A good article in which the author researched how Twitter’s algorithm pushed people interested in history into alt-right content.
Quote: “Adhering to my guidelines to follow accounts suggested by the algorithm, I clicked the “follow” button. This was the first time I was recommended content adjacent to alt-right and “manosphere” ideology. Prior to that, it was all history related. After “liking” approximately 100 Tweets, however, I saw that the accounts suggested to me were becoming increasingly political, and I was specifically being recommended accounts run by internet political commentators – as opposed to professional politicians or journalists. I cannot definitively call this observation evidence of being led down an alt-right pipeline, but it was interesting to note that those were the types of accounts suggested to me by the Twitter algorithm.”
Zagorath@aussie.zone 2 months ago
I just don’t understand how someone interested in antiquity can possibly fall for Trumpism. The fall of the Roman Republic was presaged by a guy literally trying to get elected to office so that he could escape prosecution for illegal abuses of power, and the legal system standing aside and saying “yeah, we’ll let you do that in order to maintain the peace” and then falling into civil war anyway.
How much of that sounds familiar…?
qprimed@lemmy.ml 2 months ago
someone genuinely interested for intellectual reasons would likely not fall for it. I would imagine that a non-trivial percentage of “antiquity enjoyers” are very light on history substance and heavy on history feelz.
once the appropriate brain tickles have been pushed into their heads their “history substance” feed content becomes decidedly propagandized.
sculd@beehaw.org 2 months ago
Agreed. Anyone who studies history should understand why Trumpism is bad and unsustainable.
But a lot of people are just in for the historical “aesthetics”.
The_Terrible_Humbaba@slrpnk.net 2 months ago
I think this is it.
The historians I know of actually seem to lean quite left of the average person; it’s the light hobbieists, who are often more interested in the aesthetics/surface stuff, who seem to fall victim to the alt-right stuff.
technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 months ago
Gotta remember that rome was a genocidal slave regime. That’s why the founding slavers worshiped it so much. That’s why there are fasces all over state churches. That’s why fascists started fascism.
This all lines up perfectly with maga fascism.
lvxferre@mander.xyz 2 months ago
The alt right obsesses over the Roman empire, but ignores the republic, as if Julius Caesar and Octavius as the origin of everything. As such I’m not surprised that they don’t learn about what caused the fall of the republic. (A century or so of oppressed masses and greedy elites did it.)
And, even when it comes to the empire, they’re busier cherry-picking examples that show that the grass was greener, the men were manlier, the women were chaster, and dogs barked quieter.
Zagorath@aussie.zone 2 months ago
True, and that’s important context if you’re trying to get a deeper understanding of how Julius Caesar came to have the power he held before his assassination.
But there’s enough of a problem you can see even if you just start at Julius, which is what I was concentrating on in my previous comment. The parallels to Trump are terrifyingly on the nose.
Flax_vert@feddit.uk 2 months ago
As a Christian, the guy is literally an anti-christ, lol. Although I can see people voting for him because they dislike Kamala more