M. Laser 100k QnA

My Patreon- / mlaser
My second channel M. Laser Random- / mlaser2
where I just upload random videos from game-plays to vlogs and more.
My Twitter- / mnlaser
0:00 Intro
0:43 Vodka or Rakija?
0:47 UNIVERSITY?
0:55 What events do you think were the biggest game changers for Eastern Europe throughout history?
1:38 What is your favourite area of history to look into? What's your favourite time period of history and why?
3:01 Would you consider doing any alternate history videos?
3:10 How did you get interested into history? What started your love for history?
4:10 Explain historical relativism. Why should/shouldn’t we apply it when evaluating historical figures? In your opinion, what are some pros and cons to historical relativism?
9:39 Lost historical works you'd love the most to get your hands on? I'd love to read the memoirs of Sulla, such an interesting guy!
11:02 Is hot dog a sandwich?
11:05 OMG would you defeat a horse size duck?
11:17 What is your favorite song?
11:48 What books would you recommend about History? (It can be any period/topic)
13:07 Why'd you start, and what helps you keep going?
15:03 What are the books you have used frequently in your videos as reference and/or research? What are some positives and negatives you would personally say about each of them?
17:17 What is one area of history that you would like to learn more about?
17:40 Has your general view of history or worldview changed since you've started doing history youtube? If so, are there any videos you found especially influential, or did these changes come about gradually and in the background?
18:41 Favourite type of cheese?
19:10 What KZbin channels do you watch the most?
19:22 What was your most challenging video to make?
20:12 What type of videos would you like to make but can’t because of lack of views/KZbin disliking it?
22:45 What type of videos would you like to make but can’t because of lack of views/KZbin disliking it?
_________________________________________________________________
Duke tier Patreons
-Sahni
_________________________________________________________________
#History #QnA #MLaser

[@MLaserHistory]

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Extra Information & Sometimes Corrections if Needed !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 1:00 Yes the Migration Period started at the end of the Classical Period but for the sake of brevity and the fact that there are no clear boundaries between the middle ages and antiquity I am just calling it all the early medieval period. 3:28 Skanzen = open air museum 7:15 Of course, you could argue that the contextualization of past people's frameworks of assessment is impossible, for no historian can escape his own framework of assessments, basically everyone is always bias you can't escape it. However, (this topic goes more into subjectivism rather and relativism) I would still argue that doesn't matter. If true, and people will be always biased, that still doesn't take away from the fact that a historian should at least try to contextualize past frameworks of assessment even if in the end he cannot do it due to his own frameworks of assessment. Just because you cannot theoretically reach something doesn't mean you shouldn't try because if you shoot for the moon you land among the stars. 9:30 Moving slightly away from the relativist question at the end here. What people need to realize is that when someone did something in the past that we consider bad today but wasn’t considered bad in the past, those are the facts not the arguments. If someone wants to, let's say, bring down a statue today, the argument should center around whether our society today, with our frameworks of assessment, thinks it is wrong or right to keep a statue of a person who did something which is considered bad today but was fine or even normal in the past. “Statues are about the present, not the past: they are about the values we want to celebrate through the people we regard as having represented them.” www.newstatesman.com/international/2020/06/history-wars 19:31 I also have been watching a lot of League of Legends Esports lately, more specifically the LEC. LET'S GO FNATIC!

[@fclp67]

true giga chad making videos about obscure topics even though they know it's not gonna get the most views, absolutely based, keep making the most interesting history content out here

[@Stando0]

I'm so glad that you are actually a historian that makes videos about Slavs in early medieval ages without any fiction... As you said, a lot of people from Eastern Europe ("historians") are affected by nationalistic agenda which really pisses me off. Keep up the work, love your videos!

[@ShahjahanMasood]

Long live the Lechia Empire! ps I am kidding

[@aarpftsz]

@@Sikt One year late but, and I'm gonna play a redditor, that is a fallacy: even if people somewhere else do stuff "the bad way" it doesn't excuse anybody else. If homicide rate is high in both, dunno, Angola and in the USA, does that mean that people in the USA or Angola should just give up solving it? Should we just kill eachother cos people do that elsewhere? A stretch of an example, but I hope you get my point :)

[@glavatazelva]

I would like to see a video about the Croatian-Hungarian settlement and the Czechs' attempts to do the same with Austria! in the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. but every video of yours is always gladly viewed

[@khomypigeon]

congrats, m. laser!

