[distances]

I'm not trying to comment on your expertise or about how Spartans actually were, sorry if my rant came out that way. I obviously don't know a thing about you or the Spartans.

I explicitly quoted you, not trying to put words in your mouth. I do think that "read [sources], and make up your own mind" is exactly the same as "do your own research". I can't see any difference in meaning there.

My commentary was on the trend to dismiss authorities in favor of, literally, "making up your own mind". Reading the sources is not enough. They need putting into context, and understanding the positions of the historical authors. I could read original sources all day and come out with an invalid understanding.

Again, I'm not saying this article is correct. I'm saying a layman should read experts instead of interpreting sources themselves if they want to understand better.

[YeGoblynQueenne]

The problem is that the "expert" who wrote the blog posts is not an expert in the subject of the blog posts and he's talking about subjects that a particular group of people, other Greeks who, like me, grew up reading our ancient history as other kids read Marvel comics, know very well and have their own strong opinions about [1].

I agree with you that we should trust the opinions of experts. However, expertise is not only acquired through professional interestes. The opinion of professional experts cannot automatically trump the opinion of everybody else, regadless of their amount of knowledge.

In any case, it should be noted that a blog post like the one above would never pass muster as an academic text, like a scholarly paper or a textbook chapter. My main beef with the blog posts above is that they express strong personal opinions in a manner meant to cause an emotional response- which should never be what a historian does.

___________

[1] Typically, those are nationalistic opinions that I don't share, btw. But there is something to be said about everybody and their little dog wanting to tell you all about ancient Greek history, but completely ignoring what Greeks themselves think about it.

[YeGoblynQueenne]

Commenting on this separately:

>> I explicitly quoted you, not trying to put words in your mouth. I do think that "read [sources], and make up your own mind" is exactly the same as "do your own research". I can't see any difference in meaning there.

This is what you wrote:

begin_quote

> And so on. Read history; and make up your own mind.

I'm of the opinion that this "do your own research" is generally bad advice.

end_quote

So you quoted me, but then you also quoted "do your own research" as if that was what I said, not as if that was your interpretation of what I said. In the future, if you wish to discuss your interpretation of the words that someone acually said, I suggest you make this more clear. For instance, instead of saying 'this "do your own research"' say something like:

"I interpret your suggestion to "Read history" as a prompt to "do your own research" because ..." etc.

Because if you just put words in quotes and then reply to the words in quotes, what am I supposed to do? I didn't say that thing, so should I just ignore it? Are you replying to what I said or to something you just felt like replying to?

[distances]

I quoted you and then equated that quote with the phrase "do your own research". I think it was very explicit that I didn't put words in your mouth, but brought up that they say the same thing. Then I proceeded to rant why I don't think this is good advice.

If you think there's a difference in the meaning of these two phrases, I can clarify that the rest of that comment applies both to "read, and make up your own mind" and "do your own research" separately.