Lack of Historical Knowledge by the Modern Generation

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I know it shouldn’t surprise me any more but why is it young people seem to know nothing of the past?

Let’s take the example of sport. When I was a lad the football stars were of the calibre of Bobby Moore, Bobby Charlton, Jimmy Greaves, Denis Law, George Best.

Today’s 20-30 somethings have never heard of them. Why should they, you might ask? Well, how come I knew all about Dixie Dean, Tommy Lawton, Nat Lofthouse, Alex James, Billy Wright? There was no Google to look them up on. Instead I relied on old football annuals which had wonderful recoloured pictures of the old masters in their baggy shorts. I was interested because I was a football fan, not just a club supporter.

When dear old Greavsey died, I tried to explain to youngish fans how great a goal scorer he was. Grainy black and white video on YouTube didn’t do him justice. They was more amazed at the muddy quagmire pitches and how slow the game appeared to be.

Their conclusion was that the players of yesteryear could not compete with those of the premiership who are bigger, faster and much fitter. Although impossible to prove, I refuted this. You can only be the best in your time and I have no doubt that modern training methods allied to their immense skill would ensure that the old stars would still be great if not greater today. And a lot less arrogant.

To the uninitiated, football began in 1992 and even that seems like the dark ages to them. Too many British players around then!

I also love cricket and I rate Stokes amongst the all time greats but my knowledge goes all the way back to WG Grace, CB Fry, Herbert Sutcliffe through Boycott, Edrich, Truman, Botham, Gower et al.

With Google, it would be so easy to trace the history of the game you love but I think very few do this. Is it the social media bubble effect that stops anyone taking any interest in the past? I’ve noticed that the Sunday papers no longer feature the passing of greats like Trevor Francis, the 1st million £ footballer. Top stars earn that in a month now.

We can widen this out, nobody under 30 knows who was prime minister a decade ago let alone who was in power when they were born.

And as for what happened in WWII, forget it.

Daily Fail

Nominated by Lord Helpus.

77 thoughts on “Lack of Historical Knowledge by the Modern Generation”

  1. It’s cool to know nuffin. innit.

    On a slightly more serious note – the less that people know or want to learn about history makes it easier for these nefarious bastards to rewrite history.

    Africans built Stonehenge.

  2. As illustrated by the modern trend of calling people “Nazi” when you clearly do not know what Nazism is. See, for example, Mr Trudeau and the Mooseshagger Parliament who do not know that Johnny Ruski was on our side in WW2. God help us.

    • Yes. ‘They’re the real nazis’ (what people say about leftists) gets on my tits.

      Stop playing by their rules I say. Owen Jones thinks you’re a Nazi if you think Enoch had a point.

      He knows full well you’re not a nazi. He does it because we’re conditioned to this being the worse insult possible. They know a form of fascism is the only way to stop the rise of communism by the back door. So ‘fascist’ and ‘nazi’ is what they want to be used by all sides as the worst of the worst

      Antifa/XR/other anti white scumbags et al are a mixture of communist, globalist and anarchist scum student types it seems. Usually posh cunts too.

      Commie scum killed (and still kill!) more than the Nazis ever did. Both cunts, but the commies seem to have been able to demonise only one side.

      And I’d argue fascism only comes about due to unrestrained communism. The way things are going with ‘globalism ‘, it may well return in some guise and if it is the only way to stop commie/degenerate/anti white shite…tough tittie, I’d vote for it.

  3. Whilst I do accept that history can be very subjective and is usually ‘set’ by the winners, there is massive piss taking going on.

    Mostly saying blacks did this or that. Stonehenge, Cheddar Man, The Roman army was black, Hadrian’s wall was built by Lionel Josephs ,cracking WW2 codes and winning the war was all down to a bunch of Mammy Two Shoes. Or making out a black con merchant brass was an improved version of Florence Nightingale.

    And that they invented everything now it seems.

    What a load of fucking shit.

    Soon they’ll be saying that it wasn’t Neil Armstrong that was the first man on the Moon, but that it was Louis Armstrong.

    Ohhhh yeeeeaaahhh.

    • I’ve noticed this too CB.
      So called ‘historians’, trying to shoehorn blacks into events they had nothing or little to do with.
      No-one ever suggests it was a Chinaman or Eskimo.

