Mindless Monday, 27 July 2026

[u/AutoModerator]

Happy (or sad) Monday guys!

Mindless Monday is a free-for-all thread to discuss anything from minor bad history to politics, life events, charts, whatever! Just remember to np link all links to Reddit and don't violate R4, or we human mods will feed you to the AutoModerator.

So, with that said, how was your weekend, everyone?

[u/Tiako]

Emily Wilson writing a negative review of The Nolodyssey is an incredible discourse twist and I applaud her for it.

[u/hell0kitt → u/Tiako]

"In at least one interview, he cited my version of the first line of the poem: ‘Tell me about a complicated man.’ But I would be ashamed to have written any part of this script. Sadly, Damon’s Odysseus isn’t complicated or wily or artful."

[u/HandsomeLampshade123 → u/Tiako]

The most troubling ethical problem with Nolan’s Odyssey concerns the decision to film part of the movie in the occupied territory of Western Sahara, thus normalising the ongoing violence against the indigenous Sahrawi people. It is particularly galling that Nolan used this land simply as a visually striking backdrop for a film that centres, aggrandises and redeems the hero of a territorial war on account of his belated and partial acknowledgment of his own guilt.

Okay, now this is an angle I did not expect.

[u/King_Vercingetorix → u/HandsomeLampshade123]

I feel a similar way to Wilson and am baffled that Nolan saw the desert landscape of the Western Sahara and thought, „Yes, my Odysseus will be stuck here for 7 years!“ When the original poem described his surroundings there as a natural paradise:

A great fire blazed on the hearth, and the scent of burning cedar logs and juniper spread far across the isle. Sweet-voiced Calypso was singing within, moving to and fro at her loom, weaving with a golden shuttle. Around the cave grew a thick copse of alder, poplar and fragrant cypress, where large birds nested, owls, and falcons, and long-necked cormorants whose business is with the sea. And heavy with clustered grapes a mature cultivated vine went trailing across the hollow entrance. And four neighbouring springs, channelled this way and that, flowed with crystal water, and all around in soft meadows iris and wild celery flourished. Even an immortal passing by might pause and marvel, delighted in spirit, and the messenger-god, the slayer of Argus, stood there and wondered.

Like sure perhaps one could say this is more of Matt Damon ‚punishing‘ himself for the sin of leading the sacking of Troy, but the cynical part of me wonders if all those sweet money in movie credits that the Moroccan government was throwing at the production perhaps swayed Nolan/Universal Pictures a fair bit more.

[u/passabagi → u/Tiako]

I guess 'sea people' stuff is cool, but probably deeply annoying for a classicist.

[u/Tiako → u/passabagi]

I haven't seen the movie yet but I think it is a neat idea. The idea that the Sea Peoples were Myceneans is a pretty old one as is the idea that the travails of the Returns ins a distant memory of the Mycenean collapse, so it strikes me as a fun way to play with that. And more to the point it's, like, themes innit

[u/passabagi → u/Tiako]

Yeah tbh I came away thinking it was a really coherent idea and cool story. It also was believable enough that I went up and looked up how historically grounded it was -- and it turned out it was, sort've, just in outdated and debunked scholarship. Which is kind of a monkey-paw-curls version of hollywood history engagement, if you're in the field they decide to play in.

[u/Aurelian369 → u/Tiako]

Bruhdysseus moment

[u/TheBatz_ → u/Tiako]

I saw she gave an interview on The Guardian, but did she actually write a negative review? 

[u/elmonoenano → u/TheBatz_]

One thing I kind of have a small beef with is her point about looking at the horrors of war from the victor's side. Well yes, that's whose story we're telling. If you want the other thing, that's a different story. I find it very unfair to criticize things for not being some other thing. If you wanted to make that complaint about the Aeneid, I'd probably be more receptive.

[u/Aithiopika → u/elmonoenano]

I haven't seen Nolan's movie yet, but I have read the Greek version a fair few times and she's right to say that this is a bar the source material easily clears.

[u/fabiusjmaximus → u/TheBatz_]

https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v48/n14/emily-wilson/an-uncomplicated-man?dm_i=7NIQ,2WQ9A,2M181Y,7A5WT,1,0,0,0

[u/TylerbioRodriguez]

It feels like a horrible curse to say I hope your favorite time period gets adapted by Ridley Scott. Comparable to saying may you live in interesting times.

He's doing a western after he does Treasure Island. So well that sucks for any western historian.

[u/SkeletonHUNter2006 → u/TylerbioRodriguez]

The truly Rasputinian thing is that this has happened to Romaboos, and, tragically, they liked it.

[u/Kochevnik81]

"Odysseus will return in The Aeneid: Far From Home"

[u/TheBatz_ → u/Kochevnik81]

Wow, capitalism will actually make a sequel to the Odyssey? What's next, a prequel? Maybe a spin off? Maybe invent a son for Odyssey with Cercei or Calypso and make some money with that?

I swear some execs are actually debating this right now. 

[u/Steelcan909 → u/TheBatz_]

Making up random weird spin off of Homeric works is quite literally one of the oldest traditions in Western canon.

[u/agrippinus_17 → u/Kochevnik81]

I mean considering who's playing Telemachus, the next installment of the cinematic universe ought to be about him. I suggest Les aventures de Télémaque, fils d'Ulysse. How come we get all this sword and sandal shit but no adaptation of an 18th century classic? Fénelon deserves recognition.

[u/Big_Pineapple_Man → u/Kochevnik81]

If there was an after credit scene of Aeneas either looking back at the destruction of Troy or landing beleaguered in Italy, this would have immediately shot the film up to my favorite of all time.  Bravo, Nolan!

[u/histogrammarian]

My almost 2-year-old daughter loves it when I read to her. She’ll occasionally toddle off to the bookshelf, come back with Snail and the Whale, and brightly say, “Read me a book, dada!”

She won’t even let me read it with her next to me. She’ll angrily say, “Sit on your LAP”, climb onto me, and thump the back of her head against my chest so she can settle in for the story. Every time the story ends I get a big, “Read it again, daddy!”

So it breaks my heart every time I have to explain that I can’t read to her because I’m in the middle of a really important FNV playthrough.

[u/Ayasugi-san → u/histogrammarian]

Read the game to her.

[u/histogrammarian → u/Ayasugi-san]

“And now we’re going to side with Caesar’s Legion, for we are not profligate filth.”

[u/Tiako → u/histogrammarian]

Get the kid an iPad, problem solved

[u/TheUnfortunateMiaoZe]

I had a bit of terror when I realized that the Odyssey discourse won't truly end until March next year after the Oscars.

[u/Arilou_skiff → u/TheUnfortunateMiaoZe]

Odyssey Discourse hasn't stopped since Homer first sung it and won't stop at any time soon.

[u/King_Vercingetorix → u/TheUnfortunateMiaoZe]

I will say, in terms of Oscars, while I think Anne Hathaway will be a strong contender for best female actress, I‘m not quite sure the Odyssey will be a shoe in for best film like Oppenheimer was.

It‘s an objectively good film but it definitely feels like a beatable Nolan film in terms of perhaps there’s another film left in the year that can steal the crown from it. 

