Ahhhhhhh, we finally reached 10k subscribers.
Even though, similar channels that started around the same time as me are much bigger
than me but I am not upset, I think.
Nahh I am Salty?
Yeah salty but not upset.
Dam you algorithm.
But digress as I promised at some point or may have just thought it in my head and never
said it outloud until the last video, we’re doing a 10K QnA extravaganza bonanza.
But before we start, any question I got in the manner of “Will you cover x topic?”
the answer is yes to all of them if I had infinite time.
As it stands, maybe.
How old are you?
I am a 97.
Where are you from and where do you live?
I was born and raised in Bratislava Slovakia which has always been my permanent residence
but I do spend a lot of time in the US.
So at this point I kind of feel like a Hexagon in a land of squares and circles, not really
belonging anywhere.
Why your channel name?
Well M. Laser stands for Matus Laser (as it says on my banner) which isn’t my actual
name but a lot of people mainly Americans do call me that in my “real life” so I
guess it’s kind of my name.
What’s your Occupation?
Mainly student, doing IT and other work on the side.
If you had to pick 3 history youtubers to survive an Apocalypse with, who would you
pick?
I would probably pick Military History visualized, because how to put this … he is the most
experienced and also being Austrian he had some basic 6 month military training that
can come in handy.
Speaking of military training my second choice would be Knowing Better since he actually
was in the US military and over all seems like a nice guy to hang out with.
And I know what you’re thinking cynical historian was in the military too, but he
is way too … what’s the word … cynical for my taste.
Lastly i will have to go with Cogito, even though, let’s be honest, he would probably
be a burden than anything else but he’s the one I know the best out of all the History
Youtubers so anything requiring teamwork would be easiest to do with him.
How many languages do you speak?
Well outside of the obvious one I speak Slovak and Czech even though they’re quite similar
languages depending on who you ask, I am looking at you Czech millennials and gen Z. and when
push comes to show I can kind of understand Polish, specially when I have to read it.
Other then that I did spend at various points in my life studying Spanish and German although
I was never any good at it.
What countries have you visited?
Not counting stuff like layovers, I have visited all these countries.
Favorite historical subject?
For that you will have to go and listen to the YouTube History Podcast I do with cogito.
I’ll even give you the episode and time stamp.
Your channel clearly looks inspired by CGP Grey. (yes yes it is) Who else inspired you
to create youtube content.
The Green broders, specially through their various very entertaining and educational
crash courses aaaannnndddd even though it’s a weird choice Jessy Cox or as he used to
be known OMFGCATA.
This is mainly because watching his videos I realized for the first time that doing youtube
is actually a lot of work but at the same time depending on your mindset, you can have
a lot of fun doing that work.
In the future do you see yourself making history documentaries on yt or doing something else?
I mean in the future I would like to be making videos on YouTube full time, however I have
lately realized that sadly this future is more dependent on the algorithm and you guys
watching and sharing my videos rather that me and my actions.
So … who knows …
What got you interested in talking about history?
Ever since I can remember, I always enjoyed watching historical documentaries.
All of them mostly coming from the History channel, because that was the only TV channel
doing historical documentaries in Slovakia that was dubbed in Czech so I could actually
understand it.
Because I didn’t know english back than.
When I finally learned English and the History channel turned completely in to shit, I was
traveling a lot at that point in my life so I started this routine of always reading about
the history of the city/place I was about to visit.
And this is where my idea for a history of cities series came from.
Since I don’t really like reading and I bet most people would rather watch my history
video about the city they’re visiting rather than having to read it.
So when I finally started my channel in 2016 with the history of cities series my historical
interests only grew from there and that is how I started to do all the other videos outside
of the cities history series.
Since your channel is small, I am guessing you don’t do youtube full time, so how do
you find time to make youtube videos alongside your work/studies?
Ahh easy, I don’t have a social life.
But don’t worry it’s ehh it’s by design … (smirk)
I am guessing you are from Bratislava but what do you think about us Hungarians in the
South of Slovakia? - from a South Slovak Hungarian.
Well, since this is a history channel, we might as well have a small history lesson.
Keep in mind that I am VERY oversimplifying this issue and if you want to know more as
always research it yourself and be aware of people’s biases.
Also I am going to be just talking about Slovak/Hungarian relations even though lots of the stuff that
happened is similar to other areas hungarians controlled.
So to start of with when the Magyar (the people called hungarians in English) tribes came
in to the pannonian basin in the very late 9th early 10th century.
They conquered the area around the pannonian basin, including the lands of modern day Slovakia
along with the slavs that lived there.
For more information on how the Slavs got there watch my early western slavic video.
So ever since that time (disregarding few short occupations) Slovakia was under Hungarian
control until the end of WW1 in 1918.
And this was direct control of Slovakia, there was no autonomy like the Croatians had for
example.
At the very best Slovaks where just seen as Hungarians that spoke funny and at the worst
they were treated as second class citizens that were often times discriminated against
both politically and socially.
However contrary to some modern Slovak believes, Slovaks were always considered as hungarian
citizens.
What however did happen was magyarization, which is a word used to describe the convertian
of none Hungarians within hungary to be hungarians.
But again contrary to popular believe magyarization of Slovakia happened due to assimilation and
also political, economical and social pressures put on the Slovaks by the Hungarians.
It was a forced passive conversation not an active “clencing one” for lack of a better
word.