      • Why blacks all the time?

        I’m genuinely intrigued as to why it’s nearly always blacks?

        Is it because they are out ethnic replacements in our homeland?

        Apparently the Great Replacement is a right wing conspiracy theory but then I look around my small former racially homogeneous town and see random Africans appearing everywhere it is genuinely making me wonder what the fuck is going on.

        That and the fact that our so called Conservative government are practically laying out a red carpet for them to come here.

      • It’s nice to know the FA were as craven and cowardly then as they still are today.
        Wokegate would have been wearing a swastika armband the complete fucking weasel.

    • I was arguing with some “right on” half wit that I know a few years ago regarding this very thing.

      Being a Jeremy Corbyn lover – he loved the whole knee taking and the “Black Lives Matter” text emblazoned on the backs of premier League shirts (short memory Mr Southgate??)

      When I sent him the relevant images and information about this inconvenient historical political pandering, his answer was “oh well I don’t know about that and it’s not as if performing a Nazi salute is the same as taking the knee anyway is it”

      Translation – political pandering and gesturing is ok as long as it’s the kind of politics you agree with. The soft cunt.

      • Wokegate if he’d been manager in ’38.

        “It’s complicated. We buy German, German sausages and German beer and we have people who have jobs from this. It’s also not our place to tell other cultures how to live, that would be racust. Yes, they might gas loads of Jews now but our message of tolerance and diversity does not change, and that’s why ull be doing the nazi salute whilst wearing full Ss regalia.”

      • Hmm, not sure the Nazis were gasing anyone in 1938, before the war had even started, so it would have been a bit weird for Southgate to call the Germans out for that.

        What was it people were saying about not knowing history?

        Sincerely yours,

        A. Smartarse

      • Sorry Mickey.

        Perhaps one day I can be as wise as you. I didn’t realise the Holocaust didn’t happen until after 1938.

        Thanks for pointing that out.

      • As with most things, actions speak louder than words. Many years back, I had a stand up row with a boss (who was a massive cunt) as he was slagging off a black friend of mine and (unjustifiably)) calling him a lazy jungle bunny. The upshot was that I left and told his boss why – nothing was done about him. Probably as I was a contractor. Anyway, fast forward to the whole George Floyd/BLM thing and I now can’t stand their whining and moaning and won’t give them the time of day. Maybe this was the intention all along and I have, unfortunately, fallen for it.

      • Pattern recognition.

        I have only had two incidents of violence towards my person. One was a very violent attack which left me covered in blood. Both attacks from blacks. Both unprovoked (I was a young lefty type back then). Three other serious threats towards me. One honky and two blacks again (on nights out). This was in a 90%+ white area at the time too.

        Even after this, I still didn’t have any negative thoughts about black people.

        The constant whining and blaming white people for anything negative eminating from their communities still didn’t do it either. Neither the appalling reaction from blacks regarding OJ Simpson case. The riots. Nada.

        It was BLM that made me finally go, ‘Fuck these cunts’.

        By the way, I don’t wish any ill on them, I just think it best not to bother with them and not live near them/have anything to do with them if possible. Just my experience mind and yes, there are some nice and kind black people, but pattern recognition is a beeoch.

  5. Good nom.

    ‘It was before my time’ they bleat. As if that is some sort of excuse for having nothing between their ears. Almost everything was before your time, you shiftless, space wasting cunts!

  6. If it didn’t happen last week and it wasn’t on the telly it never fucking happened.
    That’s the world of 24 hour news and soshul meeja.

  7. As far as I can see the education system is fully infiltrated by very left wing Progressive Types,who have their agenda to dump like a sack of stinking turds into the laps of young adults.

    Appalling lies about the achievements of the blek,horror stories about the weather,an almost totally incoherent policy of teaching anything but the history of England etc etc when added to the shite parenting and pervasive rotten “gangsta” culture that is presented as some sort of cultural norm has brought matters to where they are now..

    Kids leave school knowing next to nothing of importance in many disciplines and seem happy to swallow the most ridiculous faery tales as fact.

    Anyhow,as long as they keep buying stuff and walk about in total ignorance everyone’s happy..

    Especially the Yellow Peril and the Caliphate Cunts.

