10 Common Words That Have Lost Their Original Meaning
10 Thanksgiving Stories Sure Tto Blow Your Mind & Warm Your Heart
The 10 Largest Modern Data Leaks Since 2013
Ten Little-Known American Haunts Far off the Beaten Path
10 Strange Fan Rituals Keeping Cult Classics Alive
10 Strange Facts about Aldi
10 Times Nature Invented Something Before Humans Did
10 Surprising Facts About the History of Prank Phone Calls
10 Characters Recast Because the Actors Died
10 Wars That Shattered the Pax Romana
10 Common Words That Have Lost Their Original Meaning
10 Thanksgiving Stories Sure Tto Blow Your Mind & Warm Your Heart
Who's Behind Listverse?
Jamie Frater
Head Editor
Jamie founded Listverse due to an insatiable desire to share fascinating, obscure, and bizarre facts. He has been a guest speaker on numerous national radio and television stations and is a five time published author.
More About UsThe 10 Largest Modern Data Leaks Since 2013
Ten Little-Known American Haunts Far off the Beaten Path
10 Strange Fan Rituals Keeping Cult Classics Alive
10 Strange Facts about Aldi
10 Times Nature Invented Something Before Humans Did
10 Surprising Facts About the History of Prank Phone Calls
10 Characters Recast Because the Actors Died
10 Glaring Ways That The History Books Got It Wrong
In ancient times, history was passed down orally from generation to generation. Cultures depended on their storytellers to keep the thread of history alive and connected to its roots in meaning. Out of necessity, storytellers were objective. If they were to interject their own agenda into a culture’s history, the entire society would be corrupted and cease to function effectively.
Yet our contemporary storytellers have played fast and loose with this sacred contract. In an effort to mold society to their will, these misanthropic or misguided miscreants have spun history’s objective facts into tales that serve only themselves. In the following list, we will attempt to administer an antidote to this social engineering and clear up some common misconceptions about our shared history.
10 The Civil War Was About Slavery
In 1776, the United States of America declared its independence from the British Empire. This declaration was not made in hate or backwardness; it was made to preserve the independent interests of the American colonies, which had drifted away significantly from the mandate of the empire.
This affirmation of freedom had lasting consequences. America went on to become the wealthiest and most powerful nation on the planet, and American thinkers and doers have arguably contributed more to humanity than any previous society.
Along the way, however, America would lose its dedication to freedom and independence. When its Southern states attempted to do what the United States itself had done less than a century earlier, this bid for independence was violently squashed by an authoritarian force rivaling that which had been wielded by the British.
While the history books may tell us that the Civil War centered around a valiant effort to give rights to slaves of African descent, in truth, this war was all about economics. The power of old money had encrusted itself within northern American cities like New York, Philadelphia, and Boston, and these economic influences had effectively choked out America’s devotion to liberty. Since the majority of the Union’s crops were grown in the South, Northern interests feared famine and economic depression if these states were to secede.
Of course, slavery was a problem. Yet the Northern aristocrats were just as prone to slave ownership as their Southern counterparts. It’s true that Abraham Lincoln, the heroic victor of the Civil War, did indeed eventually seek equal rights and emancipation for black Americans. But that doesn’t mean that the Civil War was a social justice crusade to spread freedom far and wide.
For every war, justification must be given to motivate the troops and garner civilian support. The cause of ending slavery was given as a reason to invade the sovereign territory of the Southern states and dispel their attempt at self-governance. The truth is: In less than 100 years, America had become the empire that it had fought so bitterly to overcome.[1]
9 Republicans Are Racist
When imagining the members of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK), people commonly visualize Trump-supporting, redneck Republicans. But the truth is, Donald Trump has never condoned white supremacy and has no history of racism. The overwhelming majority of his supporters have their roots in cultural values that are respectful of people with different ethnic backgrounds. The KKK was actually created by Southern Democrats, and Republicans have always fought against racism.
