Because they INVENTED THE DOME

More seriously, empires of the past are often fascinating because of the combination of traits they display in tandem with the diverse ways they can be examined, both positively and negatively.

Empires of the past are, typically, relatively well-recorded and demonstrate a wide array of the capabilities of humankind when well-organized. Obviously, for people who like the funny little fellows with weapons and armor, empires are always fun, because you kind of fucking die if you’re an empire which can’t marshal decent military forces; but empires have a vast array of appeal beyond that. The organizational and government complexity of the Inca providing both benefits and obligations; the insistent lawgiving of the Romans; the architectural marvels of the Egyptians; the intense artistic patronage of the Hellenic empires; the rise of theory of government in Han China; the trading instruments of the British Empire; and so on.

And these aren’t limited to the stated, nor does one need to restrain oneself to thinking about one. Think about the architecture of the Romans and the lawgiving of the Inca, or the art of Han China and government theory in the Hellenic Empires - in both cases, you’ll find plenty of fascinating material. There’s always something to learn, with beauty, horror, and most consistently, fascinating insight into the myriad ways human beings see ourselves and execute great undertakings.

I live to serve!

(though honestly I don’t think about the Galactic Empire that much - nice stormtroopers, but that’s about it for me)

“Just cry harder, liberals are as bad as fascists” - acceptable, normal

[mocking this view] - UNACCEPTABLE, rude, how dare you be this unproductive 😭

Fucking listen to yourself, and maybe reflect on who and what you choose to tone police.

Yes Cassian, this imperial sympathizer right here

I can tell you, American liberals are just as much to blame for fascism as the uneducated morons brainwashed by it.

“D-don’t blame people who allowed fascism to take over… that’s mean… but FUCK those who tried to stop it, literally as bad as fascists!”

About the level of discourse I expect from Lemmy at this point.

But it’s closer to the original ‘Founding Fathers’ this way

Facts don’t matter. All up and down this thread is just utter disregard for any aspect of reality that contradicts the narrative.

We’re not any smarter than the fascists, apparently. Just less morally repugnant.

Yeah, but first you were talking about how the general populace was going right

They subsequently elected Starmer, of all people, didn’t they?

This idea that success (which maybe doesn’t require to form the next government) translates to a higher share in votes might be a statistical thing, but it’s not constructive, it just leads to opportunism.

I’m sorry, if Corbyn didn’t form a government, as majority or coalition partner, didn’t move politics in the UK left, nor politics in his own party left, nor moved demographics in the UK left… what kind of success are we looking at, here?

For the record, I’m not blaming Corbyn for this loss. Far from it. I’m only saying that going left is not enough

Yeah you can say that to suit your narrative, but it’s complete BS. In fact Corbyn had significantly more votes in 2017 and 2019 than Starmer in 2024.

Which governments did Labour form at the time, again?

The left has to convince voters, not follow them, wtf

Electoral success and convincing people are not mutually exclusive options; the former is an immensely powerful tool for the latter. Unless your plan is “Hand the gun over to the fascists, put it to your head, and hope that when they pull the trigger it will inspire the masses to spontaneously learn the words to the Internationale in their hearts and rise up against fascism”, it involves some amount of concessions to the majority of voters.

But sure, run on gay marriage in 1940 until you win, I’m sure the Black folk who are being lynched won’t mind waiting another few decades, nor will the unions seeking better conditions, nor the folks trying to stop social security from being repealed etc etc etc etc.

And when you ask them what performative outrage that is, their answer is generally less “They made minor economic concessions to the working class!” and more “They acknowledged that BROWN people and TRANS people have RIGHTS”

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It’s hand-drawn, just mocking GenAI pics.

Though AI pics sometimes still have trouble with text.

You made no real argument whatsoever originally other than saying Obama wasnt a neoliberal president, which is just baseless and stupid.

Would you like to re-read my original response and point out where I said anything about the neoliberal characterization of Obama, or is that too arduous and trying a task to attempt?

