On March 15, 44 B.C.E., Julius Caesar was stabbed to death in Rome, Italy. Caesar was the dictator of the Roman Republic, and his assassins were Roman senators, fellow politicians who helped shape Roman policy and government.
Military Success & Reforms
Gaius Julius Caesar had returned to Rome in triumph, hailed as a hero. During his time as a Roman general, he claimed to have killed almost two million people in fifty decisive battles. Although loved by the citizens of Rome, he caused, in many ways, worry among those in the Roman Senate - especially the old elite, the Optimates. The man who was soon to be hailed as dictator for life (dictator perpetuo) transferred his skill as a military commander into the ability to lead the Republic. Seeing the need and demonstrating that he truly loved the people of Rome, he decreed a number of significant and necessary reforms - reforms that further endeared him to the Roman citizenry.
While these reforms made him popular among the commoners, they brought panic to many of his enemies and even some of his friends. To these men, their beloved republic no longer existed, especially after Caesar was named dictator for life in February 44 BCE - a completely unconstitutional act. They believed they no longer had a voice as Rome was quickly coming under the control of a would-be tyrant. Caesar's extreme arrogance and vanity offended many in the Roman Senate.
A Conspiracy Rises
The time had come to save the Republic from this would-be king, and thereby a conspiracy was borne. The four leading men of the conspiracy were an unusual mix of both friends and enemies. The first two men believed they had not been rewarded substantially enough for their service to Caesar: Gaius Trebonius served as a praetor and consul and had fought with Caesar in Spain; Decimus Junius Brutus Albinus was governor of Gaul and had been victorious against the Gauls. The next two conspirators were obviously not friends of Caesar: Gaius Cassius Longinus who had served with both Crassus and Pompey as a naval commander and who some believe conceived the plot, and lastly, the greedy and arrogant Marcus Junius Brutus who had also served under Pompey and who was the brother-in-law of Cassius.
After considerable debate, the final decision was to strike during a session of the Senate at the Theater of Pompey on March 15, 44 BCE, the Ides of March. The attackers had chosen their weapon of choice wisely - a double-edged dagger or pugio of about eight inches long instead of a sword. Daggers were better for close contact and could be hidden under their togas.
The Attack
A large crowd accompanied Caesar on his way to the Senate. The dictator entered and sat on his throne. Mark Antony, who had accompanied Caesar, was conveniently delayed outside by Trebonius, as planned. In the theater, there were 200 senators in attendance along with ten tribunes and a number of slaves and secretaries.
Cimber approached the unsuspecting Caesar and handed him a petition on behalf of his exiled brother; Caesar, of course, did not rise to greet him. Cimber grabbed at Caesar's toga and pulled it back. Caesar reportedly said, "Why, this is violence?" Casca dealt the first blow with his knife; Caesar immediately tried to defend himself by raising his hands to cover his face. The remaining conspirators surrounded the shocked Caesar - Cassius struck him in the face, Decimus to the ribs. Caesar collapsed, dead, ironically at the foot of a statue of his old enemy Pompey.
Aftermath
While the conspiracy had all the makings of a great plan, little attempt was made to prepare for afterwards. The conspirators made their way to Capitoline Hill and the Temple of Jupiter. Brutus spoke from a platform at the foot of the hill, trying in vain to calm the crowd.
Brutus believed the death of Caesar would bring a return of the old Roman spirit; unfortunately, the city was in shock, and people became increasingly more hostile. On March 17 the Senate sought a compromise with the urging of Mark Antony: While the laws of Caesar would remain intact, there would be amnesty for the conspirators. Unfortunately, peace was impossible and the conspirators fled Rome and would all ultimately meet their end.
For Rome, the young Octavian, the adopted son of Caesar, received not only his war chest but also the support of the army. A final conflict between Mark Antony (with the help of Cleopatra) and Octavian would bring Octavian to power as Augustus, the first emperor of the Roman Empire.
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Theory:
Coworkers teased the guy who uses Black Rifle coffee so much he threw it in the trash lmao
Brutus: Caesar just died? Wow. I didn't know that... he led an amazing life. What else can you say? He was an amazing man, whether you agree or not. He was an amazing man who led an amazing life. I'm actually sad to hear that.
New Megathread Nerds!!! :posting: today is the day little ceasar got stabbed :biggus-dickus:
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Congratulations on completing another revolution around the star of your solar system, fellow human :posad:
HABBBY BIRFDAY MY FAVEY WOOOOOOFFFFFFFFF
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Thought: Americans have difficulty imagining a different future because there is nothing in America to remind them of a different past. People in places like Europe can look around their cities and see things built long before capitalism existed, whereas that does not exist in American cities. Our society is like if 18th century England was cut off from its history and placed in a petri dish to grow. A cultural monoculture.
