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PaperclipPerfector  3mo ago (text post)   3986 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for January 12, 2025

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

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What three historical figures would you bring back to do the talk show/podcast circuit? Assume they disappear after their last interview.

I’d pick Timothy Dexter, because entertainment value at least would be guaranteed. I’d also go with Frederick William of Prussia- he seems like the sort to throw out some left field ideas we just might could need. Finally I’d pick the Venerable Bede, because sometimes obsessive categorization can reveal an obvious truth we’ve all missed.

For semi-historical, Mohammed, Jesus and Confucius.

For 100% historical, Cardinal Armand Jean du Plessis (Richelieu), Cardinal Jules Mazarin and Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord.

I didn’t know russians had a thing for french men of the cloth. Longing for a historical counter-weight to the autocrat, perhaps?

I’d take Hannibal, Leo, and Lavoisier.

Longing for a historical counter-weight to the autocrat, perhaps?

All three of them advanced the goals of French autocrats, so not really. I could've picked three English statesmen, but I didn't know who to add to Pitt the Younger and Churchill.

Talleyrand supposedly served France, not any one man or crown. Can't think of any influential russian clergymen, but that's probably on me - o wait, rasputin, lover of the russian queen! I need to switch one of my podcast choices!

Can't think of any influential russian clergymen, but that's probably on me

Patriarch Nikon. Patriarch Filaret. His great-grandson, Peter I, subordinated the church to the state, which explains the absence of eminent figures after that.

He wasn't a clergyman, though.

In Tsarist Russia, the cloth makes the man.

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