Normal friends? What are those?

Truly walking in the ways of the ancients 🙏

Explanation: The Roman Emperor Caligula once ordered his troops to ‘make war’ on Neptune, the Roman god of the sea, by stabbing the incoming tides and collecting seashells as booty. Interpretations of this act… vary. Some attribute it to Caligula’s supposed madness - others, to him having a bit of a lark by exercising how total his control as Emperor was (“I can make you lot do anything, no matter how stupid or humiliating” sort of thing, very popular amongst tyrants of all ages). Some say it was to humiliate the troops for refusing to go on a supposed campaign to Britannia, which was not yet conquered at that point.

We know the truth, though - that bastard Neptune was getting too uppity for his own good, and Caligula saved us all from a future under the sea god’s oppressive reign!

Poor forgotten Wyll 😔

If it’s any consolation, I rarely use him either. He’s too damn nice!

It feels like the original Oblivion, by all accounts. For me, that’s not a big thrill, but I wasn’t a big fan of the original.

It’s nice to see people being able to revisit the joys of their youth, though.

Historically at least 1 person has jacked off

Big if true

It happens

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kumulativnimlazanimacija.gif

RPG demonstration, but same principle

Procopius’s Secret History is a pretty fantastic example of that kind of writing (though there’s more interest in the Empress’s sexual misadventures than the Emperor’s)

Frequently, she conceived, but as she employed every artifice immediately, a miscarriage was straightway effected. Often, even in the theater, in the sight of all the people, she removed her costume and stood nude in their midst, except for a girdle about the groin: not that she was abashed at revealing that, too, to the audience, but because there was a law against appearing altogether naked on the stage, without at least this much of a fig-leaf. Covered thus with a ribbon, she would sink down to the stage floor and recline on her back. Slaves to whom the duty was entrusted would then scatter grains of barley from above into the calyx of this passion flower, whence geese, trained for the purpose, would next pick the grains one by one with their bills and eat. When she rose, it was not with a blush, but she seemed rather to glory in the performance. For she was not only impudent herself, but endeavored to make everybody else as audacious. Often when she was alone with other actors, she would undress in their midst and arch her back provocatively, advertising like a peacock both to those who had experience of her and to those who had not yet had that privilege her trained suppleness.

I am kinda curious to know where you’re from now, but I don’t like to be too explicit about that myself, so I won’t push it.

The US. “Nazis were fucking around all over Europe, and attempts were made to ignore or appease them before Poland forced the issue” is pretty standard.

Should have waited a few years. Rookie mistake.

Yes, WW2 did not start at the first fascist interventions. Congratulations for knowing what every schoolchild is taught?

The only think keeping the capitalists from shooting at the communists was being on opposite sides of Germany.

Of course, the extensive strategic cooperation and material aid didn’t exist, they were just refraining from shooting at each other.

The capitalists meanwhile were so anxious about communists in Western Europe that you’re arbitrarily right just because they refused to intervene in Spain and Portugal

You do remember that WW2 was to stop fascist interventions in neighboring countries, right?

https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/document/web-of-communications-chart-july-1940

Explanation: Earlier in his career, Grant was most notable for being an excellent rider who loved horses dearly (and for his personal bravery). He was only a middling student at West Point, and his career in the Army before the Civil War is likewise unexceptional.

Despite coming from an abolitionist family (and being against slavery personally enough to free a slave that he was given as a gift, even though Grant was in immense poverty at the time and in dire need of money), he did not begin the Civil War with strong anti-slavery opinions; by the end of the war, he was one of the champions of the liberty and equality of freed slaves, and in his later presidency, he would see the first US anti-segregation legislation passed (sadly struck down by the US Supreme Court).

Explanation: Earlier in his career, Grant was most notable for being an excellent rider who loved horses dearly (and for his personal bravery). He was only a middling student at West Point, and his career in the Army before the Civil War is likewise unexceptional.

Despite coming from an abolitionist family (and being against slavery personally enough to free a slave that he was given as a gift, even though Grant was in immense poverty at the time and in dire need of money), he did not begin the Civil War with strong anti-slavery opinions; by the end of the war, he was one of the champions of the liberty and equality of freed slaves, and in his later presidency, he would see the first US anti-segregation legislation passed (sadly struck down by the US Supreme Court).

Explanation: At the Battle of Cannae, the Romans threw their forces into combat against the Carthaginian center, which had feigned retreat, at which point the Carthaginian troops on the flanks were able to envelop and destroy the Roman army entirely. It was one of the worst defeats in Roman history.

PROTIP: to any denialists for the ongoing Israeli genocide of Palestinians, you can fuck right off, this comm isn’t for your kind

Lord.

“The present situation is the most favorable from the point of view of upsetting the Communist dictatorship since the death of Stalin.”

What could this possibly mean? /s

It’s clearly sarcasm, but the implication is that the human rights violations leftists complain about really are just CIA propaganda.