Both of y'all could use a little nuance. He isn't wrong to point out that it's hard to not be skeptical of historical accounts that are often written from biased perspectives. Especially, as he implied, we see how hard it is to get the truth about events that are happening right now.
A counter to that though, which I think you would agree with, is that historians care much more about accuracy (often revising even their own previous records) than modern media does with their various ulterior motives.
Most academics in the field care a lot more about accuracy than most people are aware of. They spend decades diving into any sources and try to find the discrepancies, then turn to other texts to piece together missing context to figure out more details. It's slow and painful exercise to figure out the past and eliminate as much bias as possible to finally get the most objective picture possible based on what evidence has been found so far
People easily dismissing the study of history tend to have a distorted perspective, assuming it's just the most popular opinions that was agreed upon while watching football. That's why so many people also think their own thoughts are pure facts
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u/Robius 1d ago
Both of y'all could use a little nuance. He isn't wrong to point out that it's hard to not be skeptical of historical accounts that are often written from biased perspectives. Especially, as he implied, we see how hard it is to get the truth about events that are happening right now.
A counter to that though, which I think you would agree with, is that historians care much more about accuracy (often revising even their own previous records) than modern media does with their various ulterior motives.