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It's surreal watching the collapse from the inside. Part of me is at the point of "fine! you all get what you deserve", but then I think of my kids and the othe
by pstuart 1y ago
It's surreal watching the collapse from the inside. Part of me is at the point of "fine! you all get what you deserve", but then I think of my kids and the others, future generations getting completely fucked for no fault of their own.
- Insanity 1y agoYeah, I have a strange kind of fascination with it. I read a lot about the Roman republic, it's rise and demise, and it feels like living through the fall of another 'empire'. Writings were on the wall for the Roman republic for a long tine before it happened. Same with the US today.
- AnimalMuppet 1y agoWell, if history rhymes, I'd guess we're about at Sulla.
- senectus1 1y agoI get really annoyed with the constant comparison with the "Fall of Rome". This is not the same thing. This is a concerted attack from within, these people are deliberately dismantling a democratic society for personal profit.
- Insanity 1y agoDo you mean fall of Rome (empire) or fall of Rome (republic)? Fall of Rome’s republic was deliberate and for personal gain / profit. Edit: And I’m not saying it’s a one-to-one comparison, like a bad sequel film.. I’m saying that it’s comparable at a layer of abstraction. The fall of two large “empires” with a ton of influence on the world.
- senectus1 1y agofair point.
- IAmGraydon 1y agoIt’s really not. It’s blatantly wrong, actually. Money did not motivate the fall of the Republic. Literally reading even the most basic text on the period would make this obvious.
- IAmGraydon 1y agoHow do you think this compares to the fall of the Roman Republic? With all due respect, I would argue that your line of thinking tells me that you don’t really read about the Roman Republic, or at least don’t understand what was happening at the time. The political disfunction, powerful military figures, extreme wealth divide, and the dynamic of the First Triumvirate all make what the US is going through today look downright civilized. The sheer amount of turmoil made the people in Rome desperate for authoritarianism. The rise of Roman Empire is what they wanted, and what they got. This is the same dynamic that unfolded in 1930s Germany. I do not at all believe that most people in the US want an actual authoritarian. Trump may think he can implement authoritarianism, but I suspect he will find out just how misguided he is if he truly pushes it.
- 0cf8612b2e1e 1y agoIt is so frustrating. Even if these idiots disappear tomorrow, it will take decades to recover. Why go into science/government to make a positive difference if you know the next hate-filled administration could end your career for some cheap political wins?
- Insanity 1y agoHonestly I think people don't talk about this long-term impact often enough, and you're 100% right. It's not just the impact today - it's the future state. What used to be a job with 'security' is now a lower-security and often lower-pay job.
- mwpmaybe 1y agoThe only people who will work for the government are the people who know they can abuse and personally profit from it.
- pstuart 1y agoThere's plenty that want to do the right thing for the right reasons, but this admin is not the place for that. If we ever recover from this fiasco, we're going to have to do some serious reckoning of how to avoid it in the future.
- truro 1y ago[dead]