9 Comments

Hi, great post. I added it to HackerNews and it is getting very interesting comments. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42317952

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Heh, cool, thanks for letting me know. I've responded to one of the comments. I also posted to Hacker News, but it only got about 4 upvotes. Which just goes to show that whether something blows up on HN is kinda random... (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42274971)

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Yes, it is very much about timing and subject. Those old ones get a lot of traction. I had 2 posts about IQ tests and school tests from the early 1900's blow up. Your post shows a solid overview between then and now, eloquently presented.

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I'd like to do a twitter/X thread where I compare this textbook to a modern middle school textbook. I'm having a bit of trouble finding what textbooks are actually used for middle school health classes, though..

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Fabulous idea. There is this, if you have not seen it - https://www.mheducation.com/prek-12/explore/health/teen-health.html?srsltid=AfmBOopJwJXRSdNf6H0gzWRZ8_LNFDvzSbHQGKynJ1IBfyUALAhLvRa9

I would be interested in seeing the Twitter/X thread - please let me know.

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When it talks about 'tight-fitting clothing' it probably isn't referring to what you would mean if you talked about 'tight-fitting' clothing in normal conversation today, it's referring to things like corset training, which is clearly bad for you. Normal tight fitting clothes are fine. High heels are terrible for your feet and legs during the duration you're wearing them and if you wear them a lot can cause your triceps to be tight which is bad for your posture. So not the best way of describing what's bad about high heels but not completely false either, sort of in the neighborhood.

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Yes, see the picture I just added to the post about "styles from bygone days".

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"Later, European colonialism contributed to keeping the Zulu and other African peoples in a state of poverty and relative ignorance longer than would otherwise have happened." Oh phew, I was worried we weren't going to demonize whitey.

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Sorry, it does have to be mentioned/acknowledged even though it will always be controversial (we can't run the counter-factual). There is usually an element or grain of truth to the SJW/woke stuff, it's just they take things too far (ie, ALL differences between African and European wealth, health, etc are due to colonialism).

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