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Showing posts with the label history

Why Even? [Travel]

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I never caught the travel bug, which I'm sure is a travesty when I’m finally adulting in the free world, and at a time when travelling is an affordable and common pastime for people my age. Nevertheless, I am fortunate enough to have friends who drag me out every once in a while to some non-airconditioned adventure that would yield lots of opportunities to take photos of them taking photos of our trip. Last month, it was to Teluk Intan, Perak, Malaysia, for a day trip that would only last about 8 hours, transportation and milling about included. Teluk Intan (“Diamond Bay”) is a small town in Perak most known for its own version of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Subtly tilted to the left, the Leaning Tower of Teluk Intan was also known as the Clock Tower, as its primary function was to tell the time with its large clock-face on top. It’s now just an official national monument and tourist attraction. I wasn’t as awe-inspired as I thought I’d be, disappointed as I was that I ...

No Such Thing as Objective

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by Tamim Kashgari I always find it funny when people try to be objective. I find it even funnier when they get all hot and flustered when I point out the underlying bias that they have to even present the point they made. But that is because I have a belief that objectivity outside of the hard sciences is in practice and concept a fallacy and a waste of time to both attempt to achieve in your own work and to actually expect from others. I'll demonstrate this using the field of history, a subject that I am familiar with, and a subject that has, since its inception, been regarded as one whose active role it is to define a single, unbiased and true rendering of human progress across time. Now, before you turn into an asshole and spit out platitudes like "History is written by the victors”, let me just stop you right there, because we actually have a number of historical work from losing sides in conflicts pretty much running for the entirety of hist...