Bret Devereaux on Twitter

Maa	Koodi	Asiakkaille yrityksessä
Yhdysvallat	40404	(mikä tahansa)
Kanada	21212	(mikä tahansa)
Yhdistynyt kuningaskunta	86444	Vodafone, Orange, 3, O2
Brasilia	40404	Nextel, TIM
Haiti	40404	Digicel, Voila
Irlanti	51210	Vodafone, O2
Intia	53000	Bharti Airtel, Videocon, Reliance
Indonesia	89887	AXIS, 3, Telkomsel, Indosat, XL Axiata
Italia	4880804	Wind
3424486444	Vodafone
» Näytä muiden maiden lyhytnumerot tekstiviesteille

Bret Devereaux‏ @BretDevereaux 29. toukok.

That also goes also for reading. Some paragraphs are read closely. Some are skimmed. Some are skipped. You have little control over which ones. So if there is some important qualifier that you need to be in mind each time something comes up, you need to repeat it. 3/14

1 vastaus 1 uudelleentwiittaus 64 tykkäystä

Näytä tämä ketju

Bret Devereaux‏ @BretDevereaux 29. toukok.

Sure, in an academic article, or a carefully edited short piece for a traditional publication, you can get away with saying something once and then assuming the reader will carry that with them. Because there are you are *arguing* a single key point, not teaching a topic. 4/14

1 vastaus 1 uudelleentwiittaus 49 tykkäystä

Näytä tämä ketju

Bret Devereaux‏ @BretDevereaux 29. toukok.

But what I am doing with the blog is fundamentally teaching - I don't assume a lot of background knowledge or training. Establishing general familiarity with the facts is at least as important as presenting a specific interpretation (= argument) about them. 5/14

2 vastausta 1 uudelleentwiittaus 63 tykkäystä

Näytä tämä ketju

Bret Devereaux‏ @BretDevereaux 29. toukok.

And readers don't consume a 7,000 word blog post the way they consume a 1200 word article or a peer reviewed piece of scholarship. They get distracted, fade in and out, bookmark it to pick it up later or skip posts in a series. Like teaching. 6/14

1 vastaus 0 uudelleentwiittausta 54 tykkäystä

Näytä tämä ketju

Bret Devereaux‏ @BretDevereaux 29. toukok.

Consequently, I can't just leave some small note at the beginning that reads "Of course we all know slavery was very bad and its conditions were very harsh and so we don't need to bring that up ever again" and then never mention that on the blog when the topic comes up. 7/14

2 vastausta 0 uudelleentwiittausta 56 tykkäystä

Näytä tämä ketju

Bret Devereaux‏ @BretDevereaux 29. toukok.

Doing that in a lecture setting is *exactly* how you get papers written about Sparta where the student has forgotten the helots exist and spends all five pages talking about the utopian equality of the system which only applies to c. 10% of the population at most. 8/14

1 vastaus 0 uudelleentwiittausta 62 tykkäystä

Näytä tämä ketju

Bret Devereaux‏ @BretDevereaux 29. toukok.

Admittedly, this repetition also helps with the known tendency of the internet and especially twitter to snip some single passage out of context. But the main point here isn't defensive writing (if it was, I'd have footnotes). The point is proactive teaching 9/14

1 vastaus 0 uudelleentwiittausta 51 tykkäystä

Näytä tämä ketju

Bret Devereaux‏ @BretDevereaux 29. toukok.

So yes, if there is some crucial bit of context that is often forgotten (think of how many people tour lovely Southern plantations without ever really thinking about what a plantation is or how it works), I am going to hammer that context *every*time.* 10/14

1 vastaus 2 uudelleentwiittausta 63 tykkäystä

Näytä tämä ketju

Bret Devereaux‏ @BretDevereaux 29. toukok.

Because as any teacher will tell you: if something is important and you need students to remember it, repeat it as frequently as you can, with as much emphasis as you can. Make it a catchphrase, a mantra or if appropriate, a running joke - then they'll remember. 11/14

1 vastaus 5 uudelleentwiittausta 63 tykkäystä

Näytä tämä ketju

Bret Devereaux‏ @BretDevereaux 29. toukok.

So yes, slavery was bad, the lives of pre-modern women were badly constrained, their labor was important, warriors suck, Clausewitz is important (drink!), farming was hard, people believed their religion, being poor != being stupid and people share their society's values. 12/14

2 vastausta 2 uudelleentwiittausta 90 tykkäystä

Näytä tämä ketju

Bret Devereaux‏ @BretDevereaux 29. toukok.

All of that said, I cannot help but note that the topic that seems to particularly aggrieve these folks is that first one: slavery was bad. And they do seem aggrieved - as if reading that is a minor irritant which, when it occurs too many times, rubs them raw. 13/14

21.58 - 28. toukok. 2021