<i>So, the language Peterson is using isn’t scientific, it’s an act of cultural interpretation. Which is, of course, fine, and a great reminder that linguistics is a subject that connects many different fields of knowledge. But when I see an advertisement for Game of Thrones, I see a cultural vision that is inaccurate, distorting, and bears a very specific relationship to the European past. It isn’t an innocent one. I see a Tolkien-inflected vision of the Middle Ages, with the sexual violence and warfare and ethnic stereotyping amped up to a pitch so cartoonishly horrendous that I can’t look at it.</i><p>PC crap in an otherwise really interesting article.<p>It&#x27;s not amped up actually. The degree of butchery that goes on in historical outbreaks of violence is astonishing to the post-19th century mind. Mass executions of enemies and conquered cities (and accompanying rape and pillage) happened with regularity in some parts of history.<p>One of the noted advancements of the Mongol warfare style in the middle ages, especially under Genghis Khan, was development of efficient mass execution tactics. Sexual violence and warfare <i>happened</i> at a cartoonishly horrendous pitch. Dan Carlin&#x27;s Hardcore History podcast has an amazing series on the Mongol conquests, &quot;Wrath of the Khans&quot; if you wanna know more.