Cripple. History Major. Irritable and in constant pain. Vaguely Left-Wing.

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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: July 21st, 2023

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  • Firms driven by transient investors act as entities independent from society entirely. Each one is focused only on maximizing profit to please investors; the investors, likewise, are only interested in the next quarter, because at any given time they can take their investment and sell it. They are simultaneously putting money into renewables, but only insofar as it is profitable; as long as fossil fuels (still the larger portion of energy generation in most places) are more profitable, they will put more money into it. A self-feeding cycle which starves renewables.

    The thing that is sometimes misunderstood by a disdain for the owner class is the incoherence of the owner class. They don’t make plans. Even their alignments are only because of common interests (such as ‘let the ultrawealthy investors make more money from their shitty investments’), not ideology or long-term plans.
























  • Interesting thought. Indeed, the person might think it’s some sort of exotic bolt thrower.

    Pliny: “Fascinating! May I see it? I’m interested in this machine’s functioning!”

    Me, overwhelmed by the interest of such an illustrious scholar: “Oh, of course!”

    Pliny: “How does it activate?”

    Me: “You just point it at what you want to kill and pull the trigger, which launches the projectile.”

    Pliny, pointing the pistol at me: “You are going to help me rescue Pomponianus.”


  • Explanation: A rare bit of OC from me modifying the “Just as the Founding Fathers intended” copypasta.

    “Mehercules” is “By Hercules!”, a common Roman exclamation. A gladius is a Roman shortsword, made for stabbing, but as incidents against Greek troops demonstrate, also very capable of lopping off limbs with hacks and slashes. A pilum is a javelin. “Ubi mel, ibi apes” means “Where there’s honey, there’s bees!” A scorpio is a small artillery piece generally used for firing bolts, but sometimes used for specialist ammunition like pots filled with flammable material. Vigiles were Roman town watch/firefighters, and in the city of Rome itself, they actually did maintain some catapults for the purpose of quickly demolishing burning buildings in especially fire-prone areas. Better to lose one building than the whole block! A pugio is a Roman military dagger.

    “Conscript Fathers” is another name for the Roman Senate, as the idea was that the Senate was comprised of men who were elderly (and thus the fathers in their household) and regardless of whether or not they willed it. In theory. In practice, becoming a Senator was pretty highly desired, but the Romans did love their false modesty regarding power. “No, no, I couldn’t POSSIBLY accept a position of authority… unless… you were to insist… 👉👈🥺”



  • Interesting thought. Indeed, the person might think it’s some sort of exotic bolt thrower.

    Pliny, as an extremely well-educated man, actually wrote a bit on chemical and incendiary weapons at the time. So while the notion of the chemicals being a propellant would be foreign to him, a warning shot from the smoke-and-thunder tube would probably give him a good basic idea of what he was facing - a machine that inflicted some form of harm via a projectile accompanied by fire and chemicals.