    Fuck off.

  8. If youngsters don’t know who you were talking about, I can save my breath on Duncan Edwards, Tommy Taylor and little Eddie Colman et cetera. Whom were treading the muddy fields when I began following the Red Devil’s.

    • Duncan Edwards, Tommy Taylor and little Eddie Colman…..doesn’t ring any bells.

      Did they present Blue Peter?

  9. It’s Tony Blair’s education education education.. a whole generation of no nothing dullards..

    Nice masters in basket weaving Sebastian, should set you up nicely in later life..

    • Another one of the Dark Lord’s short sighted policies.

      Let’s create a nation of soft as shite pen pushers.

  10. Left-wing manipulative types (complete wankers) have seen to it that modern kids are well informed on black history. My grandson put me right on a lifelong misconception when he told me that blacks had built Stonehenge. In exchange I gave him a bit of perspective by telling him that it remains the pinnacle of black civil engineering achievement.

  11. Generally this is down to poor teaching as well as teachers being quite ignorant and biased thenselves. I remember one teacher of mine back at college not knowing who lived in the carribean before blacks and spanish

    It was obviously the meso-American peoples.

    Less obvious is the claim by Lord Helpus that the stars of yesterday would compete with those of today. If you say they would’ve benefitted from today’s fitness, conditioning and dietary discipline as much as today’s players, you can’t then say their immense skills were somehow greater than the modern player.
    Messi and Ronaldo have destroyed nearly every record there was, as did Barcelona of 2009-2012 and the Spanish side of the samebperiod.
    Bill Shankly said great players aren’t born, they are made, so the players such as Denis Law and Jimmy Greaves would still be training as boys alongside the likes of Beckham, Scholes and Giggs, the West Ham lads of the mid late nineties. Dele Ali was the best young player my Grandad had seen in 40 years.
    As for arrogance, what makes modern players arrogant? The vast wages must contribute, along with followers on social media. George Best demonstrated immense arrogance off the field, well past his retirement by returning to the booze after his transplant. He didnt need 250K a week or 80m instagram followers either.

    While we should remember history, we shouldn’t look at it through rose tinted glasses.
    The players of yesterday were skillful for their day, but football has moved on in terms of fitness and tactics, facilities and media exposure. To say the players of yesterday would somehow be better, given the same opportunities, diets and training is romantic at best.

    • On the other hand, players of today would be much worse, playing with a leather caseball on a quagmire and being kicked up in the air by Norman Hunter.

    • You misquote me, CP.

      I didn’t say that yesterday’s heroes would be better than the modern. Just that fitness and science, added to their skills would make them at least as good. Remember those guys played on uneven, muddied pitches and without the proper protection of refreees with brutal tackles from behind, shoulder barging et al.

      They didn’t play-act either.

      • ‘at least as good’ is effectively ‘better’. You can’t refute anything you’ve said is impossible to prove or disprove.

        Do pitches not get muddy and cut up nowadays? They did while Ranieri was managing Chelsea. the goal area was notoriously worn and sandy, leading Ranieri to say it wasn’t a pitch it was a beach (which sounded like beach).
        Very few clubs can afford the sort of pitches and stadia seen in the Premier league. It hasn’t changed that much for the majority. Again, it’s more nostalgia than fact.

    • CP, I’m not sure football today is much more advanced than 40-50 years ago. Ryan Giggs was still playing for Man Utd at 40 and had his first full season in 91-92 playing in midfield alongside the mid-30’s Bryan Robson. Robson had his first full season in the mid-70’s playing alongside players who had been playing top flight football since the early 60’s. The history of the game is full of players who played at the top for roughly 20 years and played with players of different generations at either end of their careers and there has been no noticeable difference in ability between them.

      The difference in pitch, boot, ball, fitness, nutrition etc quality are all negligible effects when it comes to a great player making a mark in the game.

      In recent years tactics and coaching have killed the game as a spectacle. There’s a lack of individualism and great, match-winning players. Every team.wants to walk/pass the ball into the net, no-one wants to shoot or dribble much anymore, there’s little spontenaiety. Guardiola is a great manager but he’s got a lot to answer for.

  12. Someone I know who is Polish said to me that ‘they’ saved us during WWII, ah well that’s nice to know.

    • Pfft..

