I am reading Gibbon's Decline and Fall, which I highly recommend every serious Veeky Forumstorian to read for pleasure and for knowledge >but muh Gibbon is wrong True, but get a book with corrections in the footnotes
Anyway aside from the whole Christianity destroying the Empire, another major tenant of Gibbon is that the Decline started after Marcus Aurelius.
Given the current political state of the United States, can we say it's the beginning of the Decline?
Take a look at Obama (Marcus) >Obama is Marcus Aurelius the last good Emperor >Obama is calculated >scholarly >a man of knowledge >meditative
Now Trump (Commodus) >showy >watches TV for 8 hours a day (modern day gladiators) >says stupid things >country is in upheaval >everyone hates him >people are plotting his demise >has a superinflated ego
Is the USA in Decline mode?
Liam Nguyen
please don't
Eli Green
Obama was the guy who bailed out the big banks and destroyed two Islamic countries that Bush never touched so that ISIS could take over one and almost took over the other and reignited the Arab slave trade of Africans and caused the current migrant crisis right and meanwhile at home he used instances of criminals being shot to scapegoat whites and police to destabilize the country right?
Brody Hernandez
>do not start threads about events taking place less than 25 years ago
James Johnson
Your thread is both stupid and uninformed, as well as rulebreaking.
Fuck you.
Dominic Gomez
>comparing the rulers of a republic and an empire >pfft they're the same thing
Alexander Reed
Marcus and Commodus are older than 25 years
Lincoln Williams
You're completely retarded if you think either Trump is Commodus and Aurelius is Obama; neither of the have anything in common with their Roman comparison. You are blitheringly retarded.
Secondly, you're an even bigger retard for thinking the USA is at the "Empire" stage of the "hurr durr the USA is the Roman Empire!" comparison. One of the key tenets of this comparison is that the US is NOT at the Empire stage yet; it's still very far away from the unstable End of the Republic period.
I'm actually quite curious, did your mom drop you on your head or feed you paint chips as a child? Or was it both?
Lincoln Green
>Secondly, you're an even bigger retard for thinking the USA is at the "Empire" stage of the "hurr durr the USA is the Roman Empire!" comparison. One of the key tenets of this comparison is that the US is NOT at the Empire stage yet; it's still very far away from the unstable End of the Republic period.
What do you mean? The Republic period ended after the Civil War. Just like the Roman Republic, the Civil War resulted in more Federalism
John Lewis
>This board is dedicated to the discussion of history and the other humanities >For the purpose of determining what is history, please do not start threads about events taking place less than 25 years ago. Marcus is quite old
Jonathan Butler
>Implying we're not just past the Punic Wars and in the age of the Gracchi
Andrew Gomez
Trump and Obama are not.
Jason Walker
fuck off hall monitor
Dylan Perez
>Obama >Marcus Aurelius
You're so retarded it fucking hurts
Blake Howard
So, you only need some nazi referencees to make it the quintaessential Veeky Forums thread?
Brayden Torres
Yeah this was easily one of the top five most painful OP posts I've ever read
Caleb Sullivan
It's too late to apologize. IT'S TOO LATE.
Ian Powell
Gibbon is literally gay retarded trash Hang urself
Brody Mitchell
1. This post is rulebreaking. 2. Read Decline of the West by Oswald Spengler and see the real truth of the US' decline.
Kayden Morris
>boohoo he makes fun of us chr*stians
Benjamin Flores
So many triggered /pol/weenies itt. OP is right and you know it
Jayden Gonzalez
put me in the screencap
Elijah Adams
it's a work of literature. it's quite enjoyable to read unless you're a brainlet
Wyatt Young
>Read Decline of the West by Oswald Spengler and see the real truth of the US' decline. Can I get a quick rundown?
Brody Moore
>Whites >In America Shiggy
Oliver Morales
Shits fucked and whigs are fags
Aaron Morales
We literally are at the end of the republic stage; Trump is basically Marius
Austin Brooks
Oh cool, here I thought you were a huge fucking cocksucker talking about Obama and Trump. Carry on not talking about Obama and Trump.
Josiah Sanders
>Shits fucked and whigs are fags In the pantheon of "quick rundowns", that may be the quickest and most run down ever.
Henry Hall
>want to discuss Obama and Trump >add a thin veneer of history to post >they wont even notice!
Landon Jenkins
>Anyway aside from the whole Christianity destroying the Empire,
Which is total horse-shit. The real cause is the Crisis of the Third Century, and the Western Roman Empire not recovering from it, then not being able to pay for their empire and defense, then getting invaded by various tribes. The Eastern Half was Christian and survived until the Ottomans.
Declines and rises of Empires are ALWAYS boring shit like the economy, the climate, etc. Putting blame on "moral character", and personalities is an older method, back when less was known about these periods. We don't need these explanations anymore.
Isaac Clark
>He doesn't like Trump Go back to leftypol, soyboy
William Kelly
>The real cause is the Crisis of the Third Century, and the Western Roman Empire not recovering from it, then not being able to pay for their empire and defense, then getting invaded by various tribes Gibbon doesn't say it's the real cause but the Crisis started close after Commodus