I thought this was slightly funny.
Mark Zuckerberg is known these days for wearing t-shirts with Latin phrases on them, especially ones where he compares himself to Julius Caesar.
Bluesky made a shirt in the same style, but theirs says “a world without Caesars” in Latin.
Zuckerberg wears t-shirts comparing himself to Julius Caesar? Why is that every time I think I’m up-to-date on the latest weirdness there’s more of it?
If you think thats weird you haven’t even scratched the surface on Zuck. He actually idolizes Emperor Augustus Caesar so much that he copied the guys haircut for most of his career. Behind the Bastards does a good job of highlighting it. If you want a quick readable version, here’s the first non paywalled article I could find. https://www.businessinsider.com/mark-zuckerberg-fascinated-by-augustus-future-of-facebook-2018-9
So… Zuck stans the guy who ended the Republic and turned it into a monarchy that pretended to still be a republic?
Well, that’s not concerning at all.
At Meta’s annual Connect event in Menlo Park, Calif., Zuckerberg wore a custom T-shirt with the Latin phrase “aut Zuck aut nihil,” or “all Zuck or all nothing,” as he revealed the first working prototype of Meta’s augmented-reality glasses.
The phrase was a play on “aut Caesar aut nihil,” which means “either a Caesar or nothing,” or more simply “all or nothing.”
Zuckerberg has long been interested in the Roman Empire. He spent his honeymoon in Rome and two of his children, August and Aurelia, are named after emperors Augustus and Marcus Aurelius.
Incidentally, fascists tend to have a hard-on for ancient Rome, but I’m sure that’s just a coincidence.
Zuck puts out this weird “pick me” or “me too” energy lately, trying to fashion himself as one compatible with Trump’s world. His interest in Rome may precede Trump’s ascension to power, but his coming out is not a coincidence in my view. And yes, a fascination with Rome started as so many other things as an “innocent” meme and became a fascist dog-whistle.
I think fascists idolizing the Roman Empire goes back as far as Mussolini. The fasces, after which fascism is named, was a Roman symbol.
I’m not racist. I’m just really into 1940’s German artillery. For the engineering, you know. /s
I’m just saying, I’m a huge fan of General Von Manstein because the guy was a military genius, one of the greats of our time, not because of the Nazi stuff. /s
He’s not doing those roman salutes in public yet, though.
But it’s kinda funny that the oligarchs are so obsessed with Rome, famous for being a fallen empire, while enabling the fall of the US.
Roman empire, like the nordic pagan BS is also a (extreme) right-wing fetish.
So glad to see our new PM celebrating his election win like this:
To be fair, Roman history is really cool.
All history is cool. Roman history just has a lot to study.
Agreed. But if you’re going to fixate on one era, you could do a lot worse than Roman history.
Other cool eras to fixate on:
- Joseon Dynasty and Sejong the Great in Korea
- Chola Empire - naval empire before navies were really a thing
- Ethiopian Empire - somehow survived with strong empire neighbors
There’s a lot of really cool history, Roman history is extra cool though since you can see so much of it in Europe.
You can also hear it every day if you’re an English speaker. The Roman conquest of England greatly affected the English language.
Sorry but which country is this? Can you elaborate on that photo?
Reverse image search brings up articles for belgium referencing a nationalist party, apparently younger dude is his son?
Noted: Avoid Belgium if I ever go to Europe.
You can avoid the whole of Europe, most countries are getting closer to the 4th reich.
Almost time to send the kids to the eastern front again.No point in dunking on Muricans then if Europeans are going to do the same shit?
Oh I definitely will, always have since the other side of their uniparty is not much better for the rest of the world.
Besides those 2 factions there isn’t a significant alternative. The vast majority belongs to 1 of those 2.
The dems will eventually fall in line and collaborate, like much of the European parties did before and during WW2.
“embracing patriotism” and " banning left wing elements" as the new proposed plan for the dems is already a good step.
They have no culture of resistance, generally apathetic and pacified.
If a European country would suddenly live under the same conditions Americans do now and loong before, regardless of which side was in charge it would be in flames. I can name a few things: no social benefits, mass homelesness, authoritarian police that kill plenty people, largest percentage of people put in jail… No country would take that.