You refuse to asses information from an article that well predates the Palestinian Genocide by a longshot and has nothing to do with the conflict whatsoever.

That’s not one of the several genocides that Jacobin denies, and thus not one of the ones I was talking about. Though, for that matter, the article certainly does not predate 1948.

Best of luck living with your head in the sand

What irony.

I mean, there are almost certain some who are susceptible to that same dumbassery. But enough who aren’t already voting to cripple the GOP?

I don’t know what the solution is, and I’m not saying don’t find something to hammer the dumb-drum on to get the rats of Hamburg to follow us to a slightly-better-world. I’m just saying that it’s unlikely to be any single or easy solution unless there’s some radical new coalition combination of the electorate that we’re just missing.

Oh fuck off dude, youre pathetic and you know it.

For… objecting to something that you said, and that you have been entirely incapable of mounting even a nominal defense of, probably because you’re aware that it was said as bad-faith bullshit with no grounding in reality?

Uh, okay.

If I wanted campist apologia from genocide deniers, I could read Jacobin rag on my own time. I’ll pass on someone trying to use it as a replacement for having thoughts of their own. I note that you didn’t actually respond to what I actually objected to,

He massively carried water for the whole “if I made it, anyone can” and “black people suffer from a culture of poverty” type of nonsense,

But I guess that would require you to defend the points you make, and wouldn’t that just be an awful fate?

when in reality they’re walking hand in hand with people that are pushing us to absolute limit of barely acceptable and then dangling what they’ve known they should’ve done forever ago in front of us when we’re finally at our breaking point.

Please, talk to some ordinary Americans sometime. Some of the real, salt-of-the-earth types who regularly and reliably vote, and who make up the majority of the country.

You know, morons.

“The Dems aren’t going left enough fast enough!” is not generally the refrain, even from those who do vote Dem.

ChatGPT ass reply bro touch grass

Lord.

Well ACKSHULLY wanting common sense solutions is right wing coded!

Have you ever had a discussion with conservatives about what they think is ‘common sense’?

Have you ever paid attention to how often conservatives discuss ‘common sense’ solutions that appeal to people who want to think that their deeply politicized views aren’t political at all?

Do you know what ‘common sense’ is to fucking begin with?

Fuck’s sake. It’s like talking to someone who’s voted GOP for the past 50 years of their fucking life but insists that they’re a ‘moderate’.

Suppose you’re not going to answer about how Dems being ‘ideologues’ right now who won’t compromise, and how ‘meeting in the middle’ with fascist voters will totally be a less right-wing solution.

Or about the data explicitly proving you wrong. But I guess I must be high.

“Want to go rightwards” - are you fucking high?

No, I just have the misfortune of preferring unpleasant data over feel-good circlejerks about how we’re TOTALLY the silent majority, despite all evidence to the contrary.

People want common sense approaches to social problems.

You do realize this is the exact line that right-wingers say amongst themselves about why people REALLY want a far-right corporatocrat theocracy, right?

More people I know who voted for Trump like and respect Sanders more than any other Dem candidate in the last decade because he’s authentic and true to himself and his beliefs.

Unfortunately, that transfers approximately not-at-fucking-all to electoral success in swaying them to vote for anyone but the fascist ghouls, in the same way that Nazi voters always knew one “good Jew” or modern American right-wing voters always know one person who “deserves” public services or is a “good” member of the LGBT community who deserves their identity.

They’ll vote for the Holocaust all the same, but at least you’ll get an asspat out of it, right?

They don’t think his proposed solutions are going to work, but they’re willing to have a conversation and meet in the middle. The all or nothing ideologues running the Dem right now have no fucking idea what they’re doing, they’re trashing the joint - whether by malice or idiocy is moot at this point. Get these people OUT

“The REAL problem is that the current Dems aren’t willing to compromise and meet in the middle with the fascists!”

Lord.

And you say this is a LESS far-right solution?

Jesus Christ.