In a similar vein, I think even news from 40 years ago can teach us a lot. The players may be different, but the game is the same. Many of today’s wars and conflicts were already ongoing; big pharma, big food, oil companies, corruption in our institutions, manufactured coups… it all feels like nothing ever really changes.
I reckon that if there were a similar feed for the Roman Empire, the same would be true. The real issue is that human psychology hasn’t really changed in perhaps hundreds of thousands of years. The only thing that has is technology.
But the things that do change can be evaluated with the benefit of hindsight, for example the policies promoted by Robert "monopolies are good actually" Bork and Reaganomics more generally. The Wedge didn't open by itself and we are now in a position to judge whether what trickled down was piss or gold.
Yup, on this site today, I see stories about the Reagan/Gorbochav talks. The "not an inch Westward" promise made to the USSR about NATO being repeatedly broken is directly relevant to today's invasion of Ukraine. And I also see stories about Lebanon fighting to end occupation by US and Israeli forces which is quite relevant to the other major conflict the US is tangled up in
It's funny how trolls think NATO is supposed to be accountable to an unwritten informal "promise" that must be removed from its context to seem relevant while the same people never seem to hold Russia accountable for violating its direct written promises in the Budapest memorandum -- a violation that gets worse when you add the context that Ukraine gave up its nukes for the security guarantees that Russia obliterated in 2022.
