[wolverine876]

> For most of my life I had assumed that all the people that had lived before our modern times were dumb. Really dumb. Borderline braindead.

It's an extreme strawperson argument. That's not what I think and thought of pre-modern people, nor does it match anything I've read.

They were biologically the same species as us. However, there was almost universal illiteracy and belief in things like causing sick people to bleed, witches, alchemy; embrace of extreme cruetly; disasterous (by modern standards) outcomes for lifespan, health, survival of children, justice, freedom, prosperity, famine, war, etc. etc.

We're not so perfect. The trick is to learn about humanity - about ourselves - from them, and look closely in the mirror for our own cruetly, etc. How many people die from lack of healthcare, for example?