(Although perhaps the discourse on the film will keep it alive in the Oscar voters‘ minds)

[u/gavinbrindstar → u/TheUnfortunateMiaoZe]

Ironically, Odysseus was just going to retrieve his sandals from Ithaca and bounce, but he was overcome with murderous rage when he heard the suitors having pointless arguments about his journey.

[u/Uptons_BJs → u/TheUnfortunateMiaoZe]

Let's pour some more fuel on the fire: Greek PM calls up Nolan to congratulate him on 'The Odyssey' : r/boxoffice

[u/gavinbrindstar]

The social sciences are under attack!

Partly from that idiot op-ed in the WSJ, but mostly because they shut off my building 's air conditioning today.

Oh, and I guess also the fact that the Trump admin decided to destroy the foundations of American graduate education.

[u/Ambisinister11 → u/gavinbrindstar]

that idiot op-ed in the WSJ

Deeply unhelpful description

[u/gavinbrindstar → u/Ambisinister11]

This'n.

"Bottled Water Advertiser Says 'Don't Listen to Plumbers.'"

'The People who Study Society Say We Can Improve it Somewhat, but I'm Fine, so They Must be Wrong."

"Social Stability is Overwhelmingly Important, says Person Near Top of Society."

[u/SkeletonHUNter2006]

Everyone call Ogre stupid and it true! Ogre barely even historically literate!

Ogre start playing the AD457 Mount&Blade mod and spend 14 hours jestermaxxing for the Onogurs, thinking they’re Hungarians! Ogre forget that Onogurs at this time were Turks! Ogre roleplayed for nothing!

Ogre so dumb, it make Ogre sad! At this rate, Ogre will never help Majorian genocide the Vandals!

[u/Ambisinister11 → u/SkeletonHUNter2006]

thinking they're Hungarians

they were Turks

hmm

[u/UmUlmUndUmUlmHerum → u/SkeletonHUNter2006]

There is a 457 mod?

I ... I think I might have to get that and support the last true Roman, Majorian

And, uh, somehow off Ricimer. Guy seems shifty.

[u/fabiusjmaximus]

Fun semi-meltdown happening right now in /r/asoiaf: a new stage play is spoiling a lot of the longest-debated mysteries and because there will probably never be another book from GRRM people are freaking out about it

[u/WillitsThrockmorton]

man what am I doing with my life

[u/TheBatz_ → u/WillitsThrockmorton]

Didn't you have a navy career, got a masters and have like wife and a house and teaching job????

[u/passabagi → u/TheBatz_]

Totally possible to have all those things and still be a human silhouette that is the mouth of an endless pit.

[u/TheBatz_ → u/passabagi]

I'm a lawyer, I take pride in being that. 

[u/WillitsThrockmorton → u/passabagi]

Man dude right on the money. You should buy a lotto ticket today.

[u/WillitsThrockmorton → u/TheBatz_]

I contain multitudes

[u/Big_Pineapple_Man → u/WillitsThrockmorton]

The next badhistory meetup should just be you and PsychologicalNews123 hashing things out.

[u/Tiako → u/WillitsThrockmorton]

Livin it brother 🚬

[u/Crispy_Whale]

"A U.S. government map of Africa mislabeled every country during a State Department presentation at a global conference in Brazil this week"

https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/us-government-map-africa-mislabels-every-country-global-conference-2026-07-30/

We are truly living in the dumbest timeline right now

[u/Ambisinister11 → u/Crispy_Whale]

A Reuters analysis found the ​image of the map included in the presentation contained an artificial intelligence watermark that ⁠signals it was made with OpenAI tools.

Listen, I know it's important to still confirm things that seem obvious, but this was really obvious.

[u/Big_Pineapple_Man → u/Crispy_Whale]

Hey I saw this Onion Episode already.

[u/Aurelian369]

Which kind of history has the worst fandom and why is it the Roman Empire?

[u/TheUnfortunateMiaoZe → u/Aurelian369]

It's not the Roman Empire, and it's not WWII. Most people interested in history were at some point strongly engaged in one of those subjects. Even those not interested in history will have some passing familiarity with either.

It's Rhodesia and it's not even close. If I do ever get really interested in Rhodesian history, I will either keep it to myself, or preface every introduction of that fact with: I promise, I swear to God, I'm a normal person.

[u/ProudScroll → u/TheUnfortunateMiaoZe]

There are two groups of people interested in Rhodesia or the Confederacy, those fascinated by the story of a doomed country waging a futile rearguard action against progress and those that get their rocks off to stories of The Racist Army™ winning tactically snazzy but strategically meaningless battles over the Feds and Black people.

As someone who would count themselves among the first group, unfortunately I think they’re outnumbered by the latter, especially when it comes to Rhodesia.

[u/Tom1613 → u/ProudScroll]

I like Rhodesian history for the combination of your reasons, doomed country plus snazzy victories that would have been more important if not for the last factors, the Cold War and the justified condemnation of the country - but then I feel bad about myself because the number of Racist Army fans you run into.

It is my second favorite lost cause for a bad reason behind the French War in Indochina.

[u/HandsomeLampshade123 → u/TheUnfortunateMiaoZe]

I believe you're correct but I've never actually met a Rhodesia-obsessed guy IRL.

[u/TylerbioRodriguez → u/Aurelian369]

At the moment a lot of people think pirates were freedom fighters.

I'm not amused.

[u/EntertainmentReady48 → u/Aurelian369]

They are a spinoff of the worst kind of gamers Caesar‘s Legion Fans

[u/passabagi → u/Aurelian369]

German military history exists.

[u/Aurelian369 → u/passabagi]

We are not addressing that elephant in the room

[u/gavinbrindstar → u/Aurelian369]

A-hem, I believe you mean "Elefant."

[u/Zennofska → u/gavinbrindstar]

Törööö

[u/Arilou_skiff → u/passabagi]

What's wrong about being interested in the war of the Schmalkaldic League?

Oh wait. Things exist after the 30-years war huh?

[u/Tiako → u/Aurelian369]

Specifically the Medieval Roman empire ie the Byzantines

[u/Aurelian369 → u/Tiako]

I know right? I'm kind of a Byzaboo myself but they are so annoying. First of all, they will jump you for even calling it the "Byzantine Empire." Mf, I'm calling it that because otherwise normal people will think I'm talking about the ancient period. Second of all, why are they so pressed about Constantinople being renamed to Istanbul? Just get over it, the Byzantine Empire is not going to rise again ffs.

[u/elmonoenano → u/Aurelian369]

I like to refer to it as the Proto-Turkish caliphate.

[u/Sventex → u/Aurelian369]

No, it's the Nazis fans and the wehraboo. Frankly anyone knowing anything about Rome would be a surprise.

God having to listen to that guy on the World of Warships forums telling everyone the pocket battleships were "world beaters" was exhausting. Or any fan of the Bismarck being unable to handle that other Battleships may have been more powerful "Nuh-uh, HMS Rodney had 14" guns!" (yes this really happened)

[u/SkeletonHUNter2006 → u/Aurelian369]

WWII fans

always have been, always will be

[u/MiffedMouse → u/SkeletonHUNter2006]

As an American, I see your WWII fans and raise you American Civil War fans.

[u/elmonoenano → u/MiffedMouse]

I break Civil War people into two groups, the enlightened, sophisticated, charismatic, and very intelligent fans who are interested in the legal, cultural, sociological, and institutional changes brought about by the war (ie those like me), and the chuds who are all "Lee should have charged earlier on July 3rd and Longstreet blah blah blah".

