I dunno what #history you’ve been reading, but if it makes you feel warm and fuzzy, I’ve got bad news.

[katalogeur@mastodon.social]

@paninid

Let me tell you. 20 years ago I started making notes on human history, from everywhere, as far back as it goes. You have to do it slowly ... noone could bear to do it otherwise. Alexander was never great.

And yet, most of the people I've known have been pretty decent.
I'm thinking that most of it it has been due to a small group of power-hungry criminals.

[lifewithtrees@mstdn.social]

@paninid there is more to history than joylessness.

“Everything was awesome” is dishonest obviously.

Yet pushing joy out from our shared story human story is dishonest too.

Activism without joy is ineffective for lasting change.

What is being fought for if not a life with more joy?

“We grieved in the morning, marched in the afternoon, and in the evening we danced”

- Gay activist Dan Savage on living through the AIDS crisis in the 1980s.

[david@social.piconet.work]

@paninid I think it’s also safe to say that if people have a “simple” solution to today’s problems future historians will have something uncomfortable to say about it. We need to watch out for the “Trumps” out there.

[connynasch@mastodon.social]

@david Farage in the UK? @paninid

[david@social.piconet.work]

@connynasch @paninid Hopefully Farage will be a footnote in history and not a major chapter. That’s the hope, at least. If he gets real power I can only assume everyone will suffer his decisions, even outside the UK.

[starkrg@myside-yourside.net]

@paninid I apparently had one of the best elementary and high school educations in the US public school system as our teachers mostly didn't shy away from the discomfort. We learned about the trail of tears, Farewell to Manzanar was required reading, and we learned that the country was built on slavery and that manifest destiny had a negative side to it (though they never went so far as to say it was a fucking moronic idea based on supremacist colonialism, so it wasn't perfect).

[mamalake@beige.party]

@paninid Mormons are the best at this, if you celebrate pioneer day and don't recognize the genocide that occurred to settle a desert... You might be upholding extreme propaganda

[leonavis@mountains.social]

@paninid It does make me feel better about current events, because it was always terrible

[lucybeahere@mstdn.social]

@lifewithtrees @paninid

What better expression of joy than to grieve the wrongs done and acknowledge the heroic efforts of those who attempt to right those wrongs? But reactionaries don’t want to celebrate how far we’ve come because they want to erase that progress!

[lifewithtrees@mstdn.social]

@lucybeahere @paninid

Please reread Dan Savages quote.

Life is more than anger, resentment and retribution - however warranted it maybe.

We must live our lives with joy at the centre wherever we can find it. That’s the point.

[lifewithtrees@mstdn.social]

@lucybeahere @paninid I would also recommend Alok

https://youtube.com/shorts/zYaIZPfw2v0?si=LrL1d010jB-zrEMy

[paninid@mastodon.world]

@lifewithtrees @lucybeahere