Month: March 2015

Intellectual character of conspiracy theorists – Quassim Cassam – Aeon

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Are conspiracy theorists prone to conspiracy thinking because they have a flawed “intellectual character”?  The philosopher Quassim Cassam argues that they are. In a piece at Aeon, Cassam proposes that the “key to what they end up believing is how they interpret and respond to the vast quantities of relevant information at their disposal.” Rather than being a product of a particular environment or lacking sufficient information, he claims that the problem arises as a “result of the peculiarities of his intellectual constitution – in a word, of his intellectual character.” I think Cassam’s proposal is a welcome counter to the purely situationalist theory. But I think it is better seen as a complement to the situationalist explanation rather than a replacement for it. Read the entire article at:

Intellectual character of conspiracy theorists – Quassim Cassam – Aeon.

UFO conspiracy theories

Was Hitler a Normal Leader? | History News Network

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It is so tempting (and easy) to see the world in black and white terms. Things would be so much simpler if we lived in a world with a stark contrast between good and evil. Granted, many people act as if they live in this black and white world, but I think most of us realize that this is delusional. However, there have been some moments in history that seem so clearly to conform to this good vs. evil worldview. World War II is one of them. But if you look closely, this comforting perspective begins to break down. Gavriel D. Rosenfeld has made it his mission to preserve this “moralistic” version of WWII.
He is concerned about what he calls the “normalization” of Nazi Germany. He contrasts this with “the commitment to moralism.” To illustrate, he points to the “[r]evisionist works of scholarship by conservative and liberal Anglo-American journalists and historians, such as Nicholson Baker, Patrick Buchanan, Norman Davies, Niall Ferguson, and Michael Bess, among many others, have deliberately blurred the once clear moral lines between the wartime behavior of the Allies and Axis, in the process relativizing the exceptionality and universalizing the significance of the Nazi era.” It seems that what Rosenfeld means by “moralism” is a clear delineation between good and evil. It would be great if the world was so black and white, but it is not! And I would argue that it has been this kind of moral thinking that has led to so much human suffering.
Rosenfeld contrasts his black and white morality with what he calls “normalization.” By which he seems to mean the “blurr[ing] of once clear moral lines.” However, it is the more sophisticated moral analysis opposed by Rosenfeld that is more authentic and productive of the peace and harmony that he seems to value. We must honestly confront the past even if we don’t like parts of it if we want to make the world a better place. This is not to claim that the Allies (U.S., U.K, and the Soviet Union) were the same in moral terms as Nazi Germany. There is absolutely no moral equivalency between the crimes of the Allies in comparison to the crimes of the Nazis!!!!! It is only to recognize that we were not purely good and the Germans were not purely evil.

History News Network | Was Hitler a Normal Leader?

Hi Hitler! How the Nazi past is being normalized

History News Network | The Nonsense Myth About Grant and Lee

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Some of you might find this interesting:

History News Network | The Nonsense Myth About Grant and Lee.

crucible of command grant v lee

A Christian Nation? Since When? – NYTimes.com

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Kevin M. Kruse traces the evolution of the myth that America was founded as a Christian nation from the 1920s through the Cold War. As he points out, “During these years, Americans were told, time and time again, not just that the country should be a Christian nation, but that it always had been one. They soon came to think of the United States as ‘one nation under God.’ They’ve believed it ever since.” I’ll post a review of the book as soon as I read it, but if you want a brief summary of his argument you can find it here:

A Christian Nation? Since When? – NYTimes.com.

One Nation, Under God

History News Network | More than 80,000 People Died and Hardly Anyone Paid Attention?

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On March 10, 1945 the Japanese in Tokyo awoke to what would become a nightmare. It was the beginning of what was the single deadliest non-nuclear bombing campaign during World War II (between 80,000 to 100,000 civilians were killed).  It was part of a larger firebombing campaign undertaken by the U.S. in which 66 Japanese cities were targeted in an effort to break the morale of Japanese civilians in the hopes that they would press their leadership to surrender unconditionally. This strategy had been largely rejected by the US leadership on the European front in contrast to their British allies. But under the leadership of Curtis LeMay the morale bombing strategy was pursued in Japan despite its failure in Germany. These firebombing campaigns never broke the morale of the Japanese people.

