and if you read theory, it’s just a detailed explanation of capitalism! Nobody actually has a concrete, actionable prescription of how to make “the good society”, just a general sense that something better is possible if we start doing something with what we already have

everyone’s all for enthralling randos on the internet, but as soon as they ask A/S/L suddenly its gone to far

Facebook type posting

Do you count the Byzantine as separate or the same as Rome?

Your talking about structures comprising huge numbers of people across multiple generations. There is no clear “death”. Just the gradual shifting from one set of conditions to another. Pick any line in the sand, declare it to be the “end” of an empire, and you’ll still find people living under its rules, speaking the language, and using the currency well afterward.

Hell, look at Britain. No longer the globe-strangling power that they were, but it’s still the same country with the same rules and government and money.

throw in a smattering of aristocratic titles, and yeah that describes UK politics.

Ok, but that’s a select group of people who choose to spend their free time typing about politics online. If you look at the actual election results, it would appear to back up the claim you’re quoting.

random people who happen to vote for a Republican or a Democrat aren’t to blame, sure

but the actual Republicans and Democrats; the representatives, the party functionaries, the people who’s checks are signed by the RNC or the DNC? Those people certainly deserve some blame.

Pretty sure polar ice caps are still shrinking.

Sorry the consequences of industry aren’t snappy enough for your short attention span, I guess?

Yeah yeah, you see the individual and not the historical pattern.

Isn’t it funny that the US keeps doing this? The presidents are incidental, flitting in and out of office with the whim of the public. But the conflicts? Those last. Nuclear rockets parked in Yugoslavia one century, flooding Ukraine with weapons the next. You know children in Vietnam are, to this day, born with napalm induced complications?

Doesn’t this all ring a little too familiar to you? Do you think maybe our grandparents had cute little nicknames for Khrushchev, comparing him to Hitler, when they were our age?

Amazing, a century latter the blame is still squarely placed on Russia. Those people must not be capable of self-determination, am I right my good Cold Warrior? Good thing we had this stockpile of depleted uranium, by jingo! So what if it leaches into the groundwater? Canadian mining firms have been poisoning Ukrainian groundwater for decades now! What’s a little rare-earth-elements between allies, amiright?

They outlawed starting a conversation in Russian. It was criminal for a business not first say something in Ukrainian. Like, imagine if Arizona tried to pass a law that criminalized conducting business in Spanish.

Induced demand – the production of weapons necessitates the use of weapons in order to keep shares from crashing. Like a shoe factory regularly changing the design and fashion to keep from flooding the market, blood is spilled to keep the 401Ks safe.

Welcome to the Second Cold War, you’ve been here along.