Xanthor's Perfect Cromulence

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America needs a new FDR.

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In this Roman mosaic, the Greek phrase for 'know thyself' is written beneath the skeleton figure.

The mosaic once decorated the floor of a tomb on the Via Appia in Rome. It was discovered in 1865 near Santa Maria Nova, in the vicinity of the Villa dei Quintili. Dating back to the 2nd century AD, the artwork is currently on display in the Terme di Diocleziano section of the Museo Nazionale Romano.

The inscription at the bottom, ΓΝΩΘΙ ϹΑΥΤΟΝ, is the Greek phrase γνῶθι σαυτόν, or gnōthi sauton. It translates to 'know thyself.' This saying was one of the ancient maxims associated with the Temple of Apollo at Delphi.

In a Roman context, this phrase didn't just mean knowing your character. It also carried another meaning: know your limits, know that you're human, and know that you're mortal.

That's why the reclining posture of the skeleton is significant. Resting against a cushion, the figure evokes the tradition of reclining that we recognize from Roman banquet scenes. However, this mosaic doesn't come from a dining room, but from a tomb setting on the Via Appia.

The concept of death wasn't foreign to Roman banquet and dining culture, either. Two silver goblets adorned with skeletons from the Boscoreale treasure serve as a similar reminder: conveying to the drinker that life's short and death is inevitable...

Yes, it absolutely does!

Propaganda is baked into our daily reality so seamlessly and thoroughly that it mostly feels like common sense.

It's why we defend brands like they're old friends.

It's why we discuss celebrities we've never met and who don't know we exist as if we know their hearts, defending or condemning them based on how talented their publicists are.

It's why we confuse relatability for trustworthiness

It's why we mistake emotional resonance for moral principles.

It's why we think our opinions are purely self-generated despite being nudged by countless carefully curated narratives which have more (and more subtle) ways of reaching us than at any time in human history.

It's why we treat people's lives, public policy, and geopolitical matters like team sports.

It's why we need to constantly interrogate our own assumptions, habitually subjecting them to fact checking, methodical scrutiny, and cynicism.

It's why we need media literacy and media ecology to be taught to kids of all ages.

It's why everyone should read Orwell, Huxley, Neil Postman, and Marshal McLuhan.

It's why we should all study logic, rhetoric, and ethics - so we can understand and apply moral reasoning based on principles.

The point isn't whether or not we're affected by propaganda, because we all are.

The point is whether or not we know we're affected...which ironically is the exact blind spot that makes people think they're immune.

The moment you assume you're above that influence? That's when it's working best.

That's why, Anon, the post you're responding to didn't say "you are not immune to propoganda."

It said:

If you think you're immune to propaganda, that means the propaganda is working.

That was what...500 words? So Anon's problem is aliteracy.

"You're right! No one is! That's why we all have to put constant effort into identifying and resisting harmful propaganda!"

Option one: The murder victim was innocent while the killer was an abusive bastard, see Speckled Band. Conclusion, arrest and have the killer charged (Or in the case of Speckled Band, indirectly murder him yourself then shrug and go home)

they were POPULAR

the Victorians LIKED reading about women who won out over shitty men in their lives, even when that plotline reaffirmed a woman’s power and agency or put an active sexist in his place (ie Irene Adler besting Holmes)