• spudwart@spudwart.com
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    10 months ago

    The history channel’s take, as well as others, that ancient civilizations could not have accomplished what they accomplished on their own, and therefore it’s aliens is peak Right-wing cope.

    “Obviously those backwards non-white civilizations couldn’t have accomplished this on their own, because of their skin color. So therefore, the obvious solution is that they accomplished it because a hyper-intelligent space-fairing civilization took notice of their existence and arbitrarily decided to help them. This makes much more sense.” - Thought process of the utterly deranged.

    Genuinely the only reason this smooth brain take is so popular is because its been echoed in media as an admittedly fun story-telling mechanism. But that’s all it is, a story. To put this on the history channel and claim it’s history is just one of the reasons why the History Channel has had their reputation sink in the past 20 years.

    • mineralfellow@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      The racism of UFO conspiracies gets worse the deeper you go. For instance, it is a common belief that there are multiple races of aliens, but the really “good” ones are either the “Nordics” or the “Tall Whites.” They are generally described as being tall, white, blonde-haired and blue eyed.

      Example: https://eightify.app/summary/computer-science-and-technology/exploring-encounters-with-nordic-e-ts-tall-whites-key-to-our-existence

        • the post of tom joad
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          10 months ago

          I’m strangely proud of the effort these dummies put in to export their racism into the galaxy. Hell they’re taking ancient tribalism and backwards ideals into the new era! Extrapolating and expanding on the concept when provided new information! Embracing rather than attacking science! Can religion claim the same?

          /s here juuust in case

      • Seleni@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        The implication of ET genetic programs involving hybridization efforts between certain male and female Homo Sapiens and extraterrestrial beings is a huge subject that many people are scared to talk about.

        lol—so this is basically ‘God made white people special because Reasons’ for non-religious people I guess

        • daltotron@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          for non-religious people I guess

          This can also plague the religious, to be fair. Every one of these conspiracies has some level of fucked up gnosticism going on inside of it, usually.

    • andrew_bidlaw
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      10 months ago

      I’m more surprised with their logistics (documented) and the amount of slave labor (suspected) that needs to build these tombstones just to burry a dude, and sacrifice many people, animals, resources alongside them (discovered). Their fucking ego is of inhumane proportions. Maybe it’s better to believe in aliens than imagining this dick measuring contest of dead fuckers that probably killed way more people than their average wars. Pharaohs are the ultimate bastards. Instead of a damaged Sphinx, I’d love if someone punched off their noses instead.

      • frezik@midwest.social
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        10 months ago

        Pyramids weren’t built by slaves, but there’s certainly class warfare going on in other ways. Egypt had a lot of farmers sitting around while the Nile was in its flood stage, and they appear to have paid them to work on monuments. Still, it’s a lot of work to feed the ego of one ruler.

        • andrew_bidlaw
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          10 months ago

          Hugh, one another stereotype shattered I guess? But still, I don’t feel these people workmaxxed themselves just to be the supreme male alpha predators. If they could just sit around, they could’ve done just that, or organized their living space, or anything, instead of a very traumatic and power-consuming labor. It’s a different condition, but the dynamic seems close.

          • Jorgelino@lemmy.ml
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            10 months ago

            I mean, that isn’t to say the egyptians didn’t have slaves. Just that pyramid building was a job reserved to engineers and scholars rather than unskilled laborers. Evidence suggests they had a meat rich diet, access to medical care, and worked in 3 month shifts. I’d say they were doing better than the great majority of egyptians.

            • andrew_bidlaw
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              10 months ago

              The group that navigated their project is usually left ignored. The main focus on those who dragged these heavy bricks into their places. There were obviously more of them than actual engineers.

              • KevonLooney@lemm.ee
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                10 months ago

                Those were farmers who were not working at the time (due to periodic flooding of the Nile or whatever). I believe they paid their taxes in labor instead of grain, which earned them more money on their harvest. They benefitted from free food and the pharaoh had fewer people milling around with nothing to do (potential revolutionaries).

                They weren’t slaves, they were just normal farmers paying their taxes. They could probably just leave if they had to. I seem to remember we have records of their attendance. Some people were not present and the reason is like “drunk” or something.

              • Jorgelino@lemmy.ml
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                10 months ago

                They weren’t just “dragging heavy bricks” though. They had pulley systems and used many techniques such as boats, sleighs or logs lubricated by animal fat to transport the stones. Obviously still hard work but far from the depiction we see in the media with people being whipped while pushing giant stones uphill.

                • andrew_bidlaw
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                  10 months ago

                  Yeah, they used a lot of things that we use today in a more advanced form.

                  It’s just these cartoons are historically incorrect, but they give highschoolers a great inspiration to pray for OSHA and 8\5 day rather than praying for the pharaoh and his last apartments.

                  It seems like a good result.

          • frezik@midwest.social
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            10 months ago

            Probably all the same reasons we don’t have 90% of the population doing their own thing now: they’ll starve if they don’t.

            • andrew_bidlaw
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              10 months ago

              They aren’t called business empires for nothing. And imho all empires should fall. And we should now build public restrooms to these persons. My urine’d leak by itself if I’d stay over a toilet named after a past or modern pharaoh. Ramzes, Bezos, piss off.

          • GreyEyedGhost@lemmy.ca
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            10 months ago

            If I don’t have enough food/money, and I can’t work as a farmer, maybe doing other work in the off season isn’t the worst idea. It’s what my grandfather did. And what do I care if the end result is a stupid monument or whatever as long as the money is good?

      • spudwart@spudwart.com
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        10 months ago

        Powerful people committing horrific human-rights violations just to satisfy their own ego?

        Damn, that’s never happened in the history of anything. /s

    • Sotuanduso@lemm.ee
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      10 months ago

      Yes, surely it’s because of their skin color and not because it was so long ago that people underestimate the amount of technology and labor they had access to.

      Don’t they say the same things about Stonehenge?

      • TheOneCurly@lemmy.theonecurly.page
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        10 months ago

        Sort of, there’s a long train of things here. The Stonehenge theories primarily come from “Chariots of the Gods?” by Erich von Däniken who stole a lot of the Stonehenge stuff from Robert Charroux who thought that white people were actually descended from aliens and brought technology and civilization to the rest of the world.