4 ms·

The third time this week that I thought about the Roman Empire

by number6 3y ago

gadders 3y ago
Those are rookie numbers.
elzbardico 3y ago
You should think more about it.
hotnfresh 3y ago
Context: a thing on social media right now is women asking husbands/boyfriends how often they think about the Roman Empire, and then giggling and expressing surprise when the answer is, in every case, more than “almost never”.
- runjake 3y ago
  I don't get it. Why? (My personal answer would be "multiple times a day.") Edit: https://knowyourmeme.com/editorials/guides/why-do-men-think-about-the-roman-empire-so-often-the-viral-question-and-roman-empire-tiktok-trend-explained https://knowyourmeme.com/editorials/guides/why-do-men-think-... Edit2: It has nothing to do with power and little to do with battles. It's more about society, governance, and culture.
  - rhplus 3y ago
    I mean, in July and August I’m forced to think about it every single day.
    - boomboomsubban 3y ago
      While the other ten months only imply that you should think about it. Those Latin words and Roman gods could have come from anywhere!
  - hotnfresh 3y ago
    The humor seems to come from there being a large body of people (mostly women, evidently?) who don’t realize anyone who’s not, like, a classics professor, thinks about the Roman Empire more than almost-never, and another (evidently mostly men?) who don’t get how someone could think about it less than at least once a week, assuming they think about anything at all. I’m firmly in the “how do you not?” camp. The mutual confusion between these two groups is the joke, I think. Another facet may be the implication that all these men must be obsessed with Rome or want a return of the Roman Empire or something, which is also a funny notion, but I don’t think that’s usually the case. There are dozens of other things I think about at least as often, personally, and the common thread is that they have lots of connections to various topics I’m interested in, not some obsession with e.g. Rome. For my part, Rome is heavily connected to all of philosophy, politics, European, Maghreb, and Near-East history, literature, and film (it’s a common setting or topic, even when not directly the topic, as in the Coen’s Hail Caesar) and since I’m interested in all those things, I mean, yeah, obviously I think about it at least once a day. I also think about various ancient Greek states daily, and Sumer and Ancient Egypt at least once a week, and often much more, I’d guess. Doesn’t mean I’m particularly obsessed with any of them, they’re just strongly connected to a ton of my interests.
    - flkiwi 3y ago
      Pretty sure I passed some sort of test with my wife when I told her "Oh, think about it and not in the context of it coming up in a book or legal concept, but just sit and ponder the Empire? Once every six months or so?" but then rapidly lost ground when I continued, "Maybe slightly more if you include the Republic, the Byzantine Empire, and any of the purported successor entities like Tsarist Russia or the Ottomans." The equally amusing thing is the trend to ask "What is the Roman Empire for people who don't think about the Roman Empire?" The answer for a SHOCKING number of people is Tom Holland lip syncing 'Umbrella'. And as astonishing and inconceivable as that is to me--that someone could think about that multiple times per year, much less the more frequent schedule my wife, who is deeply, boldy intelligent, joyously admits to--I'm reminded that that's EXACTLY how they feel about people who think about Rome. So I just shrug and say "well people like different things."