So you could always speak identify and live as a Slovak normally, the hungarians just
made sure it was politically, economically, and socially easier for you to just speak
and identify as a hungarian.
So many people did and over a couple of generations those people started to think of themselves
as Hungarians.
However Slovakia is mostly mountains and it’s hard to get a cell signal out there let alone
magyarize a couple of million Slovaks that don’t even like you.
So most magyarization all the way till the end of WW1 happened in the lowlands.
However Hungary was on the losing side of WW1 and the slovaks that joined forces with
the Czechs where on the winning side.
So they had the bigger leverage.
And naturally as any winning country in a war does, Czechoslovakia claimed lands much
larger than the actual area where the Slovaks and Czechs lived at this point.
So Slovakia now had a very sizeable Hungarian minority and Czechs had a German minority.
And now as it so often does in history the pendulum swung the other way and partly out
of spite, partly out of revenge and partly out of trying to stabilize the country Czechoslovaks
passed some anti minority laws, effecting not just the Hungarians but also Germans and
any other minorities in the country.
Arguably the height of these anti minority laws was the Benes decrees after WW2 which
continued in one way or another till the end of the communist era.
And now we’re here.
With Slovakia still having around half a million hungarians and one of them wrote me a question
asking me what I think of them.
Well A. Considering all of this history that happened and taking it to account, I think
we’re doing pretty well at coexisting specially when compared to some other European areas.
And B. I am going to say the same thing I tweeted a couple months ago, and that is that
nationality and ethnicity shouldn't be treated as the same thing and shouldn’t be mutually
exclusive because throughout most of history they weren’t.
You can be a perfectly proud even nationalistic Swiss even though you’re ethnically Italian
or French or German, etc.
We should be able to recognize and treat you and other ethnic hungarians born and living
and working in Slovakia as normal slovak citizens and at the same time even though you’re
ethnically hungarian you should be able to be a proud Slovak citizen.
After all we’re all part of the same country and we should be working together to make
that country better for all of us.
Shag, marry, kill.
Cogito, the armchair historian, kings and generals.
AAaa easy kill Kings and Generals, shag Armchair Historian and marry Cogito :D
Favorite Disney movie?
Favourite Disney song?
For movie I am going to go with treasure planet because I feel like it’s very underrated.
And for the song you just got go with I’ll Make a man out of you … right?
Are there going to be any Patreon changes?
(definitely not M. Laser) Well thank you for asking definitely not M.
Laser.
There was no special December Patreon Video and I also didn’t charge anyone for the
December video as I was in the process of restructuring the Patreon and some patreon
rewards.
So now instead of paying every month per creation (since I release one video a month) it will
be an automatic monthly charge that I will disable for a month if I manage not to finish
a video that month, which does happen sometimes.
So in the end if you’re a Patreon you still pay the same amount per month so nothing changes.
I just wanted to let you know, and let everyone else know that I have a Patreon where you
can financially support me for some little perks.
So please check it out.
What are your favorite video games?
At the moment Eu4 and Overwatch.
But if we had to go with the video games I spend the most time on in the past.
It would have to be in no particular order, League of Legends, World of Warcraft, Minecraft,
Battlefield, Cod from the Original modern warfare till Black Ops 2, and ofcourse I can’t
forget RuneScape which was the first online game I ever played.
What does your coat of arms mean?
My coat of arms is a combination of a lot of things.
First the escutcheon, escutcheon, escutcheon?
The shield in the middle.
It’s starts of as a generic coat of arms shield, with the blue mountains being taken
from the Slovak coat of arms and I added the rivers running down valleys because i knew
I was going to do the cities series so I wanted to symbolize the fact that cities were almost
always built on rivers.
The 13 white and red stripes in the background are taken from the American flag because that
is where I learned english.
And the three towers or more accurately gates are taken from the Bratislava’s coat of
arms because I was born and live in Bratislava.
Going back and looking at the entire coat of arms, this is where the definitions get
more generic.
For example the swords and the helmet I just added because they look cool.
I added the owls holding up the shield to symbolize knowledge because in the end my
channel is an educational one.
And the white and black Czech or more accurately Bohemian lions I added to symbolize duality
which is often times a recurring theme in historical symbols.
But I also added them because Czech Republic and Slovakia are kind of like brothers and
I am still a bit salty that we split up.
There's a reason the quote goes divide and conquer not unite and conquer.
But i digress.
Lastly at the bottom it says, Cognitio, Unitas, Persisto, which loosely translates from latin
in to Knowledge, Unity, Perseverance, which is kind of self explanatory.
Do you play any instruments?
Yes, I play the piano, in fact I am playing it right now but I am self taught so my technique
isn’t really any “good”.
What is your favorite recreational activity / what would be your tip to try out?
My favourite recreational activities would have to be hiking, hockey and skiing.
Which probably has to do with the fact that I can’t do these activities as often as
I would like to.
This means that I oftentimes end up jogging or going to the gym to get some exercise,
even though I am not a big fan of either of those.
But yes, since hockey and skiing have a learning curve to them and also have a sizable financial
barrier, I recommend just getting some of your friends, finding a hiking trail near
you and going out hiking with them over the weekend.
Pack some snacks and refreshments, and just talk and hang out with your friends while
enjoying the walk and scenery.
And I know it’s winter right now but don’t let that stop you, make some tee in to a thermos,
dress accordingly, and to be frank, most hiking trails just look much better in the winter
anyways, so go, go now, this video’s over, so just go, go hiking, go.