[@comedylongpantsgamer3608]

Ladies and gentlemen, it seems that congratulations is required. Keep on trucking and boy oh boy as a channel you are so underated! I hope in the future your community reaches the millions!🎁🎉🎉🎉🎉🍰🥳

[@HistoryOfRevolutions]

From one History KZbinr to another, keep up the good work! Love your perspectives and unique insights.

[@1986tessie]

Nice, congrats. Been watching this channel for ages, it's great.

[@matthewc8241]

Just subscribed to your patreon because of your response to the last question, before you even mentioned patreon! Keep making things which interest you, as long as you explore different topics and are excited about the topic, im happy to support you

[@Knasboi]

so happy that you have gone so far, love your videos :)

[@history.mp4993]

I’ve been subbed since 500 ish subs I found you off of another history channel’s featured channel you really blew up happy for you

[@HistoryandHeadlines]

Congratulations on 100k subscribers!

[@serg9320]

Congrats my dude, you deserve it.

[@rivets3259]

M. Laser We love you Keep up the good work

[@ShahjahanMasood]

I have a lot of your videos downloaded and listen to them on my commute. This is a niche channel but that doesn't degrade its value. 👍👍

[@Kobbize]

Gratulujem

[@PakBallandSami]

keep up the good work

[@tristansoendergaard7867]

Yaaaaay!!!

[@italianpc4119]

One of the best history channels on KZbin

[@MLaserHistory]

Thank you.

[@joseph_krupa8155]

Super že si Slovák. Už dlho sledujem tvoje videá,ktoré sú úžasné

[@grizwoldphantasia5005]

I got interested in history as I discovered all the connections. James Burke's TV show "Connections" is a good example, but my interest started sooner. Read one book, learn some history, that's ok, but read another one which describes earlier events which affected the later first book, and BONG, I was hooked. Some of my favorite science fiction follows this pattern, especially finding Isaac Asimov's Foundation trilogy when I was a kid.

[@Hy-jg8ow]

I always watch your videos with great interest, greetings from "Seklerland".

[@Hy-jg8ow]

@@duxromanorum9861 Its never easy or simple to opine on such matters, but since you asked. I think they certainly were a vulgar latin speaking left-over of some Roman subjects who mixed with Thracians and Dacians and later a bit even with Bulgarian slavs. I also believe they were wide-spread in the Balkans, travelling all across the Mountains with the ebb-and-flow of pastures for their animals. Most likely getting cohesive culturally in more than one spot from Greece to present day southern Romania around 700-800, then slowly spreading east and northwards. They probably lived in Transylvania too, but not as densely as some say. That place was a war-zone for centuries after the Roman withdrawal. Huns, Gepids, Goths, Avars, Bulgars then Hungarians all had a massive presence there. I bet, that the arrival of the Bulgarians split the forming Romanian populace in two, some getting isolated near Greece and Albania (later Aromanians) and the ancestors of today's Romanians partly living together with Bulgarians and to the North of them in what later became Wallachia. Of the Romanian historians Lucian Boia seems the most objective on the matter btw.

[@Hy-jg8ow]

@@duxromanorum9861 The Carpathian basin was ruled and populated by Huns, then Gepids and Goths, then Avars and some Slavs, then Bulghars, and then Hungarians. There was no room or place for a peaceful ethnogenesis.

[@Hy-jg8ow]

@@duxromanorum9861 I was counting it from the fall of Rome. You're gish-galloping all over the place. I should have known not to take the bait... ps: believe me, I wish we never separated from the ancient finno-ugrics and rather left with them north.

[@blakeharrison4997]

Ah..yes that voice is so smooth so calming and so prominent and the history that he tells us so complex but so simple and I think that’s why all of us watch this amazing KZbinr

[@bubulunaidoo]

Congratulations!

[@d1sney_fanboy615]

congrats

[@georgia8789]

2:02 napoleonic(19th century) are my favorites

[@happysad732]

Next time my mans gonna be doing a 100m subscriber QnA!

