In progressive religion, African-Americans occupy a sacred caste status—beyond criticism, requiring constant resource redistribution. Yet this narrative ironically continues black America's core historical theme: dehumanization. Leftists project onto black Americans whatever serves their power needs rather than seeing them authentically. Growing up in majority-black Philadelphia taught me that most progressives from whiter areas fundamentally misunderstand black culture, perpetuating the very dehumanization they claim to oppose.

SPONSORS:

Zcash:

The right technology reshapes politics and culture toward freedom and prosperity. Zcash—the "machinery of freedom"—delivers unstoppable private money through encryption. When your wealth is unseen, it's unseizable. Download Zashi wallet and follow @genzcash to learn more: ⁠https://x.com/genzcash⁠⁠

NetSuite: 

More than 42,000 businesses have already upgraded to NetSuite by Oracle, the #1 cloud financial system bringing accounting, financial management, inventory, HR, into ONE proven platform. Download the CFO's Guide to AI and Machine learning: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://netsuite.com/102⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Shopify: 

Shopify powers millions of businesses worldwide, handling 10% of U.S. e-commerce. With hundreds of templates, AI tools for product descriptions, and seamless marketing campaign creation, it's like having a design studio and marketing team in one. Start your $1/month trial today at ⁠⁠https://shopify.com/cognitive⁠⁠

LINKS:

Bibliography:

Within a month of recording, the year's most politically important event happened—and NOBODY in the West covered it. India and Pakistan (combined population larger than Russia-Ukraine) exchanged missiles across borders in an escalation eerily mirroring 1914's Franz Ferdinand assassination. Two industrialized multi-ethnic empires fighting over terrorist proxies while alliance networks threaten continental war. Our media's total blackout reveals how completely we've lost track of global reality.

SPONSORS:

NetSuite: 

More than 41,000 businesses have already upgraded to NetSuite by Oracle, the #1 cloud financial system bringing accounting, financial management, inventory, HR, into ONE proven platform. Download the CFO's Guide to AI and Machine learning: ⁠https://netsuite.com/102⁠

Shopify: 

Shopify powers millions of businesses worldwide, handling 10% of U.S. e-commerce. With hundreds of templates, AI tools for product descriptions, and seamless marketing campaign creation, it's like having a design studio and marketing team in one. Start your $1/month trial today at ⁠https://shopify.com/cognitive⁠

Go to https://tryfum.com/WHATIFALTHIST or scan the QR code and use code WHATIFALTHIST to get your free FÜM Topper when you order your Journey Pack today.

A historic shift occurred in the early 20th century when the West completely suspended any concept of reality or meaning. We adopted a new religion whose core belief was that it WASN'T a religion—agnostic liberalism that declared thousands of years of human struggle for glory and meaning "unnecessary." This tyranny greater than Rome or the Catholic Church dominates every moment of our lives while remaining invisible, creating our current "age of platitudes."

SPONSORS:

NetSuite: 

More than 41,000 businesses have already upgraded to NetSuite by Oracle, the #1 cloud financial system bringing accounting, financial management, inventory, HR, into ONE proven platform. Download the CFO's Guide to AI and Machine learning: https://netsuite.com/102

Shopify: 
Shopify powers millions of businesses worldwide, handling 10% of U.S. e-commerce. With hundreds of templates, AI tools for product descriptions, and seamless marketing campaign creation, it's like having a design studio and marketing team in one. Start your $1/month trial today at https://shopify.com/cognitive

Try High Flavanol Cocoa (Stem Cells & Nitric Oxide): (40% OFF PROMO FOR 48HR) https://blackforestsupplements.com/WHAT

After reading 3,000+ pages for this series, I've concluded the Jews represent history's most improbable civilization. Pennsylvania alone has almost as many people as all Jews worldwide (15 million), yet this tiny desert tribe has repeatedly altered world history's trajectory over 4,000 years. They've produced ONE-THIRD of all Nobel Prize winners while comprising less than 1% of global population and birthed three major world religions. Their continued existence and influence completely defies rational historical models—making them perhaps history's most accomplished ethnic group.