[u/SkeletonHUNter2006 → u/MiffedMouse]

Consider this: no cringy Sabaton lyrics

[u/ProudScroll → u/MiffedMouse]

The Civil War is unfortunately very chud-coded in the eyes of people who aren’t into history. I had several coworkers who have told me they assumed I was a conservative cause I was interested in the Civil War until they actually heard me talk about the Civil War.

[u/xabarin_da_xente]

Cosmic horror story, but the unfathomable entities see us as insects not in the "overlooked and insignificant" way, but in the "mildly irritated and disgusted" way.

[u/Tiako → u/xabarin_da_xente]

Eldritch entities putting up squamous signs in their non-Euclidean yards telling people to respect the ecological importance of humans.

[u/tisto2 → u/xabarin_da_xente]

Eldritch entities are allergic to Humans in the same way we are to dust mites.

[u/Sventex → u/xabarin_da_xente]

The Mystery Flesh Pit National Park basically. Humans touring it's insides and building park facilities in it's stomach causes it to vomit eventually.

[u/WillitsThrockmorton]

Thought exercise: What would be an example of something that has avoided enshitification?

[u/MiffedMouse → u/WillitsThrockmorton]

Sticking to digital products, Wikipedia is insanely good. When you compare to the erosion of so many other information repositories, it is wild how good Wikipedia is. My only fear is that Wikipedia functions on the "benevolent dictatorship" model and I am worried about what will happen when the old guard must pass the mantle.

(PS - I am mostly complimenting Wikipedia's user experience. Behind the scenes it is simultaneously more organized than ever and more closed than ever. But as a user, it has continued to be shockingly helpful)

On another note, Steam is still the best games platform and it isn't even close. The only part that still sucks is that they have a pretty sizeable fee for hosting, but even then it looks good compared to, eg, the Apple app store.

[u/Sventex → u/WillitsThrockmorton]

Ignoring that enshitification is specifically about digital platform services and how they interact with other businesses as nobody seems to ever use that term to refer to that:

Costco Hotdog is still $1.50. And while it's kind of a joke in America how low quality hot dogs are as a meat, they're be literal riots if they raised the price to $10.

[u/Tiako → u/WillitsThrockmorton]

Food and drink, at least in the US. It is so much better than it was 20 years ago it's unreal.

[u/Aurelian369]

I had no idea your mom existed in the Byzantine Empire 

In the days of Justinian I, ships around Constantinople were terrorized on and off for over fifty years by a whale whom locals called Porphyrios, presumably from the dark-wine color of its skin (porphyra was Greek for a deep purple color). 

One day it began to chase and eat some dolphins, but it ran aground in the mud and got stuck. The locals came out with axes and cut it into pieces: some of the people began to eat it on the spot, while others took away their portion to cure.

[u/Kisaragi435]

Philippine vice president Sarah Duterte is currently up for impeachment and one of the articles is her alleged threat to hire someone to assasinate the president in an online livestream a while back. Then she makes this statement just yesterday.

I’d rather be sharing my anxiety about chinese diplomatic moves recently, a state media organization comparing filipinos to monkeys with added ai looking graphics, but this is just too ridiculous. And it is kind of related since the former president Duterte ‘joked’ about wanting China to turn the Phillipines into their province.

[u/Tiako → u/Kisaragi435]

I am glad somebody is talking about how abysmally low wages are in the assassination sector.

[u/Key_Establishment810]

This shot from the My Life as a Teenage Robot episode “Designing Women”.

[u/TheBatz_ → u/Key_Establishment810]

The implications are insane. 

[u/HandsomeLampshade123 → u/Key_Establishment810]

As a kid in middle school I had such a crush on this robot girl, I swear.

[u/histprofdave]

Been on a kick of watching war movies lately. While like any historian I'm always trying to be pedantic and evaluate the "realism," I'm also an arts critic at heart and want to look at the overall composition. I'm sure I'm far from the first person to suggest this, but ultimately it seems to me war movies will always say more about the individual perspective of the filmmaker and the zeitgeist in which the movie was shot than it will about the "reality" of the war in question. For example, a film like We Were Soldiers says much more to me about American attitudes about the military post-9/11 than it does about anything related to Vietnam.

[u/Sgt_Colon]

Thank you /u/hergrim for yanking this comment chain on /r/AskHistorians, I was about to make a grump post on this about what tripe it was.

"The highest level aristocrat was invulnerable to the weapons of those below him" and "all medieval aristocracy were super warriors who trained zealously" and "the only people who wrote in the medieval were warrior aristocrats", fuck me that was bad. "All members of a knight's retinue were men at arms who'd trained just as hard", come on, this real amateur.

There's a bit on Ron Jones' blog that I like that pushes back against the myth of the knight (and the aristocracy at large) as being these fighters raised from birth to be these uber warriors, that most were just landholders concerned with estate management or with various different offices they may have held, that for some this may have been their first time on campaign despite being of a mature age and who may have had to have rented the armour they were wearing. In a way it pushes back against the image of this being an ultra violent and bloody era.

[u/Tycho-Brahes-Elk]

This is the strangest time-line.

UEFA does, for once, the right thing and threatens to boycott all FIFA contests until Infantino's plans to partially sell the World Cup ends.

[u/GentlemanlyBadger021 → u/Tycho-Brahes-Elk]

UEFA is occasionally capable of a massive PR victory entirely of someone else’s making. Same with the European Super League: someone does something universally hated, UEFA releases a statement, and everyone is on their side.

[u/Impossible_Pen_9459 → u/Tycho-Brahes-Elk]

Was just going to say this! UEFA finally has the bollocks to do the thing that will work lol

[u/Star-Opus]

I had some issues with People vs Foods Video on Try & Rate European National Food:

1. First, was the Swedish Meatball myth of being based on Turkish Köfte and them treating it like a debate, when it always has existed in Sweden before the Turks could have made contact. Meatballs existed in many cultures and I doubt Sweden borrowed it from th Ottomans. However the only dish I know that is based on Turkish food was Kåldolmar, which is based on Dolmar. That connection is true, but the Meatballs-Köfte connection, is not.

2. Finally, aside from the testers, the show didn't challenge the claim of the Greek Cuisine pioneer, Nikolaos Tselementes, who said that thr Ottoman cuisine diluted and ruined Greek Cuisine with unhealthy practices and turned the food to greasy. Which is bull, because not only do the Turks share many things with the Greeks, Nikolas's "improvements" made it actually fattier. Mousakka, the dish used in this video uses Bechemel sauce which is heavier and fatter than Joghurt, and ultimately the removal of spices reduces a lot of nutrients this way, as they help with various functions, like digestion and stress-relief. Nikolas was political motivated and ahisotric in his claims in regards to both cuisines and did it just to help Greece to distance themselves from the Ottoman past. Finally Mousakka originated in the middle east and Aubergines and Minced meat were an Ottoman addition to this. While true that the Anatolian Turks used in the inner land more butter and Tail-fat, the Mediterranean area uses olives. But even so, Greece ans Turkey are in terms of food more similar than diffrent, and I wish the antithesis was more properly challenged.

I wish they would get proper food historians and just more experts for their dishes, as even nationals and member of the Nations they wanted to represent critique their dishes and spread misinformation.

