6 ms·

This has the be the funniest trend to come out of Tiktok. My SO point blank asked me how many times I thought about the roman empire and I replied "I don't know

by belval 3y ago

This has the be the funniest trend to come out of Tiktok. My SO point blank asked me how many times I thought about the roman empire and I replied "I don't know, once or twice a week". Little does she know we get a post from acoup every week! Reference (for those out of the loop): https://www.forbes.com/sites/conormurray/2023/09/18/how-often-do-men-think-about-the-roman-empire-a-lot-according-to-new-tiktok-trend/?sh=7883feb4a388 https://www.forbes.com/sites/conormurray/2023/09/18/how-ofte...

genewitch 3y ago
thanks for the reference. I mean i could have websearched around for a while, but i've been asking everyone that comments in my friends group, about this topic, and i'm getting "it was a trend" but not where or why it started. when 1/8th of the planet knows about a trend and i'm out of the loop...
- jjulius 3y ago
  I was completely out of the loop as well, until my wife shot me a completely out of the blue text this morning asking me if I thought I could help land a plane in an emergency, and how often I thought about the Roman Empire. After I begged for context, she told me about the trend, and then about three minutes later I happened upon this thread and this comment chain was at the top lol.
swasheck 3y ago
my wife asked me and i said once per week. then she and my daughter cackled and asked me to repeat my answer and i knew i was about to become part of a trend so i refused. but isn't it fascinating how truly interested in the roman republic and emopire we are? people are coming up with theories about why this is the case but i'm not sure any of them resonate with me. i was always more of a greece person until i visited italy 7 years ago and i was thoroughly smitten.
- seanw444 3y ago
  My answer to my girlfriend was that I think about ancient Greece more often. Rome less. Greece was ahead of its time in philosophy and science. So many household names. Rome has a lot of political analogs to today though, which is what I find interesting about it.
  - Keyframe 3y ago
    Difference being Rome was an entity with government, military, etc. with which we can draw a lot of parallels to today, whereas Greece was more of a loose interconnection of cities that shape shifted over time. Both extremely interesting, of course.
  - lo_zamoyski 3y ago
    > Greece was ahead of its time in philosophy and science And some would say that, philosophically, while we have the potential benefit of hindsight and therefore the opportunity to exceed the Greeks (you just need to crack open the right books), our typical modern, academic philosophy, is in many ways, inferior to it.
    - jmkr 3y ago
      This is a strange comment because not only is academic philosophy built from the Greek tradition, but it is formalized. Maybe one can say it stagnated for centuries but I find it difficult to say that the work in the 20th century is inferior. I wouldn't say that about comparing Hilbert to Pythagoras, and this is not putting down history of knowledge.
      - Jensson 3y ago
        Just the awareness of the scientific method makes us far superior to the ancient Greeks. Many still doesn't follow it, but basically no Greek followed it and it really shows in their works. For problems where the scientific method doesn't help however we probably aren't that much better than the ancient Greeks, maybe we are even inferior there.
Jensson 3y ago
Why do people think that is funny? Edit: Why downvote a genuine question? How else would I learn why people find that funny?
- nullindividual 3y ago
  One might think that an individual who thinks about an empire that has been “dead” for nearly 1500 years is a bit strange. Why would anyone care about a dead empire, after all? The reason why it’s funny is because of how common people say they do think about the Roman empire (which for me is also quite often). It’s subverting expectations— you think no one thinks about the Empire— in reality, all of your family and neighbors do think about the Empire on a regular basis.
  - Jensson 3y ago
    > Why would anyone care about a dead empire, after all? Because it isn't dead culturally. When you see a medieval castle you think about medieval things, when you see Roman architecture you think of Roman things, and since you see Roman architecture all the time in the news, like every time they show the white house etc, it makes sense your brain thinks about the Romans now and then.
    - nullindividual 3y ago
      The question was rhetorical. And the article does go into detail about why people like Roman things-and-stuff.
    - verve_rat 3y ago
      See also: the Pope and the Catholic Church.
- bcherry 3y ago
  For me, it's because it's true. I really do think about the roman empire all the time! and my wife couldn't believe it. Most "trends" from TikTok are made up, stupid, fake, or highly exaggerated. This one is funny because it's actually kinda true for a LOT of people, and has nothing to do with TikTok.
TeMPOraL 3y ago
Maybe with all that sudden interest, we'll get some progress on the "Rome Sweet Rome" movie. For context, and going by my memory, circa 12 years ago somebody on Reddit asked who would win, a bunch of Marines or the army of the Roman Empire; in response, one redditor wrote a short story about Marines being thrown back through time into the Roman era - it became viral (for ~2011 levels of "viral"), and the author ended up making a movie deal with some producers. I've been waiting for over a decade now for said movie to happen...
- jffry 3y ago
  It was indeed August 2011: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rome,_Sweet_Rome https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rome,_Sweet_Rome If it's been in development hell that long, I don't know how likely it is that it'll ever see the light of day.

