The proper term is the Dark Ages. Middle Ages is far too bland. It was a horrible time in history. Mel Brooks and Monty Python found humor in it because the times were so extreme in human misery, that they actually became funny. Not so funny if you were not royalty. Your life, from birth to death (at an early age) was filled with filth, hunger, and lack of hope. It was the premier example of what happened when freedom for the people was non-existent. Paraphrasing Monty Python:
How do you know they're royalty?
They're not all covered in shit like us, are they?

Generational differences. Up until the last decade or so, the ideological rule used to be "You're entitled to your own opinion, but not your own facts." With the almost surreal obsession on fantasy and online alternate worlds, the Millennials seem to be shifting to "You're entitled to your own opinion AND your own facts."

I have actually had young people tell me "but those are YOUR facts," when discussing the reality of economics, for instance. They've been confused about what even constitutes a fact, or evidence, and would rather fall back on the seductive fantasies of utopian visions of societies. That is not by accident, but a result of a purposeful distortion of reality presented by the spinmasters of the political establishment.

Hello Snoogoo,
Very interesting. Yes we are clearly falling into the abyss. Honors courses on fictional TV shows filled with mysticism...
"War is Peace.
Freedom is slavery.
Ignorance is Strength." Orwell

Regards,
O.A.

Really good title to your post, Snoogoo. Personally, I think a lot of our culture is psychotic at this point- certainly divorced from reality.

“We’re going to have to make sacrifices, we’re going to have to change our conversation, we’re going to have to change our traditions, our history and we’re going to have to move to a different place.”

Michele Obama 2008 campaign speech

Re-write history, wait a few generations and no one will ever know what is or was reality. Control the past and you control the future.

I certainly hope this thread has "legs". It deserves it...some much intellectual destruction is going on, as it probably always has, in what those in what I would term as the middle or lower tiers of the "pyramid of ability", or in this case, intelligence, are exposed to.

Your post has one ridiculous quote about "accuracy". Oh, gag me with...

I've only watched the show once or twice, but I seem to recall various mythical "creatures" flitting about. Not to mention (both as an economist and a minor historian, oh, and rational) the utter misrepresentation of the degree of wealth and, yes, the "intelligence", as portrayed, of the "protagonists". In the Middle Ages?

But no matter, and here's my extracted quote to prove it:

"It stands out because it comments on the human condition in a way that seems real to people."

Huh? "seems real"? I think if there were a prize for compressing an untrue philosophical axiom into the fewest words possible, those two have to win hands down.

The best I can come up with is: A Seems A.

Some people as in the Liberal Progressives, Communists, Socialist etc all try to live in the world the WANT and not the world they have. So facts are irrelevant and Lies, distortions and hallucinations are all used in the attempt to get to the unicorns and rainbows. Now if you will excuse me I must feed my unicorn! ;-)

We live at the cusp of the Age of Feelings (Use the Force, Luke; search your feelings). Accordingly, what does objective reality have to do with anything?

"We can evade reality, but we cannot evade the consequences of evading reality." Ayn Rand

makes those jimminy crickets docu-dramas look pretty tame

This break with reality was being promoted when our daughter was in high school in the late 1990s. Mysticism was promoted when academics should have been in action. The idea of no right or wrong and everyone's ideas being just as valid as theirs was the game of the day. The word "I" was dirty. It was "We" or "Team"that was good. Independent thought was not welcome nor tolerated. Witchcraft was explored and encouraged. No wonder the current parents have not grasp on what their children should be learning. The door was opened to Common Core.

the Game of Thrones has a point in that, while zombies and dragons, etc. don't exist, the people believed in them as well as magic, and Satan, etc.
"The Middle Ages were an era of mysticism, ruled by blind faith and blind obedience to the dogma that faith is superior to reason." -- Ayn Rand