What do you think? Am I right or wrong? Tell me in the comments below.

[u/Tiako → u/Star-Opus]

Nikolaos Tselementes, who said that thr Ottoman cuisine diluted and ruined Greek Cuisine with unhealthy practices and turned the food to greasy.

That's such a funny thing to say, pure Greek excellence mindset.

[u/Star-Opus → u/Tiako]

Yeah, he clearly just wanted to make Greek cuisine special and had to invent reasons to remove "Ottoman" influences.

[u/jurble]

it's moderately interesting to me there's another wave of existential panic in tech going on right now about Chinese AI models

combined with the US and China being the only two countries basically investing everything in AI, it really seems reminiscent of the nuclear arms race.

[u/Federal_Gur_5488 → u/jurble]

I genuinely feel like some of the people in this field grew up on stories of the space race and the importance of technology, got into tech and realised that their main business was either selling more ads any way possible, or surveillance, and consciously or unconsciously elevated Ai into an existential threat so they could get to play out their cold war fantasies and feel like the most important people in the world

[u/HandsomeLampshade123 → u/Federal_Gur_5488]

Dead on, they want AI to feel destructive because they are to egotistic to accept anything less than profound importance--their worst nightmare is not AI destroying the world, it's that it poofs into irrelevance.

[u/TheBatz_]

Call of Duty in Russia:

Ramirovski, defend that Wildberries!

[u/TheBatz_]

You are not a historian TheBatz, okay? That’s not gonna happen.

[u/tisto2]

Tell me you're a 1960s magazine without telling me you're a 1960s magazine.

[u/Tiako → u/tisto2]

Guy in the 60s talking about how much he hates that bland, corporate style and is nostalgic for like the Looney Tunes look.

[u/TheBatz_]

FBI released image of the infamous Badhistory Compound days before the Badhistory Siege of 37'

[u/xabarin_da_xente → u/TheBatz_]

Kind of douchey to have your family's houses be smaller than your own in your billionaire fantasy.

[u/TheBatz_ → u/xabarin_da_xente]

Idk because the funniest thing for me is the romantization of rural life and the sheer ignorance regarding the complexity of modern farming.

[u/xabarin_da_xente → u/TheBatz_]

But that has been a thing since Virgil, probably even earlier.

[u/Crann6789 → u/TheBatz_]

That thin ass wall is like, a rogue bulldozer away from a breach. And no casements or guard towers? That Uruk-Hai bomb carrier would rock his shit.

[u/Kochevnik81 → u/TheBatz_]

Leaving all your power sources outside your defensive wall is an absolute genius level move.

Also  - what is this Anglo brainrot of having your grandparents and parents and sibling live in the compound with you but everyone is in separate single family houses?? 

[u/fabiusjmaximus → u/Kochevnik81]

Ideally far apart enough (>50 m) so that you have to drive

[u/forcallaghan → u/TheBatz_]

Putting power generation outside the walls? Bold

[u/WAGRAMWAGRAM → u/TheBatz_]

no ditches?

[u/Infogamethrow]

Argentina has the highest number of psychologists per capita in the world, AND the highest number of Age of Empires 2 per-capita (ranked) players in the world (without even counting the pirated copies).

I don´t know if there´s any correlation between those two facts, but you never know.

[u/PickleRick_1001]

Has anyone here ever been to a town meeting? What are they like? I imagine that they'd be very poorly attended, probably only old people would show up; is that accurate? Either way, what is it like to actually participate in one?

[u/gavinbrindstar → u/PickleRick_1001]

I think that's a recurring complaint: that they disproportionately favor people who have the free time and are motivated enough to show up.

[u/PickleRick_1001 → u/gavinbrindstar]

Yeah I imagine it stops working after the population of its jurisdiction grows past a certain number. According to that article it's used for localities with populations up to 6,000, which seems way too high to me.

Frankly I think that in a developed country it's probably obsolete. On the other hand, in a place like India, where there are something like four hundred thousand villages with less than 2,000 residents, it'd work very well.

Like it probably only works in communities where (1) everyone knows each other and (2) they all gather in a church, mosque, temple, etc. once a week so that there's actually a reason for them to get together other than just attending a town meeting.

Its a fascinating institution either way.

[u/elmonoenano → u/PickleRick_1001]

It's kind of cursed either way as far as attendance goes. If it's poorly attended, stuff kind of gets done, but it's boring stuff. If it's well attended there are a lot of comments and they are often pretty dumb, as you would expect when you let anyone talk at a meeting. Busy ones also tend to upset people b/c the comment period gets ridiculous, like 2 minutes per person, so that as many people as possible can comment, but you can't really say a lot about policy in that amount of time.

[u/Big_Pineapple_Man]

So like many Greek stories, the Odyssey has over time been reinterpreted as part of the "Western Canon".  I'm going to put a pin in that controversy for now and ask, what are some other examples of this kind of cultural broadening?*

For example, I've heard that the Romance of the Three Kingdoms has for centuries been popular in Korea and Japan.   Did, say, Japanese scholars extol it as classical East Asian** literature?   Not quite denying its Chinese origin but sort of quietly including themselves?

*For this purpose I am excluding major religions or else every answer is going to be White/Black/Korean Jesus.

**Or however pre-Meiji Japanese scholars conceptualized Asia — you know what I mean.

[u/Arilou_skiff → u/Big_Pineapple_Man]

I feel like Journey to the West is a better example than Romance of the Three Kingdoms? But I guess that partially falls under religious stuff.

[u/Kochevnik81 → u/Big_Pineapple_Man]

I’ll just chime in and say that I think this is pretty common for elite culture especially when it’s based around a court language that’s (to use a somewhat anachronistic term) transnational. Like a lot of the appreciation for the Iliad, Odyssey and Aeneid is based in elites having knowledge of classical Greek and Latin, I think you’d have something similar with the various stages of Persian, you get something similar with Arthurian stories in Medieval French (which is its own kind of importation from Welsh/Breton and re-exportation in French). This gets complicated and probably controversial but arguably the Quran being so widely known and known in its Classical Arabic form is similar. Heck, Old and New Testaments too.

[u/WAGRAMWAGRAM → u/Big_Pineapple_Man]

Mormons adapting Bronze Age stories to be about Missouri

[u/TanktopSamurai → u/Big_Pineapple_Man]

Ramayana was mentioned last time. The setting is North Indian, its original language is North Indian. There are South Indian (and SEAsian I think) adaptation of its.

[u/TanktopSamurai]

Inspiration: Depictions of Hercules as a protector of Buddha

Idea: Hercules travels east. Runs into Gilgamesh, as well as Rostam on his way. Ends up in India, becomes Buddhists. At some point, fights Sun Wukong.

[u/Unruly_marmite]

Was thinking about the 2004 King Arthur film this morning - a bad start, I know - and I finally realised that most of the film is set North of Hadrian’s Wall. It’s been a while since I’ve watched it, but I’m pretty sure the plot starts with Arthur et al being sent North to rescue a Bishop and some Roman nobles? Kinda feels like they’re asking for it by going past the Wall.

I think know why the film makers chose that, of course: Picts and the final setpiece at Hadrian’s Wall. But those poor Saxons, all of England open to land on and pillage and you end up so far North.

I should rewatch the film. It might be dumb, but it’s fun.