[@TheWoozie147]

I'm absolutely terrified of having to specialise in a specific area. I've only been reading history books for the past year and I just feel like I'm getting started! And to devote my life to one area? Terrifying.

[@MLaserHistory]

Yeah, it is definetly daunting. I think many people who get a BA in history (in fact many of my friends) don't continue on because they don't want to specialize or don't even know in what to specialize in. Many that do continue start side projects like blogs, writing for articles, KZbin (me), etc. so that they can have that variety I spoke of in the video. If you get those side projects going the specialization isn't as crippling or daunting as it seems at first.

[@alkehol8]

Eastory, Bazbattles and Suibhne are absolutely top notch

[@malexanderja3531]

Od prvého videa som vedel že budeš Slovák, super práca, profesionálne videá, len tak ďalej.

[@williamsouth1847]

Congratulations on 100k subscribers! May I ask a question regarding "The making of the slavs"? I have fairly often encountered an opinion among the Ukrainian historians, that early slavs had spread over such a vast territory in such a short period of time because their "lifestyle" was appealing to other tribes living over that territory. This theory postulates that the slavs started as an ethnicity of sorts, but it quickly got "diluted" and by the end of the Migration period majority of Slavs were assimilated, originally non-Slavic people. How close is this theory to "The making of the slavs" conclusion?

[@MLaserHistory]

I mean what you're talking about is basically the application of the Vienna School of thought on to the Slavic migration. The Vienna School is basically one of the three schools of thought on how historians should deal with ethnicity in the early middle ages (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vienna_School_of_History). The Making of the Slavs uses the Toronto School approach. The Toronto School is basically post modernist and talks about how we have no way of knowing how ethnicity was viewed or used back than and that today's ethnicity, with our modern understanding of it, is a modern concept that should not be projected on to the people in the past. That is why the idea of ethnicity and various ethnos could have been created by outside observers like what happened to the Slavs, at least according to Curta. What you read is the Vienna School approach which talks about that an ethnicity under went a sort of ethnogenesis of a "core" tribe or clan or leader and from there it could ebb and flow, be completely destroyed or spread and be adopted by a greater population. Hence there is a sort of ethnogenesis and there was a "Slavic" ethnicity from which the later Slavs came from. I personally see the Vienna School approach as the most plausible and the most flexible (I still disagree with some of its takes, I am in fact a bit more conservative than them), specially because every encounter, every assimilation, every ethnogenesis of a different ethnicity most certainly happened differently, uniquely, and the Vienna School accounts for those variations quite well. Specially when you think about that some peoples had a very strong ethnic identity while others did not. The Toronto School cannot really explain that as for it, ethnicity (as it exists today) wasn't a thing back than and therefore, some tribes having a strong ethnic identity in the early middle ages makes no sense. There is also an Oxford School which takes the most conservative approach (too conservative I would say) with ethnicity. It's all in the wikipedia link attached above. I could go on for ages. In fact I really want to make an ethnicity video at some point and explain how historians deal with it and the migration period. It's by far not simple and there is no consensus, and my ideas on it don't actually fall well into any of the Schools of Thought that exist so that adds a whole another layer of complications when I talk about it.

[@williamsouth1847]

@@MLaserHistory Thank you for the detailed response! Also, I have left a comment on your videos three times, and you have responded to all of them. That would be commendable even with small channels, but you have 100k subscribers, so colour me impressed. Keep up the good work!

[@ghostplasma5590]

Czytasz po polsku? Nice! Love Slovakia from Poland

[@Callaxes]

Have fun ripping into the theory that latin is derived from the ancient dacian language for your romanian video. Also look forward to a lot of angry emails for daring to suggest that the Dacians weren't the true source of roman culture.

[@MLaserHistory]

One thing I am sure of about that video is that the comments are going to be a mess :D

[@Callaxes]

Oh, please don't hold back! It will be cathartic for a lot of us. I've had teachers, friends and members of my family push this idea that the west owes its culture to us for basically inventing latin.

[@Sofus.]

👍

[@grizwoldphantasia5005]

About relativism ... I read something many years ago by a (marriage counselor? business arbitrator?). Get each party to describe the other party's position well enough for the other party to agree it was correct, even while they disagree. I try to do that in personal life, current events, and history. It's probably only relatively relativism :)

[@vladimirskala]

Congrats. Speaking of a lack of balanced historians in Central and Eastern Europe, what do you think about Milos Marek's Narodnosti Uhorska?

