#historical bias

[uwmspeccoll]

Livy’s Admittedly Biased History of Early Rome

Throughout all of written history there has been one commonality in all works of this kind. Due to the nature of humans, we all have preferences and experiences that make up biases, and thus every text about history is biased. It doesn’t matter whether the events were recorded at the moment of their occurrence or thousands of years after the fact. Even works with multiple authors are not free of bias due to differing views, but rather have multiple different biases. There is no way to remove bias for historical sources, so the question now is how do historians provide the reader with a clear recreation of past events?

On of the oldest solutions I have found comes from the 1st century BCE Roman historian Livy. The copy found in our library, titled Livy: The History of Early Rome, is a 1960 Limited Editions Club production, with a translation by Aubrey de Selincourt and illustrations by Raffaele Scorzelli, printed in Verona at the famed Officina Bodoni by Giovanni Mardersteig in an edition of 1500 copies signed by Mardersteig and Scorzelli . Despite the legendary tales of rivers protecting generals and consuls battling dragons, Livy is still able to provide the reader with an acceptable history due to what he says at the beginning of his work. In the first few pages of this lengthy read, Livy plainly tells the reader about his bias, stating that he believes Rome is the greatest civilization to have ever existed. This is then followed by both a hope that this view will not affect his writings and an instruction to remember this hope.

Livy’s histories do fall into the land of fiction at various points, yet with that instruction, readers have the ability to understand why they are present and hopefully can better interpret the events behind the legend.

View more of my Classics posts.

-- LauraJean, Special Collections Undergraduate Classics Intern

[retro-ramblings]

hearing academics talk openly about bias in academia is healing my soul a bit

this is specifically about a professor of mine who is a British Historian. today we were supposed to be discussing the late Victorian and early Edwardian period. he spent a not insignificant amount of class time discussing how we need to be actively looking at what historians are not talking about, and how it’s very easy with the wealth of historical knowledge we have to purposefully ignore certain aspects. in particular, we were talking about women’s rights and the Suffragettes.

we have limited time in this course, and a very small amount of it is dedicated to the Victorian reforms under Gladstone (and others). he made a POINT to mention the Divorce Act. and to tell us that he was mentioning it purposefully.

he went on a rant about how easy it would have been for him to skip over that, to skip over the Cat and Mouse Act, the Contagious Disease Act of 1864, etc etc. but he didn’t.

there’s something very refreshing about academics, especially older male academics, being transparent about the censorship that happens in discussions of history.

[world-prayers]

The Truth About History: is it Fact Or Fiction?

Unveiling the Biases: The Truth About History May Be More Fiction Than Fact. Prepare to question everything you thought you knew. Have you ever wondered if the history you learned in school portrays the past accurately? What if the very act of recording history is inherently subjective, susceptible to manipulation and bias? This unsettling possibility has become a burning question in the minds…

[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

[alwaysbewoke]

“The American Revolution was not revolutionary.” Since the colonial rebellion maintained the same slavery, wealth inequity, and power of White elites it had under Britain, was it just another war?

x

[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"

[vintagefashionplates]

Madeleine Vionnet

Designer Madeleine Vionnet (1876 – 1975) was one of Europe's greatest couturiers, famous for pioneering the revolutionary 'bias-cut' dress, draped expertly over the body, which changed the shape of women's fashion.

[spot-the-antisemitism]

Wikipedia is already questionable resource whenever you look at something that is even mildly controversial. However, I find it interesting to look at double standards regarding genocides.

Exhibit A: Holodomor and current war in Ukraine.

You can make an easy case that Holodomor was genocide against Ukrainians, yet when you go to wikipedia section:

"While scholars are in consensus that the cause of the famine was man-made,[9][10] whether the Holodomor was directed at Ukrainians, or whether it constitutes a genocide, remain in dispute."

Current war also falls within Lemkin's definition since it's been proven and confirmed by Russians themselves that Ukrainian children are being taken away and "re-educated" (and forced assimilation falls under genocide). Wikipedia lists that under Allegations of genocide.

There is no academic consensus or international recognition and wikipedia treats it that way.

Exhibit B: (((Zionists)))

There is a wikipedia page for Allegations of genocide, and there is also already dedicated Gaza genocide page. Yup, no international recognition or proof required.

