I wonder if future societies will view North Korea with the kind of "they're cool because they had a harsh society that invested everything in military" attitude we reserve for ancient Sparta
this post was submitted on 01 May 2025
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No one's exporting myths about NK's military superiority. And they don't have any accounts of them rebuffing a larger army to exaggerate.
The fact that many people think ancient Sparta is cool blows my mind. When someone praises ancient Sparta, I typically estimate there’s a 75% probability they’re a right-wing conservative.
Nah, I dont think they are necessarily right wing. There's just so much propaganda about Sparta being awesome, (much of which is from spartans themselves,) that is become a commonplace idea.
Now personally I think we should have a 300 style movie about the Sacred Band in Thebes, they were legit badasses.
Cringe hyper-aristocratic caste-based mega-slaver militarized totalitarian state 🤢
Based gay-married citizen-volunteers for democratic hegemony 😍
Defended that one pass and have been coasting on it ever since...
Okay, also conquered Athens, but they had help.
They had help at the pass too. It was 300 Spartans out of about 7k total forces. Even the last stand had more non Spartans than Spartans.
Indeed, I find the sacrifice of the 700 Thespians more impressive.
Tryna tell me art-kids fought off Persian Immortals? Come off it, m8
Well, technically speaking, neither did the Spartans as the pass was indeed forced by the Persian.
Couldn't be, must've let 'em through on purpose.
Ain't no way ancient Persians could kill anyone in Mjolnir armor except by starvation.
Athens? If those boy lovers and philosophers have the courage to stand up to Persia, then Sparta will not bend.
I know this came from 300 but
Homosexual attraction sometimes existed in the form of pederasty, which influenced ancient Greek and especially Spartan military practices.[17] This usually consisted in romantic relations and mentoring by adult men with male youths. Pederastic relations are thought to have played some role with Sparta’s overarching “contest-system” or the agoge, which aimed to shape male Spartans into soldiers.[18]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homosexuality_in_the_militaries_of_ancient_Greece
Interesting! Thanks for that, had no idea the practice was in Sparta. Yes the quote is from 300, even though it's not exactly what he said in the movie. I was too lazy to look it up.
For more interesting writing about the historical Sparta, check out the history blog A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry:
- https://acoup.blog/2019/08/16/collections-this-isnt-sparta-part-i-spartan-school/
- https://acoup.blog/2019/08/23/collections-this-isnt-sparta-part-ii-spartan-equality/
- https://acoup.blog/2019/08/29/collections-this-isnt-sparta-part-iii-spartan-women/
- https://acoup.blog/2019/09/05/collections-this-isnt-sparta-part-iv-spartan-wealth/
- https://acoup.blog/2019/09/12/collections-this-isnt-sparta-part-v-spartan-government/
- https://acoup.blog/2019/09/20/collections-this-isnt-sparta-part-vi-spartan-battle/
- https://acoup.blog/2019/09/27/collections-this-isnt-sparta-part-vii-spartan-ends/
- https://acoup.blog/2022/08/19/collections-this-isnt-sparta-retrospective/
US lost in Vietnam and Korea but don't want to admit it. Let's just call a spade a spade and admit military powers all suck.
invade thier front lawn
Bit of a difference there. We'll literally had to travel to the jungle.
Still lost? But a comparable country for us to invade would be Canada or Mexico.
That's true and very fair, but also you did try to invade Canada and failed so badly they burned down the white house.
Yeah! Now we're shitting on the US properly
🎶 Oh, Caaaanadaaa... 🎶 The "51st state"? I have faith in the true North Americans. If they did it before, they can do it again.
But that also predates the US being a military hegemony sooo…
invade would be Canada
How boot not, eh?
So give it a couple months and we find out?
And Afghanistan
I dunno, if you look at the track record, Afghanistan is a pretty impressive military power. They defeated the US, Russia, Britain...
Yeah but same for Vietnam. Both are a nightmare to invade but rarely pick fights
Who didnt?
Losing a trade war right now.
I think the drugs won the war on drugs too
Does this mean the Spartans injected bulking oil into their muscles, too? Was 300 just a big fucking lie?