SPONSORS:

NetSuite: 

More than 41,000 businesses have already upgraded to NetSuite by Oracle, the #1 cloud financial system bringing accounting, financial management, inventory, HR, into ONE proven platform. Download the CFO's Guide to AI and Machine learning: https://netsuite.com/102

Shopify: 
Shopify powers millions of businesses worldwide, handling 10% of U.S. e-commerce. With hundreds of templates, AI tools for product descriptions, and seamless marketing campaign creation, it's like having a design studio and marketing team in one. Start your $1/month trial today at https://shopify.com/cognitive

Take your personal data back with Incogni! Use code WHATIFALTHIST at the link below and get 60% off an annual plan: https://incogni.com/whatifalthist

LINKS:

After reading THOUSANDS of pages on Jewish civilization, I've hit that "skeleton key" threshold where the soul of a civilization becomes clear. Like India, Judaism is an "asterisk civilization"—for every principle, there's a paradoxical counterpoint. The sheer historical complexity demands its own dedicated video. Modern discourse about Jews suffers from profound historical illiteracy—most "experts" haven't read a single book on the topic. This episode provides the essential context everyone needs.

SPONSORS:

NetSuite: 

More than 41,000 businesses have already upgraded to NetSuite by Oracle, the #1 cloud financial system bringing accounting, financial management, inventory, HR, into ONE proven platform. Download the CFO's Guide to AI and Machine learning: https://netsuite.com/102

Shopify: 
Shopify powers millions of businesses worldwide, handling 10% of U.S. e-commerce. With hundreds of templates, AI tools for product descriptions, and seamless marketing campaign creation, it's like having a design studio and marketing team in one. Start your $1/month trial today at https://shopify.com/cognitive

Compare news coverage. Spot media bias. Avoid algorithms. Try Ground News today and get 40% off your subscription by going to https://ground.news/whatif

--

--

The once-mighty Maya civilization—with populations LARGER than today's Yucatan—faced apocalyptic collapse in the 10th century. As unprecedented drought persisted, desperate nobles demanded increasingly extreme blood sacrifices while peasants abandoned a system clearly abandoned by the gods. The priests, whose calendar had predicted this cycle of rise and fall, watched helplessly as city-states waged total wars of annihilation. A haunting glimpse into what civilizational collapse truly looks like.

SPONSORS:

NetSuite: 

More than 41,000 businesses have already upgraded to NetSuite by Oracle, the #1 cloud financial system bringing accounting, financial management, inventory, HR, into ONE proven platform. Download the CFO's Guide to AI and Machine learning: https://netsuite.com/102

Shopify: 
Shopify powers millions of businesses worldwide, handling 10% of U.S. e-commerce. With hundreds of templates, AI tools for product descriptions, and seamless marketing campaign creation, it's like having a design studio and marketing team in one. Start your $1/month trial today at https://shopify.com/cognitive

--

LINKS:

--

Bibliography:

Fire and Blood by Fehrenbach

World events keep derailing my civilization series! As a professional historian, I felt compelled to address the recent Rogan/Cooper podcast pushing the revisionist claim that Churchill was the villain of WWII who caused millions of deaths by refusing Hitler's peace offer. Let's examine what the historical evidence actually shows about this controversial take.

--

SPONSORS:

NetSuite: 

More than 41,000 businesses have already upgraded to NetSuite by Oracle, the #1 cloud financial system bringing accounting, financial management, inventory, HR, into ONE proven platform. Download the CFO's Guide to AI and Machine learning: https://netsuite.com/102

Shopify: 

Shopify powers millions of businesses worldwide, handling 10% of U.S. e-commerce. With hundreds of templates, AI tools for product descriptions, and seamless marketing campaign creation, it's like having a design studio and marketing team in one. Start your $1/month trial today at https://shopify.com/cognitive

Click here to make some cash for giving your opinion with YouGov: https://www.inflcr.co/SHLCl

Thanks, YouGov, for sponsoring this video!

--

LINKS:

Link to my second podcast on world history and interviews:    / @history102-qg5oj  

Link to my Twitter-https://twitter.com/whatifalthist?ref...

Link to my Instagram-https://www.instagram.com/rudyardwlyn...