Israel has been accused by experts, governments, UN agencies and non-governmental organisations of carrying out a genocide against the Palestinian population

Well if Experts (tm) concluded so, it must be true. Can we check those experts? What would happen if I pressed CTRL+F and typed "Al Jazeera" ? Oh look, 77 results.

And article is beyond biased and bloated.

When you go to international support Vatican is listed as maybe supporting the decision to call it a genocide and that is based on Pope allegedly saying he thought it was genocide. Yes, allegedly, there is literally no proof it ever happened.

And then you have cultural discourse section which can basically be summarized as "X celebrity said it was genocide."

So Holodomor gets "maybe it was genocide" while current war in Gaza gets "it's a genocide, Al Jazeera, Greta Thunberg and Taliban said so"

______

And when you go to List of genocides page you get another example of double standards.

This is Holodomor summary on that page:

The Holodomor also known as the Ukrainian Famine was a man-made famine in Soviet Ukraine from 1932 to 1933 that killed millions of Ukrainians. The Holodomor was part of the wider Soviet famine of 1930–1933 which affected the major grain-producing areas of the Soviet Union.While scholars are in consensus that the cause of the famine was man-made,[230]whether or not the Holodomor was intentional and therefore constitutes a genocide under the Genocide Convention is debated by scholars.[231][232]

This is Gaza "genocide" summary:

Israel has been accused by experts, governments, UN agencies and non-governmental organizations of carrying out a genocide against the Palestinian population during its invasion and bombing of Gaza during the ongoing Israel–Hamas war.[8][9] By March 2024, after five months of attacks, Israeli military action had resulted in the deaths of over 31,500 Palestinians – 1 out of every 75 people in Gaza – averaging 195 killings a day,[10] and nearly 40,000 confirmed deaths by July. Although illustrative, medical reports from July 2024 onward suggest the current number could be around 186,000 deaths.[7] Most of the victims are civilians,[11][12] including over 25,000 women and children[13][14] and 108 journalists.[15] Thousands more dead bodies are under the rubble of destroyed buildings.[16][17][18] By March 2024, 374 healthcare workers in Gaza had been killed.[19] An enforced Israeli blockade has heavily contributed to starvation and the threat of famine in the Gaza Strip, while Israeli forces prevented humanitarian supplies from reaching the Palestinian population, blocking or attacking humanitarian convoys. Early in the conflict, Israel also cut off water and electricity supply from the Gaza Strip.

Holodomor description is short and concise while this one is double its length with constant attempts at emotional manipulation. Constant reminder how (((they))) are evil with casualty numbers pulled out the ass. Only thing missing in this summary is paragraph dedicated to production of blood matzah.

So in case of Holodomor you have to prove that there was a genocide, while in case of Gaza you have to prove that it isn't a genocide. Oh wait, you also can't do that because any pro Israeli source is considered to be biased by wikipedia mods and page is locked anyways.

Dear anon,

nice work there

108 journalists sounds like a nazi dogwhistle that snuck into this tankie circlejerk

We really do need to take wikipedia back from these holodomor denying antisemites

these people wouldn't know a genocide even if they were the sole survivor of the mass murder of their own ethnic group

Baltimore (most prolific pro-pal and anti lgbt and anti native wikipedia editor) you lone wolf terrorist for fucks sake touch some grass

yours,

Cecil

[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.

[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!

[uncanny-tranny]

I love giving advice, apparently, so if you are a newly pierced person or are planning on being pierced, here are some of the things I found helpful, as somebody who isn't a professional piercer but has had six plus piercings on my face and body, and multiple ear piercings (which I don't count, since I DIY'd them):

Normal bath towels are your enemy, proceed with caution after bathing. NEVER wipe moisture away from a fresh piercing, always pat it dry

You will hit a new piercing and it will hurt. This is inevitable, just know that you likely haven't destroyed it. Feel free to cry, though, it hurts like hell.

