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Why do you think it's easy for most to have nuanced, dispassionate discussions about the ancient Assyrians but not the Nazis? Spacial/temporal/ideological proxi
by rcoveson 3y ago
Why do you think it's easy for most to have nuanced, dispassionate discussions about the ancient Assyrians but not the Nazis? Spacial/temporal/ideological proximity. We're not likely to become anything like the former, but we fear ourselves (or at least our leadership) becoming more like the latter.
Obviously it would be ideal to learn from the good aspects of even the most evil totalitarian regimes, but in practice it's easier to wrap the whole nationalist/collectivist/communist idea-space up in a bundle and throw it out as one, at least in conversations with strangers of unclear motives.
- skjksjgskjb 3y agoplease dont draw an equivalence between the ussr and nazi germany. it is incredibly problematic.
- chpatrick 3y agoIs it?
- skjksjgskjb 3y agoyes. do you believe the ussr perpetrated anything on the magnitude of the holocaust?
- nradov 3y agoThe USSR perpetuated the Great Purge and the Holodomor, which together killed approximately 5M people (estimates vary). This is a matter of historical fact, not just belief.
- chpatrick 3y agoNot to mention half a century of repression and misery across the eastern bloc, often including straight up genocide.
- wkat4242 3y ago[flagged]
- skybrian 3y agoMostly more dispassionate, but not necessarily more accurate? I gather from reading acoup.blog that popular culture gets ancient cultures wrong quite often too. Especially the sort of thing that engages people's imaginations.