this post was submitted on 11 Aug 2023
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Most of the time when people say they have an unpopular opinion, it turns out it's actually pretty popular.

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[โ€“] shinigamiookamiryuu@lemm.ee 22 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Ironically I foreshadowed one of these on one of my recently previous comments. The Greeks/Spartans are wayyyy overrated as far as history goes, as in I couldn't not understate how overrated they are. None of their claims to fame are wholly true in the least. For example, they were said to have invented democracy, but every two rulers was a tyrant who justified their tyranny with the fact Zeus himself was a tyrant. He and the other gods were always justified in that "they're the gods, they can do what they want", which would make sense if they were creator gods, but legend has it Zeus fought the creator god... and ate him... for power, and then presided over the gods for eternity, because apparently the democratic process (which didn't include women, immigrants, or non-home-owners anyways) does not befit the gods and so you have a mentally ill, Typhon-obsessed role model at the helm. They spend their days indulging themselves at the expense of others in such an extreme way that they make it sound like asexuality didn't exist, because it was the Greek view that human nature was the same for everyone. And this tyranny they tried spreading all over the world because they thought it was what democracy was, which brings us to Alexander the Great, the world's most undeserving "great" conqueror. Imagine trying to enact revenge for a conquest on your land that happened more than two hundred years ago, having the historical records lie to inflate you, and once you get even with your enemies, decide that while you're at it you should conquer people further East, all while being unable to actually properly care for the lands you conquered.

I am currently taking history and get tired of seeing people say "the Greeks were the best". When the Ottomans invaded Greece, the love was so great that people volunteered from random nations to travel to Greece to fight the Ottomans. I don't care for the Ottomans, but where was this love for, say, Iceland, who had a better democracy? Or the Iroquois who also had an actual democracy? Online and in movies, Greece gets all the exposure.

[โ€“] squaresinger@feddit.de 6 points 1 year ago

Greece is just the ancient version of the USA.