Beyond our newsroom
Public conversations on faith, culture, and civic life—gathered in one calm, readable place.
Choose up to 6. Inclusion is not editorial endorsement.
Every returned set is displayed by current public upvotes. “Most upvoted” can be limited by time range.
397 upvotes
Jul 21, 2026, 4:14 PM UTC
Posted by /u/Kutluna
I've had this thought since I was a kid, and every time I bring it up to my friends they just laugh. But I genuinely don't understand it, so I'm curious if there's an explanation from psychology, sociology, evolutionary biology, or history. I'm a straight man, and my logic has a…
338 upvotes
Jul 21, 2026, 12:36 PM UTC
Posted by /u/Captain_Strudels
I've quoted the claim word-for-word from a very recent frontpage sub, however I've seen this sentiment echoed more than once and it got me curious. It seems really unlikely to me - at most, perhaps unmarried men might seek out war for social mobility, but I can't imagine some le…
216 upvotes
Jul 21, 2026, 2:54 PM UTC
180 upvotes
Jul 21, 2026, 1:11 PM UTC
Posted by /u/Wise-Text8270
In book 2 he talks about gross and 'neat' income. It is just net income as we use the term today, but why did he spell it differently? Why did we change? Did they pronounce it 'nEAt' back in the day?
174 upvotes
Jul 21, 2026, 10:41 AM UTC
Posted by /u/Bkerrychina1
Hello! I am Kerry Brown, professor of Chinese Studies and Director of the Lau China Institute, at King's College, London. My most recent book is about Mao Zedong - `Mao: Power and Contradiction'. I have been thinking about Mao since my first visit to China in 1991, and this book…
97 upvotes
Jul 21, 2026, 10:42 PM UTC
Posted by /u/dr-doc-phd
Today if I wanted to start reading older Superman comics, I could pirate them online, or purchase one of the many omnibuses. But in 1978 those omnibuses didn't exist, and the internet was still a twinkle in young Al Gore's eye. While I could certainly start buying the books as t…
77 upvotes
Jul 21, 2026, 11:39 PM UTC
Posted by /u/wastevens
I saw a post elsewhere about how, contrary to much of the world, the expectation at most non-fine dining restaurants is you will be served between a meal-and-a-half to two meals worth of food per order. When/how did this develop as an American cultural norm, distinct from the wo…
71 upvotes
Jul 22, 2026, 3:14 AM UTC
Posted by /u/WartimeHotTot
The way I was taught about the Great Depression in school made it seem like there was extreme political pressure coming from homeless people themselves, and this ended up affecting politics at the highest level. To me, it seemed that the term Hoovervilles (along with Hoover blan…
71 upvotes
Jul 21, 2026, 7:58 PM UTC
Posted by /u/Romboteryx
Archaeology seems to indicate that the Hittites had extensive contact with the Achaeans and even had Aegean city-states (including Troy) as their vassals. Yet after the Bronze Age no memory seems to remain of there having been a major empire in Central Anatolia and Herodotus mis…
68 upvotes
Jul 21, 2026, 11:48 PM UTC
Posted by /u/Bongolio-the-seal
I assume that it was not solely a few days before Appomatox that the CSA's government realised that the war was a lost cause. So at what point did everyone realise the jig was up? Were there any people who thought the war could be won even at the very end? Like, I assume we have…
65 upvotes
Jul 21, 2026, 8:26 PM UTC