--

Bibliography:

Liddle Hart's the Second World War 2

Bloodlands by Timothy Snyder

The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by Shirer

World War 2 by Childers

My Early Life by Winston Churchill

A History of the English Speaking Peoples after 1900 by Andrew Roberts

A Military History of the Western World by JFC Fuller

The Dictators by Richard Overy

The Rule of Empires by Parsons

Tragedy and Hope by Carroll Quiggley

War in Human Civilization by Azar Gat

The World at War by Forster

If the Allies had Fallen by Showalter

History's Greatest Wars by Cummins

A History of Russia, Central Asia and Mongolia by David Christian

Honor by Bowman

Cynical Theories by James Lindsay

Fire in the Minds of Men by Billington

Atrocities by Matthew White

The First World War 1 by John Keegan

The Second World War by John Keegan

The History of the English Speakings Peoples by Winston Churchill

Albion's Seed by David Hackett Fischer

15 Battles of History by Creasy

We're living through a historic inflection point where the left lost the presidency but still dominates virtually every Western institution. Despite their electoral defeat, they control the bureaucracy, UN, Big Tech, media, academia, and even the Catholic Church—while the right has built no alternative power structures. The burning question is what the left will actually DO with this paradoxical position, as their own leadership seems unsure following Trump's victory. Their next moves will inevitably shape our historical trajectory as history is carved into stone before our eyes.

--

SPONSORS:

NetSuite: 

More than 41,000 businesses have already upgraded to NetSuite by Oracle, the #1 cloud financial system bringing accounting, financial management, inventory, HR, into ONE proven platform. Download the CFO's Guide to AI and Machine learning: https://netsuite.com/102

Shopify: 

Shopify powers millions of businesses worldwide, handling 10% of U.S. e-commerce. With hundreds of templates, AI tools for product descriptions, and seamless marketing campaign creation, it's like having a design studio and marketing team in one. Start your $1/month trial today at https://shopify.com/cognitive

Surfshark:

Go to https://surfshark.com/whatdeal for 4 extra months of Surfshark

--

LINKS:

Link to my second podcast on world history and interviews:    / @history102-qg5oj  

Link to my Twitter-https://twitter.com/whatifalthist?ref...

Link to my Instagram-https://www.instagram.com/rudyardwlyn...

Bibliography:

The Righteous Mind by Jon Haidt

Ages of Discord by Peter Turchin

End Times by Peter Turchin

The Master and His Emissary by Ian McGhilchrist

The Storm before the Calm by George Friedman

On Grand Strategy by John Lewis Gaddis

The True Believer by Eric Hoffer

Woke Racism by John McWhorter

Leviathan and its Enemies by Sam Francis

Regime Change by Patrick Deneen

The Origins of Woke by Richard Hanania

The Unabomber's Manifesto

The Revolt of the Elites by Lasch

The Total State by Auron Macintyre

A Conflict of Visions by Thomas Sowell

Seeing like a State by James Scott

After Liberalism by Paul Gottfried

Japan and the Shackles of the Past by Taggart Murphy

Destined for War by Graham Allison

Envy by Helmut Schoeck

Cynical Theories by James Lindsay

Spiral Dynamics by Don Beck

Forgotten Truth by Houston Smith

The Economics of Discontent by Jean Michel Paul

Beyond the Big Four Eurasian civilizations (Europe, India, Middle East, China) that dominated 90% of humanity, there existed a fifth major player—not a civilization, but its opposite. The Steppe produced history's greatest conquerors despite having 1/100th the population and no cities or formal religions. These nomadic warriors influenced world history as much as any civilization, creating an anti-civilization power that repeatedly brought empires to their knees. The ultimate historical paradox: how could Mongolia conquer China with 1% of its population?

--

SPONSORS:

NetSuite: 

More than 41,000 businesses have already upgraded to NetSuite by Oracle, the #1 cloud financial system bringing accounting, financial management, inventory, HR, into ONE proven platform. Download the CFO's Guide to AI and Machine learning: https://netsuite.com/102

Shopify: 

Shopify powers millions of businesses worldwide, handling 10% of U.S. e-commerce. With hundreds of templates, AI tools for product descriptions, and seamless marketing campaign creation, it's like having a design studio and marketing team in one. Start your $1/month trial today at https://shopify.com/cognitive

Go to https://ground.news/whatif to stay fully informed on every side of every story. Save 50% on unlimited access with their Vantage Plan through my link. It's their biggest sale of the year!

