Rant: No Politics

What’s this rant about: Why I don’t deal with current politics on this site.

Many people asked me (just kidding, not enough people read the site to be considered “many”) whether or not I will cover current politics on History Nerds United. After all, we are currently making history every day. Also, today’s politics will be the major components of our cultural history soon enough.

All true. And screw that.

I hate contemporary politics. The sheer amount of books on the Trump presidency is sickening and I mean that in the worst way possible.

Not only that, you can tell which bias basically by reading their titles. For example, The Case for Trump, Everything Trump Touches Dies, Siege: Trump Under Fire.

I have zero interest in any of this for all of the reasons you see below:

1. This is all still happening! It only takes one day to make what you wrote completely obsolete. Not to mention, the presidency is a complicated history to tell anyway. Eisenhower was known as a terrible president right after his terms in office. Now, he is at least known as a good if not great president. And dealing with a living being is always a tricky thing for authors. Ask the guy who wrote Cosby: His Life and Times in 2014. He probably wants to make that book go away.
2. People get stupid about politics. Nowadays, you cannot wade into any conversation unless you are willing to get in a knife fight. People think we are at the end of times, especially in the United States. Guess what, we fought the Civil War. That is a hell of a lot worse than anything going on today (that we know of, that’s why we need more time!).
3. I haven’t read about all the interesting dead people yet. Quite frankly, I don’t see anyone alive exciting enough to read about their (still going) life.

I’m not naïve enough to think history isn’t written through a certain lens. However, when you let enough time pass then you at least have different sources to pull from to check the facts. Plus, time is a great equalizer. Heroes are born and villains are reveled. Just ask King Leopold.