Triple-check my persona

[sovay]

spatch, reading a tweet from the White House: "'The United States and Italy are bound together by a shared cultural and political heritage dating back thousands of years to Ancient Rome.'"

Me, a classicist: "Oh! That'd be the fascism!"

Comments

[gwynnega]

I, on the other hand, immediately had a visual of Trump as Nero.

[sovay]

I, on the other hand, immediately had a visual of Trump as Nero.

Given the penchant for plastering self-promotion, I'd go with Commodus. But it's true that with Nero you get a burning world.

[conuly]

I do NOT want to see Trump playing the fiddle.

(Yes, I know, they weren't invented yet.)

[rachelmanija]

I've been calling him Caligula for a while. Possibly this is maligning the actual historical Caligula.

[weirdquark]

My brain did jump to "let all of the poisons that lurk in the mud hatch out" when he was elected.

[gwynnega]

That is pretty spot on.

[sara]

Specifically the court of Emperor Nero.

[sovay]

Specifically the court of Emperor Nero.

I agree that the public entertainer image is apt, but I'd really prefer to skip further fires!

[sara]

Too late, he's burning Kurdistan.

(I am so angry about that. We cannot impeach this shitbag fast enough.)

[sovay]

(I am so angry about that. We cannot impeach this shitbag fast enough.)

I do not disagree with you there.

[sara]

I have a couple of cousins who have spent a lot of time they can't talk about in any detail shooting people in that part of the world. It's my understanding that this was a very unpleasant and dangerous way to spend several years. The idea that this dickhead is now taking all their hard work and all the hard work of the Kurdish people and just pissing it away, and for what! Because genocide is a nice distraction from impeachment? What an absolute waste of space he is.

[sovay]

and for what! Because genocide is a nice distraction from impeachment?

I don't think he gets as far as thinking about genocide even enough to dismiss it. I don't think anything is real to him but his wants and his frustrations and his titanic self-absorption in the sputtering, petulant soup that passes for his thought processes. I believe there are people on his side who would use genocide that cruelly and calculatedly, although judging by the surprising Republican response maybe not in Syria. But I think he just doesn't care. He was never fit to be responsible for a single other person's life and he was given the money from birth to affect far too many.

[sara]

My cousins, and these Kurdish women I have read about, who keep trying to do things like set up courts and establish basic civil services, they are worth a thousand of him. He does not deserve to go among decent people.

My cousins are (although perhaps not in current circumstances) also Republicans, and I keep hoping that the part of the party that is people like them will address the part of the party that is people like him. But I have been very disappointed. The conservatives I know say things to me like, well nothing really has changed.

That is not how things are.

[rachelmanija]

I think it's because it's what Erdogan told him to do, and Trump will always do whatever it takes to cozy up to brutal dictators.

[sara]

Did you read the letter he sent Erdogan? It's practically illiterate. I can't believe this is what passes for presidential correspondence nowadays.

[rachelmanija]

YES. Apparently CNN contacted the White House to confirm that it was real because they thought it was a parody.

[sovay]

Apparently CNN contacted the White House to confirm that it was real because they thought it was a parody.

I don't blame them.

[sara]

I found it striking that the NYT reproduced it in its entirety, which is certainly...what passes for courageous critical commentary from them nowadays.

[starlady]

Trump is Commodus or Caligula, hands down. But also, YIKES

[sovay]

Trump is Commodus or Caligula, hands down.

I lean heavily Commodus, but wouldn't really fight anyone who wanted to argue that we've entered horse-consul territory. I mean, he gave his kids jobs.

But also, YIKES

Yeah!

[cynthia1960]

I think we're being too hard on Commodus/Nero/Caligula here

[rachelmanija]

Agreed. It's hard to find a good real-life parallel. The other person I like to compare him to is Joffrey Baratheon.

[moon_custafer]

He even even got the “bound together” bit.
https://i.etsystatic.com/13060078/r/il/28edb1/1439423495/il_794xN.1439423495_q951.jpg

[sovay]

He even even got the “bound together” bit.

This season's writing was always unsubtle, but now I feel we might as well be reading the stage directions.

[ethelmay]

Yeah, I was going to say. Bounders, the lot of them.

[weirdquark]

The United States and Italy are bound together by a shared cultural and political heritage dating back thousands of years to Ancient Rome.

Me, someone who has been living with a Renaissance scholar for almost 20 years: Florence claimed the same thing to keep from being sacked by France, are we trying to appear more civilized? Because Florence also used art and Humanism and being a (totally dysfunctional) Republic instead of a monarchy, and we're kind of lacking in the showing off our superior knowledge of philosophy, Greek, and Latin here.

[sovay]

Because Florence also used art and Humanism and being a (totally dysfunctional) Republic instead of a monarchy, and we're kind of lacking in the showing off our superior knowledge of philosophy, Greek, and Latin here.

I really think it's just the nationalism. I don't believe the man in the White House values philosophy.

[cynthia1960]

For sure. Greek, Latin, and philosophy would have been classes 45 wouldn't have dared take.

[weirdquark]

Oh yeah, it's totally just the nationalism, I was just being snarky, we're not doing this like they did during the Renaissance.

[vass]

Yup.

[sovay]

Yup.

I guess it's nice to have signposts, although I feel they may be redundant with all the screaming.

[cmcmck]

The US really is that desperate to have an actual history that isn't native American then?

We have the third largest Roman town in Roman Britain, Viriconium/Wroxeter- Housman's Uricon- five miles away...............

[sovay]

The US really is that desperate to have an actual history that isn't native American then?

The man who is currently its president is really that desperate for a dictatorship.

[brigdh]

EXACTLY.

[sovay]

EXACTLY.

I'm trying to figure out if tech bros are our Futurists.

[vintagewitch]

lolsob

[sovay]

lolsob

Yeah.