Why is the term the "Dark Ages", no longer deemed appropriate to describe the Early Middle Ages?

Question

Why is the term the "Dark Ages", no longer deemed appropriate to describe the Early Middle Ages?

Answer 1

First, they were not as ignorant as we first assumed.

Second, since Stokley Carmichael stuck a 12-gauge shotgun into someone's nose and said "Smile when you say that, Mother-F*cking Ash-l*****g Dirt-grubbing fish-belly Ofay Honkie b*****d", "dark" and "Black" have lost their cachet as a synonym for "Evil", "Stupid", "Ignorant", "Mis-informed" and many other words with negative connotations.

Answer 2

The Dark Ages was never a very informative label. Huge amounts of Western culture and knowledge were lost between 400 and 1100 AD, but it wasn't a steady process.

There is also a problem if you consider

Charlemagne as part of the Dark Ages. Alcuin was as important in his day as any Renaissance scholar - it wasn't his fault that things petered out again after he died.

And there is also the PC problem already noted.

The Dark Ages isn't a helpful label - so why use it?

Answer 3

Because some people are too touchy to allow someone to use a negative-sounding name for the four centuries or so when Europe forgot most of the technology and science that the Romans knew, when they returned to sustinance agriculture, when there was no social or political stability, and when everyone quit taking baths.

I call it the dark ages and those who object can go stop taking baths if they think it's so enlightened.