A Shitlib pop history youtuber who makes lowbrow “what if” slop and has been recently getting into obnoxious slap fights with random communists and anarchists on Bird-site also has far right fans? Huh
A Shitlib pop history youtuber who makes lowbrow “what if” slop and has been recently getting into obnoxious slap fights with random communists and anarchists on Bird-site also has far right fans? Huh
Althistory in general is fucking awful. Most people who are into it don't actually bother to understand history or why historical events occured. They don't go "What if X historical thing didn't happen, how would that change things?" Instead they go "Hey, I want xyz version of history to be true, how can I retroactively change things to get to my preconceived conclusion?" They start with their goals and move backwards, it isn't an exercise in academic curiosity, it's mental masturbation for them. It's them pretending that the world works the exact way they think it does instead of trying to actually learn how it works.
things that get published (or made into youtube videos) sure, but speculative historiography is part and parcel to the regular craft, you can't make a statement like "this could've happened if not for" without dabbling. when it's materialist and well researched, it's very educational and can promote good practices and theories.
"make new amsterdam stay dutch" can either be a dutch nationalist rant, or a discourse on the currents of 17th century colonialism and capitalist development
I probably came off a bit confrontational there, I didn't mean to disparage your hobby, I just have a lot of personal dislike for it and the sort of people who tend to frequent the more...reddit-esque and youtube spaces. People who have no love of history or desire to understand it, but want to pretend they can then imagine "alternate history" in any meaningful way. I think we're complaining about the same people really, I was just too vague and general in my statement.
i've completely fallen off of it actually, i used to dabble but actual research seems to take the same spot in the brain, lol. i just really admired and appreciated like, actually citationed threads on the old forums that legitimately 'did history' but in a casual setting. bit of a rose-tint nostalgia is there too i'm sure.
for sure the primary way people are interfacing with 'althistory' now though is through these video-interlocutors and they are like, all fascists
. i'm talking about a comparatively niche lil thing. it probably was never more significant than Turtledove novels, lol
"Buh buh but History is when great man does X and is totally not a more complex interaction of factors and how societies and people react in macro and micro!!!"