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Posts by Grimly Optimistic Historian

How long before Trump says, "Melania? I hardly knew her."?

1 week ago 6 1 1 1

Classic blunders: “Never start a land war in Asia, and never go against a Sicilian when death is on the line.”

1 month ago 19 8 0 0

Right after infrastructure week?

4 months ago 4 4 0 0

Is this the Reichstag moment they’ve been waiting for?

7 months ago 27 5 0 0

Or window.

8 months ago 13 0 1 0

You're probably right. But that was the first thing I thought of when I saw his comment--really? Shakespeare? From him?

9 months ago 3 0 0 0

You are probably right.

9 months ago 1 0 0 0

As if 2025 didn't have enough weird stuff already.

9 months ago 63 23 7 2
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That's a good description of the September Massacres. Lots of great characters in the French Revolution. Danton, of course, did get a Gerard Depardieu movie.

9 months ago 1 0 0 0

One final thought. Marie Antoinette was genuinely reactionary, and tried to destroy the revolution, but she was vilified in public for made up stories (mostly about sex or opulent consumption) about her that weren't true. Oddly, she also was unfairly demonized in the court society she upheld.

9 months ago 1 0 2 0

And the Dauphin, well, that was based partly on the anger against the aristocracy/monarchy that drove the whole revolution, and partly on a fear that he would be a rallying point for anti-revolutionaries. His imprisonment after his parents died was needlessly cruel, but seemed necessary at the time.

9 months ago 1 0 1 0

A certain segment of American culture reveres her, I think, in a sort of Kardashian way--wealth and fashion, why did they kill her for that?--while a segment of the French Right still seriously reveres monarchy, and is nostalgic for it.

9 months ago 1 0 1 0

Short answer, but here goes. 1) Robespierre, Marat, etc. are not forgotten, but they lost. The moderates won, and then backed Napoleon to end the Revolution. Moderates are embarrassed by the violence of the Jacobins. 2) Marie Antoinette's cult is a weird fusion of several things. (cont.)

9 months ago 1 0 2 0

Twentieth century France, particularly the intersections of political ideology (communism, fascism) and gender. However, I taught for a long time at a small college with just two historians, so I taught everything from World history to the Middle East to environmental history. Roman history is cool.

9 months ago 1 0 2 0

It's costing us our democracy. That's what it's costing us.

9 months ago 2 0 1 0

Trump called bankers Shylocks, today. The antisemitism doesn't surprise me at all, coming from him. The Shakespeare reference though? Didn't see that coming.

9 months ago 34 9 6 4

The Big Beautiful Bill passed, so I think I'll go down to my local, rural hospital, and raise a glass. I'm going to miss it. Especially when I have a heart attack.

9 months ago 23 6 2 0
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Nice pinned post. I'll follow back.

9 months ago 1 0 0 0

I was thinking of the orange one.

9 months ago 1 0 1 0

No robot could do better for Vlad.

9 months ago 1 0 0 0

Probably right.

9 months ago 1 0 1 0

I had a joke about Theseus’ ship, but it came out of my mouth all different.

10 months ago 2 0 0 0

I'm beginning to think the Democratic leadership is trying to be the Washington Generals to the Republican Harlem Globetrotters . . . wait a minute. They're ALL the Washington Generals.

10 months ago 29 1 1 1

I love how your use of "the 405" rather than "I-405" or just "405" signals that you are, in fact, a So. Cal. resident. And I totally agree with you on turn signals. Of course, I never used mine when I lived out there, either, so who am I to talk?

10 months ago 0 0 1 0

Thanks for including me! I appreciate it.

10 months ago 1 0 0 0
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I am a dinosaur!

10 months ago 1 0 0 0

Hacked voting machines?

10 months ago 7 0 1 0

Not a joke.

10 months ago 0 0 0 0

In the 1930s, Spanish fascists used the motto "Viva la Muerte!"

10 months ago 0 0 1 0

Today I learned that robots can get aggressive prostate cancer after leaving office.

10 months ago 22 1 1 1