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Comment by verdverm

14 hours ago

the line from authoritarians is often predictably to proclaim their opponents "terrorists" and the like

https://www.foreignaffairs.com/china/weakness-strongmen-step...

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verdverm

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saalweachter  13 hours ago

Twenty-some years back, I attended a talk by a classicist who was talking about how the Romans, Caesar specifically I think, basically used "pirate" the same way.

  • stevenwoo  9 hours ago

    Funnily enough, the currently airing Starz program, Spartacus: House of Ashur does this, has Caesar as a character and all political sides use “pirates” as a bogeyman to justify all sorts of things and stage false flag attacks while pretending to be pirates. It’s meant for entertainment not historicity but it’s kind of reminding me of Battlestar Galactica reboot touching political themes in this one aspect except with swords and prosethetics flying everywhere.