Arnaud
24d ago
An individual didn't; Roman peasants didn't supplicate the gods in penance for their sins, personally. The senate managed the relationship between the Romans(all of them) and the gods.
This is simply incorrect, individuals routinely made offerings to gods, both minor and major, to try and influence events in their life. IE, a Roman sailor might give an offering to Neptune to protect him on his next voyage, or a soldier might do the same to Mars to protect him before a battle. Also you don't seem to grasp the primarily transactional nature of a lot of (most? all??) polytheistic ancient religions, you offer things to the gods because you want them to intercede on your behalf, in the same way that you might try to bribe a judge or a prominent politician. You worship and flatter the gods because they are powerful and can do things for you, not because they are paragons of morality.
I would also add that trying to reduce the worldviews of all the members of "traditional societies" into less than a paragraph is nonsensical, there were major differences in worldview between a Roman alive during the reign of Augustus and a Roman that was alive during the reign of Diocletian, let alone between an Assyrian labourer and a Gothic chieftain. The omnipresent threat of bandits and pirates puts paid to the idea that ancient societies were a monolith, before we even talk about the various historical\mythical figures who were very much just in it for themselves (Odysseus being a personal favourite of mine).
I think this has become a growing pet peeve of mine, listening to people try and make political points by referring to a funhouse mirror version of history that they have in their heads. It happens right across the political spectrum and I understand that by the nature of things no one will ever have a truly accurate understanding of the way things were (in fact I think nobody will ever truly have an accurate understanding of the way things are at any point in time), but I swear to god if I see one more twitter account with a greek statue profile picture complaining about how degenerate the modern world is, with its homos and pedophiles, I'm going to have an aneurysm.
Arnaud
1mo ago
The program that worked best for me (a man in his twenties) and my dad (a man in his fifties) was Stronglifts 5x5.
In both cases we made fairly rapid and sustained strength gains, it requires practically no thinking since you just slot your stats into a spreadsheet and it plans your progression out for you. Don't make the mistake I did and think you can skip ahead a few weeks at the start because the weight seems kind of small, it goes up pretty damn quick.
You can also transition straight into Madcow 5x5 when you're up to intermediate lifting.
Also I would also second the motion that cardio be added to your routine in some form, stretching is also a good idea but I've never been able to get that habit to stick, so I would feel something of a hypocrite. From personal experience I would say that getting enough protein, sleep and making sure to actually listen to your body and not push yourself beyond your limits is often enough to prevent injury, I say this as the weightlifter that has had the least injuries among all the weightlifters I know.
Arnaud
8mo ago
You say context matters and then proceed to ignore the context that this is a discussion of immigration to Britain and that "recent' in this context is a lot longer than you seem to assume.
Arnaud
8mo ago
Speaking as someone who is British I would consider someone a "recent" immigrant if their family has only lived in Britain for the past few hundred years. Once you're past the three hundred year mark I think you probably have some right to be called local.
Arnaud
10mo ago
There is no reason except the donors to value Israel higher than Palestine.
Well I can think of a few, the israelis are culturally much closer to the west than the palestinians, which breeds sympathy. Frankly I don't think Palestine would enjoy any western support were it not for general ignorance of most westerners to palestinian culture and a certain knee jerk reaction among some westerners to support any underdog or group that opposes the west.
To western sensibilities the palestinians are barbarous and generally unpleasant. I personally find their combination of weakness and belligerence to be particularly repellant, demanding humane treatment that they themselves would never even consider granting their enemies were the situations reversed.
Arnaud
10mo ago
I'd sincerely appreciate reading a more detailed analysis if you think I'm wrong.
I'd love to provide you one but I'm unfortunately pretty ill at the moment and frankly barely have the energy to try and remember where I read what.
That said, I don't know anything about Latin American coups, my knowledge mostly comes from post-colonial Africa and Southeast Asia as well as a more generalist book on coups whose name I can't remember at the moment.
widespread support from the rank and file military. The purpose of taking over the radio station and local telephone exchange was not to prevent the average private from realizing what's going on, but rather to prevent the people outside the military from coordinating (both armed resistance and escape plans).
Not all coups are the same, if you don't have widespread support from the rank and file military and instead only have a core cadre of (mostly senior) officers then the lower ranks need to be kept in the dark. An example I can recall off the top of my head is the 1963 coup in South Vietnam, the wikipedia section I've linked there is a pretty good example of a coup executed in that fashion. As for seizing the radio station, there are multiple benefits but in most cases I'm aware of they are mostly used for trumpeting the coups story to the high heavens in an attempt to control the narrative.
Arnaud
10mo ago
He probably didn't have much actual support and had to resort to mostly using troops that weren't actually in on the whole plan, these troops later find out what is actually going on and withdraw because they didn't sign up to topple the government.
It's not something you see much of nowadays because this particular approach relies on confusion reigning for long enough for you to have effectively seized control and be able to present a fait accompli. Back in the day you'd just have to seize the palace, the radio station, local telephone exchange and key roads, start pumping out your story (We are protecting the constitution/rights of the people/democracy/etc/etc) and you're in with a chance. Nowadays the sitting members of government just hop on twitter and go "This is a coup" and it all disintegrates.
It seems this General was rather too retro for his own good.
I know you say that Warhammer isn't for you, but I would actually recommend you give the Ciaphas Cain series a go, it's very different from anything else in Warhammer, very light hearted, fun and unusually sensible for the setting.
Similarly I would suggest for Warhammer Fantasy the Gotrek and Felix series, at least up to Beastslayer, after which I've found myself falling off the series. It's good fun fantasy adventuring, the first book is different from the others in that it's more of an anthology of short adventures rather than a single narrative. I quite enjoyed it but the second books introduction of the skaven and their schemes really adds a lot of humour.
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