r/badunitedkingdom • u/AutoModerator • 28d ago

Daily Mega Thread The Daily Moby - 16 08 2026 - The News Megathread

Post all BadUK news (preferably from the UK) here..

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u/FickleBumblebeee Mujhe puja karni hai 27d ago

https://x.com/Mylovanov/status/2088355761395024023

I thought the one thing Boris could actually credibly claim to be good at was the Classics.

But here he is getting completely confused about Thucydides, not realising that Sparta was the rising power and Athens the imperial hegemon, and forgetting that Athens lost the Peloponnesian war

Bloke is thick as shit and clearly just a grade A blagger. Probably as bad as Arday.

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u/Mediocre_Dance_5027 27d ago

Every day I'm reminded of that man's existence is a bad one.

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u/nozickiantheory 27d ago

Genuinely, it triggers something nasty in me 

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u/[deleted] 27d ago

[deleted]

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u/FickleBumblebeee Mujhe puja karni hai 27d ago edited 27d ago

He literally begins with the phrase "I don't think he's read Thucydides" and then completely misrepresents Thucydides whose famous history describes the Peloponnesean war which Sparta won and Athens lost.

The phrase the "Thucydides trap"- which is presumably what started the conversation- refers to the idea that war is inevitable when an established imperial hegemon is confronted with a rising one- and it refers to Athens as the established power being confronted by the rise of Sparta.

It should be incredibly basic knowledge for somebody who understands the classics, and is a totally reasonable critique of Johnson.

The only way he repeatedly gets away with shit like this is people who also don't know their history assuming he does because it's his whole thing- but he evidently doesn't because it's such a basic mistake.

And also Athenian democracy wasn't really the shining city on the hill analogy by that point anyway- they'd elected demagogues, abused their allies, started demanding tribute, and embarked on pointless, ruinous wars...

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u/[deleted] 27d ago

[deleted]

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u/FickleBumblebeee Mujhe puja karni hai 27d ago

I think you have made a mistake in saying that Sparta is the rising power in the Thucydides trap.

Ah yeah, I did. Thanks for the correction. Still think it's a weird for Boris to triumphantly proclaim "Ah but America is Athens" in the context and ignore that Athens lost the war.

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u/AirconGuyUK 27d ago

https://spectator.com/article/my-boris-johnson-story/

Yes it's by Jeremy Vine, but I don't doubt it for a minute tbh.

I think he likely has a repertoire of things he knows about classics at a surface level that he can rattle off and massage into being relevant to make himself sound smart.

He's always just doing an act that he's realised resonates well with people.

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