      Everyone knows it was the Yanks, I mean the Russians., I mean…

      The Russians held out through sheer numbers as well as living in a vast country where all thevfactories had been packed up and sent east by rail. The losses to the army were fucking horrendous though. A bit more planning woukdve seen far fewer Russians die.

      • It was mainly in reference to the Battle of Britain to which I replied, yes the Polish pilots (145) were both experienced and fearless along with those from NZ, Canada, Czech, American, South Africa, France…. And so on, oh and let’s not forget the 2500 British who managed to make a small contribution to the war effort.

  13. You might like to tune into Troy Deeney’s programme where he campaigns for more BAME history teaching in schools.
    Who? Played football for Birmingham, Watford ( where his crowning glory was a goal against Leicester) and now Forest Green Rovers ( vegan green wankers).

    • Troy deeney needs to stay home till after Halloween, someone might stick a candle inside that pumpkin head of he’s..

  14. Thing is. the cunts don’t know anything. Whether it’s history or anything else.

    Me and some mates were in a bar around 2019. And it had pictures of various rock stars on the wall. Some other lot were in there and one of them asked if his mate knew who one of the pictures was (John Lennon). The cunt – at least over 25 – looked blank and said ‘Harry Potter?’ Straight up.

    Then another cunt claimed to be an expert on TV comedy. Somebody said ‘Oh, I love Porridge’ and the twat said ‘Oh, I don’t eat that’ and he was being serious.

    Unbelievable,

  15. Went to Nuremberg 10 years ago. None of the air heads at work had heard of it. “Nuremberg Rallies, Nuremberg Trials?” I said. They looked at me like I had two heads. But mention Big Brother, TOWIE then they have an encyclopaedic knowledge of that pointless bobbar.

  16. I agree totally about the lack of football knowledge, Lord Helpus.

    When Francis Lee passed away last week, I bet most of the modern City fans won’t even know who he is. In fact, ask any of these post-Abu Dhabi blues about Ken Barnes, Roy Paul, Bert Trautmann, Colin Bell, Dennis Tueart, Peter Barnes etc and they will look flummoxed. Even 80s and 90s players like Keith Curle and Gio Kinkladze will be lost on them. And tell them Matt Busby captained City and they won’t even know who he was. Even though I was and still am (for my sins) red, I knew of all the City players past and present when I was a lad. And they knew ours. It’s just the way it was back then, People relied on their wits more and used the old grey matter. Instead of having their nose to a phone every day.

    But almost all modern football is guilty of that. The BBC and Sky don’t help. When they do programmes about great goals and great players, it’s always bout the twatting ‘Premier League era’. No Jimmy Greaves, no Denis Law, no Peter Osgood, George Best, Kenny Dalglish, Sir Robert Charlton, Tom Finney and many more. The way the BBC go on, anyone would think that Jurgen Klopp invented Liverpool. When we all know that Shanks did. Same with Man United. It’s Fergie and post-Fergie. Docherty, Atkinson and the others simply don’t exist according to these pricks. And you only hear about them if one of them dies , like Franny Lee last week,

    • Everyone knows football only began in 1992..

      God said let there be dodgy foreign owners, cheating, diving, greed, fair weather plastic fans. Gary Lineker and shit women pundits.. and a expensive subscription service..

    • Franny was a great barn-storming centre forward. And that 1970 world cup squad was tasty. They were better than 66 and should have won again.

      • Brazil had a clown in goal

        It was a clown in goal for the quarter final which cost England dearly.

        For all the overly romanticised superlatives surrounding that Brazilian team, there was nothing between the 2 teams really.

        England were quality.

      • In fairness to the cat, he was at fault for the first goal, the second was a freak goal off the back of Seelers head and the third was Labones fault for not being at least goal side of Gerd Muller and ball watching instead. What was it Labone said “manna from heaven for a fella like Muller” no shit Brian, he was only one of the greatest out and out strikers of all time

    • Not even ‘the beautiful game’ is spared the cultural marxist historywash it’s clear ?

