I can’t label this false because it would involve proving a negative, but there is no documented historical or DNA evidence for this whatsoever. To proclaim it as historical fact is completely irresponsible, yet completely unsurprising that the original tweet got over 200K likes.
▪️Madison never had any children with his wife Dolly, which made some historians suspect he was infertile (though this is also unproven). The slave child claim comes from Bettye Kearse, who’s story rest on an “oral history” passed down through the generations.
https://montpelierdescendants.org/2021/02/12/bettyekearse/
▪️While it’s certainly not out of the realm of possibility, her claims haven’t been corroborated by any historical documents or DNA evidence, unlike other famous examples like Jefferson’s children with Sally Hemings. There’s no evidence Madison ever met this woman or that she even existed.
▪️When Y-chromosones of Kearse’s male cousins were analyzed, markers of a typically West African gene cluster were found, meaning their patriarchal male ancestor was probably from Africa. It’s possible, but rare, that a European man (i.e. Madison) would have a West African haplogroup.
▪️Kearse also later compared her genealogy with another willing female Madison descendant, but their genetic family trees didn’t intersect at any point.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2017/lifestyle/dna-madison/
▪️Unfortunately, no willing white male Madison descendants have been found to compare results to, either in the US or England. This would be necessary to compare the Y chromosomes to Kearse’s black male cousins to see if they match.
▪️However, even if they did match it still wouldn’t prove the claim, it would only prove that she was a descendant of James Madison’s father (i.e. one of his brothers could also be the source) since there are no known descendants of President Madison. Still, it would vastly strengthen the credibility for Kearse’s claims.
▪️But as of now, there is no such evidence, and the available DNA evidence suggest it’s unlikely she’s related to Madison. Thus, to put forth this meme as fact is ahistorical nonsense, and why it’s not found in any reputable history books.
So many of these right wing accounts are just whiners now, this is a diatribe about automatic sinks and towels, the horror! As I explained in a prior post, most of the newer terminals have great bathrooms, some now have completely private stalls and plenty of them. The worst and most crowded airport bathrooms are invariably found in aging terminals that are decades old. It’s a reminder that airports were usually drab and uncomfortable.
I think the heyday of the air hand-dryers was like 15-20 years ago, where often you couldn’t find real towels. Now you can at least usually get real paper towels in airport bathrooms. Remember those old cloth roller towels that would go in a loop and somehow “clean” themselves? Yuck! Public bathrooms have always been gross, it seems some are deliberately having selective memories.
Airport food and drinks were always expensive, but now practically everyone brings those huge cooler flasks with them and fills them up. So not sure what he means that ...
I first critiqued this terrible take by looking at how food has actually improved substantially. Even though I said the same could be done in every category, people said “you’re only doing food.” So let’s do air travel and see why it’s not gotten better, not worse.
▪️Aircraft have greatly improved. Just 15-20 years ago, many domestic routes (~15%) were flown by turboprops like the Brasilia, Dash 8 or Saab. Now, almost everything is in jets, and most aircraft have WiFi. Some even have Starlink, where you probably have faster WiFi than your home. Most major airlines offer dozens or hundreds of movies and shows to watch.
▪️Newer designs like the 787 have lower cabin altitudes and improved humidity, which make a huge difference in passenger comfort on long haul flights. The first/business class international market has gotten very competitive globally, with many carriers offering excellent service and amenities. Pods, suites, showers, etc. Coach still sucks but is dramatically cheaper ...
This is the complete opposite of an empirical fact. The right has now joined the left in being pessimistic about the modern world and completely unappreciative of the amazing abundance we now have. I’ll just focus on food here, but you could do it for almost every category.
▪️Fresh produce used to be available only in season. In the winter it was canned or frozen. People used to send fruit for Christmas gifts, it was that much of a luxury good. Now, you can get giant, sweet berries year around in every grocery store. Corn on the cob in February. Not to mention once rare items like dragon fruit, heirloom tomatoes or baby bok choy.
▪️If you didn’t live on the coast, seafood was either not available, frozen, or extremely expensive. If you lived in the Midwest and traveled to coastal locales you would quite literally be able to eat food you had never seen. Salmon has become much more abundant and accessible. You can get fresh ahi at Walmart today. Sushi and oyster bars exist everywhere ...
