Yeah, I get so tired of people saying things like “there were no old people in the medieval era because everyone died by 30,” and they always say it with so much smugness like they think it’s this controversial quip that nobody knows about and they’re one of the few with this secret knowledge or something.

But it’s so obviously just some “pop factoid” that they read on social media, because any actual historian would give you a more nuanced point of view without conflating averages with absolutes.

Like yeah, a lot of people died untimely deaths back then. But it was by no means all. They fucking invented the word “wizard” to describe old people. Strange thing to do if they had never seen a person with gray hair, wouldn’t you think?