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badhistorytakes.bsky.social
Bad History Takes
@badhistorytakes.bsky.social
280 followers 240 following 190 posts
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to post about it.”

Solidarity through goofin' about it. Unaffiliated with the Twitter version.

Some shared takes will be good
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badhistorytakes.bsky.social
It wasn't a secret! Everybody was talking about it. There was nothing to disclose, as YOU said!
Even members of the Cabinet were aware of some definite danger. After the tragedy, John P. Usher, Secretary of the Interior, reported that when he visited Mr. Seward, the Secretary of State remarked "that if he had been able to be out . . . Mr. Lincoln would not have gone to the theatre that night." From which it may be assumed that the State Department knew of, or anticipated, some serious design against the President's life. Neither Seward nor Lamon nor anyone else ever found it expedient to disclose what information they possessed. The reason for this secretiveness is another matter left to the whims of speculation.
June 30, 2025 at 1:43 PM
badhistorytakes.bsky.social
Pictured: inferior British technology from WWI and inferior American technology from WWII
A British Mark V "male" tank "B-17F formation over Schweinfurt, Germany, 17 August 1943"
June 30, 2025 at 1:35 PM
badhistorytakes.bsky.social
Germany famously had the "better tech" in WWI and WWII, which i personally learned for HOI 4: Götterdämmerung.
"If that were true, the Germans would have won World War I and there wouldn’t have been a World War 2 (which the better tech side also lost)."
June 30, 2025 at 1:31 PM
badhistorytakes.bsky.social
While obviously European and American imperialism hasn't been the greatest force for good in history, there's an odd strain of anti-Imperialist comments that seems to take away all agency from other people.
Iran was created by the USA. So more like the creator becomes its creation
June 27, 2025 at 3:59 PM
badhistorytakes.bsky.social
It was illegal to report on poverty in the USSR before 1989, but by then the State Committee on Labor and Social Issues estimated 43 million people survived on 75 Rubles or less per month, so over 20% of the population was living on ~$45/month.
Nope, poverty only became a thing after the USSR dissolved. There is a reason why 75% of Russians are nostalgic for the USSR.
June 25, 2025 at 2:06 PM
badhistorytakes.bsky.social
June 21, 2025 at 2:26 PM
badhistorytakes.bsky.social
Hoxha or Mao, who was better?
"I still have Hoxhaist leanings but there's a lot to admire about Mao."
June 20, 2025 at 1:40 PM
badhistorytakes.bsky.social
Sadly this guy seems real.
June 20, 2025 at 1:21 PM
badhistorytakes.bsky.social
ohhhh yikes
June 20, 2025 at 1:20 PM
badhistorytakes.bsky.social
They all make the same "joke"!

I just can't!

😵‍💫😵‍💫
stupid ai pic about the stupid republicans etc... in the civil war. I'm tired.
June 20, 2025 at 1:17 PM
badhistorytakes.bsky.social
Internet polarization in an English-dominated internet is so funny because you get Polish "Republicans" posting hot takes about the US Civil War.

Imagine an alt-history reverse where people in Virginia were getting into flame wars about the 1863 January Uprising or Alvensleben Convention.
A weird fake magazine cover that talks about Republicans freeing slaves from Democrat slaveowners, like their partisan identity is what really mattered.
June 20, 2025 at 1:12 PM
badhistorytakes.bsky.social
Oh boy.
"I <3 Colonialism Life, liberty and property rights. All Lives Matter Never apologize for the superiority of Western Civilization. Our rights are given to us by God, not by the government."
June 20, 2025 at 1:07 PM
badhistorytakes.bsky.social
The "real" Iran was the Sasanian Empire, apparently. I'm sure that's what persecuted activists inside of Iran image.

Hate makes people stupid.
I hope the Iranian people will soon be free of their maniacal Islamist dictatorship. They used to have a great civilization - especially before they were conquered and brutalized by fanatics over 1,000 years ago. That's the real beginning of the problems Iran has had.
June 20, 2025 at 1:06 PM
badhistorytakes.bsky.social
The slave population grew by 750,000 between 1850 and 1860 censuses. That doesn't seem like an industry that was going to die out anytime soon.

