toxicTom: In Germany it's the other way around. German history? Nazis! Holocaust! Those are by far the things that are most present. Germany has no heroes like Arthur or James Cook or Francis Drake or Horatio Nelson. We only have Hitler, Himmler and Goebbels...

Now I'm not much of a person that sees much sense in patriotism. For me it's quite silly to be proud of things (or ashamed of, for that matter) that I had no part in.

When it comes to history (I studied it for some years at an university, and then for many more years by myself) the bleak truth is that it's by no means an exact science. Like journalism it's polluted by opinion and hearsay. Archeological artifacts are interpreted by people who of course are influenced by doctrine or personal theories. Contemporary writings are of course expression of the respective author's point of view - and the winners write history on their terms anyway.

Still I think that history is one of the most important disciplines - if you keep open-minded and wary of the pitfalls of bias of your sources. There is so much to learn about what makes people tick - and to close the circle and return to Godwin's law - the Third Reich is a prime example of what people are capable of if indoctrinated and dulled and - yes, in a way "hopeful" enough - because this is what Hitler IMO did - he gave people in a broke, depressive country hope - hope to have a job, hope to "be somebody" again (see: patriotism above), hope for "vengeance" for the shame of WW1 and Versailles and against the "rich, greedy Jews" while everybody else was poor.
AFAIK if you have a post that was heavily downrepped the effects only accumulate over the next few days. Now I don't know what your could have posted to earn that much wrath.

Hmm. Now that I see it, I think I also has 348 only an hour ago, right now it's 346. But then I posted in the Muhammad sex game thread - maybe somebody didn't like that.