by belval 3y ago

genewitch 3y ago

thanks for the reference. I mean i could have websearched around for a while, but i've been asking everyone that comments in my friends group, about this topic, and i'm getting "it was a trend" but not where or why it started. when 1/8th of the planet knows about a trend and i'm out of the loop...

jjulius 3y ago
I was completely out of the loop as well, until my wife shot me a completely out of the blue text this morning asking me if I thought I could help land a plane in an emergency, and how often I thought about the Roman Empire. After I begged for context, she told me about the trend, and then about three minutes later I happened upon this thread and this comment chain was at the top lol.

swasheck 3y ago

my wife asked me and i said once per week. then she and my daughter cackled and asked me to repeat my answer and i knew i was about to become part of a trend so i refused. but isn't it fascinating how truly interested in the roman republic and emopire we are? people are coming up with theories about why this is the case but i'm not sure any of them resonate with me. i was always more of a greece person until i visited italy 7 years ago and i was thoroughly smitten.

seanw444 3y ago
My answer to my girlfriend was that I think about ancient Greece more often. Rome less. Greece was ahead of its time in philosophy and science. So many household names. Rome has a lot of political analogs to today though, which is what I find interesting about it.
- Keyframe 3y ago
  Difference being Rome was an entity with government, military, etc. with which we can draw a lot of parallels to today, whereas Greece was more of a loose interconnection of cities that shape shifted over time. Both extremely interesting, of course.
- lo_zamoyski 3y ago
  > Greece was ahead of its time in philosophy and science And some would say that, philosophically, while we have the potential benefit of hindsight and therefore the opportunity to exceed the Greeks (you just need to crack open the right books), our typical modern, academic philosophy, is in many ways, inferior to it.
  - jmkr 3y ago
    This is a strange comment because not only is academic philosophy built from the Greek tradition, but it is formalized. Maybe one can say it stagnated for centuries but I find it difficult to say that the work in the 20th century is inferior. I wouldn't say that about comparing Hilbert to Pythagoras, and this is not putting down history of knowledge.
    - Jensson 3y ago
      Just the awareness of the scientific method makes us far superior to the ancient Greeks. Many still doesn't follow it, but basically no Greek followed it and it really shows in their works. For problems where the scientific method doesn't help however we probably aren't that much better than the ancient Greeks, maybe we are even inferior there.

Jensson 3y ago

Why do people think that is funny? Edit: Why downvote a genuine question? How else would I learn why people find that funny?

nullindividual 3y ago
One might think that an individual who thinks about an empire that has been “dead” for nearly 1500 years is a bit strange. Why would anyone care about a dead empire, after all? The reason why it’s funny is because of how common people say they do think about the Roman empire (which for me is also quite often). It’s subverting expectations— you think no one thinks about the Empire— in reality, all of your family and neighbors do think about the Empire on a regular basis.
- Jensson 3y ago
  > Why would anyone care about a dead empire, after all? Because it isn't dead culturally. When you see a medieval castle you think about medieval things, when you see Roman architecture you think of Roman things, and since you see Roman architecture all the time in the news, like every time they show the white house etc, it makes sense your brain thinks about the Romans now and then.
  - nullindividual 3y ago
    The question was rhetorical. And the article does go into detail about why people like Roman things-and-stuff.
  - verve_rat 3y ago
    See also: the Pope and the Catholic Church.
bcherry 3y ago
For me, it's because it's true. I really do think about the roman empire all the time! and my wife couldn't believe it. Most "trends" from TikTok are made up, stupid, fake, or highly exaggerated. This one is funny because it's actually kinda true for a LOT of people, and has nothing to do with TikTok.

TeMPOraL 3y ago

Maybe with all that sudden interest, we'll get some progress on the "Rome Sweet Rome" movie. For context, and going by my memory, circa 12 years ago somebody on Reddit asked who would win, a bunch of Marines or the army of the Roman Empire; in response, one redditor wrote a short story about Marines being thrown back through time into the Roman era - it became viral (for ~2011 levels of "viral"), and the author ended up making a movie deal with some producers. I've been waiting for over a decade now for said movie to happen...

jffry 3y ago
It was indeed August 2011: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rome,_Sweet_Rome https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rome,_Sweet_Rome If it's been in development hell that long, I don't know how likely it is that it'll ever see the light of day.