But the real first shots of the Civil War were fired in Ripon, WI in 1854 is a take.
Slavery was already falling out of favor across nations prior to abolition & emancipation. While Lincoln signed emancipation, he killed 700,000. I assert that he had non-violent options - despite Ft Sumner 1st shot args.
June 19, 2025 at 8:41 PM
badhistorytakes.bsky.social
The USSR in 1950 had ~4 occupants per room in the cities vs <1 in the USA.

Kitchens and Baths were shared by 2-5 families.

The USSR also a had a neat trick of "papers" and tried to enforce internal migration controls. I bet that'd go over well here.

"Vagrants" were given jobs... in work camps.
The Soviet Union figured out how to eliminate homelessness in the 1930s. It’s been 100 years and capitalism hasn’t solved it and liberal thinkers treat it like a mystery. That probably means something about the actual solution but I can’t use my brain lest I accidentally escape capitalist realism
June 19, 2025 at 8:36 PM
badhistorytakes.bsky.social
AAAAHHHHHHHHHHH
I'm going to need some examples. The Nazis wrote all their shit down. They persecuted Jews and homosexuals, Gypsies, Communists. Wrote all that shit down, passed laws, made propaganda films, posters. All that. Then killed millions of those people. Show me their anti-trans stuff.
June 19, 2025 at 8:18 PM
badhistorytakes.bsky.social
Otto Eisenschiml - "Lincoln was an ignorant, backwoods hick."
Was it a premonition of the approaching tragedy that prompted Lincoln to ask Stanton for a suitable guard on the eve of his assassination? Lincoln had brought with him to Washington all the mysticism and superstitions of his backwoods environment ;
June 16, 2025 at 7:27 PM
badhistorytakes.bsky.social
Honestly, props to Stanton for lying to his friend and getting out of going to a play. We stan a king.

👏Stanton👏was👏try👏ing👏to👏stop👏Lin👏coln👏from👏go👏ing👏
When Stanton told the President that he expected to do a lot of work that night, he seems to have evaded the truth. In the light of his own statements, it looks as if he had no intention of doing any work at all in the evening.
June 16, 2025 at 7:25 PM
badhistorytakes.bsky.social
Otto continues to lie about Stanton. And also maligns a Union officer for no reason.
It may have been just boorishness on the part of Stanton to refuse Lincoln's request for an escort of his own choosing, but it was almost insubordination on the part of Major Eckert. The President could easily have turned his request into a command, or have taken serious offense at the attitude of both the Secretary and his aide.
June 16, 2025 at 7:22 PM
badhistorytakes.bsky.social
This smelled fishy.

Otto suggests in this passage that Stanton refused Lincoln a bodyguard because he was the mastermind of the plot. However, he's totally misconstruing the text he references in the footnote.

