Historian Elma Brenner On Medieval Medicine & Disease | HistoryExtra Podcast - HistoryExtra - "One of the things people think about a lot medieval leprosy is the idea of people being outcasts and being excluded from society. There's quite a prominent kind of trope about the leprosy sufferer holding a clapper, which is meant to warn people that they're coming and make people move away so that they won't go anywhere near them. Much recent research has really questioned this. And I have an image on the slide of an individual with a clapper who's clearly being quite active. This is a manuscript in the British Library from about 1500. And this man is kind of moving around and holding the clapper. And really, we can think that he's actually trying to attract attention so that people might give him money. He's trying to say I'm here. I'm a member of society, and I expect you to help me. Indeed, the hospitals for people with leprosy, were a major part of the landscape, and we're clearly supported through considerable charitable donations. I have a slide here of one of the wealthiest hospitals, the one outside Cambridge, which had a very prominent annual fair established at Starbridge, which was something that people from the whole region would flock to, suggesting that they were not that concerned about contagion, and that they were keen to support a worthy cause"
Everything You Wanted To Know About Nazi Germany, With Richard J Evans | HistoryExtra Podcast - HistoryExtra - "[On the Reichstag fire] You got to remember that only a few years before the communists have staged a successful violent revolution in Russia in 1917. And they tried in Hungary, and in particular in Munich. And so, it seems quite plausible. I think they really believed it was a communist, attempted coup. And so they got Hindenburg to declare an emergency...
There is a kind of legend that Hitler walked out as it were, and refused to shake Owens’s hand and so on when he won. But that is a legend because, of course, the Olympic Games in Berlin, which had been decided well before the Nazis came to power, were run by the International Olympic Committee and the head of state does not really have a role...
‘It's interesting, the First World War, where the Allies do not occupy Germany except for a kind of rather superficial occupation of parts of the Rhineland for 10 years or so, and the French occupation of the Ruhr in 1923. But the First World war ended with the Germans still being on foreign soil. And so there was a feeling amongst many Germans, not all Germans, but many Germans that Germany had not really lost the war and outrage at the peace settlement. And so when Germans in the 1920s talked about peacetime, they talked about the years before 1914. There was an idea really quite widespread that the war was unfinished business. Now this is not the case at all in 1945. First of all, Allied troops. So, Americans, British, British imperial troops, Soviet Union Red Army, Free French occupied Germany, Germany was divided into four zones of occupation, Germany lost its sovereignty for a while, and the controls exerted by the occupying forces on any kind of sign of a resurgence of Nazism were very, very tight. But in a way, that wasn't necessary. Because it was quite clear that Nazism had lost. Germany’s cities were in ruins. The leading Nazis had committed suicide and then they were put on trial, there was a massive publicity and the war crimes trials of the crimes of Nazism. And above all, Hitler was dead. So if you go round, if you look at pictures of German graveyards, where German soldiers in the war are buried, it's usually Died fighting for Fuhrer and fatherland. So while there was a lot of national, national consciousness, even national pride during the war, people, soldiers, their families also conceive of themselves as fighting for Hitler. With Hitler dead, there's nothing left to fight for. So there's no resistance. There's a resistance in every country that the Nazis occupied. But there's no German resistance to the occupation by the allies. There is no resurgence of Nazism. The one or two neo nazi movements begin to emerge in West Germany in the 1950s. They're very quickly outlawed and crushed. And this really is a comprehensive defeat.’"
The Field Of The Cloth Of Gold | HistoryExtra Podcast - HistoryExtra - "‘The purpose of the summit was to have a tournament, essentially. The tournament was the way in which medieval elites celebrated peace and peacemaking, somewhat ironically for us. If you can't actually be at war then you have to pretend to be at war. And it was, it was a way in which an honorable ideal of peace could be made, glamorous, exciting, chivalric, to the kinds of people who've got to participate in it and who've got to believe in it. So it's got to accord with with the two kings’ status’"
Francis Drake: Slave Trader | HIstoryExtra Podcast - HistoryExtra - "‘Does that mean that Queen Elizabeth the First and her, her court should be tarred with the same brush as Drake in terms of being slave traders or is that going too far?’
