Mythologized history to serve their racist worldview:
Right, ancient Greece and Rome were actually quite diverse and the concept of “whiteness” didn’t have much meaning thousands of years ago. Race, as we know it, is a fairly recent category. But the far-right relies on this construct of Western civilization, which for them means white civilization and culture. So they craft a narrative that begins with Greece and Rome and then continues into the medieval period up through the emergence of modern Europe.
What’s funny is Rome and Greece (and probably every other ancient culture) mythologized their origin history, too, due to lack of history records from that far back, or just by plain human nature. Nothing new under the sun.
Edit: I meant the more human-centric origin myths, e.g. like the Romans believing they were totally the decendants of Aeneas and the Trojans fleeing Troy’s destruction.
No. No. They were really decended from gods and raised by wolves. /S
Honestly the best explanations for Greek and thus Roman myth is a mix of patrical worship (story from dad, become from grandpa, from great grandpa, from ancestor, from the ancient, from myth, mixed with ruling caste families becomes our mythos).
That mixed with stories about concepts war, beauty, death, getting personified for story sake but then with enough personality now the afterlife is married and has a dog because his wife is on business trips all the time.
I meant the more human-centric origin myths, e.g. like the Romans believing they were totally the decendants of Aeneas and the Trojans fleeing Troy’s destruction.
That explains why they hate my reaction to seeing a cybertruck. I hold my thumb out horizontally, until I know I have their attention. I then rotate it to a thumbs down. The sheer amount of road rage, at having had ancient roman iconography used against them, warms the cold dead cockles of my heart.
Only tidbit I have about that is the thumbs down meant you weren’t allowed to kill the person despite how the movies play it but I didn’t take latin long enough to confirm that.
That’s correct, but I suspect they either don’t know that, or are the type that wouldn’t see that as approval for a good fight, but would see it as the denial of their “righteous kill.”
👍
No, 👎. Lol
Paging @PugJesus
I think he’s piefed.social if you want to summon him and probably would get a kick out of this.
I wish I knew how to do that. I abandoned reddit just so many others as soon as they started their API nonsense, so I’m really just here for the memes. And yes, he would enjoy it greatly.
Same here, I miss it sometimes, but Voyager has a nice system for tagging folks. Looks like the sintax is [@ UserName @ host.instance (https://host.instance/u/user )] . Remove spaces
@PugJesus@piefed.social PJ sorry for the somewhat out of context, but Argues here wanted you to see the overall thread.
Brilliant, thanks! I apologize for my incompetent manner. I use Connect only because as I fled reddit, it was probably the first Google result lol.
Oh is he alt-right?
No. He’s a history nerd regularly posting history nerd shit for our own enjoyment.
He just loves Roman history, WW2 history, the space fascist future of 40k, and criticizing the past sins of socialism more than the rise of fascism while completely ignoring all sins of capitalism.
It’s fine I’m sure. Just a turbolib. He believes in democracy. Probably.
He just loves Roman history
As I said, a history nerd.
WW2 history
Uh…what ? So still a nerd but for some reason we’re making a leap between ancient history and WW2 and skipping over all the medieval history content he’s posting. Sure, I guess.
the space fascist future of 40k
So a massive nerd. Painting tiny figurines under a magnifying glass and battling other nerds with measuring tape is top tier nerd shit not pining for fascism shit, although these people exist and are extra visible when they reveal themselves I’ve yet to meet one IRL in 26 years interacting with 40K nerds.
and criticizing the past sins of socialism more than the rise of fascism while completely ignoring all sins of capitalism. It’s fine I’m sure. Just a turbolib. He believes in democracy. Probably.
So he never said or done anything warranting to insult the guy of being far right, but you imply he might be guilty of thought crime for not showing enough leftist credentials to satisfy your own personal standards. And somehow this whole gratuitous character assassination is ok because you made it quippy at the end ? Yikes.
Fucking lol, stay gullible.
No, the other part
What they said.