    • If today’s bandwagon fans knew who Franny was, they’d have celebrated by chucking a few toilet rolls at the last match. Privileged to have seen Matthews and Finney play. We booed Stanley at Old Trafford for a bit of fun, when the ref gave Blackpool a penalty after the old man was tripped on the edge of the halfway line and staggered into the penalty. Do you remember an interview Tom Finney had about his image being displayed on the seats in the stadium, which pleased him that fans could sit on his face.

    • Hard to compare eras when it comes to history and footy, granted.

      The game was slower in the 70s/80s etc, but the players did not get the professional fitness training they do now. Then, it generally meant running around the field a few times with a few push ups. Players drank and smoke. I’ve seen footage of players smoking on the bench or at half time.

      Now, their fitness coaches know how to strain every muscle and sinew to the perfect level for balancing athletic performance and injury avoidance. Their diet is strictly adhered to too, even when they’re at home. They have people who keep their young players on the straight and narrow, helping with paying bills, getting a car and not going out getting wankered. Sports psychologists too etc. The players nowadays, for the most part, tend to be around 5″10 to 6ft 1 and built like welterweight/middleweight boxers if you hadn’t noticed?

      Fit as butchers’ dogs.

      But they all (generally) must fit into the modern way of playing. I reckon if Michel Platini or Glenn Hoddle were starting out today, no top club would sign them. Maybe Platini, he did get about the pitch a fair bit more than Hoddle (and was much better).

      But the ‘maverick’ player is dead now. They want robots really. I don’t think the game is better for it, as every team plays the same way now.

      But it is hard to compare due to the training, diet, the state of the pitches, the boots, the balls themselves and the tackles that were allowed years past.

      Watch footage of Maradona and Best and you’ll see them jumping away from ‘tackles’ (players trying to break their legs). Messi and Ronaldo did not need to develop this skill as they got/get protection from the officials. And check the difference in the pitches they played on.

      Hard to compare, but the best players of yesterday would be as good as the best of today, given the same circumstances, in my opinion.

      Watching old games does make you see that you got a bit more skill in general. Bergkamp probably would be deemed not athletic/hard running enough nowadays and he only retired about 16 years ago. But fuck me, he was much more enjoyable to watch than the robots of today.

      • When it comes to the modern game, the obvious loss is the air of any mystery or individuality.

        1986 was the first tournament I can remember but the 88 Euros and the Italian world cup 2 years later were the ones I can remember really getting excited about.

        Nation’s each playing a brand of football more or less unique to their individual country and culture.

        From Italian catenaccio, Holland’s total football, German and Soviet efficiency through to the West African excessive physicality.

        The vast majority of the players from these nations also playing their professional football within their own leagues as well.

        I would imagine it was even more the case in the tournaments which preceded those I mentioned but for me it all started to change around 2000 onwards.

        So many nations play exactly the same brand of football no matter where they are from in the world and no matter what players are available to them.

        You can also throw into the mix that so many Western European teams are now almost African in appearance. As were Canada and the USA in the last world cup.

      • Ah, the mavericks.

        Frank Worthington, Alan Hudson, Tony Currie, Matt le Tissier, Rodney Marsh, Stan Bowles. Every club seemed to have one.

        And Glen Hoddle was one of the best, so graceful, great passing, terrific shooting.

        All were wasted by England during the dogmatic Revie era. Old Joe Mercer was better.

      • Dimitar Berbatov. Smoked like a factory chimney, and got stick because he didn’t ‘run around enough’.

        He was a jewel of a player, his first touch was immaculate. A pleasure to watch. The last of the mavericks in the British game. Now bellends prefer headless chickens who just run and run like Raheem Sterling and other cunts. Seeing one game featuring the skills of Bergkamp, Cantona or Berbatov is worth a whole season of all of Wokegate’s ‘stars.

      • They churn em out these days as hothouse Aryans.No requirements for SAS grade levels of toughness and aggression.Athletes more than soccerists and why folks still buy into it all is beyond my comprehension ?

        l grew out of it all years ago having been a keen childhood ‘Docs red army’ enthusiast.(Pearson,Macari,Coppell,Morgan et al) The quandam days of soccer magic imho.

      • Same here, ptarmigan.
        Gerry Daly, Gordon Hill, Sammy Mac, Pancho, Buchan and the rest.

        My most treasured time as a red.