The Republican Party was founded as an antislavery platform. By the mid-1800s, the Whig Party was practically nonexistent, and former Whigs and Democrats joined together to oppose the Democrat-sponsored westward expansion of slavery. Democrats vehemently opposed the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments, and they continued to oppose any attempts made to grant black people equal status in American society after these laws passed.[2]
Some commentators contend that the parties essentially “switched” in the mid-20th century. By this point, these researchers opine, the Democrats had magically shed their racist roots and Republicans suddenly started hating minorities. The main piece of evidence given for this claim is Democratic President Lyndon Johnson’s support of the Civil Rights Act.
However, just because President Johnson supported this legislation doesn’t mean that he wasn’t racist. Ever since the Civil Rights Act was passed into law, black people have overwhelmingly voted for Democratic politicians. They have become increasingly dependent on government welfare programs, and they have stopped opening their own businesses.
While some would argue that the Civil Rights Act gave blacks more freedom, others would contend that, by providing the illusion of freedom, this Democrat-sponsored legislation simply made blacks more enslaved by castrating their initiative and forcing them into the role of being “African-Americans” instead of Americans.
While Martin Luther King Jr., a conservative, dreamed of a day when all people would be judged by their ethical codes rather than their skin colors, it appears that the progressive dream is a society in which everyone is inescapably defined by their hyphenated labels and is forced to adhere to a belief system that is assigned based on the color of their skin.
Progressives preach the virtuous qualities of minorities, but they refuse to live near minority communities. They lambaste police brutality against blacks but do nothing about black-on-black violence. They extol the benefits of unchecked immigration, but they make no effort to assimilate these immigrants into the fabric of American society.
By hiding behind a smokescreen of virtue signaling and by projecting their own racism upon their opponents, Democrats attempt to cover up their roots as a party that did everything possible to defend the supremacy of the white race while keeping black people on the plantation.
8 The Nazis Were Annihilated
History tells us that the Allies, heroically led by American patriots called to a higher duty, dashed the evil machinations of the Third Reich upon the rocks of utter defeat.
If only that were the case.
In reality, the Nazi Empire was alive and well in America during the postwar years. In an effort to get the edge on perceived geopolitical opponents, the United States imported as many Nazi scientists as possible as part of Operation Paperclip.
Many of these scientists were unapologetic slave drivers and Aryan supremacists, but the United States government didn’t care. Without the consent or knowledge of the American people, the decision was made that the benefits of staffing the highest positions of industry with Hitler’s right-hand men outweighed the potential costs.
It’s also possible that key Nazis survived elsewhere. Many Third Reich scientists and officials were unaccounted for at the end of the war, and some speculate that these elite Nazis fled to friendly countries like Argentina. Some go so far as to suggest that Admiral Byrd’s ill-fated 1947 voyage to the South Pole was actually a military expedition designed to eradicate a secret Antarctic Nazi base.
Even if the Nazis didn’t survive in hidden enclaves, their ideology has certainly persisted. In 2014, Western powers enacted a blatant coup in Ukraine to thwart Russia’s geopolitical ambitions and an openly Nazi government was installed in its place. But hey, anything’s better than the evil Russian menace, right? Even more intriguingly, a flag recently spotted at an Antifa rally practically mirrors a banner that was used by members of the Third Reich during its heyday.[3]
So, despite what the history books may tell you, Nazism is alive and well in the world today. But who kept this thread of fascism fresh during all the long years since Hitler’s downfall?
7 The West Defeated Communism
Throughout the Baby Boomer era, the threat of communism was used to rally the support of the common people and concretize America’s ascendancy as an unrivaled superpower. Yet it could be argued that the same financial institutions funded both sides of the Cold War and that this perceived battle between good and evil was an elaborate puppet show designed to distract the populace from the real struggle taking place behind the scenes.
As the Boomers inch toward their demise, the Red Scare fearmongering campaign has been reactivated to demonize the phoenix that rose out of the ashes of the Soviet Union. Except this time, the psychological warfare geniuses behind the West’s propaganda apparatus are supporting communism instead of fighting it.
