Top posts of the year

And their main takeaways

THE AMERICAN NATION: ETHNOGENESIS

2397 implied HN points • 18 Jan 24
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Immigration
  1. American identity has evolved over time due to immigration and ethnogenesis.
  2. A healthy society has nested identities, with loyalty starting at the family and extending outwards to community, state, nation, and beyond.
  3. Loyalty to a community is strongest when rooted in personal relationships rather than fear, force, or ideology.

Movie Review: Godzilla Minus One

2240 implied HN points • 15 Jan 24
🎭️ Culture
  1. The review discusses the mentality and motives of kamikaze pilots compared to other suicide attackers.
  2. Kamikaze pilots were drawn from respectable families and felt a sense of honor and duty towards their homeland.
  3. The Martyr Made Substack is a reader-supported publication and offers subscriptions for new posts.

The Peculiar Institution, pt. 3

2063 implied HN points • 31 Jan 24
💾 History
  1. European Christians felt confident in their mission to civilize based on encountering different practices in Africa and the New World.
  2. The rituals of human sacrifice and cannibalism encountered by European explorers profoundly affected them and challenged their beliefs.
  3. The discovery of human sacrifice among different cultures led to a distrustful attitude among the conquistadors and influenced their interactions with indigenous peoples.

The Peculiar Institution, pt. 2

2044 implied HN points • 16 Jan 24
💾 History Slavery Religion Civilization Hierarchy
  1. People in different eras have accepted practices that we would find morally abhorrent today.
  2. We should approach historical figures with humility, understanding they made decisions based on their limited information and context.
  3. Slavery was integral to many historical societies, viewed as a necessary part of their social and economic structures.
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The Peculiar Institution, pt. 4

1375 implied HN points • 07 Feb 24
💾 History Colonization Exploration Empires Cultural Exchange
  1. The debate over history being driven by great individuals or impersonal forces reflects the dominant cultural and economic forces of an era.
  2. Spanish and Portuguese states were built for war, with institutions and structures geared towards conquest.
  3. The Spanish conquest of the New World was part of the same campaign as Europe's defense against Ottoman incursion.