@theo_nash I don’t think “Rome used to be awesome because men used to be men” is a particularly good paraphrase of that passage, but then again, I‘m not a card-carrying historiographer.
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Sergeant Prepper
2.9K posts
‘The subjects to which I would ask each of my readers to devote his earnest attention are these-the life and morals of the community; the men and the qualities by which through domestic policy and foreign war dominion was won and extended. Then as the standard of morality gradually lowers, let him follow the decay of the national character, observing how at first it slowly sinks, then slips downward more and more rapidly, and finally begins to plunge into headlong ruin, until he reaches these days, in which we can bear neither our diseases nor their remedies.’
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It’s almost like Livy wrote a deliberately moralised account of Roman history to contrast with the period of civil war and political violence he was living through!
Roman Helmet Guy@romanhelmetguy
If you read Livy and understand what the early Romans were willing to sacrifice for the survival of their Republic, you will never stop hating our ‘elites.’
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@theo_nash The trick here is that you attribute a single, rather simplistic master intention to Livy, and then insist that the idea about his intention that you conjured shaped the history that Livy wrote.
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@SergeantClub The trick is understanding how that shapes the history that he wrote, which goes directly to Mr Helmet’s point.
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@theo_nash Wow, only a card-carrying master of historiography can come up with insights like “Livy’s project is to make you think that Rome used to be awesome because men used to be men”. We’re not worthy.
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@SergeantClub I mean, Livy’s project is to make you think that Rome used to be awesome because men used to be men: that’s what Mr Helmet is picking up on, he’s just missing the context and therefore the point that it’s all a grand morality tale.
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@theo_nash The question of “why the text is actually making you feel that way” is probably the least interesting thing you can focus on … “but enough about the past, let’s talk about how I feel about it”. Questionable whether any text will make two yous feel the same thing, to begin with
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This is honestly the biggest problem with the ‘only read primary sources, bro’ approach to history: if you don’t understand historiography, then you’re prone to misunderstandings or, as here, grasping the basic point without understanding why the text is actually making you feel that way.
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@FischerKing64 I started reading War and Peace a number of times, and never managed to get very far. Then I bought a used copy of Gary Saul Morson’s “Hidden in Plain View” on a whim in a bookshop, and finally I got it. He is a great guide to what is best about Tolstoy.
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I didn’t know Nixon was a big Tolstoy fan. I’ve read 7 of these, but Nixon was a genuinely smart man, not just a performer. He didn’t have ghost writers to fake a book for him like John Kennedy and Profiles In Courage. Probably gonna check out the other 5.
Richard Nixon Foundation@nixonfoundation
This is President Nixon's book recommendations for students interested in history, biography and historical novels.
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@MartinSkold2 Richard Burton - the explorer/soldier/scholar/fencing master/etc etc ad infinitum, not the drunk actor - was maybe the best example of this type of man ever, and second-place would probably go to some other 19th century Brit. Peter Hopkirk’s books contain many solid candidates.
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“Professor who could win a bar fight” is the ideal spy/operator type. And this person almost doesn’t exist.
It’s noteworthy: They’re also unevenly distributed across cultures. Royalist cultures seem to produce more of them.
Link@_Link_
This is why you can’t mass produce special operations. The percentage of guys with 130+ IQ who enjoy both books and bar fights is incredibly small.
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@nixonist His mother wrote a rather entertaining book that basically made fun of everything his father stood for. amazon.com/My-Holocaust-N…
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David Reich's father was the first director of the U.S. Holocaust Museum. Imagine you're the Jew in charge of America's Holocaust propaganda and your son accidentally rediscovers that Aryans were real and kooky racist German anthropologists were right about absolutely everything.
Dwarkesh Patel@dwarkesh_sp
One of the coolest stories I heard from David Reich about the interaction between genetics and human culture: The caste system was powerful enough to essentially 'freeze' Indian genetics for thousands of years, almost completely stopping the process of genetic mixture.
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@AndreasSteno In that scenario, who will pay the builders to build anything?
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I agree with this take
Damian Player@damianplayer
Palantir CEO, Alex Karp says only 2 types of people will survive the AI era..
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@eurofounder I think it would be even better if she calls him Mohammed I. That way, boy number 2 can be Mohammed II, and so forth. (I’m assuming here that it is still legal for Germans to have more than one child. I’m told the weather gods do not approve.)
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My sister is having a baby boy soon
Last night over dinner she said they still haven't picked a name
"What about Mohammed?" I suggested
"What?"
"It's a beautiful European name with deep roots in our culture"
"I don't think I like it..." my sister mumbled
"You don't like it? Just say you're racist" I shouted
In Europe we celebrate all cultures equally
If she can't even consider Mohammed then she doesn't deserve to raise a European child
This is exactly how intolerance starts
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@jonatanpallesen Might work if you also get rid of Schengen etc. Otherwise, you’ll just keep getting hoards of people streaming into e.g. Spain, and once they’re made legal down there, they’re potentially your problem again.
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My 3 point plan for saving the future of Europe:
1. Give each immigrant $60k to leave Europe.
2. Make a deal with third countries with low cost of living that they will take immigrants if it is not safe in their home country, in return for large financial support.