  - dylan604 3y ago
    It's just another Women are from Venus, Men are from Mars type of thing that sounds like a typical article from Cosmo discussed at the hair salon. The irony of my comment is not lost and is intended
  - dfxm12 3y ago
    Because people post reactionary stuff like this online, unprompted: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37646138 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37646138
    - chimpanzee 3y ago
      Why do you consider that post to be “reactionary”?
      - hotnfresh 3y ago
        Supporting a prior state of affairs over the current one (in this case, older forms of money and monetary policy; and maybe also economic systems and/or attitudes toward colonialism, it’s not entirely clear which aspects the poster intends us to understand as causing the claimed price consistency) is what “reactionary” means.
        chimpanzee 3y ago
        Yes thank you, that is what “reactionary” means. But the post only mentions the Romans in order to draw a comparison (albeit likely based on faulty information), and then asks how others feel about it. This isn’t support for past eras. It’s a curiosity into the current state of affairs using as comparison the only available reference: the past. Your own difficulty in understanding the poster’s intent underlies the problem with the “reactionary” label. They could simply be misinformed. Misinformation leads to dissonance, surprise and curiosity. Which leads to posting online to settle their inner confusion/questions.
        hotnfresh 3y ago
        I read the poster’s question as leading due to extensive interaction online with that kind of sea-lioning or otherwise promoting a point of view (always one of a few, and mostly clustered in one ideological area that definitely includes love of precious metal standards) by posting (often wrong or biased) sources, framing them a certain (also often wrong) way, then asking what others think about that. It’s also a great way to accomplish (classical) trolling, by making a post that’s weak and controversial (so, invites replies, including from those who will refute it poorly, which is the OP’s lead—in to goad them further by responding only to weak rebuttals) but can hide behind ignorance or naivety (“I really wasn’t sure, I was just asking”) to skirt moderation. But there’s a tiny chance it’s not any of that and the poster really is, literally, just asking questions. From the form and topic of the post, I give it about, I dunno, a 3% likelihood. [edit] why do I judge this almost certainly not a genuine question born of curiosity? There are several clues, but the post leads with “reminder that…” This indicates a ready line of argument and/or beloved second-hand ideological factoid the poster has picked up and has ready to mind. The post almost certainly has a slant, and if it does, yes, it’s reactionary.
flkiwi 3y ago
In my head, there's now a "Number of days since I thought about the Roman Empire" sign and it just went to 0 when I read this headline. Though I feel like this should sneak by on a technicality, namely that I didn't think about it.
rdtsc 3y ago
Are you just interested in history and noticing it? Of course, we always see links to the wonderful site https://acoup.blog https://acoup.blog by Dr. Bret C. Devereaux on HN, so maybe that's why?
ramoz 3y ago
I think of the roman empire every time I look in the mirror

