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Posted by /u/Kutluna

Why have straight men historically been so hostile toward homosexuality?

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…

Posted by /u/Captain_Strudels

In recent years, I've seen some claims in several circles that "Historically the solution to excess unmarriageable men is to start a war to kill some of them off". Has this ever been remotely true? Have we ever even had historical times of…

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…

Posted by /u/Wise-Text8270

Why does Adam Smith say 'neat' instead of 'net' income?

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?

Posted by /u/Bkerrychina1

What role did Mao Zedong play in the creation of modern China, and what were his achievements and mistakes?

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…

Posted by /u/WartimeHotTot

How did US homelessness during the Great Depression compare to homelessness today?

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…

Posted by /u/Umpuuu

Medieval peasants famously ate "bread and cheese". What kind of cheese was it? Would whatever cheeses they normally ate, be recognizable as any of the modern varieties?

Posted by /u/dr-doc-phd

It's 1978, Christopher Reeves has just made me believe a man can fly, and I now want to read as much Superman as I can. How do I get caught up on nearly 40 years worth of comics?

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…

Posted by /u/Important-Repair3873

I had no control of my body at 70 mph with my daughter in the car and I know God protected us

I was driving down the highway going about 70 mph around Annapolis, Maryland (Route 97) with my daughter in the car when suddenly I could feel myself outside of my own body looking down (I guess that's the best way to describe it?) at myself driving. I was not asleep and it did…

Posted by /u/Crazy-Blacksmith-336

Why didn't Argentina, despite having one of the largest European settler populations outside Europe, end up becoming part of the Global North like the US, Canada, Australia, or New Zealand? What caused it to diverge so much economically an…

Posted by /u/Liinasepp

My brother is joining an Eastern Orthodox monastery at 20 years old and I am not taking this well.

My brother, 20 y/o, has decided to join an Eastern Orthodox monastery in Europe and will leave in few weeks before summer ends. The decision came out of nowhere (for me, at least), and a few weeks back he told me about his plans for the future. Since he is just 20 years old, I w…

Posted by /u/Bongolio-the-seal

At what point did the Confederacy's leadership in the US Civil War realise the war could not be won? What was the attitude among the CSA's government as this became apparent?

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…

Posted by /u/wastevens

What's the origin of American Resturants serving "Take home leftovers" amounts of food?

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…

Posted by /u/Romboteryx

Why did Iron Age Greeks seemingly have no memory anymore of the Hittite Empire?

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…

Posted by /u/Interficient4real

Equipping Christians to combat Islam: The Islamic Dilemma

I have been falling deep into the Islam v.s. Christianity sphere recently. So I wanted to write a post to help equip Christian for debate and discussion with Muslims. This was intended to cover all the main points between Muslim and Christians. But it got too long so instead I a…

Posted by /u/True-Boysenberry225

When you get closer to Jesus, all you desire is his presence

God has been so good, and Jesus Christ has been amazing! I’ve been praying a lot more lately and as the Holy Spirit has been guiding me in my prayers, I’ve started to notice that I’ve began to pray more like him as well. Like it’s funny because I’m using words I wouldn’t normall…

Posted by /u/ExternalBoysenberry

The Batista government was so brutal in trying to suppress the rebellion that the US stopped selling them weapons in March 1958. Are there other examples where Cold War-era US refused, on human rights ground, to sell weapons to a governmen…

Did the US really allow human rights concerns to supersede its geopolitical interests in this case, or did it make a strategic move (ie maybe assessing Batista's position to be hopeless?) and sell it as moral integrity?

Posted by /u/BjorkingIt

How did people perceive or respond to Postpartum Depression in pre-modern times?

Posted by /u/MaimedJester

What was the Soviet internet like if it existed in any form before the collapse? Just university students/professors exchanging e-mail officially or did any kind of internet equivalent culture exist like the BBS or Usenet internet cultures…

Posted by /u/Ok-Archer-5796

I keep reading that it would be preposterous to suggest that the Greeks would feel some guilt over the sack of Troy, but why did greek tragedians, like Euripides, depict the victims of the war so sympathetically?

I keep reading on X that it would be preposterous to suggest that Odysseus would feel guilt over Troy. While it's true that the character doesn't show guilt in the Odyssey, the implication is that there's no way ANY Greek of the time would be uncomfortable with it. However, anci…