      • Got to say Norm, I’m no red, but that United side in the late 70s, early 80s packed a real punch, Buchan was as hard as fuck, Pancho was ace and Sammy Mcilroy was a favourite of mine too.
        I’d love to see the likes of Haaland and Salah face someone like Martin Buchan they’d shite it

  18. Top level football started in 1992 and was invented by Sky television.
    Everyone knows that.

  19. Another curious one is socialists using ‘Nazi’ as an insult.
    Work that one out.

  20. My mother-in-law (born in the USSR) was disgusted when I told her that they don’t teach British school kids about the Soviet deportations to Siberia.

    Still, good news about the Africans building Stonehenge, innit? She thought that was fucking hilarious.

    • Seen some photos recently of stonehenge,circa 1940’s showing workers on site with diggers,scaffolding,cranes etc,so who knows ? maybe it wasn’t the Druids who built the joint after all but Balfour Beatty? Newer footage shows Avebury nearby had similar arrangements.

  21. See plenty of the dumb dorks on quiz shows, many are students. They are either subnormal or schools are fucking useless.

    • I once watched a few minutes of that ‘Tipping Point’.

      Fuck me, you lose five IQ points for every minute you watch it. The contestants are all thick as fuck. Lots of, ahem, ‘diverse’ contestants I noticed. This means they have to ask questions that retarded people might be able to answer.

      “You get pork from which animal?”

      For fuck’s sake.

      Fifteen to One it ain’t.

      https://www.dailystar.co.uk/tv/itv-tipping-point-fans-blast-26884761

      • “General Rommell was defeated at which battle”?

        “The Battle of Hastings”.

        “Captain Bligh was captain of which ship”?

        “The Titanic”.

        “Name a US state beginning and ending in ‘A'”

        “Florida”.

        “RODFOX is an anagram of which British city”

        “London”.

        All Tipping Point classics.

        The dull cunts.

      • Cunts who folllow today’s crappy television are also ignorant bellends.

        There are twats who really think the following…

        Doctor Who started in 2005.

        Sherlock Holmes started in the 2000s with Benedict Cuntberbatch.

        Endeavour fans have no idea what or who Inspector Morse is.

        Sherlock and ‘Whovians’ are especially cunts.

      • When was the English Civil War?

        1964-9.

        Who was Churchill?

        The bulldog in TV Ads.

        I could go on. And on.

  22. Although I can understand the main thrust of this nomination; I can’t get behind part of it… spoiler alert… it’s the fucking football references & the insinuation that football (& the knowledge thereof) is somehow a given in Britain… another spoiler alert (it fucking isn’t).

    Granted I was born in 1982 so I recognise the names of Bobby Moore, Bobby Charlton, Jimmy Greaves and George Best, but Denis Law??… Haven’t got a fucking scooby Mate.

    The only reason that I even recognise those names is because my older brother tried to force me into liking football from a young age, but it turns out that I’m not into watching 22 men in short shorts chase each other round a field, trying to put their balls in each other’s “safe spaces”, only to then run around like giddy children, while periodically getting topless and trying to hug and/or kiss each other.

    … I’m not saying…. I’m just saying.

    • Don’t imagine you’re alone in your ignorance TiTS. I’m just as baffled by all the football stuff. I was born in 1951 and if asked to name a couple of footballers off the top of my head I would say Stanley Matthews and George Best, the latter because he shares my birthday.

  23. To be fair, I said I would have expected football fans to know a little football history.

    Not the general population.

    And it was just an example; how many dog lovers have heard of afghan hounds – a forgotten breed. It’s all cookerpoos, labradoodles now.

    Social media and Google are like information oceans, water water everywhere not a drop (of knowledge) to drink.

    • Holy dog shit,looks like the ‘Kalergi-Plan’ has entered the canine domain.? lots of good English breeds are diminishing increasingly -Dandy Dinmont,Sealyham terriers,Lancashire heelers (awesome hounds) etc, to be replaced by mullato mutts for soy-hipsters ?

  24. I had the misfortune to watch the reaction of Gen-Cunt student slappers who were in total disbelief when told that the Titanic sinking was a real life event.
    Ffs.
    Fucking dimwits, but all on their way to earning good degrees, I might add.

    • I’m pretty sure Yank journalists referred to the Costa Concordia disaster as ‘like a real-life Titanic’.

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