During 2017 a small toy called a fidget spinner was marketed as a concentration aid for people with ADHD and autism. But this was false advertising; fidget spinners were a scam. This video describes the rise and fall of the fidget spinner, and how they were finally exposed as virtually useless. ADHD Weekly. “Fidget Toys …
Members of my Discord server often ask me “How do I check a source for accuracy?”. Recently one of them asked me to check a source for them, so I decided to make this video demonstrating my process, as a guide to checking sources and understanding how to know if a source is accurate. See …
You’ve probably seen those supposedly antique vampire hunting or killing kits online. Some of them have been sold for huge amounts of money. But they’re all fraudulent; no such kit ever existed historically, and the earliest examples don’t seem to date any earlier than the 1970s. This video shows you how to tell that vampire …
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The European Middle Ages have historically been known as the Dark Ages, while the Muslim world during the same period is popularly depicted as scientifically advanced. However, the difference between them has been exaggerated greatly, and pop history is full of myths about the Islamic Golden Age. These videos examine a wide range of myths …
Were the Nazis socialists? Popular Youtuber TIKhistory claims they were, but the overwhelming majority of mainstream economists and historians, from the Nazi era to the current day, disagrees. These videos address TIK’s arguments. Activities (1938-1944), United States Congress House Special Committee on Un-American. Investigation of Un-American Propaganda Activities in the United States. Vol. 6. Washington, …
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In 1789 there was a sudden outbreak of smallpox in an area of Australia called Sydney by the British colonizers who had just settled there, with horrific consequences for the Aboriginal Australian population. Did the British use smallpox against Aboriginal Australians? This video shows there is strong evidence that the colonizers infected the Aboriginal people …
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The year is 2014, and Cevin Soling, also known by his pseudonym Malcolm Jarry, one of the leaders of The Satanic Temple in the US, is visiting the tiny Pacific island of Tanna, part of the nation of Vanuatu. According to Soling, “Apparently there was a prophecy I would come”. This video tells the strange …
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This video explains that Hypatia of Alexandria was a mystic, not a scientist. She was a lot more like Gwyneth Paltrow than she was like Isaac Newton. Acerbi, Fabio. “Hypatia.” New Dictionary of Scientific Biography Vol. 3, Vol. 3,. Edited by Noretta Koertge. Detroit [etc.]: Scribner, 2008. Alic, Margaret. Hypatia’s Heritage: A History of Women …
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The black pygmy genocide myth has been used in Australia, Taiwan, and New Zealand to dispossess indigenous people. These three videos explain and debunk this weird historical fiction. Aboriginal History WA. Norman Tindale Collection: Name Index for Western Australia. Welshpool, Western Australia: Western Australian Museum, 2020. https://www.dlgsc.wa.gov.au/docs/default-source/aboriginal-history/norman-tindale-collection/norman-tindale-collection.pdf?sfvrsn=f38f281b_5. Araluen, Evelyn. “Stuff People Get Wrong About Aboriginal …
The script for this video was written before Christopher Nolan’s 2023 movie Oppenheimer was released, so it does not comment on the movie’s content. Instead it examines the three most common identities with which Oppenheimer has become associated in popular culture and historical commentary. Who was Robert Oppenheimer? Hero, destroyer of worlds, communist? BADASH, LAWRENCE. …
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