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.

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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.

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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.

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LINKS:

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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.

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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

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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...

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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.

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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

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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

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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?

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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!

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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...

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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.

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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

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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...

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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...

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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

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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

Reality operates through paradox—simultaneously everything and nothing, connected yet divided. The most revealing truth? People project their own nature onto their enemies. The left accuses the right of exactly what it does itself: institutional control, hatred, and power obsession. Modern civilization's greatest hypocrisy? Proudly championing "human rights" while systematically dehumanizing its population into interchangeable cogs. This isn't a bug—it's industrial society's primary function and underlying purpose.

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:

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 Lonely Crowd by David Riesman

Thus Spake Zarathustra by Nietzche

Darkness at Noon by Arthur Koestler

The Gulag Archipelago by Solzenitsyn

Enlightenment Now by Steven Pinker

The Blank Slate by Steven Pinker

Humanity's Ascent by Charles Eisenstein

The Unabomber's Manifesto

Man and His Symbols by Carl Jung

Das Kapital by Karl Marx

Universe 65 by Calhoun

Sex and Power in History by Amaury de Riencourt

Nihilism by Seraphim Rose

The Passion of the Western Mind by Tarnas

A Secular Age by Charles Taylor

Seeing like a State by James Scott

The Leviathan and Its Enemies by Sam Francis

The Managerial Revolution by James Burnham

The Master and His Emissary by Ian McGhilchrist

Atrocities by Matthew White

The Decline of the West by Oswald Spengler

The History of Philosophy by Will Durant

The History of Philosophy by Bertrand Rusell

The Web of Meaning by Jeremy Lent

Envy by Helmut Schoeck

The Happiness Hypothesis by John Haidt

Why are people SHOCKED by the obvious consequences of their actions? We print money and act surprised at inflation. We pursue godless lives and wonder why we feel empty. I've spent years asking the most accomplished people I know—CEOs, politicians, artists—how to live happily as a young man, and received NO satisfying answers. This episode identifies the 12 toxic cultural assumptions driving our collective misery and offers the only path forward: shattering these illusions completely.

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!

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

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LINKS:

Link to HIstory 102: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0NCSdGglnmdWg-qHALhu1w

Link to my cancellation insurance: https://becomepluribus.com/creators/20

Link to my Twitter - https://x.com/whatifalthist

Link to my Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/rudyardwlynch/?hl=en

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Bibliography:

Lost Connections by Johann Hari

A Secular Age by Charles Taylor

The Myth of Disenchantment by Storm

A History of Western Philosophy by Bertrand Russell

The Master and His Emissary by McGhilChrist

The Blank Slate by Steven Pinker

The Happiness Hypothesis by Jon Haidt

Maps of Meaning by Jordan Peterson

A Conflict of Visions by Thomas Sowell

Envy by Helmut Schoeck

Cynical Theories by James Lindsay

Intellectuals and Society by Thomas Sowell

The Righteous Mind by Jon Haidt

How to Know a Person by David Brooks

The Myth of Normal by Gabor Mate

The Elephant in the Brain by Kevin Simler

Culture of Narcissism by Lasch

The True Believer by Eric Hoffer

The Body Keeps the Score by Van Der Kolk

Dominion by Tom Holland

In this episode of Whatifalthist, host Rudyard is joined by Samo Burja, founder of Bismarck Analysis and Palladium Magazine. They engage in a wide-ranging discussion covering political dynamics, the impact of technology on society, and the historical parallels that can be drawn from current events. For full shownotes, visit highlight: https://highlightai.com/share/35528506-03e8-4ef2-84b2-5424f7f2fc7b

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

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