[@MLaserHistory]

Never heard of him or the book before but I spend some time today reading it. It is interesting, a very modernish Slovak take I would say. By that I mean the book tries to distance itself from the history being done during the communist era and tries to use many more western historical tools and revise many older Marxist and nationalistic takes but with a still conservative undertone. For example all of these sentences are spot on and are there to basically showcase the fact that older takes on these things where just wrong through statements like "Na úvod treba povedať" or "ale bola to prirodzená asimilácia, ktorá sa nediala nijako násilne". "Na úvod treba povedať, že v stredoveku sa súpisy obyvateľstva podľa národnosti vôbec nerobili. Národnosť nehrala v tej dobe nejakú veľkú úlohu." "človek, ktorý chcel zavŕšiť svoj spoločenský postup až na najvyššie miesta v ústredných kráľovských inštitúciách a pochádzal z radov Nemaďarov, sa musel viac či menej dobrovoľne prispôsobiť, ale bola to prirodzená asimilácia, ktorá sa nediala nijako násilne." On the other hand you still have the clinging to the idea of Slovak ethnogenesis during the time of Great Moravia which honestly is a bit ridicules and only exists in Slovak circles. "Veľkomoravský štát bol v podstate dualistickým útvarom moravsko-slovenským" The formation of some kind of Slovak identity in the Duchy of Nitra under Pribina (the earliest ruler of Nitra we know about) is one that the Slovak chamber of history made up when writing historical textbooks for schools. In reality there was no such identity. Nitra was just another Western Slavic principality of many that happened to be a core part of a greater Slavic polity centered around Morava. All sources that mention Pribina (Nitra) and Rastislav (Morava) mention them as "regulus Venedorum" rulers of the Slavs. There was no ethnic identification other than that they where Western Slavs in the Kingdom of Morava. The most of a social identification those people had was a geographical one but not an ethnic one. What makes all this even weirder is that he later in the book acknowledges the fact that "Predpokladá sa, že proces teritoriálnej etnogenézy hornouhorských Slovanov sa ukončil najneskôr do konca 12. stor., keďže v tomto období sa dokončila územná integrácia nášho teritória do rámca Uhorského štátu." I am guessing he than implies that the ethnogenesis started during Great Moravia and ended in the 12th century. 12th century is usually the date for a Slovak ethnogenesis given by historians outside of Slovakia so the writer here is trying to combine the Slovak nationalistic narrative with the more accepted outside narrative which creates a span of 300 years for our ethnogenesis. That seems way too long for me. I mean over all I think it's a good book, it has some good takes, although sometimes there are statements that don't have a source for some reason. Like "veď ani trištvrtestoročia spoločného života nitrianskych Slovanov s moravskými (Moravanmi) vo Veľkomoravskej ríši nestačilo podľa mienky viacerých historikov". Who are these "viacerých historikov"? He never gives any sources for it. But to finish off, I think it's an over all good book :)

[@vladimirskala]

@@MLaserHistory wow, thanks for the thoughtful reply. In that case seems it's a step in the right direction, compared to the previous pedagogical materials (as this book is meant for the purpose of college-level instruction), while still leaving some room for improvement. I was quite surprised to learn that Szekelys, people whom many in Hungarian circles consider to be the core of their nation, were actually of Turkic origin (and, as the book notes, the first recorded Szekely bore a Slavic name). I looked at it from a slightly different angle, though. What concerned me is author's argument that all Slavs of northern Hungary were automatically ancestors of Slovaks (he even posts a map, which outlines an area including large parts of Hungary and Ukraine), ignoring other Slavic groups, like White Croats. He also assumes that the way we delineate dialects today on the Slovak-Rusyn dialect continuum is infallible, objective and immutable, which directly contradicts his basic assumptions from the beginning of the book where he pays lip service to the contemporary schools of thought (i.e.: ethnicity is socially constructed). He takes for granted that what we consider today as Eastern Slovak dialect, did not automatically mark someone as Slovak in the past. A good case is the Vojvodina Rusyn community, whom linguists group with the western Slavic subgroup, unlike other Rusyn dialects, which are grouped with the other Eastern Slavs. The author should've done a better job at separating language and ethnicity and improved his research in this area. Thanks for the reply.

