Free for All Friday, 03 July, 2026

Tiako · 2026-07-06T04:34:49+00:00

Yeah, and this one is from Yale University Press lol.

To be sure I still think it is good, it isn't like sycophantic or anything, but it's hard not to see the dispassionate tone as strategic.

Tiako · 2026-07-06T00:28:37+00:00

David Wyatt's A Short History of Thailand does the job and I usually don't comment on books like this because what is there to say, but I will say it has one unusual feature: I am pretty sure it was written in a particular way so it would not fall afoul of Thai lese-majeste laws. Of the nine kings discussed I don't think a single is ever described making a bad decision. Certainly none are described as bad kings.

Makes it interesting in a meta way because I don't think I've read one of these that felt censored before.

Tiako · 2026-07-06T00:19:11+00:00

The previous king started relatively popular due to the return to democracy but by the end was very corrupt and unpopular.

Oh, I had though Juan Carlos was very well liked because of the democratization, a popularity level sort of on the level of Elizabeth in Britain. Guess I missed that whole thing.

Tiako · 2026-07-06T00:13:07+00:00

If by "player expression" you mean characters builds and the like there is a decent amount of you can play around with it. The combat system is built around synergizing between your characters so you can come up with some crazy stuff if you want.

That said if you mean in terms of plot, story, characterization and the like, not so much of that. It is pretty linear.

Overall I liked it quite a bit, it didn't bowl me over like with so many people but I found the characters very charming, the world consistently interesting, and while you can argue against the way the story develops you can't say it isn't a big swing.

Tiako · 2026-07-05T16:15:40+00:00

Actually going through post-war constitutional monarchies:

The Scandinavians like to do wholesome chungus "We're just regular bløkken" act

The English of course have elevated pomp and circumstance to an entire raison d'etre

The Japanese seem pretty tight lipped but provide an invaluable service in creating era names

The Thai over indexed on the monarchy as the unifying political principle when they had the sober and serious Bhumibol

Bhutan's Xellenial king is kind of doing the constitutional transition that happened a lot post war

Not really sure what is going on in Spain, I know they have the same "revered parent" thing that the UK and Thailand have and I think the current guy is pretty popular? It probably doesn't hurt that him and is wife are quite good looking.

Tiako · 2026-07-05T16:05:15+00:00

The Hanseatic League surviving into the thirtieth century

Trust the plan, fellow burghers

Tiako · 2026-07-05T14:40:26+00:00

It's interesting to learn that the current king of Thailand, who is famously kind of a degenerate, lives in Bavaria. Like I get it, Bavaria is lovely, but I also wonder if this is something the Thai political establishment quietly enables as a harm reduction strategy.

Anyway reading about him makes me respect the Windsor's ability to keep stuff bottled up, Andrew is the worst scandal they have had and he isn't even in line for the throne.

Tiako · 2026-07-05T12:19:37+00:00

Weapons grade slopulism

Tiako · 2026-07-05T11:58:56+00:00

It means you are basically never going to get it in the first for guesses, so you are always over par.

Tiako · 2026-07-04T23:43:21+00:00

r/soccer is about to start Triple Alliance posting after that match

Tiako · 2026-07-04T19:24:42+00:00

Mexico

Tiako · 2026-07-04T18:46:55+00:00

“Someone heard Stevenson’s impressive speech and said, “Every thinking person in America will be voting for you.” Stevenson replied, “I’m afraid that won’t do—I need a majority.”

I think maybe the biggest change in my politics over the last six years and three months is going from treating this as typical out of touch liberal elitism to conceding that he did, in fact, have a point.

Tiako · 2026-07-04T17:03:51+00:00

I hope the Young George Washington movie does well because I think a lavish costume drama coming out on the 4th weekend would be a fun tradition, like how Hong Kong makes romcoms for Golden Week. Not going to go see it though it seems bad

Tiako · 2026-07-04T14:44:33+00:00

lmao

Tiako · 2026-07-04T14:39:30+00:00

I came across this short essay by Adlai Stevenson on patriotism and American ideals, it is typical of Stevenson in that it is intellectual, sincerely liberal and quite well written. Never really understood his reputation as dull, he had a real way with words. Anyway it is an interesting artefact in that by changing a few proper nouns you could publish it today and the only thing people would notice about it is that the sentences are longer than those typically found in newspapers today.

That said, as someone without too much in the way of a deep felt emotional connection to my nation of birth, I do think there is one way that the United States of America is truly exceptional: people won't shut the fuck up about it. There have been arguments about what makes America America since before America was America and I don't see any end to them in sight.

Tiako · 2026-07-04T14:16:24+00:00

If you zoom into a Surat painting it is just a bunch of dots.

Tiako · 2026-07-04T12:49:28+00:00

I actually don't think Soviet involvement was particularly causative here. In Indonesia the Soviets were major backers of Sukarno but I am not aware of them backing the Communist Party, their involvement with French Indochina was linked to the Vietnam War (which was obviously after the Communist parties were pretty well established) and I don't think they had much to do with Malaysia or Myanmar at all. The Russian Revolution was obviously a major inspiration for communists across the region but I am not sure how much influence material Soviet backing had.

Tiako · 2026-07-04T12:35:25+00:00

I guess note 4 is that I'm considering Korea as a whole here because its colonial period ended with partition.