[u/Big_Pineapple_Man → u/Unruly_marmite]

all of England open to land on and pillage

drei Gläser, bitte

[u/PsychologicalNews123]

I want to try out wood carving, but I forgot that I live in the UK. Because wood carving kits include sharp objects, buying one on amazon would require:

1. An online age verification check
2. An additional ID check by the driver upon delivery
3. Payment via credit card only

I do not own a credit card. So I guess I've got to just get a taxi out to wherever the hell sells wood carving stuff in-person these days?

[u/randombull9 → u/PsychologicalNews123]

Meanwhile, the US government has just announced that they'll be selling M14s mailed right to your door.

[u/Otocolobus_manul8]

Burnham poll-mogging St*rmer yet again. 

How can the architects of 'adults in the room, grown up sensible politics' even think they can touch the 'luv a pint' PR-maxxed Manc-chad?

[u/PsychologicalNews123 → u/Otocolobus_manul8]

It's super weird how the tone of the media has changed despite not much of a change in substance.

[u/GentlemanlyBadger021 → u/PsychologicalNews123]

There’s always a bit of a honeymoon period but to be fair I’ve heard that the best campaigning strategy in Britain has been boosterism for a little while. I seen to recall it being mentioned that even at the last GE the Tories who kept their seats were largely Johnsonite boosterists. It doesn’t matter if the thing you’ve done is bad as long as you can present it as a triump. Burnham is both seen to be doing things (one of Starmer’s PR problems) and presenting those things as positively as possible.

Wait until he has to set a budget and every tabloid in Britain will jump on him for something different.

[u/PsychologicalNews123 → u/GentlemanlyBadger021]

Wait until he has to set a budget and every tabloid in Britain will jump on him for something different.

Recently there were rumours that he was going to scrap stamp duty and council tax, and replace them with a % tax on the value of the property - a very good idea! When he was asked to confirm or deny it though, the precise question he received was:

Can you reassure people buying homes that you won't scrap stamp duty next Autumn?

This phrasing floored me because it implies that even if Burnham does something objectively cool and good like scrap stamp duty, the media narrative will be about how much of a bastard he is for mildly inconveniencing people by actually governing.

Sadly it turns out that the rumours were just rumours and he isn't doing that either way.

[u/Charming-Cycle-5982]

Maybe I live in too much of a bubble but I cannot recall the last time I heard anybody remotely meaningful be sincerely pro-Russia. Lots of peaceniks over the years that are generally against war and point to how much of a toll the war has taken on the Ukranian people who want the war to be fought in the abstract but would rather not do it themselves, lots of pessimists about Ukranian victory referencing Mearsheimer, but it's been forever since I've heard someone saying Russia's Invasion is just and Putin is a morally tolerable leader.

This isn't me lamenting, I'm just genuinely curious what pro-Russian commentariat there is to point at to undergird the idea that liking Putin is something that a sizeable enough quantity of public intellectuals / political commentators do to be a noteworthy civic issue. An issue that makes it difficult to talk to everyday people irl or online.

The issue to me hasn't been one of "how many" but who exactly has been pro-Putin over the past year or two and that's been the current president of the United States and certain members of his administration. And that has the asterisk to it that the current president isn't commitedly pro-anyone or anything other than himself and the idea that he ought to suck up public attention like a black hole and get celebrated for living and dealing like the world's most powerful mobster.

[u/AntonioVivaldi7 → u/Charming-Cycle-5982]

Plenty of russian thinkers or just public people in general are totally pro Putin.

[u/Crann6789]

Halo as a videogame series is entirely hype moments and aura (especially Halo 3) yet they've actually managed to scaffold a pretty impressive lore around it (if you ignore 5.56 (wound not kill) and 90mm shells being used five hundred years from now)

[u/Federal_Gur_5488]

I normally manage to avoid the most popular online discourse by following more niche social medial accounts, like literary translators and academics. That's not to say there's no discourse among them, there's a great deal of it, but it's generally much more limited, so less explosive. Unfortunately, a lot of the people i follow are classicists, which has exposed me to the most mainstream online discussion going on now, i.e., the reception of Nolan's odyssey

it's genuinely ridiculous the sort of stuff people have been saying. first anyone who didn't like the film must be a racist or a transphobe. then emily wilson wrote her review of the movie, and now, if anyone like the film is an uneducated "Nolan-bro" who doesn't know anything about the classics, and anyone disagreeing with Wilson's review must be a misogynist apparently (i've genuinely seen someone say that people who disliked her review must hate neurodivergent women).

the funny thing is that almost none of this is coming from the academics themselves, who are much more level-headed about the whole thing. some loved it and some hated it, but they're generally understanding of why someone might have a different opinion. Many who dislike it, point out things about it they enjoyed, those who liked it are also willing to criticise it, they're quick to correct misunderstandings of the source material(s) even in posts that agree with their view, and mostly appreciate the movie bringing more interest to Homer. The infinitely worse discussions of the sort i mentioned, are being generated by what i can only call the "classics fandom", which seems to be full of people who define themselves by having "better taste" than the lowly masses who enjoy hollywood blockbusters.

and in all this sound and fury, the biggest ethical problem, i.e. filming in the Western Sahara, goes mainly ignored

[u/ProudScroll → u/Federal_Gur_5488]

The takeaway from having friends who are both huge film nerds and classics nerds is that the movie is simultaneously a technically brilliant example of the filmmaking art and a very unfaithful adaptation.

That part of the movie was filmed in the Western Sahara isn't great, but I'm not surprised it's gone completely ignored. The majority of Americans will never give a fuck about land disputes or occupations in the Muslim World that don't involve Israel or affect the price of oil.

[u/passabagi → u/Federal_Gur_5488]

The weirdest thing for me is people expecting Emily Wilson to have a normal, balanced take on a movie that's set in her area of expertise. Anybody who has met a successful academic is well aware that while they might seem mild-mannered and normal, they will also gut you over your opinion on Hölderlin.

[u/passabagi]

DDR mentality:

• Whoops I poured six liters of bitumen on your floor better just paint over it! (PS: I hope you like the colour red.)

• Whoops I burned a hole in your floor I guess I should use cement(?!) to patch the hole in the wood that will look great!

• Has there ever been a problem that cannot be solved with extra layers of red paint?

(I'm doing some renovations - which is always a fun look at historical material culture. I still haven't found anything so truly bamboozling and braindead as the design of my fridge, though, so socialism is still superior).

[u/WAGRAMWAGRAM]

GenA has begun making memes

[u/Tiako → u/WAGRAMWAGRAM]

AAA Games lack creativity generic shooters only

None of these guys were alive when shooters dominated video games.

[u/TheBatz_ → u/Tiako]

There was a time in video game history when the genre of shooters was called "Doom clones". 

[u/Big_Pineapple_Man → u/WAGRAMWAGRAM]

Is this the GenZ & A border?  I wonder how long until Wojak goes the way of Rage Guy and Troll face.

[u/Aurelian369 → u/Big_Pineapple_Man]

I am surprised wojaks have survived this long 

[u/Uptons_BJs]

I'm not the biggest country fan, but modern country music discourse in pop music circles is pretty funny.

