this post was submitted on 19 Jul 2026
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[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Thinking about how Osprey, a publishing house almost entirely devoted to publishing military uniform/equipment fetish material disguised as dry but picture heavy non-fiction tomes, put out a book dismantling the right wing mythologization of Sparta with an absolute all-timer table of contents.

[–] andros_rex@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

I really like this professors demolishing of the mythos around Sparta.

Basically, Spartan society was always organized in a stupid and unsustainable way.

[–] AlteredEgo@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 day ago

Haha that is hilarious. This is the problem with taking your mythology or fantasy seriously. Thankfully it's no longer the 1940s or they'd burn all books that say otherwise.

The Bronze Lie Shattering the Myth of Spartan Warrior Supremacy - OsypreyPublishing

[–] sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com 36 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (4 children)

Well I mean, the Spartans famously held the invading Persians by making good strategic use of the surrounding terrain.

It was uh, the Athenians, with their Navy, under Pericles, that also basically did similar on the water, and was able to overperform via basically superior manuever.

So... the current situation is almost the perfect opposite.

Kegsbreath is basically 'fractally wrong', it gets more wrong the more you think about it.

We are invading, we have totally failed to read and well utilize the terrain and strategy, the engagement so far is much more naval than directly clashing ground forces...

This is why you don't 'promote' an O-4 Major to ... functionally O-11 (O-10 being a 5 Star General). He literally has no idea what the fuck he is doing, or even talking about.

His 'skill set' ends at the battalion level, 300-1200 troops, executing a specific task of limited scope in a specific area. He has literally no experience with actual strategy, only tactics, small scale logistics.

[–] EggInDisguise@lemmy.blahaj.zone 24 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I've met naval E-4s with more common sense, better strategic planning ability, and commanding more actual respect than Kegbreath..

I've also met toddlers with more emotional control.

[–] sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com 12 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Yeah I mean, I actually have as well.

Kegsbreath has more problems than simply being horrendously unqualified and incompetent.

[–] BeMoreCareful@lemmy.world 1 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Looks good in a suit though, right out of a movie!

[–] deadbeef79000@lemmy.nz 3 points 2 days ago

Every time is see a picture of him, I expect him to try and sell me a car, hair systems, or Viagra.

[–] sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 3 days ago

when you cast a random extra as the lead

[–] chaogomu@lemmy.world 15 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Hegseth was only O-4 at the end of his career, which was basically as a reservist, sidelined as an insider threat due to his white nationalist tattoos.

When Hegseth was an O-3, he was an instructor teaching counter-insurgency in Afghanistan. That was his entire time as O-3.

As a lieutenant, Hegseth 'commanded' a small squad stationed at Guantanamo Bay. That was his only experience in command.

[–] sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com 12 points 2 days ago

Jfc that's even worse.

He's basically a military motivational speaker. Explains his meathead nonsense he blathers even at formal press briefings.

I figured he would have at least had a command of a combat unit, in a war zone, at some point... apparently not?

[–] applebusch@lemmy.blahaj.zone 7 points 3 days ago (2 children)

i enjoy the phrase "fractally wrong". really encapsulates how hard it can be to refute someones bullshit when theres so many layers of wrong. like a flawed thesis built on the shoulders of a hundred other flawed theses so you cant even start to refute it without inadvertently endorsing some piece of it implicitly. its up there with "not even wrong" but less ambiguous.

[–] wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz 1 points 2 days ago

But then you cut straight to the root of all their assumptions and show how absurd that is, thinking they'll have the wherewithal to realize that it recursively debunks every belief or claim they've based upon it, but then they hit you with the "What does that have to do with this? Why are you changing the topic?"

That's when you know they can't be reasoned with...

[–] sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 3 days ago

I'm not 100% sure, but I think AronRa came up with it, or is at least the first person I've heard use it.

[–] wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz 2 points 2 days ago

Let's be honest, we all know he just watched the movie 300 and thought it was historically accurate...

I know people like him. They try to glean wisdom from media that was designed solely to entertain the unthinking masses in order to churn a profit. Damn fools is what they are.

[–] Archimedes@sh.itjust.works 28 points 3 days ago (3 children)

The SecDef thinks America is losing because the soldiers aren't manly enough 😂

[–] boonhet@sopuli.xyz 18 points 2 days ago

Maybe they're not gay enough if he wants them to be like the Spartans

[–] tazeycrazy@feddit.uk 5 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Spartan wives had to dress as men on there wedding night so as to no scare the men with there feminine ways. They had not yet seen girl from the time they where toddlers as they where training for war.

[–] Archimedes@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 days ago

Totally reasonable, hetero thing to do.

[–] HugeNerd@lemmy.ca 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)
[–] M137@lemmy.today 0 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Thanks, keep doing the good work. It never stops being unbelievable how people are so unable to learn basic spelling and grammar, and by proof it's mostly people who have English as their native language who make the errors.

[–] Railcar8095@lemmy.world 5 points 2 days ago

Only manly men can click on "fire tomahawk" icon.

[–] SabinStargem@lemmy.today 10 points 2 days ago (1 children)
[–] bitteroldcoot@piefed.social 17 points 3 days ago (7 children)

Weren’t the spartinas gay child molesters?

It’s been a while since I read about them, but they were really fucked up dudes.

[–] 13igTyme@piefed.social 17 points 3 days ago (1 children)

The child molestation was disturbingly common in many cultures back then.

As for the gay. They would still typically have wives and children, but would bath each other and have sex before battle. I'd call them bi.

[–] bitteroldcoot@piefed.social 3 points 3 days ago (1 children)
[–] saltesc@lemmy.world 2 points 3 days ago

The Republicans wouldn't make the short march from Sparti to the valley, let alone do anything with their dress up gear if they managed to get there.

[–] mirshafie@europe.pub 13 points 2 days ago

90% of their population were slaves and they were incredibly cruel to them. Sparta was so backwards that Athens almost sided with Persia.

[–] Sludgehammer@lemmy.world 14 points 3 days ago

Weren’t the spartinas gay child molesters?

Is it any surprise the Republicans look up to them?

[–] Viceversa@lemmy.world 4 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Part of me wants to argue, that at the time it was normal

The other part reminds me, that we live now.

[–] Rothe@piefed.social 0 points 2 days ago (1 children)

It was not normal then either.

[–] Viceversa@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

How so? Were they ostracized or persecuted for it?

[–] resipsaloquitur@lemmy.cafe 3 points 3 days ago

Fits right in with this admin.

[–] Malyca@lemmy.zip 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Yes, those things happened there. But women could also own property in Lakonia. It was progressive in some ways, barbaric in others.

[–] tempest@lemmy.ca 3 points 2 days ago

Like all things context is important. They may have been better or worse in a number of ways that don't fit in to a 30s tiktok analysis

[–] Sho@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago

They were incredibly gay

[–] lechekaflan@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Shitget watched too much of 300.

Such a rear-echelon motherfucker.

[–] HerbGrower@slrpnk.net 1 points 1 day ago

NATO boy love is non negotiable!

[–] Lushed_Lungfish@lemmy.ca 1 points 2 days ago

Well they got their asses handed to them by the Thebans, famous for the entirely gay Sacred Band...

[–] culprit@lemmy.ml 4 points 3 days ago

The Greeks were the original Epstein Regime.

[–] not_IO@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 2 days ago

omg being the twink of some spartans 🫠