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Ettore Costa @ettorrecos.bsky.social · 1d

“The moral decadence of BC: From Johnny Hart to Johnny Hard”

Ettore Costa @ettorrecos.bsky.social · 1d

A central point I teach in my course on the welfare state is that before the early social legislation in the late nineteenth century, common people only knew the states as the sergeant, the policeman and the taxman, while the modern state is an insurance company with an army

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Ettore Costa @ettorrecos.bsky.social · 4d

You reminded me that there was a minuscule Italian party that Forrest Gumped the last two decades of politics —https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberal_Democrats_(Italy) — and they recently founded a new one with a similar name — en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberal... . I’ll go back to forgetting them

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberal_Democrats_(Italy)—

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Ettore Costa @ettorrecos.bsky.social · 4d

One of the biggest differences between Ancient and Modern slavery was manumission. It was extremely common AND you got full citizenship. Roman freedmen climbed the social ladder, US freedmen were still second class citizens EVEN a century after slavery was fully abolished

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Ettore Costa @ettorrecos.bsky.social · 4d

Plautus and Terence — maybe freedmen themselves — had “being freed” as a stock happy ending and “kidnapped by pirates (slavers)” as the set-up. It was relatable for the audience as it is for us “winning the lottery/medical bankruptcy”

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Ettore Costa @ettorrecos.bsky.social · 4d

Early modern and modern slavery justification: Some races are made to serve up
Classical slavery justification: The goddess Fortune throws her dice. Sometimes you get to be a slave, sometimes a slaver, sometimes you switch

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Ettore Costa @ettorrecos.bsky.social · 6d

Something that Twilight Zone understood better than Black Mirror: “It’s never technology, it’s always human nature”

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Ettore Costa @ettorrecos.bsky.social · 8d

Unfortunately, today's "Dennis the Menace" is amazingly accurate. My mother designs high-precision scientific instruments that go on satellites, but she is constantly frustrated by navigating a smart TV

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Ettore Costa @ettorrecos.bsky.social · 8d

Italian has some words you only use when translating Latin, like "codesto" (iste) and "affinché" (ut). This is also a class marker, because you could tell who has attended a school with Latin (Liceo or even middle school before 1962) because they use "affinché" in ordinary speech

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Ettore Costa @ettorrecos.bsky.social · 9d

“Yes! A terrible pain on the arm! Wait, it’s the right arm! When will my time come?!”

Ettore Costa @ettorrecos.bsky.social · 9d

The real military joke would be that “working remotely” is doing drone strikes and cyberattacks, but what does Beetle Bailey knows about the actual military?

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Ettore Costa @ettorrecos.bsky.social · 9d

“What do you think I am made of? I want your opinion, because this monk kept talking of vegetative, animal and rational souls and how my body is matter and form and four elements of fire, water, earth and air… it was very confusing! I should have asked for clarification before killing him!”

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Ettore Costa @ettorrecos.bsky.social · 10d

Excuse me, but the Académie Française has spoken and that word should be translated into “déclic”. Down with les Anglo-Saxons!

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Ettore Costa @ettorrecos.bsky.social · 11d

Good to know where you are, not to call for help

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Ettore Costa @ettorrecos.bsky.social · 11d

Classic case of “I’m very competent in one field, so I can branch into other fields with little preparation”. His columns still make good point — yes, even the hated Blueskyism one —, but you have to remove all the ornaments, style and ideological digressions

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Ettore Costa @ettorrecos.bsky.social · 11d

There’s a lesson here: when you are lost in the middle of nowhere without cell reception, you can either rely on the telepathy of a child of the damned or you can have a Starlink subscription. Pick you abomination against God!

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Ettore Costa @ettorrecos.bsky.social · 12d

Yes, it's called Opera. Our CEO would be more interesting if they took devious inspiration from Don Giovanni or the Duke in Rigoletto, rather than Tony Stark

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Ettore Costa @ettorrecos.bsky.social · 12d

True Millennial agitprop: “You think polycules are annoying? Meet Leroy and Loretta!”

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Ettore Costa @ettorrecos.bsky.social · 13d

All artistic deconstructions and reinterpretations of Homer and Virgil end up being less complex and nuanced than the original thing. Western literature peaked early

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Ettore Costa @ettorrecos.bsky.social · 14d

The Queen of Bithynia, "every man's wife and every woman's husband"

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Ettore Costa @ettorrecos.bsky.social · 14d

Contingency played a big role in the return of Charles II, so you could see Britain going the Dutch or Swiss route. Then you could have Europe split between Calvinist Republics (Britain, Netherlands, Switzerland), Lutheran limited monarchies and Catholic absolute monarchies

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Ettore Costa @ettorrecos.bsky.social · 14d

Weirdo who has intense hatred for agriculture is either a lunatic screaming at the street corner or one of the most quoted social scientists around (James C. Scott)

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Ettore Costa @ettorrecos.bsky.social · 15d

If God (Moy) gets to kill Mary before she kills Wilbur I will be... well, not enraged. More like perplexed

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Ettore Costa @ettorrecos.bsky.social · 15d

That's Bogomil erasure, need also a Bulgarian flag

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Reposted by Ettore Costa

Josh Fruhlinger @jfruh.bsky.social · 16d

sorry this is so stupid

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