Stanton and Grant were trying to stop Lincoln from going at all because of the risk.
"There is some reason to believe that Lincoln himself doubted the reliability of the new guard who was to accompany him to the performance of Our American Cousin. Lincoln was a shrewd judge of human nature and well acquainted with the personnel of the White House. At any rate, when the President paid one of his usual visits to the War Department on April 14, he asked Stanton to let him have his chief aide, Major Thomas T. Eckert, as escort for himself and his guests. "I have seen Eckert break five pokers, one after the other, over his arm," Lincoln declared, "and I am thinking he would be the kind of man to go with me this evening. May I take him?"1 This request Stanton refused pointblank; he had some important work for Eckert that night, he said, and could not spare him. But Lincoln was not so easily rebuffed. He went into the cipher room, over which Eckert presided, and told the latter of his plans for the evening. He also repeated his request that this strongarmed assistant of Stanton's become one of the theater party, coaxing him good-naturedly to come along, as both he and Mrs. Lincoln wanted him. So far as the work was concerned, the President suggested that it could be done the next day as well. Eckert also very decidedly refused to go, however, pleading work that could not be put off; and so Lincoln reluctantly left. "I shall take Major Rathbone along," he said in parting..." Lincoln made light of all these signs, but Stanton realized the seriousness of the situation, and told Grant of his fears, urging him not to go to the theater and, if possible, to dissuade Lincoln from going. It was Stanton's idea that if it were announced that the Lieutenant- General and the President were to attend Ford's Theater together there would be a large crowd present, and evil-disposed persons would be better able to carry out their plans. Grant agreed with Stanton, and said he only wanted an excuse not to go. He concluded, therefore, to send word to Lincoln that as he had not seen his daughter Nellie for a long time he would withdraw his acceptance of the invitation and start on Friday afternoon for Burlington, New Jersey, where his daughter was attending school. On the morning of the 14th, Lincoln made his usual visit to the War Department and told Stanton that Grant had cancelled his engagement for that evening. The stern and cautious Secretary again urged the President to give up the theater-party, and, when he found that he 366 THE ASSASSINATION was set on going, told him he ought to have a competent guard. Lincoln said: "Stanton, do you know that Eckert can break a poker over his arm; Stanton, not knowing what was coming, looked around in surprise and answered: "No; why do you ask such a question?" Lincoln said: "Well, Stanton, I have seen Eckert break five pokers, one after the other, over his arm, and I am thinking he would be the kind of man to go with me this evening. May I take him?"
June 16, 2025 at 7:03 PM
badhistorytakes.bsky.social
Conjecture!
"To believe that the unanimous change in the testimony of all key witnesses was a chance affair is to believe in an absurdity. That these respectable people could have been influenced by anyone but a person in high authority is also incredible 5 and in placing the responsibility for this attempt at perverting history, one must look for someone who had both the power and the motive to carry it out. Someone who had the power — All the power at that time was concentrated in the War Department where Stanton's reign was autocratic. Major Rathbone and Captain McGowan were officers of the army. Would they have taken orders to suppress evidence from anyone of less exalted standing? And someone who had the motive — The only possible motive for veiling the events at the theater could have been the wish to keep Parker out of the picture j and the only one who would have an interest in doing so is the person charged with the responsibility for Lincoln's safety. Who, then, was responsible — legally responsible — for Lincoln's safety?"
June 16, 2025 at 6:56 PM
badhistorytakes.bsky.social
Scoops!

Either Otto misunderstands that the National Republican newspaper was party paper and "investigatory" journalism wasn't exactly the same in 1865, or he doesn't care.
It is difficult to envisage a trained news reporter, on the scene of a great national calamity, leaving these questions uninvestigated, unanswered. If Hanscom was any kind of newspaperman, why did he not interview Forbes and Parker — not to mention himself — and thereby secure for his paper the great scoop of the century and for himself a prominent place in history?
June 16, 2025 at 6:51 PM
badhistorytakes.bsky.social
Otto keeps making wild assertions regarding people's motives here. Obviously, if the Secretary of War refuses to arrest somebody for forgetting their testimony, it is a conspiracy.
As to Stanton, he should have had Hanscom arrested on the spot for suppressing important evidence.
June 16, 2025 at 6:48 PM
badhistorytakes.bsky.social
Women - forgetful or easily swayed? You decide.
" Miss Harris probably was easily influenced to modify her original story. The young lady was the daughter of an ex-senator and could be depended on to know when silence was golden. In this case, the interests of her fiance clearly outweighed those of historical accuracy."
June 16, 2025 at 6:44 PM
badhistorytakes.bsky.social
I can't believe capitalist pig-dog American schools failed to teach me about how "Stalin oversaw greatest improvement in human development." TIL!!

This site is so informative 🧑‍🏫🧑‍🎓🧠
Hitler, sure, fits the mold of drug addicted reactionary. Stalin oversaw the greatest improvement in human development while defeating the nazi death machine, he should be criticised for some things but this is ridiculous.
June 16, 2025 at 3:51 PM