and that's honestly a great one (I hate it when people write characters as unable to figure out cooking like it's some cute quirk. While an initial struggle is believable, it's not a mystical art that takes years of practice. Between YouTube, the wider Internet, and maybe some classes if he wants to get fancy, I think that he'll be fine.) There's so much variety with what you can do in the kitchen and the end result gets to be shared and appreciated by those you love. It just seems like a perfect fit for him, but I would never make him a professional chef because the hours are insane and the pressure to be perfect is high. I only see him loving it as a hobby where he can go at his own pace, take days off, and make lazy meals when he's not feeling like being a show off.

The big concerns that come with making him a homemaker are a lack of financial independence and a lack of socialization. I don't see the first thing as an issue for Adrien since he comes from a wealthy family, so that one doesn't phase me.

The isolation could very easily be an issue, but it could just as easily be a problem if he started working, too. It's not as if a job is a sure way to have friends or even just consistent positive social interactions, which is another reason why I don't really see a need to give him a traditional job. You can get a vibrant social life in lots of other ways.

Here are the two big things that I keep in mind when writing an Adrien-as-a-homemaker or similar setup as it is where I tend to have Adrien land for all of the above reasons:

Adrien needs to be active in some organization or project. Volunteer work is a good fit as is being an active stay-at-home parent or some combination of the two. Voice acting is also on my radar, but my default is to have him act as the head of team miraculous' out-of-battle activities. Scheduling meet and greets. Going to see sick kids. Jetting around the world for humanitarian aid missions. Basically let Chat Noir be his "career" which gives him a lot of much needed flexibility for making his own schedule, especially if he's a stay-at-home parent to any eventual kids. I also like the poetic nature of Adrien finally being proud to be the face of a "brand" via his hero side while his civilian side becomes just some guy that people kind of remember from old ads.

Consider having a non-traditional living arrangement. I am a big fan of hero teams living together, so my default is to take the Agreste mansion and remodel it into a secret HQ for the team. Adrien and Marinette would have their own apartment/wing/whatever, but they'd still be surrounded by their found family on a near-daily basis, so that social isolation is the last thing on Adrien's mind. There's almost always someone to hang out with! You could also just have Alya and Nino or other friends live in the same apartment building so that they're over a lot/Adrien has a place to hang when Marinette is working late because you know that she'd do that.

Basically, Adrien's rich, so he doesn't need to make money and he doesn't seem to have any interest in a normal job, so I really like letting him having a unique life where he doesn't have a traditional job. He is a superhero, after all. Unique career paths are pretty par for the course. You just have to be careful to make sure that all of this feels like his fully informed and carefully considered choice and not like you forced it on him to make Marinette's life perfect (I only brought her up earlier because this is a story and it makes sense to design characters around each other). I usually do this by sending Adrien to therapy in his late teens or by giving him some other parth of self discovery.

Do note that all of the above is inspired by my read of Adrien which may be totally different from your read of him and that's fine! I just can't picture him as someone who thrives in a traditional career path based on knowing people who strike me as similar to him and from whom I draw my understanding of how to write that part of Adrien's character. I think that he'd be perfectly able to have a traditional career path, but I also think that he'd be pretty miserable for a lot of reasons.

I'll also note that I'm not sure what posts spawned this ask, so there may be elements of those that I'd have criticisms of. This post was about the general concept of Adrien being a homemaker. I tend to avoid the broader fandom for my own sanity and the use of the term "malewife" has me concerned that I'm implying support of something I wouldn't actually support because that's a new one for me and it sounds incredibly sexist.

I'm not a fan of implying that the default definition of "wife" is "submissive homemaker" so a man taking on a homemaking role is clearly submissive and acting like a woman does while his aggressive, domineering wife is acting like a man, which is the definition of this word that I'm finding online and yikes! Wife and husband are legal/social status in my book. They are not clearly defined jobs/roles/personality types, so I'm not a fan of using gendered terms to refer to stuff like this especially since I do actively try to use gender neutral words in my own writing whenever I can, though I'm certainly far from perfect on that front.