The third time this week that I thought about the Roman Empire

gadders 3y ago

Those are rookie numbers.

elzbardico 3y ago

You should think more about it.

hotnfresh 3y ago

Context: a thing on social media right now is women asking husbands/boyfriends how often they think about the Roman Empire, and then giggling and expressing surprise when the answer is, in every case, more than “almost never”.

runjake 3y ago
I don't get it. Why? (My personal answer would be "multiple times a day.") Edit: https://knowyourmeme.com/editorials/guides/why-do-men-think-about-the-roman-empire-so-often-the-viral-question-and-roman-empire-tiktok-trend-explained https://knowyourmeme.com/editorials/guides/why-do-men-think-... Edit2: It has nothing to do with power and little to do with battles. It's more about society, governance, and culture.
- rhplus 3y ago
  I mean, in July and August I’m forced to think about it every single day.
  - boomboomsubban 3y ago
    While the other ten months only imply that you should think about it. Those Latin words and Roman gods could have come from anywhere!
- hotnfresh 3y ago
  The humor seems to come from there being a large body of people (mostly women, evidently?) who don’t realize anyone who’s not, like, a classics professor, thinks about the Roman Empire more than almost-never, and another (evidently mostly men?) who don’t get how someone could think about it less than at least once a week, assuming they think about anything at all. I’m firmly in the “how do you not?” camp. The mutual confusion between these two groups is the joke, I think. Another facet may be the implication that all these men must be obsessed with Rome or want a return of the Roman Empire or something, which is also a funny notion, but I don’t think that’s usually the case. There are dozens of other things I think about at least as often, personally, and the common thread is that they have lots of connections to various topics I’m interested in, not some obsession with e.g. Rome. For my part, Rome is heavily connected to all of philosophy, politics, European, Maghreb, and Near-East history, literature, and film (it’s a common setting or topic, even when not directly the topic, as in the Coen’s Hail Caesar) and since I’m interested in all those things, I mean, yeah, obviously I think about it at least once a day. I also think about various ancient Greek states daily, and Sumer and Ancient Egypt at least once a week, and often much more, I’d guess. Doesn’t mean I’m particularly obsessed with any of them, they’re just strongly connected to a ton of my interests.
  - flkiwi 3y ago
    Pretty sure I passed some sort of test with my wife when I told her "Oh, think about it and not in the context of it coming up in a book or legal concept, but just sit and ponder the Empire? Once every six months or so?" but then rapidly lost ground when I continued, "Maybe slightly more if you include the Republic, the Byzantine Empire, and any of the purported successor entities like Tsarist Russia or the Ottomans." The equally amusing thing is the trend to ask "What is the Roman Empire for people who don't think about the Roman Empire?" The answer for a SHOCKING number of people is Tom Holland lip syncing 'Umbrella'. And as astonishing and inconceivable as that is to me--that someone could think about that multiple times per year, much less the more frequent schedule my wife, who is deeply, boldy intelligent, joyously admits to--I'm reminded that that's EXACTLY how they feel about people who think about Rome. So I just shrug and say "well people like different things."
- dylan604 3y ago
  It's just another Women are from Venus, Men are from Mars type of thing that sounds like a typical article from Cosmo discussed at the hair salon. The irony of my comment is not lost and is intended
- dfxm12 3y ago
  Because people post reactionary stuff like this online, unprompted: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37646138 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37646138
  - chimpanzee 3y ago
    Why do you consider that post to be “reactionary”?
    - hotnfresh 3y ago
      Supporting a prior state of affairs over the current one (in this case, older forms of money and monetary policy; and maybe also economic systems and/or attitudes toward colonialism, it’s not entirely clear which aspects the poster intends us to understand as causing the claimed price consistency) is what “reactionary” means.
      - chimpanzee 3y ago
        Yes thank you, that is what “reactionary” means. But the post only mentions the Romans in order to draw a comparison (albeit likely based on faulty information), and then asks how others feel about it. This isn’t support for past eras. It’s a curiosity into the current state of affairs using as comparison the only available reference: the past. Your own difficulty in understanding the poster’s intent underlies the problem with the “reactionary” label. They could simply be misinformed. Misinformation leads to dissonance, surprise and curiosity. Which leads to posting online to settle their inner confusion/questions.
        hotnfresh 3y ago
        I read the poster’s question as leading due to extensive interaction online with that kind of sea-lioning or otherwise promoting a point of view (always one of a few, and mostly clustered in one ideological area that definitely includes love of precious metal standards) by posting (often wrong or biased) sources, framing them a certain (also often wrong) way, then asking what others think about that. It’s also a great way to accomplish (classical) trolling, by making a post that’s weak and controversial (so, invites replies, including from those who will refute it poorly, which is the OP’s lead—in to goad them further by responding only to weak rebuttals) but can hide behind ignorance or naivety (“I really wasn’t sure, I was just asking”) to skirt moderation. But there’s a tiny chance it’s not any of that and the poster really is, literally, just asking questions. From the form and topic of the post, I give it about, I dunno, a 3% likelihood. [edit] why do I judge this almost certainly not a genuine question born of curiosity? There are several clues, but the post leads with “reminder that…” This indicates a ready line of argument and/or beloved second-hand ideological factoid the poster has picked up and has ready to mind. The post almost certainly has a slant, and if it does, yes, it’s reactionary.

flkiwi 3y ago

In my head, there's now a "Number of days since I thought about the Roman Empire" sign and it just went to 0 when I read this headline. Though I feel like this should sneak by on a technicality, namely that I didn't think about it.

rdtsc 3y ago

Are you just interested in history and noticing it? Of course, we always see links to the wonderful site https://acoup.blog https://acoup.blog by Dr. Bret C. Devereaux on HN, so maybe that's why?

ramoz 3y ago

I think of the roman empire every time I look in the mirror