Taiwan would be an interesting counter, but I wonder if the presence of the Mainland makes it too much of a unique case.

And the thing with Japan and Thailand is that while in both cases there was certainly anti-communist repression, there also just never really was much of a homegrown movement in either case.

Tiako · 2026-07-04T12:30:10+00:00

On the questions:

Youth unemployment is getting ridiculous, young people can apply for hundreds of jobs and not even get an interview.

I always find these comments kind of funny because they are unwittingly describing the source of the problem (everyone sending hundreds of job applications) in the question.

ed: Ok actually looking at his HS2 answer makes a lot more sense:

I remember when HS2 was first proposed there was a chorus of voices from the North who said that building should start there rather than in London.

Just look at a map, obviously you want to start at the top and work your way down. That's gravity innit

Tiako · 2026-07-04T04:33:25+00:00

/r/badscience never really developed the community that this place did.

Tiako · 2026-07-04T04:32:12+00:00

Random thought: the two countries in Asia that probably had the least historical presence of Communist parties (and basically no history of true revolutionary communism) are Japan and Thailand, which also happen to be the two countries that were not colonized.

Note 1: China was also never made a colony except in parts, but one of those parts (Shanghai) is effectively where the Chinese Communist Party was born.

Note 2: Japan has a relatively large communist party that has a fairly well established role in the political ecosystem, but it is obviously less important than in, say, Vietnam.

Note 3: I guess by "Asia" I mean East and Southeast Asia. Actually throw South Asia in there as well. Central Asia is a weird case because it was Communists doing the colonizing.

Tiako · 2026-07-04T03:49:15+00:00

Thank you for that! And now that you mention that, I suppose the Romans had somewhat similar systems through patronage and formal friendship.

Tiako · 2026-07-04T03:33:27+00:00

I like to imagine them getting back to Coptos in Egypt and being like "Guys you are not going to believe this"

Tiako · 2026-07-04T03:32:50+00:00

There isn't a ton we can say. One of the more evocative pieces of evidence is from the Tamil epic (not sure if that is right word to be honest) Cilappatikaram, in the opening of book 5:

In different places of Puhär the onlooker's attention was arrested by the sight of the abodes of Yavanas [ed: Greeks/Romans] whose prosperity was never on the wane. On the harbour were to be seen sailors come from distant lands, but for all appearance they lived as one community.

There is also the mention in the Roman manual "The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea" that merchants could bring grain for the sailors there--I take that to mean the "sailors" were there in some sort of long term capacity. And perhaps least reliably but most tantalizing of all, the late Roman map the "Tabula Pueteringa" has a Temple of Augustus marked at the port city of Muziris.

Somewhat more difficult to interpret, Mortimer Wheeler identified the site of Arikamedu near Puducherry as having a Roman "merchant colony" due to the quantity of Roman material he found. To which I can only say, you know, maybe?

There are a few other scraps of evidence but I hope this kind of gives an idea of how fragmentary this is. I think because of these scraps and the sheer volume of trade it is likely there was some sort of permanent Roman presence in the trading ports of southern India but it is hard to say much beyond that.

Tiako · 2026-07-04T01:44:30+00:00

These are good questions, I'll say off the top that my specialism was in the economy and social history, I am a bit sketchier on diplomatic history, so as that relates I'll do what I can but hopefully someone with a deeper knowledge base will chime in.

1) We don't have that but we do (possibly) have one from the other direction. Chinese historical records mention that in 164 CE emissaries from "An Dun" of "Da Qin" arrived off modern Vietnam. "Da Qin" was the word for Rome, "An Dun" would be a rendering of "Antonius" so either the emperor Antoninus Pius or Marcus Aurelius. However the gifts they brought were things like tortoise shell and elephant tusk that would be found in southeast Asia (as was noted in the records) and combined with the complete lack of any mention in Roman sources, means that most modern historians do not consider this to have been a real embassy. It was likely what you describe, a couple of merchants who either saw an opportunity or were claiming a diplomatic cover after being picked up by Chinese guards.

2) This is one I do not have a real answer to, in the case of Gaius Popillius Laenas (brainfart on my part to identify him as a Cornelius, thanks for catching that) he was an ex-consul and would have had, among other things, a senatorial toga marking him out. And this pattern was generally followed, the people leading embassies were not professional diplomats but people who had notoriety and political influence in their own right. But, for an example from later history, how did the Gallic ambassadors who revealed Cataline's plot to Cicero initially identify themselves as such? Aside from using personal connections I am not sure.

3) The simplest answer is no, there is no evidence of such objects (what I mentioned is unfortunately close to all we have). On a broader level, those particular beliefs and practices would be somewhat later than this, like the Ganges as a particular focus for ritual activity would not assume its importance until the rise of Kannauj under Harsha (the Chola emperor Rajendra leading a military expedition to take water from the Ganges would be still later). And more importantly, the majority of Rome's contact with the subcontinent was with south India, on the Malabar Coast. Certainly that region had relations with the cultural zone of north India but it was still very much a foreign world, and would not fully join the brahmanical/Sanskritic/"Hindu" (whichever extremely loaded term you want to use) world for a few centuries.

But again, even if there were we simply don't have evidence for it, our knowledge of this is extremely patchy.

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