Once again I find myself reacting to stupid tiktok drama
To summarize: there is a person on Tiktok currently claiming that ancient Rome was not in fact a real civilization and was rather something fabricated by archeologists, historians, etc. This person refuses to use credible sources to back up this statement and most of their reasoning relies heavily on conspiracy theories (like for example there is nothing âwritten downâ from Rome therefor its not real). I do not have to tell you that this is stupid because: it is. The reasoning used is so bunk it physically makes my brain hurt. And the fact that they claim to have an anthropology degree while saying things like this makes me either think they are a very dedicated/self deprecating troll⌠or they got said degree from a non accredited university.Â
But this, ironically enough, does relate to an actual problem in the history world which I will go into using this drama as an example.Â
âI am right and the entire scientific community is wrongâ
This is the common reasoning I see from people who usually come to my museum to challenge me on our exhibits. Some of the more common accusations I hear include:
Why do you have an entire exhibit on (insert native group here), everyone knows aliens built those mounds!
Well ACTUALLY, (insert terrible historical figure who was responsible for the deaths of thousands) was a good guy because he was a patriot!Â
You need to show BOTH sides of the argument (which is usually said in reference to our civil war exhibit about LOCAL regiments and we are in a northern state)
Or sometimes I am directly challenged because I am not a 72 year old white man so therefor all of the things I just told them are magically false.Â
Whatever the case may be I am still met with constant pushback for one stupid reason or another and its usually by people who go into the museum looking to validate their own strange theories rather than to actually learn something. And this is usually because they have somehow gotten it into their head that they are more qualified to speak on history than a historian because their read something on: facebook, some random blog, a conspiracy theory website, or a message board (all with no sources).Â
Historians, archeologists, anthropologists, museums, and other people who work in a field relating to history have no reason to create a massive conspiracy about something as well documented as ancient Rome, or other things of that nature.
 Historians are not cartoonishly evil masterminds who purposely make up civilizations just to fuck with some random teenagers on tiktok/tumblr specifically.Â
Seriously, think about it.
Why would we have any reason to do that? And before someone comments or reblogs something anti-Semitic (because most conspiracies have roots in white supremacy and anti-Semitism) stop yourself right now, we dont use hate to spread false information here.Â
History does not change, new context is discovered and facts are corrected, but the history itself stays the same. And we use EVIDENCE (actual evidence and not just personal anecdotes and theories) to back up what we tell you.
For example: Why did Rome not speak âRomanâ?Â
Because they spoke Latin. And the reason why Latin and Greek are so similar is because Latin was partially derived from ancient Greek and they were both developed geographically close to each other. Along with that, much like with the US today, many other languages were also spoken in the Roman Empire other than Latin because of how expansive/culturally diverse Rome was. For example: Greek was spoken in Rome because Rome admired Greek culture and due to the geographical proximity of Greece and Rome.Â
Why was nothing âwritten downâ?
Things were. If you are looking for paper manuscripts those you will be hard pressed to find them since paper is a fragile material and anything from that time is probably now long destroyed. We do however have written texts etched in stone, along with archeological artifacts to confirm things written down on said stone tablets.
 Culture is preserved through more than literature and saying an entire civilization is not real because there was not written down on paper manuscripts is just kinda stupid and sets a horrible precedent historically. Do indigenous cultures that primarily used oral tradition in place of a writing system automatically not exist because they do not have books explicitly explaining their cultural practices and way of life? Do artifacts and other archeological discoveries not mean anything since they are not âwritten downâ?Â
Do you perhaps see now why this assertion is kinda stupid?Â
Remember kids: if you are right and everybody else in the world is wrong you are probably not as right as you think you are. And random leaps of logic and conspiracy theories are not reasonable citations.Â
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