And now they want to ‘save their democracy’?
And how? By not shopping at chain X for one day or maybe change their avatar.
True warriors.
This is my kind of monetization.
Feels way better than getting features pulled and put behind an increasingly higher paywall.
Give it time.
So is lemmy or mastodon selling shirts yet? if not, why not?
I was on Reddit for 12 years with nearly a million Karma, and I got permabanned soon after the Inauguration for repeating an anti-MAGA opinion I had posted numerous times before he was elected.
I came over to Lemmy, and discovered that I was only one victim of a bloodbath, demonstrating that Reddit had decided to forego their free speech mission, and grovel for their new masters. Pathetic punk ass corporation.
I never wore a Reddit shirt, but I’d happily wear a Lemmy shirt.
Poor blue maga, while anyone with a consciense was permabanned from Reddit loooong ago by Jessica Ashoosh, now their slightly more right wing sister party has done it to them.
You had so much free speech as long as it was the US regime narrative.
Says more about you people than Reddit.
No one’s taken my lunch money in awhile wearing Linux t-shirts. I need to up my game - I’d buy a Lemmy shirt.
I imagine selling t-shirts would be against the Marxist/Leninist ideology of Lenny’s devs?
But given the volume of non-tankie instances now up and running, I’m sure some enterprising admins would be willing to give it a go.
…and as long as they’re ethically sourced (no sweatshops), high quality (materials and GSM), and reasonably priced (accounting for the other two factors) - I’m all for it!
If they are ethically made by union labor, there is nothing anti marxist about selling a shirts. 😁
Agreed. In fact seeming merch is pretty grass roots tbh. It’s how many musicians make a living
The Mastodon project put a lot of energy into a high quality plushy.
That must have been frustrating when the user base responded “but I already got my Blåhaj”
But Plushtodon is fren for Blahaj
Where’s Brutus when you need him?
This is so fetch
What does this mean? Am I old?
Its actually a pretty well aged reference, of legal drinking age in the US.
Are you still attempting to influence that adage becoming well-understood by the common man? I dare say that I don’t believe that will come to pass.
cease your attempts at causing “retrieve” to transpire.
Will it not come to fruition?
That’s cool but I’ll check back in to see which fascist technocrat is running bluesky in 8 years
In 8 years, anyone not mainlining Truth Social through their compulsory Neuralink will captured and euthanized.
it’s a fire shirt not gonna lie
You are thinking of Nero!
Oh fuck me, HOW in like 25 years did I not get that pun?!
I was today years old too.
I swear there really are two types of people who learn latin…
Lawyers and biologists?
I was going for a specific type of nerd with fascist sympathies ans a very different specific type of nerd with antifascist sympathies. But also yes
Why is he doing that? Is he competing with Elon Musk on stupidity?
It occurred right around when the kingdom in orange took power. Somehow zuck thought that it would be advantageous to his interests to compare himself to Caesar during an obvious triumvirate. The orange one and phony stark would be crassus and pompey by extension. But I think commodus is a far more appropriate roman emperor for zuck to choose as his patron saint
lol well Commodus associated him self with Hercules and fought in fake gladiator matches in the arena, so they both had a lot to overcompensate for as it seems. Good match.
It’s odd to me that someone would feel the need to compensate for their socially awkward highschool years by learning Brazilian Ju-Jitsu and taking growth hormone. You’d think being rich would be enough for these people but it’s not.
For a brief period of time, I entertained the hope that the t-shirt was Zuck’s way of warning the world that the US was slipping into a fascist dictatorship, but that was not the case. It seems clear that that he wore the shirt out of hubris. It was his way of telling the world that he was the modern era’s Caeser and the two others men running the failing superstate were crassus and pompey. An absolutely mindless message given how it ended for all three of these men.
By the way, isn’t the word “commode” derived from Commodus? We should name something after Zuck. Perhaps this new strain of bird flu that’s been spreading wildly because of a lack of a federal response?
I think it is apt, and I liken Elon to cancer