Russia is now a devoutly Christian country, and its core leadership are strong opponents of the unelected corporate oligarchy that has nearly finished spinning its web around the entire planet.[4] The Russians aren’t an imminent threat, they didn’t hack the DNC servers, and they didn’t steal the 2016 election. But they do remember the 20th-century horrors of communism better than anyone except the Chinese, and people in China aren’t allowed to remember these horrors because China is still a communist country.
Interestingly, American business elites have funneled vast tracts of America’s wealth into China during the last few decades. The Chinese have benefited enormously from this policy by dumping their inferior goods on American soil while Americans have languished under the heavy burden of economic stagnation. At the same time, American tech oligarchs have been meeting with Chinese officials in an attempt to bring communist censorship and surveillance techniques to the rest of the world.
While the West has continued to sleep in a fever dream of Hollywood fantasies, pharmaceutical drugs, and toxic food, the forces of communism have regrouped and now pose a greater threat to the world than they ever did during the days of the Cold War.
Under the aegis of the European Union, Western Europe has become a communist bloc rivaling the USSR in its heyday, and liberals in America openly spout communist ideology in our public squares and college campuses. Although communism used to conquer by force, today it conquers by stealth. Like most of the monsters that America has broken its vow of noninterference to fight, communism has insidiously and perhaps irrevocably imbued itself into the heart of American culture.
6 Alternative Viewpoints Are Conspiracy Theories
Today, anyone who questions the orthodox narrative of historical or current events is summarily labeled a “conspiracy theorist.” We are taught that these misled souls are simply hateful, inbred cretins who couldn’t tell a duck from a goose at 5 meters (15 ft).
We are also led to believe that the goal of conspiracy theorists is to sociopathically disrupt everyone’s day by making up silly stories that, if true, would shock the world to its very core. We are assured that these people simply need to take off their tinfoil hats, use some prescription psychotropics, and get a good night’s sleep.
It is made to appear that labeling people as conspiracy theorists is a phenomenon that organically originated within society to benevolently identify and contain anyone in danger of veering off the well-kept path of orthodox fact and political correctness. But nothing could be further from the truth.
The term “conspiracy theory” was created by the CIA in the 1960s to discredit anyone who put forward contradicting narratives about the murder of President John F. Kennedy. Before this time, people were free to entertain whichever depictions of reality that they felt were fitting. The worst reaction that they would receive would be reasoned argument or ridicule.[5]
But today, all it takes is one phrase to instantly condemn someone as a dangerous social pariah who dared to indulge in free thought to the detriment of those around them.
In the speculative novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell depicts a nation in which an authoritarian state controls every aspect of society from the top down. Language has been vitiated, history has been erased, and any opinions that countervail the existing orthodoxy are labeled as “thoughtcrime.” Those accused of thoughtcrime are forced to adopt the common view of things or are eliminated.
Instead of flaunting their power out in the open, the engineers of our society have opted to have the people police themselves. Engineers may know that mere planes couldn’t have caused the World Trade Center buildings to fall the way they did, but they don’t voice their opinions. Government officials may know that pedophilia runs rampant in the highest levels of elected office, but they also know that their careers would be destroyed if they rocked the boat.
Peer pressure has been used to keep silent those who know the truth, but the people of the world are beginning to remember their courage.
5 The Catholic Church Is A Christian Organization
The central aspect of the life of Jesus is that he rose from the grave. He suffered, he died, and then he lived again. The locus of faith for most Christians is this supernatural feat, yet Catholic iconography chooses to largely ignore the risen savior. Instead, it focuses excessively on his grotesque and horrifying death.
In every Catholic place of worship, an image of the crucified and dying Jesus looms over the heads of penitent sinners looking to the Church for guidance. The Pope himself bears a staff depicting the dying Christ, which he uses to bless the masses. With the obsessive overuse of this distressing symbolism, Catholics are perpetually reminded that Christ died, placing us in his debt, and made to forget that he lived again to make us all free.
It has been speculated that the main product of the Council of Nicaea was the envelopment of the Christian faith within the political machinations of the Roman Empire. Since Christians do not fear death, their cult could not be contained. But left unregulated, this ecstatic religion would soon overturn the ordered society which guaranteed the power of the patricians.
