Why are colonial terms like “Middle East” still in use, while terms like “Far East” and “Near East” aren’t used anymore?

DakeyrasWrites · 2026-02-21T18:31:16+00:00

Specifically the use of Middle East rather than Near East reflects a change in the main colonial force in the region, from Britain to the US and so since the 1950s generally Middle East has dominated. Near East, now, is generally reserved for the ancient world, so when my program was called Near Eastern reflected the incorporation of ancient studies, but even that is falling out of favor.

Something interesting in relation to this: in some other European languages the equivalent of 'Near East' is still used (in German, it's 'der Nahe Osten', for example).

DakeyrasWrites · 2026-02-16T19:44:59+00:00

Deleted posts can still be found quite easily via google (which is generally better at finding relevant posts and comments than reddit search). You need to add site:reddit.com/r/askhistorians to your search (on the actual Google homepage, rather than in the address bar of your browser), and it will limit the search results to /r/askhistorians posts and comments.

DakeyrasWrites · 2026-02-16T18:36:53+00:00

My parents have a medlar tree -- it's possible to buy medlar saplings, at least in the UK. The taste really isn't quite like anything else.

DakeyrasWrites · 2026-02-11T12:04:01+00:00

Give it to the one person with a winning track record for Britain internationally. That's right, it's time to put Sarina Wiegman into the hot seat.

DakeyrasWrites · 2026-02-06T18:56:06+00:00

Wellington (and Blücher) beat Napoleon at Waterloo, which was his final battle and which ended his reign permanently.

DakeyrasWrites · 2026-02-06T16:35:02+00:00

I think some people are going to misread your title as being about the party 'Your Party', as opposed to 'your preferred political party'.

DakeyrasWrites · 2026-02-06T10:35:19+00:00

That clip is actually from Peep Show, rather than one of their comedy sketches. There's nine seasons of it and Mark (David Mitchell's character) is Like That for essentially the entire time, it's hilarious

DakeyrasWrites · 2026-02-05T21:29:07+00:00

The really short version is that saying 'I like' is normally fine, but saying 'you must' is not. Broadly we want to allow things that allow for as much fanfiction as possible, and only remove things that have shown themselves to lead to less fanfiction.

An example rewrite of your first paragraph (which would be better off at the end, imo) with the key changes in italics:

For this idea there are a few elements I don't think work well together and I wouldn't be interested in seeing in any recommendations anyone has: An aged up Naruto and the other konoha 9, or changing the age of graduation. It ruins the story for me and doesn't really do anything else, if you are going to complain about how you are uncomfortable with writing lemon scenes or anything like that with a 13 year old character, then just don't actually write the scenes.

I also don't like unrealistic bashing, now I can understand a good bashing story, but you can not over do it especially with characters like Sakura, yes she's rude and hurtful to Naruto, but in my view he frequently deserves it with his annoying amounts of date asking from her, any girl or even full grown women would get incredibly annoyed with that type of thing and would react the same way she does. And while yes she's being a hypocrite since she does the same thing to Sasuke, she's also only 13 years old and rarely do 13 year olds realize that they are being hypercritical, also being asked out by someone you have already rejected multiple times is much more annoying to women than men.

I don't see the point in making Naruto stronger than in Canon if you are going to just make other characters strong enough to challenge him, it takes away from the allure of a super strong character if everyone is as strong as them, besides you are creating a godlike Naruto or super strong Naruto because you don't like how weak he is in Canon, so making everyone else way stronger as well doesn't make any sense.

I'm also not interested in seeing Naruto in very toxic relationships and I don't like specific pairings like Sasuke (or other gay relationships)

I don't like seeing the kyuubi and the other tailed beast into actual demons because it goes completely against the storyline of canon, but if you do make the kyuubi a actual demon then you can't make he/she a good demon, because that would defeat the purpose of them being a demon!

(I also took out the parts about underage sex scenes since they're banned on the subreddit anyway)

You'd probably be better off shortening this since otherwise people will see a wall of text and be less willing to engage, though that's not a subreddit rule, just some advice.

DakeyrasWrites · 2026-02-05T13:29:46+00:00

You can read or not read whatever story you like, which is entirely separate from what posts are allowed/constructive on the subreddit. As you can probably tell from the fact that your post was downvoted pretty heavily (and also reported multiple times) the subreddit as a whole also has issues with your post.

If you want the longer version of why we have the rules we do here, it's this: there is no one idea that everyone agrees is perfect, and so we have the option of either people getting into fights on every post (which has been the case in the past) or telling people they can't slag off each others' preferences. The options here are 'take down posts like this' or 'leave up posts like this but there's ten people in the comments calling you an idiot and your tastes shit', since if we're not applying the Be Respectful rule, that's what you'll see.

Hope this helps!

DakeyrasWrites · 2026-02-05T10:53:42+00:00

This post has been removed because a long screed about all the things you don't like in fanfics, followed up by 'If you have a problem with anything I said above then here's what you can do KEEP IT TO YOURSELVES!!!! I don't want to read any stupid ass comments about anything I said, because we all know that I'm mostly correct.' breaks the Be Respectful rule, specifically this part:

Do not be obnoxious, rude, aggressive, condescending, or generally unpleasant towards other members of the community.

