The Cynical Historian @cynicalhistorian.bsky.social · 6hPerturbing how everyone wants to moralize history. My work is mostly; "X caused event Y illustrating the larger Z trend at the time." Notice none of that is moralizing? Almost like that's not what historians do. Get beyond good and evil and become a better human being 4162
The Cynical Historian @cynicalhistorian.bsky.social · 19hAttended the local zoo yesterday. Cannot believe it took me 8 years to visit. Genuinely a great place. Had a snow leopard jump down and lay at the window in front of me. Many fascinating animals to see. I want further labeling though. One of the best I've ever seen 1183
The Cynical Historian @cynicalhistorian.bsky.social · 02/10/2026The more I make those PragerU YT-poops, the more I realize the underlying format of their videos. It's kinda creepy how similar they all are when you look at the structure. Dennis Prager probably writes most scripts before selecting a host 3191
The Cynical Historian @cynicalhistorian.bsky.social · 02/10/2026The only extant party that has ever lost the popular vote and still took the presidency is the GOP. Support for the electoral college is support for Republicans usurping the will of the people 0143
The Cynical Historian @cynicalhistorian.bsky.social · 01/10/2026The school indoctrination myth is behind so much denialism, moral panics, and culture war nonsense. So I made a 2-hour documentary about the myth and its consequences: youtu.be/PlUyozn0lVgyoutu.beUnderstanding the School Indoctrination Myth and Woke PanicsEducation in the United States is perpetually under attack, but the problem has accelerated recently. Driving recent attacks is a myth that grew throughout the postwar era and accelerated in the… 1196
The Cynical Historian @cynicalhistorian.bsky.social · 30/09/2026We've got the words juvenile and senile for when someone dies something incorrect because they're too immature or too old. Why don't have something for being too middle aged? Or is that medieval 🥁 1173
The Cynical Historian @cynicalhistorian.bsky.social · 29/09/2026YouTube gets overwhelmed with BS. Spend most my time on Twitter blocking bigotry. Nothing worthwhile about Facebook/Instagram. Fascism and AI torpedoed good historical discussion on the Internet. Discord is insular & Twitch distracted. Bluesky is tiny but good for now 2283
The Cynical Historian @cynicalhistorian.bsky.social · 29/09/2026Demonetized months after the release without any notification. Team YouTube hates educational content 0193
The Cynical Historian @cynicalhistorian.bsky.social · 28/09/2026In 1877, those most extremely opposed to immigration were the Workingmen's Party of CA. They formed after they led an anti-Chinese riot in San Francisco and were connected to the 1st International (socialists). Leftists can be just as racist or xenophobic as their contemporaries 4369
The Cynical Historian @cynicalhistorian.bsky.social · 27/09/2026It ended up being only 2:15 and the preview version is 1:51. So I only added 24 minutes, but still, that's an entire episode's worth of extra video. I'll take a few weeks' hiatus upon release 0141
The Cynical Historian @cynicalhistorian.bsky.social · 24/09/2026Drexel U is suddenly shutting down the Academy of Natural Sciences (the oldest natural history museum in the Americas) and moving it's enormous and important collections. This is malevolent and should halt. Here's Miniminuteman's coverage youtu.be/nxyfBfCrbDw?... 0209
The Cynical Historian @cynicalhistorian.bsky.social · 23/09/2026Why can I still recall all the cable channel numbers that I haven't watched in two decades? 2100
The Cynical Historian @cynicalhistorian.bsky.social · 23/09/2026My digital piano is basically dead after 20 years solid years. I wanna buy a new one, but it's $800 for something of comparable quality. That's more than my monthly rent 392
The Cynical Historian @cynicalhistorian.bsky.social · 23/09/2026Pfft, Californians are such worrywarts that they declared an emergency for one little boy /s (also inclode the tilde in niño pls) 292
The Cynical Historian @cynicalhistorian.bsky.social · 22/09/2026too many people pronounce "affluent" as "effluent," but at least that has 💩 implications 0111
The Cynical Historian @cynicalhistorian.bsky.social · 21/09/2026The next episode is gonna have the largest number of additions I've ever made from a preview version. It's going from 1hr40min to roughly 2:30 0121
The Cynical Historian @cynicalhistorian.bsky.social · 20/09/20261978, Libya paid Billy Carter, brother of the POTUS, causing scandals for years that severely hindered his bro's career. But now, Ivanka's corruption initiates an Albanian revolution and a Russian oligarch bankrolled Don Jr.'s wedding - everyone goes "that's weird" and moves on 0233