From that point onward, the Christian message of life everlasting became co-opted by the authoritarian designs of the empire. Christian theology cast away its unitary depiction of the Godhead and elevated mere mortals, saints, to demi-godhood. Mary, the mother of Christ, took the place of Semiramis or Isis. Christianity essentially transformed into a pagan religion, and it became a vessel for the mystery cult that had originated in ancient Babylon.
Since then, Catholicism has further distanced itself from the teachings of Christ by amassing vast temporal wealth. With this wealth, the Church has been able to buy power, but it has also had its fair share of close shaves. In 1832, the Rothschild family gave the Vatican a substantial loan to bail it out of bankruptcy. This British family, which had gained control of the Bank of England by betting on Napoleon’s defeat, has since had inordinate influence over the policies of the Church.[6]
If you need any further evidence beyond rampant pedophilia that the Vatican elite are anti-Christian, just take a look at the symbolism of the Pope’s audience chamber. The whole hall is shaped like the face of a viper ready to strike, and the bizarre sculpture behind the Supreme Pontiff’s chair bears an image of a snake’s head within Christ’s hair.
Satan is, of course, symbolically represented as a snake.
4 Thomas Edison Was The Father Of Electricity
Popular culture remembers Thomas Edison as the eccentric innovator who brought us the incandescent light bulb. His invention of direct-current (DC) power has somehow made his legacy equatable with the harnessing of electricity in general. The legacy of the inventor of alternating-current (AC) power, which is much more important today than DC power, has curiously been swept under the rug.
Nikola Tesla dreamed of a day when humanity would be united in a grid of limitless, free power for everyone. In an augmented state of consciousness, he supposedly made contact with extraterrestrials. When struck with an enormous surge of electricity, he transcended space and time and saw the past, present, and future in a single instant.
While Edison died incredibly wealthy and beloved by the world, Tesla died alone and penniless in a New York hotel room.
Tesla’s inventions, however, didn’t die with him. A lifetime of research was seized by the FBI upon his death, and many of his patents may still languish under heavy classification.[7]
It seems that Tesla had discovered the secret of free energy. He ecstatically envisioned a future in which no human being would need to suffer from hunger, thirst, or poverty thanks to instant access to the infinite power which underlies the very fabric of the universe.
For those who wish to keep us impoverished and enslaved, Tesla’s life presented—and his legacy continues to present—a fatal menace.
3 Women Have Been Systematically Oppressed
It is considered a cardinal sin in today’s social parlance to view women as anything but victims. Women have been beaten down, oppressed, misunderstood, and made the slaves of the needs of men for centuries uncounted. To question this narrative is to open oneself up to ridicule, scorn, and hatred.
But how do women really feel about the issue? Many women assert that they have never felt oppressed at all. They believe that men and women are inherently different and that a different set of rules applies to each sex. These women may remember that it is truly they who have controlled politics and finance throughout the ages by manipulating men. In the end, the rooster gets very little out of the cockfight, but the handler is well-rewarded.
The push for equality of the sexes can be boiled down to crass economics. In the early 20th century, cigarette manufacturers despaired after having cornered nearly the entire male market. Growth in the tobacco industry slackened until Edward Bernays, a nephew of Sigmund Freud, came up with a brilliant strategy. He proposed that women be encouraged to smoke as a sign of independence. When couched in these terms, cigarette advertising campaigns geared at women became devastatingly effective.
To boost textile sales, Bernays also made women feel uncomfortable wearing their traditional clothes. His legacy has been expanded upon by a legion of social engineers who have clothed infanticide as a fashion statement, masculinization as empowerment, and the family home as a barbaric cage.
Traditionally, women have looked after the home and reared the children. This was not viewed as a denigrating role as it served an obviously vital function. Men, who grappled with each other in the business world in a daily battle of life and death, were provided with spiritual sustenance, and children were ensured a loving and peaceful home.
