Veeky Forums I'm so bummed out I can't have a political discussion with you guys because of the rules, because you guys are so much more thoughtful and less uniform than the goofballs over in /pol/.
Can we have a political discussion disguised as a meta discussion?
How has studying history and humanities affected your political views? Was there one thing in particular that influenced you the most?
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Studying history has made me care less about politics and look at things from a more neutral point of view.
What's this sculpture called?
It's a statue of Jupiter that was submerged for a while. It's at the Getty Villa.
>How has studying history and humanities affected your political views?
MORE OFTEN THAN NOT, THE OPPOSITE OCCURS; POLITICAL VIEWS —AND INTERESTS— INFORM HISTORICAL UNDERSTANDING, AND THE WRITING OF HISTORY ITSELF.
HOW DO YOU THINK THAT THE CURRENT OFFICIAL VERSION OF WORLDHISTORY, BECAME THE OFFICIAL VERSION ACCEPTED VIRTUALLY IN ALL COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD?
THIS IS SO NOT JUST WITH WORLDHISTORY, BUT WITH THE NATIONAL HISTORIES OF VIRTUALLY ALL COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD; ALL COUNTRIES IN THE WORLD ARE CONTROLLED BY THE SAME PEOPLE; ONE GROUP OF USURPERS, ENEMIES OF SOFIA, MINIONS OF SATAN.
THAT PEOPLE, VIA THE INSTITUTION OF THE LYCEUM POSING AS AN ACADEMY, FABRICATES AND IMPOSES ALL THE FALSITIES REGARDING A COUNTRY'S, AND THE WORLD'S, HISTORY.
ok
I used to be more liberal in my younger days, I was 8.
Then I became really interested in history, philosophy, and language, basically philology and anthropology.
I found my fondness of liberalism was misplaced and the only way I could honestly pursue my interests was from an honest worldview, liberalism is simply a delusion perpetrated by very intelligent people who are simply just dishonest about reality.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not a Nazi, but I've been called one before.....
What kind of liberalism are you talking about?
Not the previous poster... But...
Liberalism meant something different in history than it does now.
Maybe I'm playing too much Victoria 2, but Liberalists were free market people while the Socialists were... Well socialist.
To be fair, I always picked the reactionary leaders because I could implement State Capitalism without the social reforms which meant I could build whatever factories I wanted whenever without having to reply on capitalists to do it.
Pretty much the only way to industrialize when you are a back ass nation.
History makes me hate some nations and people more than i did before learning about them but also accept thats just humanity's way. Although I REALLY hate aboriginals and just about all of africa simply fro the fact they never DID anything, good or bad, which is a hell of a lot worse in my eyes.
I always thought I was a redpilled rightwinger.
I went to local libertarian rallies and I protested with some libertarian friends of mine. It was history that taught me that libertarianism isn't even rightwing. I also realized that communism is structurally just capitalism 3.0, and that feudalism is the real answer to our problems.
Honestly, my AP European history class back in high school was the best class I've ever taken. I've found that historical study doesn't really shape political ideals, but it does shape political practice. For example, it makes sense that Russia wants the Crimea. Their entire history is searching for warm-water ports.
Liberalism encompassed a broad set of ideas. For example nationalism was originally a liberal idea that was supposed to "free the people" from monarchies based on their ethnic association so it's pretty fucking comical when someone today thinks nationalism is conservative or God forbid even reactionary ideology.
It's made me a lot more pragmatic and a lot less ideological.
I vote for what I think would be best at the time rather than what fits into a particular ism.
I dunno, man. It's made me feel so jaded, I feel sometimes that it might be better to have someone rule with absolute power in front of the curtain than deal with the myriad of strings that are pulled behind it, leaving you wonder who pulls what or if it's all just pulled by the same person.
I try to stay relatively middle ground, living in a liberal area that's hard because biases don't really have to be hidden if people living in that area agree with them.
Used to be pretty left-wing because I fell for the memes, and now I'm centrist in economic terms but socially liberal-ish.
Reading Burke helped me judge ideologies by their real-world impacts rather than how beautiful they are in abstract. I'm massively paraphrasing here, but in Reflections On The Revolution in France, he says something along the lines of "Personal liberty is a concept we all agree with, yet few of us would free a crazed mass-murderer from jail." Direct democracy's an example, in theory it sounds great to give the entire electorate control over decisions that affect them, but this assumes an electorate that's sufficiently well-informed to make those choices. Very few people are (and I don't include myself).
History's also made me more apathetic about politics, because while it doesn't *exactly* repeat itself, events always seem to follow Hegel's Thesis->Antithesis->Synthesis. In current terms, the thesis is globalism, the antithesis comes in the form of anti-globalisation movements like Trump, Brexit, etc. and we've yet to see how we reach a settlement between these two conflicting ideologies.
How would feudalism solve today's problems? I'm very curious.
That's not very fair, you shouldn't hold Societies as great because of their conquests or technological advancements. Look at things in a deeper context, look for interesting cultural values and practices.
