Is it so strange?
People everywhere, including and excluding marginalised groups, are constantly performing acts of historical revisionism, constructive grand narratives about murky, less than stellar pasts. Wilfully redefining that which they desire in terms of qualities they possess.
in general it is very strange for anyone — even gutter racists — to imagine the mediterranean world as somehow looking like northern europe.
It's the very definition of cultural appropriation and it's everywhere.
What seems most important to me, especially because it's not always a calculated/deliberately constructed thing, would be self awareness and honesty.
"Yes in the past we used to do x. However we live in different times and to us, it is now inappropriate to do x."
Not, "we never did x. People who say we did x are haters who are trying to perjure our reputations"
Feb 2, 2026 17:04
