apricops: the tendency for racists and white supremacists to go gaga over their idea of ancient Rome is so darkly hilarious because of how entirely wrong it is. It’s not a twisting of some kernels of truth, it’s not a misinterpretation, it’s just the exact opposite, and people in Western Europe has been doing it for so long. For centuries people in Britain and Germany would be like/have been like “ah yes, we are special and superior because we are the heirs of the superior Romans” while next to a giant pile of writings by respected Ancient Romans who went “god, Britain is a dump and Germany is full of idiot barbarians. I wish I lived somewhere cool and cultured like Syria or Tunisia.”

occultbookstores: Someone wrote once that Fascism is Roman bimbofication and that’s been living in my head rent-free.

Here’s some homework for you: https://piped.video/watch?v=sEjCNzGOe3Q

    • Kbin_space_program@kbin.social
      28·
      1 year ago

      Its ignoring that the Romans brutally conquered and colonized western Europe, oddly in pretty much the exact same manner that western Europe did roughly 1500-1800 years later to much of the world.

      Aka: Go in with violence, kill off and enslave upwards of a quarter to a third of the population, then trick the rest into giving you their lands with promises of fairness and copious alcohol.

      Also, Roman culture damn near worshiped the Greeks.

      They literally used the “noble savage” trope to describe the people of western Europe.

        • Kbin_space_program@kbin.social
          4·
          1 year ago

          Yes. There is evidence to suggest that while they(Europeans) definitely took advantage of the deaths, most of the deaths were accidental from disease. Not all of the disease was maybe quite so accidental though.

          E.G. one recorded instance in the 7 years war where British/American forces delivered blankets as a gift to nearby natives, some of the blankets were from the infirmary where there was smallpox. However, the notes and letters we have don’t inform us as to whether that was an intentional move on the part of the fort commander, or a logistical error that resulted in the gift being tainted.

        • Slagius@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
          1·
          1 year ago

          Yeah but that was an accident, we gave the poor bastards the plague. Whereas most/all of the killing done in other places was, well, by hand.