The firebombing of Tokyo has been overshadowed by the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki as well as the enormity of the suffering that occurred during World War II across the globe. But Saotome Katsumoto, director of the Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damages, is trying to preserve and memorialize this event: “Through the living testimonies of these ordinary people I have strived to present a clear picture of that night of indiscriminate firebombing. The recounting of these experiences was painful for both the speakers and the listener, but for the sake of those who bore this pain and for all those who lost their lives, I have attempted to faithfully record the events of March 10, 1945.” This is a worthy goal. We should all  remember and reflect on this tragic event.

History News Network | More than 80,000 People Died and Hardly Anyone Paid Attention?

Tokyo Air Raid (March 10, 1945)

Tokyo Air Raid (March 10, 1945)

Georgia Senate targets AP history courses as too ‘radically revisionist’ | www.ajc.com

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Following Oklahoma‘s example, Georgia conservatives are trying to undercut the Advanced Placement US history courses in their state. On March 11 the Georgia Senate passed a bill (SR80) that threatens to defund the program if they do not get what they want: a mythic history promoting American “exceptionalism” and the unfounded assumption that this is a Christian nation. They complain that the AP course as it stands “glosses over or inaccurately reflects people and ideas including the nation’s Founding Fathers, the Judeo-Christian influences on the country’s development and U.S. foreign policy as outlined in the Monroe Doctrine.” If they get their way, this would set a very bad precedent in which an ideologically driven legislature can dictate what counts as history. We all need to speak out against this blatantly partisan attempt to hijack education for ideological purposes!

Senate targets AP history courses as too ‘radically revisionist’ | www.ajc.com.

apush

 

11 Freedoms That Drunks, Slackers, Prostitutes and Pirates Pioneered—and the Founding Fathers Opposed | Alternet

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Thaddeus Russell investigates an interesting part of American history that is often ignored. He argues that the Founding Fathers disapproved of the revelry on display in eighteenth-century America. “On nearly every block…there was a public place where one could drink, sing, dance, have sex, argue politics, gamble, play games, or generally carouse with men, women, children, whites, blacks, Indians, the rich, the poor, and the middling. Rarely have Americans had more fun.”

I have not read the book, but his summary at Alternet is noteworthy. However, to come to his conclusion it seems that he has relied too heavily on John Adams and on Puritan leaders to make his case. It would have been more accurate to say “some early U.S. leaders.”

11 Freedoms That Drunks, Slackers, Prostitutes and Pirates Pioneered—and the Founding Fathers Opposed | Alternet.

A Renagade History of the US

Things Shakespeare Got Wrong About the Ides of March | History News Network

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In a new article Barry Strauss explains what Shakespeare got wrong in his play the Ides of March.

“Why did Shakespeare get so much wrong? He did not have access to the full range of ancient sources and all their details that we have today. Yet even had he known more, the Bard would surely not have told all. The dramatist was thinking about the footlights, not the footnotes. And maybe that is for the best. Without Shakespeare’s immortal verses the assassination of Julius Caesar might be no better known today than the assassination of Aurelian (who?). Hooray for poetry, for making us care about the story of Julius Caesar, and hooray for history, for getting it right.”

To read the full article go here:

History News Network | Things Shakespeare Got Wrong About the Ides of March.

The Death of Caesar

History News Network | It’s worse than Scott Walker and Ted Cruz: Secrets of conservatives’ decades-long war on truth

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The historian Heather Cox Richardson argues that Scott Walker’s attempt to have the words “Basic to every purpose of the system is the search for truth” removed from the University of Wisconsin’s mission statement was “deliberate,” despite the fact that Walker claimed that it was only a “drafting error.”  See her entire argument here:

History News Network | It’s worse than Scott Walker and Ted Cruz: Secrets of conservatives’ decades-long war on truth.

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker

History News Network | Bombing Iran: What Would Happen If the Hawks Got Their Way?

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Hopefully, even the hawks would not be so stupid as to pursue the policy of bombing Iran! Besides the fact that bombing doesn’t work, Juan Cole points out, “Leaving behind a relatively stable Afghanistan, forestalling a second march of Taliban into Kabul, and ousting ISIL from Sunni Iraq and trying to put the country back together are stated US military and foreign policy goals. They are profoundly imperiled by an Iran strike.” Read the full article at:

History News Network | Bombing Iran: What Would Happen If the Hawks Got Their Way?

US-war-syria bombing campaign