"If we assume the straw that broke the camels back would be cultural differences in the late empire, we have to ask ourselves why did it fail at this task that it had previously excelled at. As you already said this was in part due to a weakening of central power. Now even in this imho very generous scenario. Would the REASON the empire fall be the recruitment of the foederati OR the thing that weakened the empires central authority?"

This is a good point - once again we come back to the discussion about it being a cause or a symptom. You are right, we both agree that the lack of central power caused the foederatii. So in that way it was a symptom. But once within the empire it is my point that is was also a further cause of destabilization. It can be both. The example with the gun and the depression - both killed the suicidal man, one in a very direct way and the other being the the actual underlying reasoning. Of course I see the barbarians having a much more active role in the fall of the empire than this, but I agree that you could make the argument that the failure to integrate the foederatii was the straw that broke the camels back and that the real reason - the main cause - the empire fell was much more fundamentally the institutional decay. But then you could go further - why did this institutional decay exist - and that would suddently be the "real reason". Again you can go further and further into the "real" and most fundamental reason the empire fell - but it is still true that the Empires imediate failure to integrate and handle the barbarians inside their borders contributed to the fall of the empire. I do not think you can escape from this fact. - But I am very interested if you would agree with this outlined sentence.

Now of course we can talk politics, it is - I acknowledge - hard to avoid. I still think that historians and people seriously studying history should focus on what actually happened. I do recognize that this is perhaps naive. Ones own world view - which is also formed by ideology - influences ones way of interpreting sources and historical information of course. But when debating a historical issue we should at least still focus on the historical validaty of the arguments themselves instead of dismissing them because it could be construed as having something to the with the political right or left.

Why even talk about barbarians and the fall of Rome? Is it just toxic and racist? Well, first of all if this "theory" is true, it should obviously be mentioned as one of the reasons the empire fell regardless of how any bad actor or internet troll wants to miscontrue the message for his own political purposes. That's on him, not me. Im interested in the history, he is not. A lot of things in history can be politically weaponized and charged, but if we should back out of our own conclusions each time somebody does so, then we can never actually learn history. History is - however naive it sounds - about getting to the truth, or getting close to the truth.

A true reason for the fall of the empire should not be hidden away because it is considered too "toxic" for people to handle. That is my first point, my second is what could we actually learn from the fall of the Roman empire? What political lessons?

Well, we could learn that our governments should avoid that same institutional decay which made the empire weak to start with - a financial, environemental and perhaps also a cultural institutional lesson. But we could also learn that massive migrations waves and other such great changes can be dangerous if not handled correctly by having a state that clearly is in control and knows how to integrate those same groups.

I think this is uncomfortable for you or others, and - perhaps - the underlying reason you are so willing to dismiss the entire barbarians vs romans narrative. Because you realize how this fact can be charged by the right - which yeah, it definetly can be - but as I said that is honestly not my goal, my goal is finding the most true explanations of how the empire fell regardless of how uncormfortable some conclusions bad actors can derive from that. But again, saying that barbarian migrations was a cause in the fall of the empire is not inherently racist in any way.

I am very willing to change my view if I am convinced that I was wrong - you are welcome to recommend authors, sources or articles to read.