this post was submitted on 08 May 2025
60 points (100.0% liked)
askchapo
22987 readers
87 users here now
Ask Hexbear is the place to ask and answer ~~thought-provoking~~ questions.
Rules:
-
Posts must ask a question.
-
If the question asked is serious, answer seriously.
-
Questions where you want to learn more about socialism are allowed, but questions in bad faith are not.
-
Try !feedback@hexbear.net if you're having questions about regarding moderation, site policy, the site itself, development, volunteering or the mod team.
founded 4 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
It's basically a bunch of bullshit the amcient Greeks thought about others, especially Persia, that has been transmitted with little changes through thousands of years through "western" culture, though who exactly the "west" and what the "orient" is has changed.
The west is full of free individuals, the east are unthinking slaves to despots. Western men are properly masculine, eastern men are either effeminate or have a savage, animal masculinity. Eastern women are titillating and "exotic". Westerners are brave and noble warriors, easterners are a disorganized "horde", if they ever win its just cuz they have superior numbers and no regard for human life. Only the west has real civilization, others are either savages or overly civilized or "decadent" Etc. Etc.
Once you know about it, you see it fucking everywhere, throughout contemporary society and going back literally thousands of years in history, literature, philosophy, etc. It's sickening. The "west" needs to be destroyed, materially, morally, ideologically.
Like think about the myth of Thermopylae: 300 brave Greeks sacrificed themselves holding off the countless Persian hordes, keeping the Greeks free of the despotic Persian empire.
(Just ignore the thousands of Greeks that were there who weren't the 300 Spartans, the fact that Sparya wasn't exactly a free society, that Persia was a better society in basically every way, that the reason they didn't conquer the rest of Greece was more that their supply lines were stretched that far away from thier power base, etc)
We tell ourselves the same sorta myths now
Thats more Athens. Sparta wasnt even a village, it was three hamlets and was almost run neoliberal and build on a perpetual enslaved class. Sparta became a myth and a tourist trap for romans and were defeated by an army of consensual similarly aged gay lovers.