Unfortunately this makes sense - the original Italian and German fascists were also obsessed with it.
This is likely one of those cases of X is Y but not all Y are X. Roman history memes can be amusing for anyone.
Being obsessed with Roman and/or WWII history is a red flag, but not a conclusive indicator (unless the obsession with WWII involves praising Nazis).
#NotAllRomanMemes
staning Rome has always been a fash tradition.
They might be obsessed with them but they make really shitty ones that are factually inaccurate most of the time.
But just because somebody enjoys history is not a warning sign or red flag. You have to study history to learn political trends and how the world operates.
I enjoy Roman memes and in a lot of the history communities, I learn lots from others … but the greatest thing I’ve ever learned from Roman history is that their legacy is a lesson to all of us of what NOT TO DO to run a civilization because if you did, it only leads to inequality, instability, that it is unsustainable and that it all eventually collapses. They were a great people but they were great because their excess was built on the subjugation of nations and enslaving entire people in order to get what they wanted. They could only succeed if they kept abusing everyone else and eventually themselves.
Their system grew and expanded when it benefited many people … but it collapsed and failed when all that power concentrated itself into ever smaller groups of people.
Roman history is a warning … it’s not something we should try to repeat like we are now.
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I thought almost everyone had a mild obsession with Romans
I mean, they’re kinda neat but I don’t consider them all that important to modern day life.
Turns out the mild obsession was really with tits.
I prefer to romanticize the three kingdoms period of China.
I think they were evil. They kind of invented the idea of conquering other civilizations, and were not cool about it at all
The world would probably be a much better place without them
You have a very Euro-centric view of the world.
We’re literally talking about “the West” right now… The whole damn conversation is euro-central
I don’t disagree with you on the evilness that is involved with pretty much all conquering imperial powers (whether it’s an empire or republic backing it), but Rome didn’t invent that. They made some advancements in military tactics, strategies, and logistics. But conquest was done before them.
Alexander the great had an empire that rivaled Rome’s side when he died (and there are other example in recorded history of it being done earlier, like in Egypt, Gilgamesh, and many others). And even the whole “you can keep your culture as long as you join the empire” was done by Persia before Rome did it.
Don’t say that in front of the Shahansha
Why do you think those losers always side with the Legion in Fallout New Vegas?
Because fascism was literally based on imitating a deliberately misunderstood Roman Empire?
Probably the misogyny and the totalitarianism.
Unforgivable
It’s the aesthetization of politics, it serves as a recruitment tool for fascist ideology. They present art and symbols (memes) designed to evoke appealing emotions or ideas. Through repetition, the emotions and ideas associated with these symbols become fused with the individual’s identity. The fascist ideology, introduced and linked to these symbols, is more readily accepted because the individual already holds a positive association with the original symbols. It’s basically classic conditioning to transform people into fascists.
Their kindred love of lead poisoning
I think that male-supremacism/mysoginy is the common-principle, underlying Roman Empire cult & the alt-right.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1369118X.2024.2445637#abstract
_ /\ _
Romans saw sex mainly through a lens of power and domination. They were okay with a man of higher standing penetrating a man of lower social status but if it happened the other way around, the high status man would suffer loss of his masculine honor. With a similar mindset, older men would mentor adolescent men and it was acceptable to engage in sexual acts with them (pederasty).
Its interesting because its not entirely homophobic but still a disturbing way to see the world.
The Kama Sutra was written at around this time and acknowledges same sex marriages as legitimate however, additionally, Vātsyāyana writes positively about sex workers (advising men how to engage with them respectfully) and heavily emphasizes female pleasure (with specific emphasis on female agency and consent), going as far to say it is crucial to living a fulfilling and meaningful life for both partners.
When the text was transmitted to the West they took out all that “political” stuff and focussed on sex positions.
Are orgies and homo sex in style again?
No just human trafficking
Reminds me of the biblical scenes from A Clockwork Orange. Some people think history is neat and the Romans had alot of history. Some people wish they could conquer Gaul and own sex slaves.
