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[–] robabo 0 points 1 point (+1|-0) ago 

The abuse of buying and selling votes crept in and money began to play an important part in the determining elections. Later on this process of corruption spread to the law courts, and then to the Army, and finally the republic was subjected to the rule of emperors. Plutarch 46 to 120 AD

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[–] syntaxaxe 0 points 4 points (+4|-0) ago 

Plus:

-constant devaluation of the currency leading to regular inflation

-unaffordable military adventurism

-a more and more socialist government with growing authoritarian powers, and declining public support

-regularly growing tax rates

-extreme political division

-invasion, first through massive influx of people from other cultures who did not consider themselves Roman first, then from smaller/weaker civilizations declaring war upon them

-Many in the Roman empire welcomed the invaders. Many Roman cities fell to the maurading Germanic tribes without a fight

-Growing celebrity culture, people being obsessed with pop culture nonsense

There are many more comparisons. Stefan Molyneux, though not always having good videos, did a really good video on this. I think the internet provides enough tools to the common man that we could survive, where Rome could not. But we look a lot like Rome just before the fall.

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[–] Osweo 0 points 1 point (+1|-0) ago  (edited ago)

a more and more socialist government

lolwat? Amusing that nobody's even hinted at one of the most important factors for the Roman crisis, and indeed for our own times: halting of social mobility and increased wealth divides. And you talk of socialism! :D I suppose this is to be expected in an American-dominated corner of the web, though.

Too few wanted to shed blood for a system that had never given them a chance to have a stake in society, and which had on the contrary ground them down for every penny they could get out of them. And who could blame them? A romanised Gaul or Hispanic might as well pledge allegiance to a Frankish or Gothic king who will actually live in their country and thus be a little more accountable than a distant Emperor in Aquileia or Milan.

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[–] syntaxaxe ago  (edited ago)

"What? The Roman Empire couldn't have been initiating more socialist policies, because over-regulation and welfare states always lead to utopias of equality! Rome had a huge gap in standard of living, with rich oligarchs and an extremely poor dependance class - unlike every socialist utopia ever, of course."

Welcome to the realities of history, my friend.

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[–] Wedhro 0 points 8 points (+8|-0) ago 

Yes. The only differences are:

  • invaders are not technically an army;
  • invaders and anti-State religious lunatics are the same people;
  • the Empire's propaganda machine is playing the invaders' song.

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[–] 8243085? 2 points -1 points (+1|-2) ago 

I think we in the west are consistently the worst at slavery. Instead of rotating our own people between slavery and other low skill jobs we always want to go kidnap others to do it.

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[–] acheron2012 0 points 2 points (+2|-0) ago 

Very interesting. I was going to say "Oh but what about Tokyo?!" But after actually reading the link this really goes a long way in explaining Japan's collapsing birthrate too.

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[–] Islamiscancer 3 points -1 points (+2|-3) ago 

What collapsing birthrate? Japan is holding steady. Japan however is not birthing enough children for the Jewish Economy model most of the world uses.

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[–] acheron2012 1 point 0 points (+1|-1) ago 

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[–] Redditsdead 0 points 3 points (+3|-0) ago 

I like to analagize our society today to the Universe 25 project. We're about 80% of the way to complete collapse.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behavioral_sink

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[–] Islamiscancer 0 points 5 points (+5|-0) ago  (edited ago)

Wasnt there some youtube vid about this floating round a while ago? Was A1 shit.

E: found it. 9mins and worth the watch.

https://youtu.be/0Z760XNy4VM

[–] [deleted] 0 points 1 point (+1|-0) ago 

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