I enjoyed the show for a bit and I was generally tolerant about the host's dislike of the USSR because they were still somewhat left adjacent. But now that Liam is pretty much the defacto co-host every episode that includes Russia amplifies the shit-take-meter. I get that Joe is Armenian so he's probably got some legitimate grievances with the USSR but motherfucker calls himself a socialist and calls out US propaganda all the time but can't even take the time to do some self-crit of his sources?
His episode on the crusades was so outrageously bad and historically inaccurate it made me retroactively doubt literally everything he had ever said on the previous episodes I had listened to. It was comically, mid west middle school history lesson bad, so reductive as to be factually incorrect. Like I can't exactly articulate how bad it was, like he obviously did no research aside from a scan of wikipedia or outdated pop history from like the 40's. Like I don't expect like PHD level work, just basic competence and familiarity with the subject. For example I love the Orlando Bloom "Kingdom of Heaven" movie despite being terrible and full of factual historical inaccuracies, but it us true enough to the truth of the history that I don't mind. His episode was a crime against history.
What was his contention/why was it wrong?
Not familiar with the show, just curious what and how my conceptions of the crusades/ medieval history are prob incorrect.
The usual orientalism and anachronistic history. The "evil white imperialist europeans were launching an unjustified war on the poor innocent 3rd worlders by conquring the holy land" crap, like that's not even wrong its a frame of reference wrong and perceptually wrong. The condensing like 500 years of history into a few discrete events and then interpreting those events from a 19th century eurocentric lense.
I don’t think I’ve listened to that one, unless you meant the 4th Crusade One? What were some of his largest fuckups?
Honestly I don't remember specifics. I just remember it made me so mad after about 20 minutes I turned it off.