If your piercer gives you instructions, heed them. If you're on restrictions, please take it as seriously as possible

When you're going in for a piercing, please eat or drink something - at least what constitutes as a snack for your body. It really helps

If you're getting an oral piercing, make sure you size down after the healing period - I hadn't sized down for my last oral piercing when I first had the chance, and it was... so annoying to have too-large of jewelry

Not all jewelry is made equally. Do your research on materials, threading, and sizing. I've found that titanium jewelry is really nice for me, and I like it, but that isn't the only option. Make sure you think about your body and its needs and preferences

Close your eyes while being pierced (I found this really helps me)

Don't over-clean a new piercing, twice per day is usually a good place to start

The completed healing period is a very average suggestion - you may heal slower or faster. Try to adhere to that suggestion, though, especially if you do not feel you're healed enough

Personally, I have found that I am completely healed when my piercing feels like just another part of my body, even when it is touched. When my piercings start to feel as though they are foreign when they never do before, I know I likely need to clean them

While I have DIY'd piercings, I personally do not recommend it, especially if you are either not using sterilized equipment, or are piercing a very dangerous place (like the tongue). If you are absolutely positive about committing to the DIY mindset, please try to do due diligence in research at least

Tip your piercer. Body mods are a luxury service, and it takes years to even become a piercer, much less to be proficient at it. Tip your piercer, ESPECIALLY if their prices feel too good to be true - they likely are. Unless you are directed otherwise by your piercer, just assume that you will be tipping them for their services and budget accordingly

Make sure you understand how your piercer wants you to take care of your piercing, and ask questions. There is no question too "dumb"

If you are getting a body part pierced you are insecure about, realize your piercer has most likely seen HUNDREDS of different body parts of various sizes, shapes, and oddities. Your body is not uniquely bad, nor would a good piercer make you feel unwelcome or uncomfortable with your body. If they do, however, DO NOT go through with the piercing. You should feel safe being pierced by somebody, and, indeed, that is the bare minimum.

If you use saline wash to clean piercings, you can DIY it. You will go through NeilMed like no other, and with it being $5USD a bottle, that price can rack up quickly. Make sure you use distilled water and non-iodized salt, though

If your piercing is infected, please don't be too ashamed to seek help. It's in your best interest to make sure you don't get ill or your site gets nasty ("nasty" as in painful)

These are just some of the things I've learned being a pierced person! My piercings are something I absolutely needed, and I do not for a minute regret having them. I want that same happiness to befall you, and that happens when you are able to understand a bit more what goes into piercings. You are, essentially, getting a new body part installed by a pro, and so I don't want you to not be ready for that.

Again, I am not a professional piercer, but am rather a body piercing enthusiast with many different types of piercings. I don't have every piercing, though, so please look at this critically for the piercing(s) that you want or have. At least, treat this like a soft suggestion or ways to help you brainstorm what you will find helpful.

More tips are obviously welcomed, especially if you yourself have more insight or expertise. Good luck to every pierced person or future pierced person reading this💛

[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.

[brick-van-dyke]

If there's one thing I've respectively noticed from Zionists and defenders of Israeli war crimes, it's that every source, argument and potential avenue to explore each explanation is riddled with cherry picking, moving the goalposts and mental gymnastics to explain why their conclusions, which typically are barely even related to the sources they use, somehow overshadow literal reality and what we see with our own eyes.

While scrolling, one example I came across was the repetitive misrepresentation of BLM, antifa and quotes from Martin Luther King Jr, as well as statistics, scholarly journal articles and government website information. These are all good sources, yet every single time they're mangled completely until the only possible "interpretation" of any of them is "well Israel is right to defend itself after shorting rockets beforehand because the retaliation was brutal and all Arabs are bad by default therefore". As if any of these sources are even about individual exceptions of Israel versus hatred towards Arabs.

I think what I find most absurd, as someone in the middle of their own studies, is how every bit of critical thinking and logic goes out the window as they do every single thing possible to do what professors worldwide say NOT to do when evaluating sources. It's like watching a race to see who can tangle and misconstrue scientific information to fit their world view the fastest. Then said people say "um actually I studied at university before so it's actually not wrong that I'm doing this exact this everyone is warned not to do because I have a permit". Ignorance I can forgive, but willful and arrogant manipulation? That's another thing entirely.

[alwaysbewoke]

How the new Assassins Creed conversation is going for some reason (sadly very true)