The Cynical Historian @cynicalhistorian.bsky.social · 20/09/2026The best way to understand how much view-counts no longer matter on YouTube is to simply say, "They started counting previews as views." No easily accessible metric works to measure the success of an upload now 1202
The Cynical Historian @cynicalhistorian.bsky.social · 20/09/2026Look where I went today. That's the original Meow Wolf location in Santa Fe. Been to the Meow Wolf stuff in Las Vegas (Omega Mart) and Denver (Convergence Station) too. Environmental storytelling at its best 0133
The Cynical Historian @cynicalhistorian.bsky.social · 19/09/2026Remember how chuds freaked out about the word "cis" awhile ago? Wonder if any of them will get mad that I use it to talk about the Rockies in 1820 2191
The Cynical Historian @cynicalhistorian.bsky.social · 18/09/2026Which name do you prefer I introduce myself in episodes? 1️⃣ Dr. Cypher 2️⃣ Doc Patton 3️⃣ Dr. Hall-Patton 4️⃣ Dr. Joe Hall-Patton 📊 Show results 572
The Cynical Historian @cynicalhistorian.bsky.social · 18/09/2026MAGA's hatred of history has become so pervasive that the American Historical Association has to sponsor legislation to defend our discipline. On top of their innumerable attacks on education, Trump and his minions have reached truly abominable levels of denialism 0214
The Cynical Historian @cynicalhistorian.bsky.social · 17/09/2026that is a wild difference in viewcount. YouTube Studio is broken 0171
The Cynical Historian @cynicalhistorian.bsky.social · 17/09/2026The second part of my history of fascism series was remonetized. So I released it. Here is an episode about the rise of Mussolini and Hitler to power in Italy and Germany: youtu.be/EiaCb_Gfph8youtu.beMan of the Century : Fascism Rises to PowerThis is the second episode in my history of fascism series covering the rise to power of Benito Mussolini in Italy and Adolf Hitler in Germany. By the mid-1930s fascists and nazis had reached the… 0167
The Cynical Historian @cynicalhistorian.bsky.social · 16/09/2026I'll add this to the beginning of my second episode about the history of fascism if TeamYouTube refuses to monetize it. Appeasement was a failure in 1938 and it is 2026 2274
The Cynical Historian @cynicalhistorian.bsky.social · 16/09/2026The first time the executive branch hired senior officials directly from an SPLC-designated hate group was 2017, the most senior of which was Stephen Miller, but that was just a toe-hold. Project 2025 had the direct involvement of several hate groups and Trump followed that well 0160
The Cynical Historian @cynicalhistorian.bsky.social · 16/09/2026DEMONetization fairy strikes again, despite the system clearing it - meaning YouTube Studio notifications can no longer be trusted. Just one more thing to worry about. This might delay the release 1120
The Cynical Historian @cynicalhistorian.bsky.social · 14/09/2026Amusing to see someone claim I'm insufficiently Las Vegan and cannot even get the correct endonym. Nitwit, I've forgotten more about the valley than you are capable of knowing about anything 0110
The Cynical Historian @cynicalhistorian.bsky.social · 13/09/2026The magic of VidCon is truly lost when you cannot get more than a dozen random EduTubers singing about how everybody's a little bit racist accompanied by a backpack ukulele from an offhanded comment 090
The Cynical Historian @cynicalhistorian.bsky.social · 11/09/202625 years ago, I was in the 8th grade helplessly watching the attacks happen. A decade later, I fought the war 9/11 caused. Another decade later, we lost that war and I earned my PhD studying American violence. Here is my episode explaining why all that happened:youtu.beWhat Caused the War on Terror? (feat. Hikma History)It’s been a decade since I fought in Afghanistan, and a decade before that began. Yet somehow, we’re still fighting there. Perhaps we’re finally the end of it, but the beginning is so far away that… 13010
The Cynical Historian @cynicalhistorian.bsky.social · 11/09/2026Sinclair Lewis becomes more relevant every day, because it (fascism) has happened here 12011
The Cynical Historian @cynicalhistorian.bsky.social · 11/09/2026This is obviously a glitch in YouTube Studio, but it was very disconcerting to see a different user's profile-pic for my own comment on my own channel 0202
The Cynical Historian @cynicalhistorian.bsky.social · 10/09/2026Seen a ton of stuff about "why Las Vegas is dying," most of which suck. So here's a quick explanation with the necessary perspective: youtube.com/shorts/IyZ_g...youtube.comWhy Las Vegas is DyingIf you wanna know why Las Vegas has seen a recent and sudden drop in visitors, you need to look at the history of the industry and how it reacts to systemic changes - from the 1940s creation of the… 2164