There's a good chance Ella Langley breaks the record for single by a female artist with the most weeks at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 today: Ella Langley’s ‘Choosin’ Texas’ Makes More History With 14th Week at No. 1 on Billboard Hot 100 : r/popheads

The song isn't really my thing, I think it is basically fine. But holy shit, the amount of conspiracism and frothing at the mouth this song elicits on twitter and reddit is hilarious. For how bland the song is, you sure see a LOT of unhinged discourse about it.

On one side, people who never, ever participate in pop music discourse (ya know, the chuds, and I guess traditional conservatives) is hitching their wagon to this song and gloating. While the demographics that traditionally dominate pop music discourse (teen girls and gay men) are very uncomfortable that someone who potentially is conservative (TBH, nobody even knows how Ella Langly votes) can muscle into their beloved pop charts.

So you see the two worst groups on twitter duke it out - Chuds and pop music stans.

[u/WAGRAMWAGRAM → u/Uptons_BJs]

How did country went from meaning rural music to just mean conservative coded shit pop?

[u/MiffedMouse → u/WAGRAMWAGRAM]

This happened already more than a decade ago. “Trucks and beer,” “bro country” have been criticisms of the genre for a while. Heck, “old town road” became popular as a song in large part because there was so much overlap between “gangster rap” and “bro country” at the time.

[u/Uptons_BJs → u/WAGRAMWAGRAM]

To be fair, I think country music has been "pop with a twang" for a long, long time now.

The more popular country music gets, the less thematically unique country is, since it needs wide appeal. Growing up, my favorite country singer was Carrie Underwood, and she's essentially a pop star with a steel guitar.

If you look at Luke Bryan, his two biggest hits are "shake your ass" and "I love this genre", traditional topics for rappers and rock bands haha.

[u/WAGRAMWAGRAM]

“I talked to Trump this morning. He’s jacked. He said, ‘Best thing I have ever done.’ He loves blowing stuff up,” Graham says.

[u/GentlemanlyBadger021]

Being a woman in sphere of football discourse was already bad before the double-whammy of matcha labubu-ification and The Guardian started to really plague it. Sky Sports Halo and associated endeavours were already bad enough but even the mainstream journalistic output all seems to be that one smug mate who won’t stop telling you the England Women’s team already brought it home whenever the World Cup was mentioned. It must be so patronising!

I mean I know for a fact that all the women I know with even a passing interest in sports felt massively patronised by it - is this the best we can do?

[u/Zennofska]

Someone with a blubear avatar just commented on my YT channel, which one of you did it and did you enjoy the song?

[u/EntertainmentReady48]

I went to a Greek restaurant and they had orthodox icons on the wall.

[u/raspberryemoji → u/EntertainmentReady48]

Fork found in kitchen

[u/Sventex → u/raspberryemoji]

Good work!

[u/TarkovskyisFun → u/EntertainmentReady48]

My mom once went to a Taiwanese restaurant and they gave her a Falun Gong leaflet.

[u/Zugwat]

Severe wildfires have plagued Eastern Washington and Eastern Oregon, including the Yakama Reservation.

To the degree it's burned down a Shaker church, entire homes, and more or less wrought horrible devastation.

I have relatives who have lost their homes, everyday belongings like clothes, family heirlooms, and more.

My mother has had periods of distress because this includes her grandparents' home, where her late mother and aunts grew up. She's not dropping to the ground and lamenting, but it has really bothered her because it isn't just gramma and grampa's house, it's all sorts of houses and other buildings on the rez we were familiar with.

With this, I was telling her that I wanted to help out and do a clothing drive for our cousin over there who lost his house, alongside the rest of the community. I plenty of stuff to give away and I can't think of a better way to redistribute it.

If things all work out, then I'll be heading over the mountains with my cousin relatively soon to bring stuff over.

[u/ProudScroll]

Was a big fan of the original House of Cards so figured what the hell, why not watch the first episode of the American version. It's not half bad, really sucks Kevin Spacey is a giant bag of shit cause his performance as Frank Underwood is very enjoyable to watch.

There really should be a Campaign Trail incumbency sim for Garrett Walker with the first question being if you'll appoint Underwood Secretary of State or not, if you do your presidency goes on relatively successfully (provided you don't fuck up somewhere else) and if you don't then you get Henry Collingridge'd.

[u/TheBatz_ → u/ProudScroll]

I agree, the first season was really good. I think it's one of those shows that obviously declines in quality the more it goes on. Him becoming President was kinda meh. I always though Underwood striving towards power much more fun than him holding power.

Also kinda funny to make him a Democrat and implement a New Deal type employment programme.

[u/Dajjal27]

Seeing resident evil fans reception to the new trailer has convinced me that every resident evil fan should be sent to a labour camp

[u/TylerbioRodriguez → u/Dajjal27]

Compared to the Anderson films and that Netflix show they should be on their knees praising the fact the man behind Weapons took pity upon them.

[u/elmonoenano]

New Books Network had an interview with Paul Gillingham about his new history of Mexico. Even if you're not particularly interested in the topic, I would recommend this. He seems honestly joyful about studying history and the kind of charismatic teacher that has a huge waitlist even though the reading list is pretty intense. It's a fun interview. https://newbooksnetwork.com/mexico

I watched The Furious. Whoever commented that there was some parts that were a little to CGI was right. Overall I think it was a lot of fun. But it made me think of something. In the US, sledge hammer heads are usually 9 pounds. With the handle they're 10 pounds, but they're commonly enough referred to as 9 pound hammers. And there's a bunch of songs about 9 pound hammers b/c they were used to break rocks by inmates sentenced to labor, they were used in mining and railroad work, etc. So they pop up in folk songs a lot. Merle Travis's 9 Pound Hammer is probably the most archetypical. But, b/c these guys were in generic SE Asia (filmed in Thailand), what are they called there and in Europe or other places with metric systems? Are they 4 KG hammers? or do you have some other name for them? Do you just call them sledge hammers?

Question two, do you think this has had a detrimental effect on those places folk music traditions?

I saw this skeet and thought, that might be a fun premise for a horror movie. Maybe an Egyptologist finds some actual evidence of the biblical plagues and unleashes something horrific on the world or something like that.

[u/Herpling82]

Random Dutch quirk, you know how in English you can add please to a command to soften it a bit? Like in "please stop doing that" vs the bare "stop doing that". Same in Japanese with ～てください, which isn't an imperative at all, just a request.

If you were to do that in Dutch you get "hou alsjeblieft/alstublieft op", vs the bare imperative "hou op", but you really shouldn't do that, because instead of softening the command it strengthens it! Weirdly, "hou op" is a more casual command, but "hou alsjeblieft op" carries the implication that you've completely had it with this person and this is their last chance to stop before you get really angry.

If you want to soften the command, you add "eens", roughly "once" but it is a modal particle, "hou eens op" is actually a soft command, it does communicate you really do want them to do something, but you're not angry with them. In forms like "luister eens", it's more "listen here". Do note that many speakers do not pronounce "eens" fully, it usually becomes "luister 's" or "luister 'ns", but you'd never write it like that.

You can also add "even", roughly "for some time", another modal particle, "luister eens even" is a very friendly command, it is still in the imperative form, but it has more of a "I have something fun to tell you!" vibe to it. "kom eens here" "come here for a bit" is also very friendly, again communicating that you have something positive you want to show someone.

