Why Elon Musk and the Far-Right LOVE the Roman Empire

Elon Musk and his simps have all been tweeting about their love for the Roman Empire over the last couple weeks after a TikTok trend went viral of women asking their boyfriends if they always think about the Roman Empire. I look at the reasons why and why the love of Roman history attracts these conservatives.

.00:00:00 - Men can't stop thinking about Rome
00:04:00 - Do I always think about Rome???
00:08:00 - Men can't stop thinking about the Roman Empire
00:13:00 - Don't trust Roman meme accounts
00:19:30 - Why Roman history attracts Conservatives

[man.inblack]

Just ask em about Sparta. They love a culture built on slavery, propaganda and wealth inequality.

[ZiemakAttack]

It wouldn’t be a problem if people thought of the Roman Empire from a historical perspective, but too many people do it to claim superiority over other people like there was something supernaturally good about it and like they have a connection to it.

[wellersonoliveira]

Far Right Logic
Roman Empire *Did brutal espectacles* = Based
Aztec Empire *Also did brutal espectacles* = Savages

[aaronbonita]

I don't think they'd actually like Ancient Rome or Greece. There was a lot of LGBT stuff going on.

[grapeshot]

Crazy they love the Roman Empire but the Roman Empire didn't have very good things to say about Northern Europeans. Because they didn't see race the same way that we see race. Modern-day racism is about 500 years old it comes from the age of exploration, transatlantic slave trade, and the enlightenment.

[afterhourscinema]

I love how masculinity is tied to the Greek and Roman empires... 2 TOTALLY 'straight' civilizations 🤣

[beepyou]

The masculine urge to remind these people what happened to the last guy who was trying to bring back the Roman Empire.

[rainmcmey]

As a leftie who is obsessed with Rome in a way that could easily be a red flag to some people, I think it’s possible to obsess over classical Roman history from the leftist perspective, it’s just not commonly done. My interests are really in the story of the slow erosion of rights and “democracy” (to the degree they ever had it) in the face of the growing wealth and power of the political and economic elite. The fact that the elite were willing to out and out assassinate the Gracchi brothers, for example, and the general fallout of a grotesquely unequal society which culminated in Caesar and Augustus establishing true totalitarianism as a natural end point. I also think it’s interesting that over the classical period up to the fall of the west that elites were willing to do anything to maintain their privilege even as it led Roman subjects to lose faith in the state itself. I think there’s a lot of parallels with our own time, in the same way the fascists think that, but I think that the answer is to do the opposite of what the Roman elite did, as that ultimately led to the decline and end of their state.

…Also it’s just got cool aesthetics idk 😂

[seansteele]

Conservatives are just slowly turning into Caesar's Legion from Fallout: New Vegas.

[rosaliedc]

Spanish woman here. I think about the Roman Empire from time to time because it's part of my culture. I also think about the golden age of Islam in Spain and the Catholic Monarchs and how all that has influenced the history of my country and the collective consciousness of its inhabitants to this day. This situation reminds me of when many men became obsessed with Sparta because of 300 and suddenly many American men went to the gym thinking that they were Greek just because their ancestors came from somewhere in Europe. It seems very bizarre and somewhat pathetic to me. It is strange because some idealize and others vilify a period of history that was very complex and diverse. I don't think it's problematic to be very interested in the Roman Empire but I totally agree with you on one thing, those who are obsessed with Augustus (especially his "family politics") are a big red flag.

[steffi]

As a Romanian who loves history, I also think about the Roman Empire pretty often. I grew up with stories about the Romans conquering our land, had 5 years of Latin in school and love linguistics. I see it everywhere, but it’s not the only bit of history one can see everywhere. Not putting it on a pedestal, but random facts come to mind 😂

[dustinsindledecker]

I am too poor to think about empires from generations ago

[EckhartsLadder]

A lot of it is also jsut the aesthetics of education. These people want to pretend they've not only cracked a book in the past year, but apparently are well read enough on a niche topic to have an actual interest.

[wplants]

when I was in Rome for 3 weeks we met another American family traveling there but the dad was a proud republican and kept complaining about how socialist it was, particularly socialized health care. Then the teenaged daughter broke her arm riding a Vespa and got free medical treatment and he funnily he never complained after that.

[КГБКолДжорджКостанца]

Babe wake up, Comrade Kav has uploaded, bring out the east german children's choir

[siouzsie]

As a very left wing person who lived in Rome for over 10 years, I think about Rome all the time because I love Rome. I love history but I don’t think about the Roman Empire all the time.

[BenderBendingRodriguez]

As a historian, I do think about the Roman Empire a lot, but I also think about the Macedonian Empire, the Persians, the Egyptians because they all played a role in creating our modern world . It’s a rabbit hole I go down.

[brendenlyske]

The two subgenders of men - roman history nerds and WWII geeks

[moonlightrobbery]

I need a T-Shirt that says "Thinking About the Paris Commune"

[-i-am-evil-homer]

It's totally possible to be interested in the Roman Empire without feeling a need to go back to it or uphold its values and so forth. The thing is that Ancient Rome is several thousand years of very well-documented history, which makes it very accessible to the point where the Classical world dominates a good portion of pop culture to this day. Kinda like how Halo was "Baby's First FPS" in the mid-2000s, the study of the Classical Greek and Roman world is like "Baby's First Historical Epoch"