The Cynical Historian @cynicalhistorian.bsky.social · 10/09/2026Seems that the anniversary of Charlie Kirk's assassination has prompted a lot of re-appraisals of what happened, including tons of nonsense about the state of political violence. Here is my video answering that as a historian of American violence: youtu.be/8eVwx7BmeJwyoutu.beWe need to discuss assassinations and American violenceThis video explores the history of political violence in the USA, specifically focusing on events that constitute a political assassination. Understanding the roots of these incidents requires an… 0183
The Cynical Historian @cynicalhistorian.bsky.social · 10/09/2026Trump cannot unilaterally rename international bodies of water nor states, but he can for streets in DC. Rechristening New Mexico Avenue as "New America" with a big ceremony would be as hilarious as his sad #Freedom250 farce. 0122
The Cynical Historian @cynicalhistorian.bsky.social · 09/09/2026Weird reading about the Bundy standoff as a significant historical event. I had only recently moved to California and personally knew some people involved, let alone local political figures I'm familiar with. Like reading about fights in Afghanistan I'm related to 0172
The Cynical Historian @cynicalhistorian.bsky.social · 09/09/2026Why is it typically more expensive to fly to a cruise than the cruise itself (if it's far away)? You'd think traveling the Mediterranean, all expenses paid for two weeks, would cost more than getting there 1111
The Cynical Historian @cynicalhistorian.bsky.social · 08/09/2026Bought a $450 drone for this project. Further proof that the new viewcount is BS. Please watch if you haven't yet youtu.be/gZnrkzYM9SI 092
The Cynical Historian @cynicalhistorian.bsky.social · 08/09/2026When a debate becomes interlocutors interrupting or absorbing opponent's timing, moderators have failed and the procedure is illegitimate. Whether fact-checking should be necessary is open to debate 😜 Either way, most internet users has no clue what a debate is 2150
The Cynical Historian @cynicalhistorian.bsky.social · 07/09/2026Something a lotta outsiders don't realize about Las Vegas is that it's a union town and has been since the 1960s. Reason it grows so quickly (though not as much as 1989-08); laborers at resorts make a good living. That's thanks to unions. The famous mob influence was … 1/3 1328
The Cynical Historian @cynicalhistorian.bsky.social · 06/09/2026This senile ingrate has truly lost the plot. New Mexico (1598) is older that Mexico (1821). It's named after the Mexica Valley, where Mexico City is today. You ain't getting one over on our southern neighbor. Trump yet again proves he hates history 75417
The Cynical Historian @cynicalhistorian.bsky.social · 05/09/2026Been awhile since I announced one of my normal editing streams, but I'm working on the cut of our reaction to Walsh's atrocious "real history" on twitch.tv/cynicalhisto... right now 0111
The Cynical Historian @cynicalhistorian.bsky.social · 04/09/2026There are only a few ethical uses of AI for HistoryTubers, such as colorizing images, finding the original source of something, and quality checking wording. These are simply glorified tools that long predate generative AI. Pretty much any other usage is contemptible 0171
The Cynical Historian @cynicalhistorian.bsky.social · 03/09/2026I acquired a drone to assemble an ambitious episode about attending all Albuquerque museums. Check it out: youtu.be/gZnrkzYM9SIyoutu.beI Went to Every Museum in AlbuquerqueI went to every museum in Albuquerque and wanna talk about it. For a medium sized city, there’s a bunch of museums in Albuquerque with a huge variety. I’ll tell y’all what to know ahead of going to… 091
The Cynical Historian @cynicalhistorian.bsky.social · 02/09/2026I created an Amazon storefront that has lists of books used (in selected bibliographies) for 2 years of episodes. I'll add more years later, but you can check it out here: a.co/d/04fCDUNB 082
The Cynical Historian @cynicalhistorian.bsky.social · 02/09/2026I've heard of junk dollars, but this is ridiculous 0368
The Cynical Historian @cynicalhistorian.bsky.social · 01/09/2026Is it weird that I've been listening to this mostly while I eat, walk to lunch, make dinner, or take a shower? Could you stomach that? 2113
The Cynical Historian @cynicalhistorian.bsky.social · 01/09/2026I turned 38 yesterday and to celebrate… my Jeep broke down. Had a battery terminal deteriorate internally. Easy fix but costly to diagnose. At least I've got a fun episode on visiting local museums releasing Thursday 2173
The Cynical Historian @cynicalhistorian.bsky.social · 01/09/2026Been researching the next chapter of my book and I've taken to abbreviating the event I'm studying in my notes as LA71. Any guess what I'm gonna write about? Give you a clue: 71 - 22 = The Forty-Niners 171