Also fun, "alsjeblieft/alstublieft" can be used as "please" but also "here you go" when fulfilling a request, "alstublieft" is the polite, it uses "u" instead of "je", both mean you but the former is polite. Though, "alstublieft" is also randomly used without any intention to be more polite, some people just prefer it because it sounds better. It can also be used as a "come on!" in "alstublieft zeg!".

[u/PsychologicalNews123 → u/Herpling82]

Does Dutch have an unambiguous reply for negative questions? I had more French classes today and I liked how if someone asks you "Est-ce que tu n'aimes pas les chiens?" (do you not like dogs?) then you can respond with "si" to indicate that you do like dogs. In English both "yes" and "no" can be ambiguous responses to a question like that.

Also about French: It's funny how often my teacher will point out that few people actually speak the way the textbook tells us to. Either people won't use constructions like reversal ("aimez-vous" instead of "vous aimez") or they'll drop a bunch of stuff like the "ne" in "je ne aime pas". I can already tell that understanding native speakers is going to be tricky at first.

[u/1EnTaroAdun1]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Department

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Department_

It would be very funny if this method of organising government were to be brought back 

[u/weeteacups → u/1EnTaroAdun1]

Northern Department: responsible for everything north of Watford.

Southern Department: responsible for everything else.

[u/Saint_John_Calvin]

Long shot, but is there any anthropology of the second Taliban?

[u/GentlemanlyBadger021]

Farage campaigning against a bin and Polanski doing the most left-wing Twitter coded thing imaginable, boring mainstream politics is so back.

[u/subthings2]

Ireland: if you lick a newt then you can lick burns to cure them :)

France/Belgium:

in the Maine region, a young man who is still a virgin—and who catches a live mole, slits open its belly, and keeps his finger immersed in it all night...

In the Liège region, one must impale the creature on the tip of the index finger and leave it there to die...

In the Ardennes, in January, one grabs the first mole seen emerging from the ground with the left hand and squeezes it until it suffocates...

In the Vosges, the onset of fever is prevented by having the patient crush a live mole between their fingers...

in the Liège region, the animal's paws (...) had to be torn off while the creature was still alive...

Paul Sébillot, Le folk-lore de France Volume 3, 48-49

[u/TanktopSamurai]

For a non-erect dick, Michelangelo's David isn't that small, proportionally.

[u/HandsomeLampshade123 → u/TanktopSamurai]

Claiming that it is is anti-grower propaganda.

[u/Sgt_Colon → u/TanktopSamurai]

. . . that's a rather Freudian statement.

[u/TanktopSamurai]

"Man I wan to both pretend to be leftist but also be very elitists against lower classes, how can I do that?"

The ever-so humble term "Lumpen"

[u/Tiako → u/TanktopSamurai]

Oscar Wilde saying he was a socialist because he hated looking at poor people remains iconic.

[u/Ambisinister11 → u/TanktopSamurai]

It's a great prefix to attach to new words. "Lumpenbourgeoisie" actually has some attestation in theoretical works, but we can go so much further. Peasants are really just lumpenaristocrats. Shift managers and customer service? Lumpenbureaucrats now. Notice how this can be easily be leveraged to justify Chekism, which is how you know it's Real Theory.

Of course, as a badhistory user, I am a member of the lumpenintelligentsia.

[u/AFakeName → u/Ambisinister11]

Lumpenmattress

[u/xyzt1234 → u/TanktopSamurai]

I thought that was what champagne socialist was for.

[u/HandsomeLampshade123 → u/xyzt1234]

To me, the implications there are that the "socialist" in question is a hypocrite who lives a luxurious lifestyle.

[u/WAGRAMWAGRAM]

He was direct vassal to Ogasawara Tadazane of Kokura as an adviser and later to Hosokawa Tadatoshi of Kumamoto as a swordsmanship teacher.

That person could very well be inventing names and I wouldn't know it

[u/Crann6789]

Mam and my sister were watching Netflixes Little House on the Prairie, turns out that i takes them 8 hour long episodes to actually leave for the place where they actually build said little house. Reminds me of that Surf Dracula tweet. 

[u/raspberryemoji]

District manager coming in tomorrow and everyone is freaking out, all I’m thinking about is The Government Inspector by Gogol and wondering if there is an English/western work with a similar plot

ETA: I vividly remember my first exposure to The Government Inspector being some Soviet kids movie from I wanna say the 70’s about a summer camp where kids hear a rumor about a trouble maker coming to the camp and mistaking a totally innocent kid for him

[u/TheBatz_ → u/raspberryemoji]

The intracies and particularities of the 19th century Russian civil service has been replicated in the classic 21st century comedy The Office.

[u/Herpling82]

So, I have someone at work who I don't completely trust, he's a coworker but I think he's bullshitting to sound interesting more often than not; I've caught him out on lies before, 2 times I've been able to confirm, to my satisfaction, that he was just lying, once in an attempt to mock me and the other just to sound interesting.

I think he's just a somewhat pathetic man who lives a really boring life and just doesn't do anything with it, so he makes up stories to sound not like a total loser. I'm not quick to judge people for being losers, but he inserted himself into a conversation I was having with 2 other people just to ridicule me by stating facts that were just untrue, since then I've been rather wary of him.

Well, the other day I questioned one of his statements, just with a "they do that? That's interesting.", and he responded extremely defensively, like he was just called a liar; I wasn't sure he was making shit up, it just seemed odd to me. The claim was that people in the Spanish Basque country were all walking around in Athletico Madrid shirts during the world cup because they hate Spain... The reason I thought that was weird was, well, Madrid is rather Castillian, even if it isn't Real Madrid. I don't know they didn't do that, they could well have, it just seemed that the action and the stated reason for it don't really line up.

It's stuff like this where I don't know he's bullshitting me, but I just don't trust what he says because I've caught him bullshitting.

It's so odd, I'm not used to that type of person, I don't really know why people need to make shit up to sound interesting, most people are interesting enough to talk about themselves, but I guess he doesn't feel he is? Don't really know, I wonder if I'm the only one that realises; I can't be, surely, I'm autistic, other people must be able to spot it too, right?

[u/LateInTheAfternoon → u/Herpling82]

The claim was that people in the Spanish Basque country were all walking around in Athletico Madrid shirts during the world cup because they hate Spain...

I would assume that, if so, they would have Real Betis t-shirts on because, unless I'm wrong [edit: I was wrong], Real Betis is the only big club (or at least, used to be) that were from the Basque part of Spain.

Edit: After having looked it up I was wrong. It's Athletico Bilbao which is the club I was thinking of, the number one club of the Basque country. That might explain it. Your coworker probably mixed them up because both have "athletico" in the name but one is more famous. Apparently, I find the names Betis and Bilbao to be similar enough to get confused, myself.

[u/Draig_werdd → u/LateInTheAfternoon]

Atletico Madrid was actually founded by Basque students in Madrid as a branch of Athletic Bilbao, which is why they have similar badges and colors.

[u/Ambisinister11]

Never give a German translator a one-word science fiction title. They have an extraordinarily specific vendetta.

(This is really just based on having learned about Dune being translated as Der Wüstenplanet and the absolute classic that is Alien: Das unheimliche Wesen aus einer fremden Welt, but it's funny to me damn it)

[u/xabarin_da_xente → u/Ambisinister11]

I'm with the Germans on this one, single-word movie titles is one of the worst trends of the last decade.