Take a look at most tribal fashions in Africa and you'll find they're pretty interesting, if not aesthetically then how they made stuff like scar patterns and shit.
Also look into pygmies, they're cool as fuck.
>How has studying history and humanities affected your political views?
I used to be a leftist as a kid, then I learned more and realised that was retarded, then I swung rightward and was a conservative but not a full blown /pol/tard,then I realised that was retarded too, now I don't have any particular affiliation. I'd say I lean liberal on most issues, lefty on some and right on a few.
I've learned not to hate anyone, that was a big problem in my youth, whether I was hating capitalists, foreigners, religious people,whatever. I'm far more inclined to attempt to understand a particular ideology, culture, whatever and find the merit in it than get angry at it. I can enjoy reading Marx and Evola in the same day.
In matters of policy I try not to let ideology inform my opinions, though I'm sure it happens. I try to be pragmatic and choose what I think is the best course of action.
In terms of political philosophy I try to take them all in. People complaining about degeneracy, consumerism etc. etc. are misguided in my opinion. There is good in hedonism and in asceticism, I try to get the best of both. I might spend a week fasting and cutting myself off from entertainment. Another time I might spend three days straight burning through drugs and listening to techno. Another time I might mix the two and me and a friend will take acid in a storm and read prayers to the air. This position is what leads me to lean a little bit liberal, I believe what is good for us is mutable and liberalism is the only political idea that gives the freedom to change and adapt rather than forcing square pegs into round holes.
pic not really related.
You should learn some African history instead of hating them.
>How has studying history and humanities affected your political views?
It has made me very skeptical. I have come to see how "history" is merely a fluid narrative, refashioned continuously to suit whatever worldview those in power support.
Can you recommend a pamphlet?
These are pretty good, dude
youtube.com
I used to be a hardcore anarchist when I was studying US history in high school, then got interested in fascism in college when I saw how silly all the college leftists are, which drove me to be edgy and study 20th century European fascism. Now out of college, I'm working my way back through western history from the fall of Rome to the Middle Ages and I've become pretty apolitical. Not for any reason other than I just don't care about modern politics.
I plan on reading up on Eastern history and philosophy next, so I wonder where that will take me.
Studying history has made me realize that every historian is biased and is always secretly telling a myth.
Haha wow you're literally insane
Oh, so you haven't actually studied history and have no fucking clue what liberalism is.
So you became a retard
W/o using anecdotes as evidence,
- Stopped believing in the political compass
- All political views have important critiques in them, but none of them are individually valuable over others
- Good portion of recent history has been obsessed with individualism vs collectivism/materialism vs idealism
- There is no such thing as "generally accepted history" anymore
- There is actually a lot less history of recorded events and figures than previously thought
Overall though my beliefs haven't really changed, only my perspective
Ideas don't matter in their original meaning, m8, reactionaries today are mostly nationalistic.
At least you have the decency to put on a trip, so that filtering you is easy.
Are you me
>I've learned not to hate anyone
Yeah.
I'm a huge fan of history and I find it hard to hate people too.
Is this a common thing for history oriented people?
>reactionaries today are mostly nationalistic.
I find that kind of strange. Because it always seems like its their own society that reactionaries seem to despise.
"Damn Scotts, they ruined Scotland!"
Which is why scapegoats are always involved I think. Some nebulous concept like "the liberals" or "cultural Marxism" or some such trash excuse.
Same. I used to be left-wing but then I started taking economics courses and now I'm a centrist kek
What the fuck is with people doing their whole post in all caps? You're not the first tripfag I've seen do this - is it an attention thing? It makes your post even more unpleasant to read to the point where I don't bother.
>feudalism will solve everything
Bootlicker detected
used to be somewhat left wing, then I went into the libertarian right, then went back to the left, then the right, then left.
I'm somewhat centrist with a few more libertarian and egoist leanings.
I realise that far left and far right wing stuff is bad, and that balance is key.
This. Economics is probably the best way to become neutral.
Used to be decently """conservative""" (read: neo-con) before I studied history and became fairly liberal.
Studying history will likely turn you into a conservative
How so, lad? In my experience most people I've met who have studied history come off as more classical liberal types than conservatives.
The problem with this is that my political beliefs prompted my interest into history and humanities. So, because of that, history seems to confirm my belief because of my existing bias.
The biggest change for me was my attitude towards the Soviet Union. When I started studying history, I was, ultimately, a Soviet apologist. Not so much anymore. As a result of this I went from a Marxist-Leninist to a DeLeonist. I'm still a C U C K though.
I don't really meet a lot of historians that are conservatives. Most of them that I've met are centrist or left-leaning
I would imagine there's plenty of self-selection and institutional selection for leftists within history academia, so right-leaning history undergrads look elsewhere for their career. If you go to the beginning of the 20th century or earlier, my hunch is that professional historians were by and large very conservative.
Not an anglo, but weren't a majority of famous historians in Britain from the tory camp? Like the great man theory is extremely british from knowledge. All those Prime Ministers they've had from the tories that were historians tell us this.