However, strong families have always posed a threat to tyranny and corporations always need more wage slaves. Women were coaxed into abandoning their homes under the pretext of liberation, and generations of children have been subsequently raised under the emotionally neglectful and agenda-driven care of preschool teachers and state-controlled K-12 wardens.
In reality, women are not men, but they have always been just as important as their male counterparts. To suggest otherwise is incredibly insulting. However, it is politically and financially expedient to force women to take on the role of the victim. Those who have been convinced of their victimhood are utterly disempowered, leading to reliance on the state, and they feel a bitter sense of resentment toward their perceived oppressors.[8]
This same tactic has been employed in the black community. It is also beginning to take root in white males, who increasingly view themselves as under attack in a world of incomprehensible traps and pitfalls.
2 Ancient Cultures Were Less Advanced
No matter how we may disagree on the shape that society should take from here on out, we all agree that our modern technological culture is the most advanced that the planet has ever seen. Our scientific disciplines are more refined, our technologies are more sophisticated, and our culture is more developed than any other that has had the misfortune of gracing the globe in its woefully incomplete form.
Yet for all of our hubris, there is much that we do not grasp. Despite our technological concupiscence, we still know next to nothing about how the Egyptian pyramids came into being. Since the burial chamber hypothesis is losing its unanimous support, we don’t even know the primary purpose of these incredible monuments to human achievement.[9]
Our spiritual understanding is also woefully lacking. While many ancient cultures understood that consciousness was the predominant force in the universe, we still cling to materialism as both our shield and spear in a hostile world beyond our ken. While some ancient cultures centered themselves in the relentless pursuit of divinity, our culture has only carried forward the worst of the ancient world and is concerned solely with making the poor poorer and the rich richer.
For instance, the ancient Greeks understood that life is an illusion, that the universe is fundamentally rooted in geometry, and that a pervasive intelligence informs the structure of all things. In our modern culture, we may live longer and our bodily comforts may be more profound, yet we are all uprooted from the source of our being and are adrift in a limitless cosmos upon which we have turned our backs.
However, we hold certain keys to existence of which the ancients were utterly clueless. It is only by discarding our culturocentric egotism and bringing the past to life in our own times that we can hope to meet in stride the unimaginable changes that are set before us.
1 America’s Origins Are Inherently Flawed
These days, it’s in vogue to disparage the origins of the United States. After all, America was built upon the broken backs of black slaves and ne’er-do-well whites immorally stole all their land from Native Americans.
Never mind the fact that America’s constitutional framework has become the standard for all civilized societies or that American innovators are almost single-handedly responsible for the most important inventions of the last few centuries. Not only is modern America an exploitative and unfeeling empire, but it has always been one of the worst places the world has ever seen.
In decades past, American citizens and the people of the world looked at the United States as a beacon of hope in a dark landscape of oppression and tyranny. The inhabitants of the recent past had lived through the horrors of fascism and communism, and they understood that America was a rare, if not unique, gem within the context of world history. Americans had achieved greater freedoms and were more culturally advanced than any other society in the history of civilization.
Today, we have chosen to overlook the achievements of Americans to leave space to properly obsess over their shortcomings. America has made its share of mistakes, but so has every other country. Almost all nations have stolen their territory from someone else at some point, and they have treated the conquered with disdain equal to our treatment of Native Americans. Most advanced civilizations have made the mistake of allowing slavery at some point. In fact, some of them still do, while slavery was utterly stamped out more than a century ago in America.[10]
If America is no more guilty than any other dominant society in world history, why have Americans chosen to shoulder such unbearable shame about their origins? Could it be that, confronted with an innovative mindset that would inevitably unlock the secrets of free energy and space travel, the hidden rulers of our world deliberately infected the American mind with a psychological virus?
Whether or not this supposition holds water, it is undeniable that the malleable mass society in America has forgotten the glory of its roots, and it languishes in a pit of abjection, victimhood, and self-hatred. If the engineers of this malaise are ever exposed, the retribution enacted against them will be swift and merciless.
For more facts and history that are just wrong, check out Top 10 Things Americans Get Wrong About Their Own History and 10 More Fascinating Facts That Are Wrong.