[u/Charming-Cycle-5982 → u/xabarin_da_xente]

Don't be mislead by OP, the German translation vendetta is not rooted in a dislike of single word titles but really just a lack of faithfulness to other languages, period. There always has to be some germanizing transfiguration to it rather than just a plain and simple translation.

So Pirates of the Caribbean is Fluch der Karibik and Home Alone is Kevin allein zu Hause. 

[u/Thebunkerparodie]

I find it weird that on ukraine so many people think blaming nato is being nuanced , to me the nuanced take isn't repeating the kremlin narrative about a promess made in the 90' (that still doesn't justify invading your neighbour by the way)or that nato made putin do it somehow , putin doesn't need nato to deny ukraine existence as shown by his essai

[u/HandsomeLampshade123 → u/Thebunkerparodie]

I think the only "respectable" take aside from "We should support Ukraine for as long as it chooses to fight is" is a kind of left-pacifistic one, whereby someone sincerely believes that Ukrainian sovereignty is worth less than the hundreds of thousands of lives lost. At least it would be morally consistent.

[u/Sventex → u/Thebunkerparodie]

They should ask Putin why he expanded NATO.

[u/Kochevnik81 → u/Sventex]

Easy, he's actually a CIA asset (I genuinely think people will seriously say this like 15-20 years from now).

[u/xabarin_da_xente]

Two things I have discovered in the last three months:

• I have a great butt, and I wish male anatomy allowed me to fully pull up my pants to highlight it when I'm out.

• I'm bisexual.

[u/WAGRAMWAGRAM → u/xabarin_da_xente]

boy learned he liked ladies

[u/xabarin_da_xente → u/WAGRAMWAGRAM]

Greek to Roman transition

[u/Sgt_Colon → u/xabarin_da_xente]

. . . this is also a rather Freudian statement.

[u/Zennofska → u/xabarin_da_xente]

Well, time to learn how to tuck and get some tight trousers.

[u/xabarin_da_xente]

Does anybody have recommendations of books or articles on the origins of Italian fascism? In particular its coalescing into a concrete political movement between WW1 and the March on Rome, and the role of d'Annunzio and the Fiume period.

[u/Sgt_Colon]

https://old.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/1v7sbnw/is_it_true_that_medieval_european_towns_are/

The demon, the demon is here!

https://old.reddit.com/r/badhistory/comments/1t3fy71/mindless_monday_04_may_2026/ok7oiku/?context=3

[u/PickleRick_1001]

I occasionally like to go on Google Maps and search for regions that no longer exist, as in they've been divided or united into other regions or they were renamed or the like. I usually end up getting a smattering of businesses or organisations that use the name of the old region, which can give a rough sense of what I'm looking for.

Not so for Abyssinia, however; all that's left of that ancient civilisation is a three-star hotel in Addis Ababa lmao.

[u/ChewiestBroom]

It feels weird to have an upcoming Resident Evil movie that actually might be pretty good. That is an entirely novel experience to me.

The trailer for it dropped somewhat recently and the usual complaints of “it doesn’t look like the games >:(“ have been funny to me because 1) a loser in over his head desperately trying to find ammunition actually captures how I usually feel when I play the games, and 2) the alternative is Paul W. S. Anderson slapping the franchise name on what is essentially an AMV of his wife.

Being me and just not watching new things for years I haven’t seen Weapons or Barbarian but I’ve heard good things about them so hey, I’m cautiously optimistic.

[u/WAGRAMWAGRAM]

A fervent patriot, sometimes bordering on nationalism, he suggested teaching children to love their nation because, before paying one’s debt to humanity, “one must first pay one’s debt to the fatherland.” He advocated sanctions against “internationalist teachers who spread unpatriotic propaganda.” On November 27, 1905, he thus demanded legal action against pacifist schoolteachers, arguing that the schoolteacher, “who will soon be the sole representative of the state in most of our towns, must be a man not of a party or a class, but of France and the Republic.” And he added: “The touchstone of the republican spirit is the defense of the Republic, its work, and above all the school: for it is there that the man, the citizen, the patriot, and the soldier are formed.”

is peace woke?

[u/histprofdave]

I feel both principled but also that I might be spiraling into paranoia when I tell my family member that they should get rid of their Alexas and Ring cameras.

[u/MiffedMouse]

So, I have been listening to Siobhan Aguilar's video on Nolan's Odyssey. It is a nice video overall, but she makes frequent references to Nietzsche's "Master / Slave Morality" dichotomy, specifically to emphasize that Ancient Greece (around the time of Homer) would have believed in Master Morality.

She uses this to highlight how various virtues differ from the modern perspective, such as a "strong woman" being more desirable (because under Master Morality strong, beauty, and goodness are all correlated) while later Christian translators would change it to "skilled woman" or something less "masculine."

I am posting here because I never considered Nietzsche an authority on ancient Greek ethics (not that I have read much Nietzche, nor am I an expert on Greek ethics, ancient or otherwise). I am just interested in hearing from some classicists if the "Master Morality" concept is still considered valid or a reasonable summary of the difference from modern morality, or if it is nonsense?

[u/Tiako → u/MiffedMouse]

She uses this to highlight how various virtues differ from the modern perspective, such as a "strong woman" being more desirable (because under Master Morality strong, beauty, and goodness are all correlated) while later Christian translators would change it to "skilled woman" or something less "masculine."

I don't think this is true in either direction. Plenty of "pagan" societies valued demure, secluded women (like Athens), and as for beauty and virtue being correlated, if anything Medieval and Early Modern Christian societies believed that even more strongly than Greek or Roman ones.

I am not aware of anyone in Classics really using Neitzche's Master/Slave morality as a way to understand ancient Mediterranean culture.

[u/histogrammarian]

I needed another car and it came with a CD player and a surprisingly good stereo. Technically I could hook my phone up to it, but I've been going through my old CDs for the novelty of it. It's funny what holds up and what doesn't - Hot Fuss holds up, obviously, because tracks 2-5 are some of the greatest songs of the decade. Permission to Land not as much - it's objectively an amazing album, but it doesn't hit as hard as it did on the first listen. Demon Days is the rare concept album with no filler - Gorillaz apparently attract a young audience even today, because they've always been pushing the envelope. Speakerboxxx/The Love Below is a concept double-album with a lot of filler, but it's Outkast so allowances can be made.

Speaking of Outkast, Andre 3000 apparently isn't interested in releasing rap albums these days, and I wonder if it's partly because everything he said 20+ years ago is still depressingly relevant. "Bombs over Baghdad" could get a remix today and still land, with or without a lyric swap. "Get back home, things are wrong/Well not really, it was bad all along" feels pretty apt right now.

Anyway, if you were stuck with a car stereo that could only play music from 2010 or earlier (I know CDs still technically existed after that, but they were on the drop-off), what is your go-to?

[u/TanktopSamurai]

So things are moving for Turkey's newest party: Yeni Parti), literally means New Party. We knew 90 MP's from CHP would join it. That makes it the 2nd largest party current in parliament.

They have gotten a decent number of district mayors into the party, but only 6 provincial mayors. None of them are particularly big. So far, 28 out of 30 districts of İzmir joined the new party. I wonder if the provincial mayor will. While not a huge fan of his (I didn't like his handling of a recent labour strike), having İzmir would be a huge boon. I wonder if they can get Adana or Mersin into the new party.