30 Wholesome Historical Facts They Probably Didn’t Teach You In School, As Shared By People In This Thread

"Dehumanizing the enemy is a deliberate tactic of war that's intended to justify the killing of other people and assuage any moral guilt associated with doing so," Dr. Pierre explained to Bored Panda.

"The danger is that it paves the way towards abuses and war crimes," he said that this leads to the horrific treatment of civilians and even children.

We also wanted to get the psychiatry expert's take on whether it's possible to 'balance' empathy for the enemy while also continuing to fight for what one's faction considers to be 'right.' Dr. Pierre noted that trying to look at 'balance' is the wrong approach here because of the brutality of war. Instead, it's important to consider the concept of 'moral injury.'

"Empathy can help us to 'play by the rules' of war, but so long as they're fought by killing each other, I'm not sure it really makes sense to talk about any kind of healthy 'balance,'" he told Bored Panda.

"In recent years, research in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has brought attention to the concept of 'moral injury' among soldiers," Dr. Pierre said.

"Moral injury arises when there's a kind of unavoidable cognitive dissonance between the sanctioned killing in war in the name of 'what's right' and universal moral standards like 'thou shalt not kill.' As we know all too well, war is hell, but for soldiers, the aftermath of war is often hell too."

One popular example of historical empathy that most of you Pandas have probably heard of is the Christmas football truce that happened in 1914, a few months after the start of the First World War. In actual fact, it was a series of unofficial ceasefires leading up to December 25.

French, German, and British soldiers stationed in the Western Front went into no man’s land to talk, exchange food and souvenirs. Prisoner swaps and burials took place, as did carol-singing and games of football. However, fighting continued in some sectors. What’s more, as the war progressed, soldiers on all sides became increasingly bitter after the massive losses they endured. As a result, any further unofficial truces that followed were far smaller in scope and short-lived.

If anything, these examples from the pages of history are proof that charity, kindness, and empathy don’t stop the moment there’s a crisis or that war breaks out. Sometimes, it’s quite the opposite.

We’ve covered before on Bored Panda how people who are going through difficult times or have experienced them before, tend to be more compassionate and empathetic. Hardship can be the impulse that makes some people act more generously. When upheaval, chaos, and misery are everywhere, small acts of altruism are what can help us retain our sense of humanity and self. Kindness is also a way of establishing control in situations where we feel powerless: we do what good we can, with the resources that we have.

As for the reason why many of these wholesome historical facts are not well known, it all comes down to what stimulates people more. Though it’s a somewhat uncomfortable truth, most people enjoy reading and listening to stories that are more negative than positive. Kindness and wholesomeness don’t elicit responses that are strong.

During a previous interview with Bored Panda, Suzanne Degges-White, a licensed counselor and professor at Northern Illinois University, explained this phenomenon to us. 

“When it comes to hearing information about the darker aspects of humanity, our brains experience greater stimulation when we hear stories of depravity than of kindness. It also has a ‘feel-good aspect’ for some folks as it normalizes and minimizes their own dark aspects or negative traits,” she said.

“Whether it's greed, anger, promiscuity, and so on, when we hear just how bad someone else has been, it can make us feel better about our own tendencies towards the dark side traits. It also lets us imagine vicariously what it would be like to be ‘that bad,’” the professor pointed out to Bored Panda earlier.

“It's kind of like watching all the true crime shows—we enjoy being scared, we enjoy seeing into the minds of people doing things we never would, and it's exciting and novel to see just how far people can go in terms of their dark sides.”

It’s important to be aware of this and to make yourself look beyond just negative news stories and historical facts about brutality and misery. History isn’t just black, it’s also white, and varying shades of grey: the past is as nuanced as the present. And people don’t stop being people during times of crisis.