[@Tamhenten14]

M.Laser, I do understand that this query might be out of the scope of your academic inquiry but do you know about any good source on the topic of societal collapse throughout history (i.e. fall of civilisations) or fascination with past complex societies?

[@MLaserHistory]

I am not really sure what you're looking for exactly. All I can really think of, since I am a medievalist, is the book 'Making Early Medieval Societies' by Conrad Leyser. The books delves into the fall of the Roman Empire and the restructuring of societal identities that followed it in the early medieval period. Perhaps maybe also Gibson, Charles. 'The Aztecs under Spanish Rule : A History of the Indians of the Valley of Mexico, 1519-1810' Last chapter of Pohl 'The Avars' deals with the fall of the Avar Khaganate. I have no idea if these help or if they're even something that you're looking for they're just the ones that come into mind. I am sure there are a lot of Fall of the Roman Empire books or Fall of the Byzantine books out there that you could perhaps look at.

[@Tamhenten14]

@@MLaserHistory Thanks a lot for your recommendations. I suppose 'Making Early Medieval Societies' would be the most approximate match for what I am looking for... I have just finished my master's in critical graphic design and I am looking into the way of portraying current societal issues into graphic way through the fascination of fallen complex societies. Have been through Tainter's 'The collapse of complex societies' and Meggers' work but wanted to ask you as you have more concrete knowledge of early medieval period. Dakujem velmi pekne :)

[@carlinberg]

Nice

[@ymer92]

Married a Slovak for the lifetime supply of bryndzove halusky. Good choice.

[@johnidchannel6877]

Well done.

[@GuthlacYT]

Early Medievalists, unite!

[@imbrazzyb5346]

Make early history of the university of Hertfordshire please man

[@Embracehistoria]

Cheddar was the correct choice smh.

[@Valygar3]

Umm, I suspect some relativism here.

[@stopofinterests6159]

I got to know about your channel from oversimplified. I have seen many history youtubers put some kind or another of humour in your videos. Animation of oversimplified, puns of extra history (extra credits), etc. Why haven't you ever considered adding some humor.

[@dorincucos2197]

I was surprised to hear that your favourite (Slovak) cheese is called "bryndza", because that is most definitely linked with Romanian "brânză" (simply meaning cheese). That is considered to be a word of Dacian origin, so the direction must be from Romanian to Slovak... But what if the assumption this is based on is wrong? Well, maybe a bit of food for thought to add to the great work you have to cover for your Romanian origins video.

[@MLaserHistory]

It is well known that the word bryndza is borrowed from Romanian. We just use it to define a specific type of cheese rather than for just cheese in general.

[@dorincucos2197]

@@MLaserHistory I have since looked a little bit into it, and there are records in the late Middle Ages refering to it as the cheese of the Vlachs. Now what i need to do is do some more extensive reading on it (they're mostly going to be in Romanian, so i have no excuse), because to me, on a first look, it feels more likely to have had an Illyrian origin. And that for me personally is very important, in trying to figure out where and how my native language and culture developed. Thank you for the work you do - you have one of the channels i follow most closely, and i look forward to your video on Romanians.

[@adivliebstein3146]

You should do a video on Jewish migration throughout Europe during the early medieval period.

[@MLaserHistory]

Perhaps you might look at @SamAronow . I think he has covered many of those topics.

[@suoulux4215]

Tak toto som nečakal, samozrejme tvoja výslovnosť bola presná, ale nikdy by som nehádal Slováka :D

[@Ammmssk]

As a hispanoamerican i feel very foreign to Slavic culture, perhaps your could talk about those slavic rulers of taifas (Denia) during Islamic spain or try to compare russian expansion to the spanish americas, that could also be interesting

[@Artur_M.]

Congrats! I think you have my grandma's carpet.

[@MLaserHistory]

I think I have every Eastern European grandma's carpet :D

[@Jake_2903]

A čo čeština?

