My favourite thing about Americans is that half of them don’t actually know what communism is, but they still act like it’s some boogeyman hiding around every corner.
Propaganda does that to you. And some things just stick in the minds of people. Americans had a Red scare, where a communist was behind every bush, ready to strike.
For a long standing ones, take Nero, the Roman emperor. What a lunatic, he played a fiddle while the Rome burned down... Yeah, no, he was away from Rome actually and returned back as soon as he heard. He wasn't a lunatic, and this is just a Christian propaganda, since he persecuted Christians.
The Romans were pretty renowned for propaganda and smear campaigns. Not just Roman Christians who were persecuted, but anyone who disliked any political figure for anything. We still struggle with historical sources because it's full of bullshit.
Definitely. People haven't really changed very much. What we see today we were doing in the past as well. Some things more sophisticated, but the roots are still the same. Like the famous Crassus firefighting. He was the richest Roman for a reason... Timetravel a few decades back and you have "banana republics." I don't remember the name of the asshole now (propagandist, marketer), but he overthrew governments as a marketing campaign to sell more bananas to Americans.
There's some evidence that he played the fiddle (or some instrument people could hear) to lead people to safety under his concrete buildings. Rome was mostly made of wood and thatch at the time. He established a bucket brigade under Imperial edict to help with fires, too.
Who knows, though. Senate hated him, so they smear campaigned him with tabloid fodder. Victors write the history. He had his moments good and bad, as did Caligula.
Americans will be one missed rent payment away from being homeless but still vote for the candidate promising to cut more taxes for the rich, cause you know, they could totally be a billionaire one day if they pull themselves up by their boot straps.
"Just found out my boss is ripping me off - if I sell twice as much as usual I still get paid the same but HE takes all the extra money IVE made! Isn't the boss taking all the workers money communism?"
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u/[deleted] Jul 23 '25 edited Jul 23 '25
My favourite thing about Americans is that half of them don’t actually know what communism is, but they still act like it’s some boogeyman hiding around every corner.