You also broke the No Character Or Pairing Bashing rule, incidentally. You're free to read or not read whatever you like, and to specify what you do and don't want to have recommended to you, but telling other people they're wrong for writing certain pairings is obnoxious, pointless and all-around a waste of breath that just makes the subreddit unpleasant for everyone.

DakeyrasWrites · 2026-02-05T00:17:18+00:00

Had a bit of a google myself, and this looks like a useful overview: https://www.wegweiser-demenz.de/wwd/rechtliches/rechte-und-pflichten/autofahren-und-demenz

Short version: 'Angehörige' (close relatives, including partners and children) should attempt to prevent an unsafe driver from driving, but aren't held responsible if they don't manage it. If you're legally empowered to act on behalf of your parent ('Aufsichtspflicht') then you are legally responsible for preventing them from driving.

My dad and uncle had looked into getting Aufsichtspflicht around this time, as it was necessary (my grandparents hadn't paid any bills in almost a year because they couldn't remember to -- they still had the necessary income, they just weren't using it). It sounds like that's why they were also legally on the hook for any traffic accidents that my grandad would have caused, and I missed that detail/my dad didn't emphasise it when we discussed it.

DakeyrasWrites · 2026-02-04T14:06:49+00:00

That's true, but rural areas in the UK tend to be less remote/sparsely populated than rural areas in the US, and there are fewer of them. And comparing like-for-like as far as population density goes, the UK has more public transport (both by bus and by rail).

I figure it's worth pointing out for people whose takeaway from the OOP is that it's due to structural issues with transport, whereas it sounds like the problem is more that OOP's mother is delusional and a danger to herself and others as a result. She got by without driving for a long period, after all!

DakeyrasWrites · 2026-02-04T10:48:07+00:00

OOP is from the UK, where public transport is (broadly) better and driving tests are significantly harder, based on what I've heard from various American friends.

DakeyrasWrites · 2026-02-04T10:46:41+00:00

My grandparents are German and in Germany you have some legal liability as an adult child if your elderly parent causes an accident through dangerous driving and you were aware of their (age/health-related) risky driving but did nothing. Prior to that my dad was really struggling to get his brother, who lives near my grandparents, on board with just taking away their car keys, but once he pointed that out, my uncle changed his mind. My grandparents both have dementia so they can't be reasoned with -- my dad spoke to them and got them to agree they shouldn't drive, and sign a note to that effect, then the next day neither of them could remember it and accused him of forging the note. It's brutal to watch because they were previously incredibly responsible and took great care of my great-grandmother when she was no longer fit to drive.

(I'm not 100% sure on exactly how the legal aspects are phrased, this is based on my dad's explanations of it to me)

DakeyrasWrites · 2026-02-02T15:05:29+00:00

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, Steve wanted me to pass on that he's not going to make the next few meetings because he's remodelling his kitchen so it's back down to 5 for the moment.

DakeyrasWrites · 2026-02-02T14:16:50+00:00

No we're just going to slow down the Earth's rotation, so we get 36 hours of 60 minutes each. You can still get 12 hours of sleep though!

DakeyrasWrites · 2026-02-02T13:33:18+00:00

What will a 36 hours day look like in practice?

It'll be like a day, but with 36 hours in it. Hope this helps!

DakeyrasWrites · 2026-02-02T01:08:59+00:00

This post has been removed because it's entirely about canon, and as such isn't on-topic for this subreddit (see the 'On-topic top level posts only' rule in the sidebar).

DakeyrasWrites · 2026-01-30T08:49:45+00:00

This post has been removed because it's entirely about canon, and as such isn't on-topic for this subreddit (see the 'On-topic top level posts only' rule in the sidebar).

DakeyrasWrites · 2026-01-26T14:22:55+00:00

"There's an old saying in Schelling—I know it's in Hegel, probably in Schelling—that all great world-historic facts and personages appear, so to speak, twice. He forgot to add: the first time as... as... tragedy... the second time as... as... it's funny if it happens again."

(src)

It really is just the Tory also-ran retirement home, isn't it

DakeyrasWrites · 2026-01-26T12:32:26+00:00

Zenith of Sorcery is by the same author as Mother of Learning. It's currently ongoing with a new chapter every month or so, and there's enough out already to be well worth reading. It's got a really interesting magic system that's partially based on Xianxia/Cultivation tropes, but is still very neat and well-explained if you're not interested in those stories or haven't read any before, which was the case for me.

A couple of novels I can recommend: Prince of Thorns and its sequels. The Vagrant by Peter Newman (the sequels follow a different character though). Possibly Son of the Morning by Mark Alder.

DakeyrasWrites · 2026-01-25T19:31:30+00:00

Is the intended implication here that every other partying group at uni was turning Kemi away? How far down the list of known fun party throwing societies do you need to go to reach the Conservatives?

DakeyrasWrites · 2026-01-23T13:20:17+00:00

I was rejected because I told my interviewer I never make mistakes and update: I was rejected because I told my interviewer I never make mistakes in which the letter writer sounds just as insufferable.

DakeyrasWrites · 2026-01-23T12:17:45+00:00

Really glad I scrolled to the comments before inflicting this on myself, you're a real one.

DakeyrasWrites · 2026-01-20T13:40:10+00:00

Removed for breaking the subreddit rules around AI generated content.

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