‘No, I think that's absolutely right. Early Modern Elizabethan men and women were not offended by the idea of the slave trade. They believed by and large that enslaving with this idea of conversion was imbuing the enslaved people with everlasting life, access to the Kingdom of Heaven and therefore that justified the loss their land, their freedom, their livelihoods, because that exchange was giving them something that would last for eternity whereas as it was just a temporal exchange that the enslaved people were giving.’...
‘I think the 19th century in particular, the great looked for precursors to the attitudes to Empire and to expansionism and found in the Elizabethan seadogs, what they considered to be kindred spirits. So it's, so it's no coincidence that many of the the statues that are being talked about now, which you mentioned, at the top of our discussion were put up, in in the 19th century, the 19th century is is a time that that constructs its vision of the world on Great Man History.’"
Henry III: Inside The Mind Of A Medieval King | HistoryExtra Podcast - HistoryExtra - "‘What were some of the other impacts of his reign being so long compared to many at the time?’
‘Yeah, I think the, the first, politically the first importance of the reign was the implantation of Magna Carta into political life. And that was partly the way the king’s subjects took it to their hearts. And one of the most interesting discoveries about Magna Carta, in the last few years, has been that it was copied again and again and again. And it was studied and the different versions were compared and contrasted. People wrote memoranda about them. So it was very much the reverse of what some people have sometimes claimed about Magna Carta in the 13th century, that it was a vague document, that no one knew what was in it. Absolutely the, the reverse of that. I remember going to Petersburg in the 2015 anniversary year, and talking about Magna Carta there and stressing this. And it was a group of Russian human rights lawyers. And they were very interesting. They said, gosh, what a contrast to the current Russian constitution. Because the current Russian constitution, got all kinds of good things in it. But no one knows what, what they are. No one knows anything about it. Whereas Magna Carta, everybody, I mean, everyone in the political world knew the detail, as well as the overall principle, which was the king was subject to law. So that was one major event, I think, political event in Henry’s reign. The other of course was the growing power of Parliament. Henry is the first king who has to deal with the power of Parliament. And that's above all the power over the purse strings. So Henry was the first king who needed, because of the restrictions of Magna Carta, because of the diminution of the kings’, kingsship’s landed base, Henry is the first king who needs desperately taxation granted by Parliament. It, not to live on a day to day basis, but if he's going to do anything grander, like say, put his son on the throne of Sicily, he has to have taxation from parliament. And of course from the word go in the 1240s and 1250s, Parliament demands major concessions in return for any grant of a tax. And so that transforms the whole political landscape. Parliament meets again and again, over 50 Parliaments met in the 1230s, 40s, 50s. And it's become central to English life, as it's never done before. And in some ways, Henry was very well suited to that because I say he was affable, he was easygoing. And also, he was a speech maker and he was quite vocal. And yet on the other hand, he's very unsuited, because, you know, however, people think, well, this is a good and pious King, and you know, he's luxurious, he has no bastards and mistresses and so on. However much we admire that nothing could conceal the fact that he's incompetent when it comes to the business of kingship’"
A History Of Pandemics: From Spanish Flu To Covid-19 | HistoryExtra Podcast - HistoryExtra - "We always see variations on conspiracy theories in every pandemic. And I think that's really because pandemics bring home to us how uncertain scientific knowledge is, and how contingent and chaotic you know life really is. So I think people hate uncertainty. You know, they want to know there's a rhyme or reason why things happen. And often we look to science for that. And when science can't provide the answers, we think they're part of the problem, part of the conspiracy. So I think that's really the appeal of conspiracy theories. They're kind of like, they replace religion as, as kind of a way that populations can seek comfort in what they think of as, as their knowledge of the conspiracy.'
‘And I guess we also like to find and identify scapegoats as well, when things like this happen.’
‘Yeah, so exactly, I mean, so pandemics particularly where they seem to be associated with particular at risk groups. So during cholera, it was the Irish who were accused of spreading cholera. You know, during HIV/AIDS, it was, it was labeled the gay plague. The American news anchors used to go on primetime news and talk about the gay plague and talk about particular well known homosexuals who had lots and lots of partners and were accused of being super spreaders. And we saw very similar language here, from certain newspapers, the beginning of COVID. So the danger when you start to label certain individuals, as, you know, being more likely to spread something than anyone else is that you then risk stigmatizing that group and singling them out for blame.’"