3. Cut all welfare to immigrants.
This will save billions and billions over the future decades, and prevent a large number of rapes, and not a single immigrant will be left destitute or unsafe.
Jonatan Pallesen@jonatanpallesen
Immigrant groups who rape the most are also the ones we pay the most to live in our countries.
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@eugyppius1 Amazing. No matter how retarded one thinks these people are, they always manage to come up with something that shows you gave them way too much credit.
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On Sunday, Baden-Württemberg will elect a new state parliament. Manuel Hagel is basically certain to become the next climatoid (CDU) governor of this German state.
In this video, Hagel visits some school and the teacher asks him to explain the greenhouse effect to the students. Hagel looks briefly terrified, then he launches into this completely insane and baffling explanation:
"Between the earth and the sun is the atmosphere, and when it gets thinner and thinner, the sun gets hotter and hotter. And the reason for this is emissions, CO2, and so on. And that is the greenhouse gas effect. All right?"
This man, who has no idea about anything, will soon rule one of Germany's most prosperous states, where major auto concerns like Mercedes-Benz and Porsche are struggling for survival. He thinks the problem with CO2 emissions is that they reduce the gaseous volume of the atmosphere and raise the temperature of the sun.
TheRealTom™ - Trusted Flagger@tomdabassman
Manuel Hagel (designierter Ministerpräsident des Landes Baden- Württemberg) erklärt den Treibhauseffekt, und jetzt weiß ich auch nicht mehr.
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@wil_da_beast630 @StirlingWisdom My Boer ancestors, armed with just “voorlaaiers” (muzzleloaders), were wiping out vastly bigger Zulu armies in the 1830s (eg at Blood River, 460 Boers killed 3000 Zulus), long before the Maxim was a thing. Sure, voorlaaiers gave some advantage, but it is not the whole answer.
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@StirlingWisdom Guns.
That's the whole answer. Solidly competent longbow and assegai regiments broke when they pulled that Maxim out on their ass.
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You’re not gonna like the answer
Big Sman.🍥@MR__Sulaiman1
So can somebody tell me how the Europeans were able to colonize Africa? Because what height is this.😳
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@jerryteixeira @AviBittMD Reckon I’ve made them all, some twice for good measure;-) This despite having a great father who was an excellent role model.
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@SergeantClub @AviBittMD You have to, it’s the only one you’ve got. For sure have made mistakes, but who hasn’t?
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This is why GLP-1s are required to end obesity in practice. Food has become so hyper-palatable that for many patients, it might as well be similar to an addiction (at least in the irresistible/cravings aspect of that term). There's also no indication this will change anytime soon.
We all understand that some drug addicts can't seem to go without 30 minutes without a hit (ex: nicotine, crack cocaine). We also understand that telling such addicts to simply cut back on the drugs will not work, as expecting them to rely on willpower will almost always fail. We also understand that waiting for society to change the way such drugs are made to be less addictive is silly and will likely also fail. So if we had a medication that would turn off their addiction cravings, we would (hopefully) all give it to them.
This is how we need to start thinking about obesity and its relationship with food. Many of such people have cravings so intense their odds of successfully resisting are on par with that of a drug addict. We have a medication that makes those cravings go away. Give it to them. To not do this is incredibly cruel, and quite frankly, insane.
Cernovich@Cernovich
This is how disgusting millions of people are. It’s why I don’t agree with blaming doctors or BigPharma the way so many others on this site do. The average obese person can’t go without snacks for 30 minutes. That’s not a typo. Half an hour is too much. Be kind to MD’s.
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@jerryteixeira @AviBittMD Sorry to hear that. Looks like you‘ve managed to play the hand life dealt you quite well.
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@AviBittMD My dad was a drug addict when I was growing up.
“Use less and sober more” advice did not work 😂
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Who is the greatest Scottish rugby player of all time? I’ve shortlisted these 4 players. But I’m sure many of you will beg to differ! 🏉🏴
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@eugyppius1 "gaslightening" is a nice word for the relief you feel when you let a big fart rip after eating beans.
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"gaslightening"
Sarah Nanni is the security policy spokesperson for the Green Party in the Bundestag, btw.
Sara Nanni@SaraNanni
Marco Rubio just invented blood-and-honor gaslightening as a speech. #msc26
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@RuaidhriOC Give Italy some credit. After they played SA last year, Rassie said he could see them finishing third in the 6N.
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Remember, it's disingenuous to suggest that Ireland are in decline
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@AuronMacintyre This unusually even-handed British documentary on the Spanish civil war is worth your time: youtu.be/Lu5f9hp0IP4?si…
YouTube
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You can read theory but if you want to understand your current situation the history of the Spanish Civil war really is invaluable
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@jerryteixeira I’ve been doing pushups and pullups etc for the better part of four decades, and it did not cost anything. Looking back, I was really lucky: picked up good exercise habits playing rugby in school, and then in the army, and just stuck to it.
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Workout at home.
It’s free and requires zero commute time.
Whemïmor@hy_wemmy
I really can’t explain it but you need to be financially stable to be consistent in the gym.
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@eugyppius1 Five minutes after that asshole tries to order it on Amazon, an AI robocop will knock on his door.
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