
Originally Posted by
mandeep333
History is recorded in numerous diaries, letters, journals, articles, etc. Other evidence comes in art, such as paintings, pottery, statues, etc.
It's sad, but we are forced to believe a specific historic reality as fact, when most of it is bullshit.
Everybody believes that the Nazis were very cruel. But do we ever realise how "evil & cruel" the Russians and Japanese were? Russian troops committed more war crimes on their way to Berlin than Hitler could have imagined. Rape, murder, massacres, executions of random people, etc. The Japanese killed 20 million people. They still worship war criminals today. These crimes are recorded in history books, but never taught in schools. Reason is simply because Comrade Stalin won the war (and nobody can say anything bad about Comrade Stalin, who singlehandly drove the evil Nazi capitalists back and conquered Berlin), and eventually Japan has become America's friend.
We know history happened because there are letters, artifacts, eyewitness accounts, physical evidence, etc. However, sometimes things are left out, sometimes things are framed in a certain way, etc.
You just have to trust your grandparents, who trusted their grandparents, and hope your grandchildren will trust you. If enough people trust their relatives backwards in history, then their version of history will be the official one.
Textbooks are another case, as they usually are biased in one way or the other, for one reason or another. I believe they do succeed in distorting history somewhat, because parents don't take the time (or haven't trusted/never listened to their grandparents/have forgotten/aren't interested etc) to check what the books are telling their children.
My these views are not meant to hurt anyone's feelings. But they actually demonstrate what I personally feel.