John Green

So what does Veeky Forums think of John Green and his Crash Course History videos? Are they accurate?

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Dicks in cereal

He's fine but the videos are just too short to convey anything with enough depth to be interesting.

His videos have barely any content
But people seem to think that's some grave crime or that he's pushing some kind of insidious agenda

They are good if you want to pass a test in high school. Used it to pass the AP US history test without any other studying. More or less it's good for general knowledge and to help you figure out something you may want to look into more.

They're the perfect videos to learn about history if you don't really have any interest in history and just need to pass a test or something. Hence "crash course".

>or that he's pushing some kind of insidious agenda
When he apologizes for being Eurocentric every twelve seconds, actually pushes the "Islamic Golden Age" meme and thinks the Haitian Genocide (also called the Haitian Revolution by the politically correct) is important enough to cover in a series about world history, his dedication to historical fact becomes questionable.

And like some other user mentioned, his cereal analogy makes it pretty clear on what side of the political spectrum he stands. The side that believes in what sounds good rather than in what is true.

>"Islamic Golden Age" meme
The Islamic world did have a highly prosperous age. It's not inherently a meme. Eurocentricism is an interesting topic (though I don't think John Green understands what it is) and it's entirely relevant when discussing history, especially history outside of Europe.
>side of the political spectrum he stands
Dividing politics into two strands is dumb, and only serves to fuel an 'us vs them' narrative. The type of narrative that would support the idea of John green having some insidious agenda.

>The Islamic world did have a highly prosperous age.
The Arabic Empire did have a golden age. Labeling it as Islamic however is revisionism. It's like calling the Carolingian renaissance (or the actual renaissance for that matter) the "Catholic Golden Age" or whatever. Or maybe we can call the reign of Ashoka the Great the "Hindu Golden Age". But it appears only religions of peace get to have their own golden ages.

>Eurocentricism is an interesting topic (though I don't think John Green understands what it is) and it's entirely relevant when discussing history, especially history outside of Europe.
True, though as you yourself said John Green doesn't actually tackle it from the right angle.

>Dividing politics into two strands is dumb
It makes perfect sense when we're talking about a single issue, and that issue being our perception of history. There are those who treat it with various degrees of reverence, and those who see it through the lens of their ideology. John Green happens to see it through a left-progressive lens, but seeing it through a Tory lens would be just as heinous.

>The type of narrative that would support the idea of John green having some insidious agenda.
I don't think it's more insidious than misinformation. I don't believe he's part of some grand plot, at best he's a useful idiot.

Green is disingenuous and does in fact have an agenda. He incessantly analyzes history through the lens of modern ethical norms but when it comes to the Haitian Revolution as was mentioned or the Persian invasion of Greece, all of a sudden its time for a dispassionate analysis of the facts. He says that despite the fact the Persians are the aggressors in the conflict that we should not assume that they are the "bad guys" and the Greeks are the "good guys" and I agree, I dont study history to receive a lesson in ethics. The problem is, his moralization of history is inconsistent. Every chance he gets, he disparages Europeans as "the bad guys" but chastises us for framing the Persians or the Muslims as "the bad guys". I get it, any student of history ought to avoid the pitfalls of eurocentrism but he takes it too far and comes off as a guy with an agenda.

Politicizing history is one of my biggest pet peeves and its one of the reasons why Veeky Forums has gone to complete shit with /pol/ and /leftypol/ constantly ruining almost every thread.

tldr fuck John Green