There are a lot of different misinformation dynamics at play here.Β Only some are innocent, only some are malicious.Β But thatβs why it pays to fact-check things, because the innocent misunderstandings, the arrogant personal hypotheses stated as fact, and the malicious lies are all jumbled together.
Some of these are a misunderstanding or conflating of true facts.Β The Da Vinci one goes here.Β Many historians do believe that Leonardo da Vinci had a romantic/sexual relationship with his apprentice(s).Β And itβs well-established that his apprentices modeled for some of his paintings.Β But they did not model for any of his paintings of Jesus - which was the core point of the post that this fact came from, enjoying the irony.Β So this isnβt true because itβs a conflation of several true facts into a false but understandable conclusion.
Some of these are just a victim of internet telephone.Β The βPersephoneβs daughterβ and βfake Greek goddessβ ones refer to Mespyrian, who was some teenagerβs wattpad OC daughter of Persephone and Hades, that someone else on tumblr accidentally mistook as a real figure from Greek mythology.
Some of these come from people making their own conclusions about history, and then turning around and insisting that the experts therefore must be lying to you.Β This is where it gets dangerous.Β The βarchaeologists broke the noses off Egyptian statues to hide the fact that they were Africanβ one goes here.Β Many Egyptian statues are missing their noses, so several years ago someone on the internet claimed that it was because archaeologists deliberately broke them off, and this gained a Lot of traction because it felt true and people wanted it to be true.Β People overwhelmingly want to believe that they, ordinary citizens of the world with no special training, are actually smarter than the experts.Β People love to believe that, so itβs very, very easy for people to decide the experts are stupid and clueless (the βHistory Hates Loversβ song, the thing about the dodecahedron or the Roman hairstyles or the leather burnishers) while salt-of-the-earth ordinary folk are smarter than those ivory-tower eggheads.Β At worst, people decide the experts are maliciously hiding the truth about the world for their own gain (the Lovers of Valdaro one here is an example of this, but you also see this a lot regarding βall ancient cultures were feminist utopias until the Catholic Church invented misogyny and covered up the feminist pastβ type posts that are extremely popular with TERFs.)Β This is the dynamic Iβm comparing to anti-vaxxers and flat Earthers, and yes, this kind of anti-intellectualism is dangerous.
Some people are just trolls because they like lying on the internet and riling people up.Β This cannot be discounted.Β People do do this.Β The tiktok woman who doesnβt believe in the Roman Empire and doesnβt believe that Vesuvius erupted is almost certainly a troll who likes the attention her wild false claims get.
Itβs a combination of things, but itβs why you shouldnβt assume that historians are all old homophobic clueless idiots and only you, tumblr user persephonesmassivebadonkers or whatever, know the REAL truth.Β Because thatβs how you get Flat Earthers, but more pressingly, itβs how you get antisemitic conspiracy theories and transphobic radfem proclamations of We Need To Return To The Ancient Feminist Utopia (By Destroying All Trans People)(And, Usually, Abrahamic Religions).Β
But also by believing easily-debunked falsehoods it makes genuinely well-meaning people easier to dismiss by bigots as Brainwashed By Those El Gee Bee Tees Who Will Lie Because They Want To Destroy Academia/Biological Sex/The Church.
Spreading misinformation on tumblr is an understandable consequence of the existence of the internet, but itβs not harmless and really ought to be challenged when itβs seen.
