• wjrii@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    9 months ago

    Woman: So when you’re not swiping, what do you do?

    Men 1-7: It sounds weird, but I’m really into WAR! … Christoph Waltz was sooo creepy as Hans Landa! You have to see it! … so each week both uncredentialled “historians” talk about their favorite times when thousands of men stabbed or shot each other! … and then the good guy took his gun-knife and started prying teeth and slicing ears off the dead guys… literally an entire generation of men was decimated or psychologically damaged… But [Game of Thrones/The Walking Dead/Band of Brothers] is my go-to. What do you watch?

    Woman: Mostly cartoons.

    More seriously, I’d guess that many, maybe even most people have some level of morbid fascination with the type of violent, high stakes scenarios that people they identify with have been subject to. It’s just kind of weird not to acknowledge that a lot of basically well-adjusted men (I flatter myself that I’m in that group) are into stuff that’s objectively terrifying.

    • duffman@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      9 months ago

      My interest in war is that there is nothing higher stakes, it can be a fight for the survival of not just yourself but your family, community, or nation, or even our species if we are talking fiction (or global warming).

      So if we were to stereotype the genders, men are typically more interested in death/violence at a humanitary level and women at a personal level.

      • Ragnarok314159@sopuli.xyz
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        9 months ago

        You go into it thinking that, but then when the deification hits the oscillation, it ends up being about two things: 1) your own ass and 2) your battle buddies you deployed with.

        • duffman@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          0
          ·
          edit-2
          9 months ago

          Yeah I wasn’t talking about either scenario from a participatory POV. Moreso speaking to the general interest.

          You can be interested in something without wishing for it or wanting to participate. I’m sure women who listen to serial killer podcasts don’t want to be featured in one.

      • RealFknNito@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        9 months ago

        I’m only interested in the Roman Emperor, Marcus Aurelius because of his meditations. The things he wrote down for just himself to see are some of the most humbling passages I’ve ever come across. The exception to the rule that absolute power corrupts absolutely. A god to his people who paid a peasant to whisper in his ear to remind him he was just a man. Rome experienced a time of peace and prosperity under his rule without needless wars of conquest.

        He was a good man and I aspire to be more like him.

      • Purplexingg@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        9 months ago

        I’m pretty sad Rome got co opted to be like a weird right ideology. I read the Percy Jackson books growing up so I’ve always been fascinated with ancient Greece and Rome.

        • Tlaloc_Temporal@lemmy.ca
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          0
          ·
          9 months ago

          Oppressive military dictatorship that really likes their military is idolized by wannabe oppressive military dictators who really like their millitary? Who’d have thought?

          Oh, also the deep ties to cristianity and fascism. Inquisitions and crusades are exactly the legacy they’re after.

        • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          0
          ·
          9 months ago

          I’m pretty sad Rome got co opted to be like a weird right ideology

          Rome was think with right wing ideology for much of it’s history.

          A great deal of our understanding of fascism in the modern area comes from Roman histories

    • SomeAmateur@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      9 months ago

      I think people are interested with the extremes of the human experience in general because that’s where the toughest choices and emotions come to light

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      9 months ago

      uncredentialled “historians”

      Point of order. What credentials do you need to talk about history? Is there, like, a history license I don’t know about? Or are you just talking about a particular degree?