Nietzsche1793

Definitions are for words, not for people.

[fongus-the-ninth]

[stillnaomi]

using violence to liberate people from sweatshops, unsafe mines, and grinding poverty isn't the same as using violence to impose those things on people. the idea that violence is morally repugnant regardless of context is a belief that every oppressor throughout history would love for the oppressed to hold

[unbossed-deactivated20251218]

“Nonviolence declares that the American Indians could have fought off Columbus, George Washington, and all the other genocidal butchers with sit-ins; that Crazy Horse, by using violent resistance, became part of the cycle of violence, and as “as bad as” Custer. Nonviolence declares that Africans could have stopped the slave trade with hunger strikes and petitions, and that those who mutinied were as bad as their captors; that mutiny, a form of violence, led to more violence, and, thus, resistance led to more enslavement. Nonviolence refuses to recognize that it can only work for privileged people, who have a status protected by violence, as the perpetrators and beneficiaries of violent hierarchy.”

— Peter Gelderloos, How Nonviolence Protects the State (via shephilosophy)

[introspectres]

moray eel + skeleton for a printmaking class

[philosophybits]

“To be governed is to be watched over, inspected, spied on, directed, legislated at, regulated, docketed, indoctrinated, preached at, controlled, assessed, weighed, censored, ordered about, by men who have neither the right, nor the knowledge, nor the virtue.”

— Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, General Idea of the Revolution

[philosophybits]

“It’s the well-behaved children that make the most formidable revolutionaries. They don’t say a word, they don’t hide under the table, they eat only one piece of chocolate at a time. But later on, they make society pay dearly.”

— Jean-Paul Sartre, Dirty Hands

[creekfiend]

I also think it's interesting that I have seen the sentiment "well people set things in monarchy because it is relatively easy for readers to understand the politics of that setting" expressed several times in this conversation, because I think that just proves my point actually. unexamined Fantasy European Monarchy actually has very little to do with how the societies that that world is based on functioned in real life. that universal Fantasy Monarchy Setting is reflective of our society's modern understandings and beliefs about the past and the world.

most people would not actually find it mindlessly easy to comprehend the politics and culture of an aristocratic medieval court, or whatever! because that's not a society that we live in today, and societies other than our own are more difficult for us to wrap our heads around.

the assumption that there are certain societies in the past that we can project ourselves backwards onto without considering how those societies actually functioned is itself often a function of modern nationalism and other such ideologies. I think that this is all just stuff that is really important and interesting to think about and it will make for stronger and better storytelling. and also contribute to a better understanding of the world in which we currently live, as a bonus.

[qsycomplainsalot]

Part of it is that monarchy's never been the one system of government, and while the absolute monarchy of the modern era where the monarch was both the head of state and government seems easier to understand, feudalism is a whole other can of worm that much too often gets reduced to MLM.

[reflectiverecursion]

Came to read some pointed irony and sarcasm but Robespierre got too real again

[nietzsche813]

A cup of depresso.

[depsidase]

[philosophybits]

“With despair, true optimism begins: the optimism of the man who expects nothing, who knows he has no rights and nothing coming to him, who rejoices in counting on himself alone and in acting alone for the good of all.”

— Jean-Paul Sartre, Characterizations of Existentialism

[transmonk]

I should be able to read books in one second because I need to know everything

[philosophybits]

“Boredom is a kind of yearning towards an ideal pleasure.”

— Immanuel Kant, Observations on the Feeling of the Beautiful and Sublime (Remarks)

[radical-revolution]

[philosophybits]

“The more I love humanity in general, the less I love man in particular.”

— Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov

[natalieironside]

You should never create anything with a wide audience in mind. The so-called "general audience" doesn't exist; it's a fiction made up by advertising executives. Most of the time, great art and literature is made with the intention of pleasing no more than 4 or 5 specific perverts of the author's acquaintance

[nietzsche813]

I went to the Thermidor commemoration at the Panthéon last july, and before going in, while we were waiting on the steps, one of the organisers called out for "Maximilien", a member who was supposed to give a speech. Following that three people stepped forward, believing they had been called, and I must admit it made me a bit emotional.

"Je vous laisse ma mémoire. Elle vous sera chère et vous la défendrez."

[vendemiairism]

A very happy start of Year 234 day. Welcome to Vendemiaire of a new year!