There was a lot of deliberate, calculated destruction of indigenous city sites, earthworks, burial grounds, and related structures back in the day. It's been a long time since that class but what I recall is basically wealthy white landowners didn't want anyone remember how they came to own the land so erasing the evidence of per-white people civilization was carried out on a widespread if not systematic scale. There was also a lot of related pillaging of earthworks that were part of burial complexes. And to top it off some really goofy archeological "theories" were made up asserting that contemporary indigenous people weren't related to the cultures who had build various large earthworks and city sites to further attempt to de-legitimize and de-humanize contemporary indigenous people.
Sometimes very old artifacts and burials do indicate that a different group of people lived in a given place and probably as part of a distinct culture (just as indigenous nations are distinct from one another and often have displacement and migration narratives that are fundamental to their identities). But yeah, because this is settler land it all gets used as a pretext for further destruction and appropriation.
Was worried about someone who last posted about their depression a week ago and then just went radio silent, but he just tweeted "spit in my mouth" 4 hours ago. He good
Hey dude, come to my party tomorrow night. It starts at 1:30 AM. Yes it is a work day.
Now that I'm in my 30's my idea of a party is some good snacks/finger food and a cake and everything wraps up by 8pm so I can get to bed soon :yea:
It's a snack mix of things like pretzels, chips, cheetos and the like, usually a grab bag of all sorts of chips.
ok, i think i've seen it all now. i have a trans teenager in my tiktok comments telling me i'm erasing trans people because...i said that nonbinary people can still be trans and sometimes are? i'm so confused. is it because i'm arguing with a child?
they seem really pissed i used transfemme as a synonym for trans women? is that bad or something?
transfemme can refer to some nonbinary people who don't like being called trans women but lean femme, but idk if that's a big enough deal to get mad over. unless you were saying something like "no nonbinary person can be transfemme" i think you're probably alright
I was a sub at a small high school last year with a huge trans and NB population. I noticed they will say stuff like this. I completely get why they would be on the defense especially after this last year, but sometimes it just seems like a combination of picking fights and exploring theory while still having their brains developing.
I personally would just leave it be.
yeah, it strikes me both as a misunderstanding about the difference between sex and gender and a sensitivity to trans erasure by the population writ large.
is it because i’m arguing with a child?
Yes.
Being trans means you don't identify with your AGAB (and/or identify with a gender that's not your AGAB). NBs don't generally identify with their AGAB. So yes obviously you can be NB and trans.
Probably because you're arguing with a child. Or a troll.
Where would kids even get education on queer studies and queer theory? Your average 15 year old probably hasn't read a bunch of queer theory and doesn't have the lifetime of experience to have picked it up by osmosis.
And there's a bunch of them on the internet who have strong opinions about things they really don't understand and cannot place in the context of history and theory. And yeah, it can't help at all that this is all happening in the middle of fascist actual, literal psychological operations to push TERF agendas and divide and conquer the queer community, creating even more confusion for already vulnerable kids.
I think every enby I've ever talked to about enby stuff considers their identity to be a trans thing. Like firmly in the camp that their issues are trans issues and vice versa.
tired: taking your glasses off
wired: closing your eyes
i walked 5kms today and i still feel empty :yea:
touching grass is very hit and miss
Godamn twitter was such a wild place yesterday (like everyday tbh)
Re Karl Marx’s death anniversary- Baffles my mind how you can vehemently(and so confidently) hate someone whose works you don’t even understand
The bourgeois continue to laugh themselves to sleep
If you're really human name five humans and your favorite organ
5 humans include myself and my human friends $friend1, $friend2, $friend3, $friend4. The pipe organ is an instrument most commonly associated with churches.
Congratulations, I would like to present you with your human badge. Please report to Liberal Mountain, ID's post office for the badge ceremony.
How do you make a :fedposting: [REDACTED] :fedposting: using things found in your kitchen?
I went on my first tinder date today. She was really cool and it went really well! We are going to go on another one :D I feel so good.
Desantis is clearly more fash than trump, right? Feel like I’m going crazy bc a lot of people I’ve talked to irl say they want desantis as the republican nominee
:jesus-christ:
Desantis is clearly more fash than trump, right?
Yes. The brunch crowd is desperate for a respectful republican to prop up the failing idea that we have two parties also add in a healthy dose of Trump derangement syndrome still kicking around.
An issue with this convo is that people are not really being clear on what they mean by 'fascism'.
I mean if you ask Trump and his supporters any reasonable fascism-checking questionnaire to check their beliefs then they both pass the test with flying colors. Check Trump's comments in any rally, answering fan questions, from China to LGBT+ issues to critical race theory or socialism. Those are all classic superstructural signs or symptoms.
If we understand fascism materially as a political formation that is always latent in capitalism and which resolves the tension between capitalism and democratic or socialist political forces by crushing the latter through outright violence and coercion, in a terroristic dictatorship of capital, then I think that both can be understood as fascist.
