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[–] 23 points 8 months ago (6 children)

Is there an empire NOT built on genocide, slavery, and bloodshed? Genuinely curious.

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  • [–] 15 points 8 months ago (2 children)

    Empire of the Sun (band) has not enslaved or genocided any cultures or groups I am aware of

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  • [–] 2 points 8 months ago

    It is like asking is their a country that isn't fascist. The answer is there is none.

    When people start recognizing that countries are the problem and not the solution we will be one step closer to being free.

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  • [–] 1 point 8 months ago

    Really hard to build an empire without it.

    Because to have an empire, you have to rule over a lot of people. Many of those people would rather not be ruled by you. If you want to force them to accept it anyway, you're going to need some of that genocide, slavery, and especially bloodshed.

    Though, I suppose, maybe 2/3 of those aren't really necessary.

    • Genocide probably isn't absolutely necessary to empire-building. Definitely still have to kill lots of people, but there's no particular reason you need to do so on the basis of race or ethnicity. (Though if you count cultural genocide as well, that may very well be necessary to build an empire. Difficult to bring diverse peoples under one banner without suppressing their cultural differences.)

    • Slavery is a big probably. It certainly does help -- after all, your growing empire will need lots of labor, and it's unlikely you can afford to pay the going market rate for it. Plus, if you don't use slavery, you'll probably be out-competed by other potential empires that are using slavery and/or slavery-adjacent labor practices. But I suppose it's not technically absolutely necessary. Theoretically, at least, you could build an empire without slavery.

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  • [–] 48 points 8 months ago (10 children)

    This isn't science; it's a political meme. I know you're a mod, but this breaks rule 2 (it is not on topic for a science community).

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  • [–] 21 points 8 months ago (2 children)

    Political and scientific are not, in fact, mutually exclusive

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  • [–] 12 points 8 months ago

    There's an intersection of politics and science and this isn't anywhere close to it. Meme about research funding or the astroturfed anti-intellectualism fucking our progress on vaccinations.

    This is just a milquetoast leftist tagline with some science words stapled to it.

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  • [–] 0 points 8 months ago* (6 children)

    This is clearly both botanical and political. And if a mod is posting it, it would fit within the spirit of the rule intended.

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  • [–] 13 points 8 months ago (4 children)

    "mods are always right" is an insane take

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  • [–] 14 points 8 months ago* (1 child)
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    [–] 10 points 8 months ago* (2 children)

    Breaking your own rules. Nice.

    Who else do we know that does that? 🙄

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  • [–] 10 points 8 months ago (1 child)

    Not a science meme. Dear American liberals of the internet,

    Please stop bringing bringing your politics in places it shouldn't be in. We know your country sucks. Can we please just be autistic and enjoy our science memes?

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  • [–] 2 points 8 months ago

    you mean like all empires in history?

    like England, Russia, Germany, Spain, France, etc...

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  • [–] 1 point 8 months ago

    No shit, who thinks that??

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