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  • ArtieShaw@fedia.io
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    8 days ago

    I wonder how widespread this idea is. Last x-mas my MIL reacted really weirdly when I mentioned that I was reading letters by Pliny the Younger. I know that she’s exposed to a wide variety of crazy that supplements her own crazy, but I never expected Pliny of all things to be something that would set her off.

    She seems to have a set of rules.

    1. Old things must be true.
    2. Unless we don’t like them for reasons.
    3. Then they must be fake and there’s a very good explanation.

    I guess that’s another reason to be thankful I skipped out on x-mas this year.

    Pliny’s letters describing the eruption, which he personally survived (but his uncle rather famously did not) are well worth reading. In addition to the fascinating glimpse at history, Pliny was very weird about sharing his own story in addition to his uncle’s. Very human.

    • Those Pliny’s were awesome.

      Senior wrote about fibrosis in the lungs of asbestos miners, and then that knowledge was lost to time until about 1960 when they were putting asbestos into fucking everything.