It looks to me like the main real, material difference has to do with the nature of the movements or groups supporting them and which faction with the right would be more effective at actually carrying these out from within the state. Alot of yankie comrades here seem to think that Desantis is more dangerous because he's more genuinely, unironically fascist in his ideology (which seems true), and that he's more competent. Not sure what I think. Would like comrades to point to evidence that he's more competent.
I mean, for one he oversaw torture at Guantanamo bay (which should tell you about his connections/the company he keeps). He’s also been overtly enacting anti trans legislation that’s actually causing other states to follow suit, so that’s enough evidence I need. Thankfully, trump has always been all bark and no bite
I disagree that Trump had no bite.
For one he stacked the courts across the US, with is important because as Yankieland descends deeper into fascism and the most reactionary parts of the state increasingly flout any pretense of actually even giving a shit about bullshit like 'checks and balances' and 'democratic norms', then the courts become a key non-democratic institution for wielding class power for the right, especially if they can't pass stuff in Congress and don't wanna go mask-off with Pompeo's 'Executive authority' thesis and making even more use presidential executive priviledge. Like the Roe vs. Wade supreme court decision, where the right is basically saying 'okay women, time to go back to being white baby-factories', was a direct result of stacking the Supreme Court.
Also internationally, I think the idea that he was actually less imperialist is something of an illusion. Generally his regime maintained the imperialism in place. Drone programs and aggression towards China were ramped up. He just didn't really open any new fronts, as far as I'm aware. And let's not forget the selling-out of the Kurds.
Also, from what I understand from non-white and LGBT comrades across the pond, there were in fact differences for them and their safety once Trump came into office. If we want to understand Desantis as a key driver of a wave of increasingly aggressive reactionary policy-making and enaction in republican states, I think we can say similar things about how Trump's regime catalyzed alot of fascistic violence throughout his presidency, or how he cracked down hard on the George Floyd protests, even threatening to use presidential authority to declare a state of emergency. But yh Jan. 6 looked like ineptitude to me. Or maybe he just didn't give a fuck and wanted to use it for further radicalizing his base.
Which gets me thinking that maybe it's useful to think of them as reflecting two necessary dynamics within the Republican party, where the Trumpian one attempts to increasingly mobilize the Republican base and the Desantians increasingly apply pressure within states' political structures.
i wouldn't say that trump had no bite personally. it's more that trump as an enthusiastic amateur fascist and desantis is a relatively cold-blooded professional fascist. trump was a celebrity businessman that had a daddy that kept bailing him out of bankruptcy. desantis was a navy lawyer and professional torturer. even found himself in fallujah. desantis scares me more because he has the specific knowledge to implement fascism from within the american system. i think he has a much better material understanding of what would actually harm people materially.
I'd actually frame it the other way around, namely that Trump might be inept as a political operator except as a demagogue (yanks around here at least seem to think that he's way better at this than Desantis), but it's the people around him that matter. The Trump regime wasn't just Trump but the far-right republicans who rallied around him to increase their power within the state.
If Trump gets in again I'm not convinced that the people around him won't be equally as ideological fascistic and compentent. as Desantis. Like Pence, Pompeo and Bolton were no idiots. Again, he can pack courts even further, further wield executive authority in a reactionary way, pass demonic legislation at not only a state but a federal level if they win the Congress, and the broad far-right will feel, and be, even more empowered.
Also people seem to have forgotten Suleimani's assassination, a clear imperialist attempt to goad Iran into open military conflict, and as we know, fascism is intimately linked to imperialism. As Putin repeats in his interviews, presidents change, but the officialdon and its interests and preferred policies stay the same, so I think there would be sufficient fascist momentum both within the bureaucracy and from the Republican party (especially if the Christo-fascist evangelicals support him and the neocons fall in line). I don't think a Trump government is going to lack for competent fascists.
I could be wrong, but I think when we focus so much on Trump we can slip into 'Great-Man' theory (which i'm guilty of as well).
All I'm saying is that I personally think they'd be equally fucked up, especially if you're a racial minority or LGBT.
ok, definitely fair. i suppose i would still give a slight edge to desantis simply due to trump's narcissistic penchant for fucking up the well-greased wheels.
Yh I know that, at least on my end, there's a kind of morbid fascination with Trump, partly because it really can be funny how insanely ridiculous he is, that means that I feel the temptation to join in with the semin-ironic championing of him over Desantis. But yh at the end of the day Trump also mass murdered people through COVID negligeance, did a bunch of fascist shit, and we know how he behaves around women. I'll still indulge the 'our big wet beautiful orange boi' cos its jokes but in more lucid moments I gotta remind myself I'd put them roughly equally low down in hell.
I think Desantis is more motivated than Trump and has a much clearer game plan for taking dictatorial control over the country.
Liberals are dumb. They still think of Trump as some kind of alien invader from satan hell instead of, like, the most painfully American president ever. I suspect a lot of them genuinely think that
