Like.... that's literally what it means? Why are they like this?

it was actually darker back then. no electricity. they found a scientist to measure the lumens the sun gave off.

Like almost all the replies and in the post that it’s threaded from is “medievalists are cringe online” hence dark ages

Medievalists online are annoying! But listen tumblr-wannabe username guy, everyone is! The very idea of the Middle Ages was coined in the 17th c by Protestants shitting on Catholics. Dark Ages comes from Petrarch being up his own ass about poetry

We don’t have to in the year of our lord two thousand and twenty five just kind of accept their characterizations There’s actual expertise medievalists have!

I mean these are not serious people

This does I think get to the heart of it though I think in that there’s a strain of UK “intellectual” that think American medievalists specifically aren’t real scholars

so apparently there's this coming out soon 🫠 www.simonandschuster.co.uk/books/Domina...

The eternal warfare between historians and archeologists?

is her first name Professor?

Um, it's generally bad form to dig on people, particularly women, who use their titles.

I mean, I don't because I know how empty a PhD is, but others struggle to get any kind of respect for their work.

There's that. But what I think is going on here is what I call the "some kind of expert" phenomenon. People read a couple of books, and they think that makes them some kind of expert.

True but I’m also thinking of some offline things!

Within the actual profession, for sure. But hopefully those British academics aren't also spending time being reply-guys online. But I could be wrong.

There’s a strain of UK intellectual who thinks that UK intellectuals who did not go to Oxford or Cambridge aren’t real scholars. So welcome to our fucking world ProfGabriele.

This is the one. An Englishman kept going on about how strange he found it that I studied medieval England. He studied the Ottoman Empire. That, of course, was not strange.

it's a lot worse now for some reason (likely old twitter) and it's just so tedious

Those are wild caught idiots

I particularly appreciated the use of the term 'dark ages deniers'. Used rhetorically to align his opponents with COVID deniers', climate change deniers etc (= anti science) while cleverly obviating the need for evidence.

to match ZM's intellectual dishonesty, the typical argument in favor of using the term Dark Ages is that (a) people like it, and (b) people like the term's connotations

like...what is this claptrap

This is mostly down to the fact that people aren't taught historiography, which leads them to believe that history shouldn't change and that if someone tries to change our understanding of the past that they're up to mischief.

State mandated readings of EH Carr! *slams gavel*

It’s wild. I’ve read a lot of books about history in medieval times. A LOT. But it was not my area of expertise. I would never think to correct y’all. It’s so telling that their argument is always “well actually…” and they don’t even cite another historian’s work to back up their point.

What's often lacking is understanding that a field of expertise is a conversation. The person who ingested all the books isn't an expert, but neither is the person with their switch stuck on 'transmit'. I'm not an historian because History is a conversation I'm barely on the periphery of.

There’s a kind of large circle of accounts on here, which this account is part of, whose posts are like 90% about seeming smart and contrarian for their online friends, tbh

I very much doubt that his 'reading' goes beyond The Atlantic, The Conversation, and maybe HNN (though I can't remember the last time I saw something medieval on there).

What, you expect these people to go and read articles and essays instead of flippant online social media posts?? How unreasonable.

Blinded by whiggish ideology they cannot read the texts that are literally in front of them

If your history ain't Whig, I don't give a fig.

If you think that's a dig, then you might be a Whig. 😜

Ain't no party like a Whig Party 'cause a Whig Party crumbles due to tensions between sectional factions