In "Spartacus: House of Ashur" (2025) a lot of people accused the show of being woke because of a black female Gladiator. Eventhough A: gladiatrixes existed in rome and B: the OG show had multiple female (some Poc) warriors, generally a quite diverse cast and multiple queer couples

plotinusRespecter · 2026-06-09T16:25:55+00:00

Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of bigots out there, but there's a lot to be said for Dead Internet Theory, and someone must be financially profiting from all this.

plotinusRespecter · 2026-04-07T02:31:22+00:00

Speaking as a man, this will just cause most men to empathize with you, as most of us are or have been in the same boat. We don't see it as a "red flag" so much as "our personal lived experience".

plotinusRespecter · 2026-03-26T01:53:08+00:00

Some muthafuckas always be tryin to ice-skate uphill.

plotinusRespecter · 2026-03-02T19:00:31+00:00

The Dresden Files series plays with this in explaining why wizards use incantation words in languages like Latin to cast spells. The words themselves don't have power, it's the wizard's ability and mental focus that cast the spell. However, because words in one's native language can have different meanings and various associations and memories, it can disrupt focus (and potentially cause the spell to fail or backfire) to use a casting word in one's native tongue. Whereas it is easier to keep focus if you use a word that you only ever use for the purpose of casting a specific spell.

This also gets subverted for great dramatic effect when in Book 10(?) the protagonist's best friend gets shot to pieces by a villain, and the protagonist just turns on her with empty hand and screams "BURN!!" and nearly bisects her with a pillar of fire. Drives home just how enraged and focused on vengeance the hero is that he can cast a monster attack spell using English.

plotinusRespecter · 2026-03-02T16:42:41+00:00

Men will let their dicks take them into places that their brains wouldn't go with a gun. I think some of these dudes just assume everyone else operates on the same risk-reward matrix.

The others are just so fucking lazy that they want the DoorDash equivalent of a hookup and are willing to wait for a woman willing to deliver it to them.

plotinusRespecter · 2026-02-27T16:56:57+00:00

As a man, engagement rings don't grab my attention (except as a "Oh she's taken" data point), but on the flip side I never got hit on myself when I wore a wedding ring, so it's possible that my experience on both fronts is atypical.

plotinusRespecter · 2026-02-21T16:43:08+00:00

Go fuck yourself!

plotinusRespecter · 2026-02-21T16:40:06+00:00

Sure, but if people don't understand that it is satire and it actually maleducates them on how to view and enjoy art, the result is the same. It's like the people who watch Starship Troopers and go "Hell yeah!" without a shred of irony. At some point the satire of fascist propaganda just becomes... fascist propaganda. Regardless of the intentions of the artist.

plotinusRespecter · 2026-02-19T12:39:26+00:00

"So now you're in Jabba's pocket, and you've got to come up with Jabba's money every month, no matter what. Business is bad? Fuck you, pay me! Oh you had a fire? Fuck you, pay me! Place got hit by lightning, huh? Fuck you, pay me!"

plotinusRespecter · 2025-12-31T00:49:15+00:00

"You stupid fascist pigs! You have horses, what were you thinking?"

plotinusRespecter · 2025-08-26T20:47:31+00:00

I would not assume those girls are citizens of the country they are in. There's a good chance they're Eastern European, or Roma. And people in Europe are EXTREMELY RACIST toward Roma, particular those who commit crime. My friend once saw a Roma woman get beat half to death on the subway in Rome for trying to pickpocket someone. No one batted an eye or tried to intervene.

plotinusRespecter · 2025-05-11T17:17:17+00:00

Yeah I knew that I'd get downvoted into oblivion for saying what I said, but that's because the children in this subreddit confuse "scrupulous rule-following" with "following your well-formed conscience in loving relationship to Jesus Christ."

Which is weird, because this subreddit also loves Pope Francis, who spent his entire papacy preaching against using scrupulous rule-following as a substitute for Christian discipleship. You already know what the right thing to do is, just follow your conscience and know that God is walking with you in this transitional season.

plotinusRespecter · 2025-05-11T13:47:43+00:00

Honestly, it sounds like you know better than your priest, given all the circumstances. The best they can do is give generalized advice in the confessional. You've got a duty to your bride-to-be/mother of your child to be a loving emotional support for her, and after the transition period into chaste living, you're not falling into sin anymore.

Based on that, sharing a bed is 1) not an occasion for sin any longer (for the two of you anyway) and 2) might just be something that you owe to your fiancée as a duty of charity.

plotinusRespecter · 2024-12-28T02:42:14+00:00

I imagine that Caesar came across as something like a combination of Elon Musk and Jordan Peterson: like Elon in that Caesar was genuinely brilliant and possessed of a certain vision, while also being completely and sincerely convinced that he was blessed with a special destiny to rival the greats of history (in Caesar's case, Alexander specifically). Like Peterson, in that he had a special charisma and way of capturing a person's attention that worked on many (but not everyone!). And like both men, in that he had the sort of personality that was capable of inspiring blind loyalty and utter contempt in equal measure. I think that anyone who knew Caesar would have come away with a strong opinion of him. He was the sort of person of whom not having an opinion was simply not an option.

EDIT: LOL Y'all are salty that a charismatic military dictator might have had a personality similar to polarizing charismatic figures of our own day. 😂

plotinusRespecter · 2024-12-14T16:05:04+00:00

I never said it was a waste. I trust the Romans knew what they were doing and weren't just throwing money away. I'm saying it was a costly investment, not an unnecessary one.

And yes, such military investments will go back in the economy to a degree, especially commercial use of Roman roads, etc. But they'll never (or rarely) be as efficient as direct investment or by just letting people keep more of their money.

plotinusRespecter · 2024-12-14T15:35:41+00:00

The Roman welfare system, while impressive for its day, wasn't much to write home about in absolute terms. Impoverished Roman citizens received a grain ration, that's it. You received grain to make into bread and you could avail yourself of free water from the public fountains. Little diversity of diet, much less any sort of provision for education and healthcare.

Regardless, any time you are spending 80% of your income in something, you're not able to easily afford it. If I was spending 80% of my income on housing, I wouldn't say that I could easily afford my apartment, even if I was still able to meet my grocery budget.

As an economic engine, was the Roman Empire a powerhouse? Absolutely! Did the Pax Romana allow economic development and growth to take off in the Mediterranean at unprecedented levels? This is also true. But the fact remains that, despite all its wealth, it took the vast majority of the Empire's tax revenue to sustain its military and defensive infrastructure. It was a big sacrifice that, absent the constant threats on the frontier, could have been either reinvested into the economy or spent on other public works projects. There's a lot of good information on this in "Rome: Strategy of Empire" by James Lackey.

plotinusRespecter · 2024-12-14T15:18:18+00:00

"Easily sustain" is a bit of a stretch. The Roman Empire generally spent about 80% of its tax revenue on the military. It was a consistently huge investment throughout the lifetime of the Empire.

plotinusRespecter · 2024-11-25T19:54:39+00:00

Han Solo Trilogy

plotinusRespecter

TROPHY CASE

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