Even a militant atheist might concede that religion is preferable to conspiracy theories
Does blaming anti-vaxxers and non-mask wearers for spreading diseases "stigmatise" them?
WW2: The Challenge Of Commemoration | HistoryExtra Podcast - HistoryExtra - "‘How far do you think the monuments actually reflect more the societies that built them as opposed to the events they are commemorating?’
‘Ah. Now that, that's the sort of nub of the whole thing really. And, you know, there's, there's a lot of talk at the moment, especially about, you know, we can't take down monuments because they're, you know, that's erasing our history. And, and there is some truth in that, but actually, I don't think monuments are put up to historical events, really at all. Monuments are put up to reflect the values of the people who were putting them up. So if they're putting them up in the 1980s, to the Second World War, they don't really talk about the Second World War, they're talking about the 1980s. If we're putting them up today, we're not talking about the Second World War, we're talking about today. You know, the Second World War is just a sort of lens that we use, in order to project our own ideas of what's important to us as a society. That's what the monuments are really saying, I think.’...
‘Even though the war is now 80 years old, these monuments are still being built. So what's the impetus behind the creation of new World War Two memorials?’
‘Well, this is the thing. Yeah. I mean, Russia is a perfect example here. Second World War monuments have been built at a rate of nuts over the past 15 years. You know, this is decades after the Second World War is over. And yet we're still putting them up. And it comes down to the fact that these aren't really monuments about the Second World War at all, in some ways. They're monuments about now. Vladimir Putin is using Second World War monuments as a way to foster a sort of sense of national pride. He's trying to bring the country together around this symbol of the Second World War.’"
Similarly, leftist larping and appeals about 'punching 'Nazis'' say a lot about their psychology
Konstantin Kisin - "Fascinating day. Suddenly lots of my FB friends from comedy are "worried" Trump will be re-elected.
These are the same people who attacked me relentlessly over 4 years for saying that the Left going off the deep end by abandoning ordinary people's concerns, demonising the working class as thick racists and banging on about marginal issues will produce more Brexit/Trump-like victories.
Being the magnanimous person that I am, I accept all of their apologies. "
Meme - "My coworkers are taking about racial politics. Guess I'll join in...
I got fired."
Ari Fleischer on Twitter - "Doing this to an elderly couple, simply because they attended President Trump’s speech."
Philippines Govt Official Caught Having Sex With Secretary - "Captain Jesus Estil of the Fatima Dos village council in the province of Cavite, seemed unaware that his camera was on... The pair reportedly asked for forgiveness, but the country's Department of Interior and Local Government did not seem in the mood to oblige and relieved Estil from his duty."
georgeara (check pinned!!) on Twitter - "i had a dream i saw bella thorne irl and all i said to her was fuck u"
Emilia 🇳🇬 on Twitter - "Bella Thorne is living proof that white women ruin everything"
(100%)🏾 on Twitter - "@CallMiSenpai @gunfingas @bellathorne THATS WHY I CANT GET MY PAYOUT ?! I knew about all that was going on but WOW . Rich ass lady messing with our money"
Tongue Daddy on Twitter - "I feel like celebrities shouldn’t be allowed on OnlyFans. They make enough money. Bella Thorne out here ruining people’s livelihoods. And for what? So she can add another mill to her bank? Fuck her."
I guess sex work is only real work and empowering, and women only have sovereignty over their body when convenient
Over 55,000 sign petition for France to take control of Lebanon - "Over 57,000 people have signed an online petition to "place Lebanon under a French mandate for the next 10 years" as of Friday morning.The petition on the community petition website Avaaz was reportedly set up by Lebanese citizens on Wednesday following the explosion that rocked Beirut on Tuesday, killing over 140 people and injuring more than 5,000."Lebanon’s officials have clearly shown a total inability to secure and manage the country," the petition reads. "With a failing system, corruption, terrorism and militia the country has just reached its last breath.""We believe Lebanon should go back under the French mandate in order to establish a clean and durable governance.""
