"But we're reinterpreting the history the way we want it to, without the awful parts"

Oh, without the awful parts. Well that's all good then. Nothing to see here!

Maybe forward this recent unlocking of archives about British practices during colonialism?

Last week three elderly Kenyans established the right to sue the British government for the torture that they suffered – castration, beating and rape – in the Kikuyu detention camps it ran in the 1950s.

Many tens of thousands were detained and tortured in the camps. I won't spare you the details: we have been sparing ourselves the details for far too long. Large numbers of men were castrated with pliers. Others were raped, sometimes with the use of knives, broken bottles, rifle barrels and scorpions. Women had similar instruments forced into their vaginas. The guards and officials sliced off ears and fingers, gouged out eyes, mutilated women's breasts with pliers, poured paraffin over people and set them alight. Untold thousands died.

The government's secret archive, revealed this April, shows that the attorney general, the colonial governor and the colonial secretary knew what was happening. The governor ensured that the perpetrators had legal immunity: including the British officers reported to him for roasting prisoners to death. In public the colonial secretary lied and kept lying.

Because "we're doing history without any of the bad bits" isn't problematic AT ALL.

Gnng. I know, I know. But the organizers genuinely believes that they can have this theme and not have it reflect the historical problems. Of course, one of the organizers is very proud of their quote of "Steampunk needs historical accuracy like a dirigible needs a goldfish". And while I agree that steampunk is not in any way required to be historically accurate, I DO think steampunk should be aware and respectful of the problems inherent in it, not just go WHEE CULTURAL APPROPRIATION AND COLONIZATION!

Ugh. I'll stick with the goth scene, were the drama is all focused on gossip and backstabbing. That's somehow less face-palmy.

Jesus fucking Christ! (ETA: to Hec's link)

(good refuting link, though, Hec.)

Hey you guys (most recently msbelle and Jess): Tumblr has stopped letting me know if there are any messages, apparently, so I have to remember to look and/or click there by accident. So that's why submissions may take a long time to show up!

goodstuffhappenedtoday.tumblr.com: certified torture-free.

Oh, without the awful parts. Well that's all good then. Nothing to see here!

Oh, it's good that we can ignore all of the terrible things that happened to black people. That's definitely nothing like reality.

Jessica,

those Biden pics were hilarious.

Oh, it's good that we can ignore all of the terrible things that happened to black people.

Yes, WHAT IS THE MATTER WITH YOU ALL, denying the white folks their right to celebrate the awesomeness that white folks had during colonialism? Man, it was great to be white back in those days. (See also: New Orleans Council Member Jackie Clarkson refusing to back down from her proclamation that life in New Orleans was so much better and more civilized in the 50s)

I saw Hec's link the other day and was seriously WTF over that. Like, omg this was shortly after WW2, what part of torture and genocide being wrong did you not NOT GET??

And while I agree that steampunk is not in any way required to be historically accurate, I DO think steampunk should be aware and respectful of the problems inherent in it, not just go WHEE CULTURAL APPROPRIATION AND COLONIZATION!

I think there's a rather large gap between "not historically accurate because real Victorian jackets didn't have this many gears glued onto them" and "not historically accurate because if I took a step back and looked at who I'm really cosplaying it wouldn't be fun anymore."