--

LINKS:

Link to my second podcast on world history and interviews:    / @history102-qg5oj  

Link to my Twitter-https://twitter.com/whatifalthist?ref...

Link to my Instagram-https://www.instagram.com/rudyardwlyn...

--

Bibliography:

A History of Russia, Central Asia and Mongolia by David Christian

The Invention of Yesterday by Tamim Ansary

Europe's Steppe Frontier 1500-1800 by McNeil

Plagues and Peoples by McNeil

Rise of the West by McNeil

Genghis Khan and the making of the modern world by Jack Weatherford

The Khan Trilogy by Khan Iggulden (fiction but is the best intro to Mongol history for lay people since the author does the research really well)

A History of Warfare by John Keegan

A History of Religious Ideas v 3 by Mircea Eliade

War and Peace and War by Peter Turchin

Fighting Techniques of the Oriental World by Rice

War in Human Civilization by Azar Gat

The Soul of China by Amaury de Riencourt

Nomads and Crusaders by Archibald Lewis

War! What is it Good for by Ian Morris

The Evolution of Civilizations by Carroll Quiggley

Who We Are and How We Got Here by David Reich

The Tree of Culture by Ralph Linton

The Silk Road by Frankopan

As a Zoomer, I process World Wars as ancient history despite their recent shadow. The 20th century stands in opposition to ALL previous human experience, rejecting thousands of years of shared wisdom. Our unprecedented wealth and technological power convinced us to believe things previous generations would find INSANE—that men and women are identical, money can be printed infinitely, and culture doesn't matter. Most shocking: we've built a totalitarian democracy so pervasive we don't even recognize it.

--

SPONSORS:

NetSuite: 

More than 41,000 businesses have already upgraded to NetSuite by Oracle, the #1 cloud financial system bringing accounting, financial management, inventory, HR, into ONE proven platform. Download the CFO's Guide to AI and Machine learning: https://netsuite.com/102

Shopify: 

Shopify powers millions of businesses worldwide, handling 10% of U.S. e-commerce. With hundreds of templates, AI tools for product descriptions, and seamless marketing campaign creation, it's like having a design studio and marketing team in one. Start your $1/month trial today at https://shopify.com/cognitive

Link to Black Forest Supplements and Turkestrone: https://blackforestsupplements.com/?s... More information here: https://blackforestsupplements.com/bl...

--

LINKS:

Link to my second podcast on world history and interviews:    / @history102-qg5oj  

Link to my Twitter-https://twitter.com/whatifalthist?ref...

Link to my Instagram-https://www.instagram.com/rudyardwlyn...

--

RECOMMENDED PODCAST:

Check out Modern Relationships, where Erik Torenberg interviews tech power couples and leading thinkers to explore how ambitious people actually make partnerships work. Founders Fund's Delian Asparouhov and researcher Nadia Asparouhova kick off the series with an unfiltered conversation about their relationship evolution.

Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/id1786227593

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5hJzs0gDg6lRT6r10mdpVg

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ModernRelationshipsPod

--

Bibliography:

The True Believer by Eric Hoffer

1984 by George Orwell

On Grand Strategy by John Lewis Gaddis

Why Nations Fail by Acemoglu

Intellectuals and Society by Thomas Sowell

The Dictator's Handbook by Mesquita

Woke Racism by John McWhorter

Leviathan and Its Enemies by Sam Francis

Origins of Woke by Richard Hananai

The Unabomber's Manifesto

The Total State by Auron Macintyre

A Conflict of Visions by Thomas Sowell

Seeing Like a State by James Scott

Gulag Archipelago by Solzhenitsyn

Bloodlands by Timothy Snyder

Tragedy and Hope by Carroll Quiggley

On Power by Bertrand de Jouvenal

On Politics by Aristotle

The Grace of Kings by Ken Liu

The Origins of Ideology by Todd Immanuel

Sex and Power in History by Amaury de riencourt

Rise of the West by William McNeill