Author | Lightnews

Grimly Optimistic Historian

@clioden.bsky.social

11K followers 17K following 66 posts

Ph.D. in history. Lefthanded leftist. Black-belt in karate. Tax the rich. Universal healthcare. BLM. LGBTQIA+ ally. Care for people, and fix the climate.

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Grimly Optimistic Historian @clioden.bsky.social · Sep 11

Is this the Reichstag moment they’ve been waiting for?

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Grimly Optimistic Historian @clioden.bsky.social · Jul 23

Or window.

Grimly Optimistic Historian @clioden.bsky.social · Jul 15

You're probably right. But that was the first thing I thought of when I saw his comment--really? Shakespeare? From him?

Grimly Optimistic Historian @clioden.bsky.social · Jul 13

You are probably right.

Grimly Optimistic Historian @clioden.bsky.social · Jul 11

As if 2025 didn't have enough weird stuff already.

NBC News @nbcnews.com · Jul 11

A person in northern Arizona has died from a case of bubonic plague, local health officials say.

Arizona patient dies in emergency room from plague

The patient was recently treated at an emergency department in Flagstaff and died the same day, Northern Arizona Healthcare said.

nbcnews.to

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Grimly Optimistic Historian @clioden.bsky.social · Jul 10

That's a good description of the September Massacres. Lots of great characters in the French Revolution. Danton, of course, did get a Gerard Depardieu movie.

Grimly Optimistic Historian @clioden.bsky.social · Jul 10

One final thought. Marie Antoinette was genuinely reactionary, and tried to destroy the revolution, but she was vilified in public for made up stories (mostly about sex or opulent consumption) about her that weren't true. Oddly, she also was unfairly demonized in the court society she upheld.

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Grimly Optimistic Historian @clioden.bsky.social · Jul 10

And the Dauphin, well, that was based partly on the anger against the aristocracy/monarchy that drove the whole revolution, and partly on a fear that he would be a rallying point for anti-revolutionaries. His imprisonment after his parents died was needlessly cruel, but seemed necessary at the time.

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Grimly Optimistic Historian @clioden.bsky.social · Jul 10

A certain segment of American culture reveres her, I think, in a sort of Kardashian way--wealth and fashion, why did they kill her for that?--while a segment of the French Right still seriously reveres monarchy, and is nostalgic for it.

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Grimly Optimistic Historian @clioden.bsky.social · Jul 10

Short answer, but here goes. 1) Robespierre, Marat, etc. are not forgotten, but they lost. The moderates won, and then backed Napoleon to end the Revolution. Moderates are embarrassed by the violence of the Jacobins. 2) Marie Antoinette's cult is a weird fusion of several things. (cont.)

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Grimly Optimistic Historian @clioden.bsky.social · Jul 9

Twentieth century France, particularly the intersections of political ideology (communism, fascism) and gender. However, I taught for a long time at a small college with just two historians, so I taught everything from World history to the Middle East to environmental history. Roman history is cool.

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Grimly Optimistic Historian @clioden.bsky.social · Jul 8

It's costing us our democracy. That's what it's costing us.

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Grimly Optimistic Historian @clioden.bsky.social · Jul 5

Trump called bankers Shylocks, today. The antisemitism doesn't surprise me at all, coming from him. The Shakespeare reference though? Didn't see that coming.

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Grimly Optimistic Historian @clioden.bsky.social · Jul 5

The Big Beautiful Bill passed, so I think I'll go down to my local, rural hospital, and raise a glass. I'm going to miss it. Especially when I have a heart attack.

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Grimly Optimistic Historian @clioden.bsky.social · Jul 5

Nice pinned post. I'll follow back.

Grimly Optimistic Historian @clioden.bsky.social · Jul 5

I was thinking of the orange one.

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Grimly Optimistic Historian @clioden.bsky.social · Jul 4

No robot could do better for Vlad.

Grimly Optimistic Historian @clioden.bsky.social · Jul 4

Probably right.

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Grimly Optimistic Historian @clioden.bsky.social · Jun 13

I had a joke about Theseus’ ship, but it came out of my mouth all different.

Grimly Optimistic Historian @clioden.bsky.social · Jun 13

I'm beginning to think the Democratic leadership is trying to be the Washington Generals to the Republican Harlem Globetrotters . . . wait a minute. They're ALL the Washington Generals.

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Grimly Optimistic Historian @clioden.bsky.social · Jun 10

I love how your use of "the 405" rather than "I-405" or just "405" signals that you are, in fact, a So. Cal. resident. And I totally agree with you on turn signals. Of course, I never used mine when I lived out there, either, so who am I to talk?

Grimly Optimistic Historian @clioden.bsky.social · Jun 4

Thanks for including me! I appreciate it.

Grimly Optimistic Historian @clioden.bsky.social · Jun 2

I am a dinosaur!

Grimly Optimistic Historian @clioden.bsky.social · Jun 2

Hacked voting machines?

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Grimly Optimistic Historian @clioden.bsky.social · Jun 2

Not a joke.