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Jon and Dany getting married wouldn’t make them, like, co-monarchs
The principal theme of Game of Thrones (both the TV show and the book series on which it is based) is powerful people squabbling with each other to either obtain more power or to preserve the power they already have, all the while ignoring the massive existential crises encircling all of humanity. It’s a version of the classic “fiddling while Rome burns” trope, and Thrones explicitly announces this idea numerous times, with mystical characters staring into flames and declaring the war for the Iron Throne to be meaningless while the real war lies in the North, or else characters lecturing each other for their elitism–“You think these peasants give a shit who sits on the throne?” This has been reiterated so much by the show that one gets the impression its the show’s own critique of its viewers who focus on the titular game for the throne rather than worrying about the plague of unstoppable ice zombies.
Why America Will Never Have a Third Party
Many people clamor for an alternative to the two major parties. “I’m so fed up with both parties,” they say. “What’s the difference between Coke and Pepsi?” Here’s why they’ll never get what they want.
Yes, the Civil War Was About Slavery
Yes, the Civil War Was About Slavery by MATT STOKES | JULY 30, 2015 Historians like to emphasize the importance of reading back into history without the perspective of knowing how things turn out; in other words, when you think about an event like the...
Mississippi Wants to “Protect” Its Slaveholding Tradition
Mississippi is the nation’s poorest, fattest, and least-healthy state, and it’s bottom-two in education and infant mortality. But it wasn’t always so, my friends, it wasn’t always so. In the antebellum South, the city of Natchez was home to half of the millionaires in the United States. The state was one of the richest in the country, and, as time went on, the center of the massive (and massively wealthy) slave economy shifted from Virginia to Mississippi, the cotton explosion of the area enriching the burgeoning planter oligarchy of the Deep South.
Anniversary of New Orleans Riot
July 30 marks the 148th anniversary of the New Orleans Riot, a critically important event in the history of American race relations, but one that isn’t well-known to many people today, even in Louisiana. It’s crucial that we understand this event that ultimately resulted in 38 people dead, and the role it played in the larger story of the period immediately following the American Civil War.
100 Years Since the Event That Started World War I
100 Years Since the Event That Started World War I by MATT STOKES | JUNE 27, 2014 Tomorrow, June 28th, 2014, marks the 100th anniversary of what many historians have called the single most impactful event of the 20th century. On that date in 1914,...
Remembering The Rwandan Genocide, 20 Years Later
Remembering The Rwandan Genocide, 20 Years Later by MATT STOKES | APRIL 7, 2014 Twenty years ago today, the widespread and deliberately-planned murder of hundreds of thousands of people in Rwanda began. Today, the only thing that most people outside of...
What I Know About the Apocalypse
Here’s what I know: I know that this Friday, our planet is going to collide with the planet Nibiru, explosively ending all life on Earth in seconds. Or, it might be that the Earth narrowly misses Nibiru, but will still experience devastating effects of the Earth’s polarities shifting. Rapid climate change, disease, starvation, and worse will sweep over all of us, effectively ending life as we know it. I know this because the Mayans knew this; they were great astronomers, and their long-count calendar ends at December 21st, 2012. I also know this because there’s plenty of compelling corroborating evidence, and because it perfectly jives with the Biblical prophecy that the End Times will be preceded by “earthquakes, war, and famine,” and we’ve certainly seen plenty of that in the world this year. [Although, to be fair, that also would have been true of 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003, 2002, 2001, 2000, 1999, 1998, 1997, 1996, 1995, 1994, 1993, 1992, 1991, 1990, 1989, 1988, 1987, as well as every year between roughly 10,000 BC and AD 1986. So, grain of salt.]
What I Know About Satan
On my many encounters with the Wretched One.