[@nirfz]

😁🧐 Have to say i personally would judge you more harshly for watching veritasium than for listening to Taylor Swift. I stopped watching veritasium some time ago when it seemed to me that he was more promoting the views of the companies who sponsored his videos than present facts in a neutral fashion. The musician on the other hand doesn't seem to try to mislead her listeners for monetary interests. (From what i read... i have to say i maybe only know 1 or 2 songs of her from radio. I'm old...🤷‍♂️)

[@Ordinary_Peasant]

My wife's boyfriend loves history!

[@Rusty9017]

Slovak dude at oxford? Whats it like? Are the brits too brittish for you? Anyhow, good work you doin, keep it up.

[@MLaserHistory]

Nahh the Brits are fine, it was the Americans I found a bit annoying.

[@simenon5929]

@@MLaserHistory I live in Bicester.

[@simenon5929]

Make more Five Nights at Freddy's videos

[@MLaserHistory]

True, I am sure that would bring in the money.

[@randomchannel-px6ho]

Please don't become History Matters. I used to like his content but then I started noticing when they covered topics I was more knowledgeable on, in the process of simplifying the topics to bit size pieces he was making egregious errors. For example, in a video about Filipino independence he claimed that the USA wanted to hold onto the Phillipines until WW2 forced them to give up the territory. However the fact that by the time WW2 began the Phillipines were already under a transitional government established to prepare the Filipino nation for independence by 1945 and the constitution that established that government was the same one under which the Phillipines did become independent in 1946 pokes a massive hole in such a story. This is something that could've quickly been realized with a quick Google search and reading Wikipedia for a minute. Your channel is a gem with your committement to throughly researching topics. In the future if you do decide to focus on making bit sized videos maybe choose interesting (since you need to click bait somehow) but small in scope topics instead of trying to condense large topics into pieces so small that the oversimplification collaspes into falsehood.

[@MLaserHistory]

It's sadly all a matter of economics. If people will watch and support my current content, when/if I decide to do KZbin full time, than I wont have to change the style of the content. But, if that's not the case, and I do rely on KZbin for a source of income, I will sadly have to do what makes me money and that is doing large topics, which is the stuff people are searching for, in short form format since many people rarely want to watch long videos. I could perhaps never do KZbin full time and support myself financially other ways, but that would mean I will never be able to upload a lot of videos. Maybe, perhaps, if institutions like universities start supporting history communications like they do science communications these issues could be resolved but that doesn't seem to be happening any time soon.

[@Zogerpogger]

Why doesn't the Histocrat like you?

[@MLaserHistory]

Me, Histocrat, and K&G have this friendly feud going. It's literally just for fun, as friends we like to heckle each other that's all :D

[@RDX_WARRIOR]

SHOUT OUT PLEASE

[@JenniferinIllinois]

Hot dog is not a sandwich. UNSUBSCRIBED!!!!! Hehehe...

[@d1sney_fanboy615]

why didnt u have oversimplified on your list with good history chanels u kinda owe him all ur subs

[@MLaserHistory]

Because in the first list I mentioned just channels I watch regularly and in the second list I mentioned channels I enjoy watching just don't watch them regularly because I don't have time. I do not watch Oversimplified regularly nor do I enjoy watching his videos. Yes, I do owe him a lot (not "all" my subs but a lot of them) and I have said on multiple occasions him asking me for my research and giving me credit for it was tremendous and I am absolutely grateful for it. But, that doesn't mean I have to now enjoy his channel. He's a great person, I just personally don't really find enjoyment in his videos that's all.

[@d1sney_fanboy615]

@@MLaserHistory sry for saying all ur content you deserve a 100 k with or without him u would have got it anyway keep up the work. sometimes i just write stuff with out thinking it threw. ps pls do some danish history vids

[@Szentatyaisten]

Ahh, so you're from Upper Hungary, nice.

[@cattleman9595]

Hell, the more I read hungarian comments, the more I think your job is to just sit all day and write toxic comments under videos of people from slovakia or romania, or videos where theese two are mentioned. Just stop, you yourself know you are not right.

[@soroksarcity]

@@cattleman9595 we are an evil genocidical nation, so hey, toxic comments on youtube is a major upgrade

[@Szentatyaisten]

@@cattleman9595 Indeed, it's our job, it's not much, but it's honest work.

[@Jim_Underscore]

avarage eastern european behavior

[@davidmagyar6093]

A slovakian historian: *exists Hungarians: Oh sh*t here we go again