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The Evil Baby Orphanage Returns...for George Washington?

2011-06-01 · letter vlog · John · 2:24 · watch on YouTube

Topic: History & curiosities (also: Nerdfighteria) · mode: Curiosity & trivia · tags: community lore, on location

John uses the Evil Baby Orphanage to ask whether George Washington should be removed from history, arguing that without the American Revolution slavery might have ended earlier and the Civil War been avoided, so the truth resists simplicity.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — John in Venice and sick; recap of the Nerdfighters' Evil Baby Orphanage idea

  • ★ John is in Venice and really sick, but says he does not want to talk about either. — 00:00:00
  • ★★ John recalls the Nerdfighter idea of the Evil Baby Orphanage: instead of time-travelling to kill evil people as babies, kidnap them and rehabilitate them there. — 00:00:08 · Evil Baby Orphanage, Nerdfighteria

00:00:29 — Is George Washington an Evil Baby Orphanage candidate? Counterfactual: later independence, earlier end of slavery, no Civil War, no French bankruptcy

  • ★★★ John asks how to decide who is a good Evil Baby Orphanage candidate, taking George Washington, seemingly a terrible candidate given the War for Independence, the Constitution and his presidency. — 00:00:29 · Evil Baby Orphanage
  • ★★★ John questions the nearly universal assumption that the American Revolution was a good thing, asking how removing baby Washington would change history. (hedged) — 00:00:49 · United States
  • ★★ Assuming, dubiously, that without Washington the war is lost or not fought, John says the US probably takes at least 70 more years to gain independence, following a 'Canada model' to representative democracy. (hypothetical, hedged) — 00:00:59 · United States, Canada
  • ★★ John calls M.T. Anderson's The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing a brilliant novel, citing its point that the Revolutionary War was bad for slaves. — 00:01:18
  • ★★★ John says the Revolutionary War was decidedly bad for slaves, who most needed a government's protection, and slavery almost certainly would have ended earlier had America stayed a British colony. (hedged) — 00:01:22 · United States
  • ★★ John says it is not unreasonable to think that with slavery ending in the early 19th century the Civil War might have been avoided. (hypothetical, hedged) — 00:01:35
  • ★★ John says the Civil War was the bloodiest conflict in United States history, with 600,000 dead. — 00:01:39 · United States
  • ★★ John says a key factor in the French Revolution was that France bankrupted itself helping the Americans fight their revolution. — 00:01:48

00:01:56 — Not blaming Washington; the truth resists simplicity; question to viewers; sign-off

  • ★★ John notes George Washington was a slave owner. — 00:01:57

  • ★★★ John says he is not blaming Washington for a century of slavery or 600,000 deaths, only that, as usual, the truth resists simplicity. — 00:01:57 · the truth resists simplicity

    “as usual, the truth resists simplicity”

  • ★★★ John's non-rhetorical question: given history's complexity, how do we know who belongs in the Evil Baby Orphanage, and that our own lives would not land us there? He invites discussion in comments and Your Pants. — 00:02:05 · Evil Baby Orphanage

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: American Revolutionary War · Evil Baby Orphanage · George Washington · slavery in the United States

Also: Projects: Your Pants

Works: Constitution of the United States · The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing

Concepts: counterfactual history · time travel

Places: Canada · France · United States · Venice

Events: American Civil War · French Revolution

Only in the description or credits: M. T. Anderson

Also centred on Evil Baby Orphanage: May 21st: Comment Bashing, Anniversaries and EBO Ladies · Brotherhood 2.0: June 8: Studying the Clues · The EVIL BABY ORPHANAGE Returns for North Korea · I Don't Have a Favorite Pony

Also centred on slavery in the United States: My Two Favorite Books of the Year

Later videos replying to this one