Also, timbuktu manuscripts - showed a history that I had never really heard of. These are written manuscripts of african scholars which are hundreds of years old, and still exist today. Some record the history of great west african civilizations along with other things they studied (e.g. science, religion, math, literature, ect). I was never taught this history even existed but yet was made to learn the various details about asian, european, middle eastern, central/south american history. This, and the attempts to destroy/steal these manuscripts at various points in history, made it click how serious power of controlling information, and ultimately influencing beliefs can be, with respect to giving legitimacy to the various rulers/authorities. Beliefs/perceptions matter quite a lot. This 1hr lecture is quite good: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=lQiqyyRfL2Y&t=16s
Behavioral biology class from Dr. Sapolsky (Sanford) - explains a lot of why we behave the way we do, from different biological perspectives https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLqeYp3nxIYpF7dW7qK8OvLs...