I also don't see homemaking as a submissive act. It certainly can be, but that's not how I picture Adrien at all! I picture him as relaxed and plesent, but 100% in charge of the home and all choices about how it's run. I also see him being in charge of their finances like homemakers often were in the "old days" since they were the ones in charge of things like scheduling cleaners, buying food, and other things that needed strong budgeting skills while the person who worked wasn't actually spending money or managing the home since they were at work. I like to think that Nathalie would prep Adrien to be a wealthy man and so he'd have strong skills in finance management.

[settons]

I'm basically like if a princess was in heavy armor dragging around a greatsword when you think about it

[opens-up-4-nobody]

...

[oddlittlestories]

I have researched how to use bias tape to finish necklines. I now understand it which is an entirely separate step in the process.

Why do sewing tutorials always go: deep explanation -> deep explanation -> skip a step / gloss over something so smoothly I didn’t realize it WAS a step at first -> deep explanation

[postcard-from-the-past]

Bia River in Ivory Coast

French vintage postcard, photographed by Fortier

[lady-corrine]

Some of you do not know how to read Fire and Blood regarding Rhaenyra and it truly shows:

[deoraxde]

smash or pass france

Smash or Pass (accepting)

❝Smash but let me make myself clear !! It is not for revenge reasons against my family! It's for totally personal, yet totally political reasons that I would ever consider doing something like that! Even then, it would be a one time thing! Just ONCE and never again! Because honestly... Who doesn't like a little bit of romance? Who doesn't like a wee bit of scandal? All things considered, it could be a lot of fun all over again... Ah, but that's a story for another day I suppose. What was I saying? Oh, right, smash I guess.❞

[koco-coko]

Koco's official suitor tier list (until galileo and francis eng routes arrive)

Tier 1: THE suitors. I love them a bit too much and I wanna just rhhajgdhsghadgdsgRAHHHH you know what I mean. Theodorus was kinda a jumpscare in there, though. I was expecting to hate his route but I was smitten

Tier 2:

Arthur has a bit of bias since he was my first route but... you know.

William Dazai and Mozart are all in the same level of "oh way i didnt mind those routes too much." I also was obsessed with William when I first saw him.... he actually got me into the game....

Still going through Vlad's but it's so melodramatic it's fun. Also he's just a silly little guy.

Tier 3: With all of them it's the same story: I like them better when I'm not dating them... Like, it makes me wish for friendship routes almost haha.

Tier 4:

I love Vincent. One of my favorites. I love him in game. He was actually a huge inspo for me when I was young, too. He's my angel baby boy I love him I'd let him cook me anything. That being said... I'm not sure how happy I am about Vincent's mental illnesses in game being so underplayed. Like.... him cutting his ear off is one of the biggest things people know about him irl... and it's not even mentioned? Not even Gaugin is blamed for it?? Personally I have so many hcs about Vincent that he's almost a whole new character. Doesn't mean I don't enjoy ingame Vincent I love him but yk... I don't mind the others either....

Everything I said about Vincent, put that on Jean and double it (even the part about young me looking up to them). I'm sorry but CHANGING THE GENDER OF JOAN OF ARC??? doesnt,, doesnt that defeat the whole.... urggh yeah that one irked me for a while. HOWEVER. If you're big brain like me and hc Jean as transmasc then Jean becomes the best pookie bear in the world. He's so autistic coded (I'm autistic so I may just be projecting) and I love him so much. He's also a silly pookiebear.

So um yeah that's my thoughts on them hehe. If anyone agrees or disagrees lemme know I wanna become more talkative and active on ikevamp tumblr haha

[tianshiisdead]

Japan shaves just about everything. He doesn't think more hair=more manly. He infact has a whole different idea of what is manly compared to western countries or most countries in general. He also likes flowers and floral patterns.

everything?!