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When old historic maps overlap with modern political maps

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Re: When old historic maps overlap with modern political maps

#11

Post by 300bps »

thinkingemote wrote: post #7

Peeve: To cause to be annoyed or resentful. synonym: annoy. These are not pet peeves at all, they are the persons pet loves. All examples are a type of "look at this great example, designed not to annoy or cause resentment at all, just the opposite! Aren't they cool and amazing?"

I studied French for four years and I'm sure there are all kinds of things that I say in that language that would confuse native French speakers as much as François Valentin confused us with an errant use of "pet peeve".

I think he probably meant to say, "pet projects".

Re: When old historic maps overlap with modern political maps

#12

Post by unmole »

dijit wrote: post #4

That's really cool. I take exception with it being regarded as a pet-peeve. I think people who are broadly similar should be effectively represented, and sometimes that means having a seperate government. To make the point clear (but not to say anything specific about socio-economics): it is fairer for socialists to have a socialist government, and hardcore capitalists to have a capitalist government- and not have to…

The author seems to be a French speaker living in Paris. His usage was probably unintentional.

Re: When old historic maps overlap with modern political maps

#13

Post by weeksie »

Whenever I see this kind of persistence, it underscores how important path dependency is when trying to understand how things got to be the way they are.

From legacy software to political systems, when there's cruft or weird behavior there's almost always some environmental factor that shaped the decision to build it that way, even (especially) if the people who made the decision weren't conscious of why.

Re: When old historic maps overlap with modern political maps

#14

Post by mkotowski »

Quite funny, when I read the title before checking the link, I first thought exactly about Poland voting preferences.

For anyone interested: the difference in voting exists, because the east part of Poland is less developed and more rural in general. I remember that it is so in part because of how the Russian occupation was mostly of “steal as much as we can” variety, especially compared to Germans. It is also one of the reasons that the west side has much denser railway network.

Re: When old historic maps overlap with modern political maps

#16

Post by fguerraz »

This seems to be complete BS to me: all I see in these maps is a lot of confirmation bias, the author really sees what he wants to see.

Some maps do overlap very well but in that case it only looks interesting because we want to see a causation link where there is correlation.

So sorry for the harsh words but I actually find this upsetting.

Re: When old historic maps overlap with modern political maps

#18

Post by tormeh »

cheeseface wrote: post #5

In the end, culture and values change surprisingly slowly.

The fascinating thing about the Poland example is that the Germans living in modern fay west-Poland were moved out and into what's now Germany. So the culture and people are gone. What you see are the political effects of better infrastructure.

Re: When old historic maps overlap with modern political maps

#19

Post by lordleft »

weeksie wrote: post #13

Whenever I see this kind of persistence, it underscores how important path dependency is when trying to understand how things got to be the way they are. From legacy software to political systems, when there's cruft or weird behavior there's almost always some environmental factor that shaped the decision to build it that way, even (especially) if the people who made the decision weren't conscious of why.

From Tristram Shandy:

"Well, you may take my word, that nine parts in ten of a man’s sense or his nonsense, his successes and miscarriages in this world depend upon their motions and activity, and the different tracks and trains you put them into, so that when they are once set a-going, whether right or wrong, ’tis not a half-penny matter,—away they go cluttering like hey-go mad; and by treading the same steps over and over again, they presently make a road of it, as plain and as smooth as a garden-walk, which, when they are once used to, the Devil himself sometimes shall not be able to drive them off it."

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