Rodney Mancuso

@amancuso.bsky.social

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Aspiring historian. Italophile. Purveyor of fluffy pastries.

Posts Replies Media

I get to live in a castle for the next four weeks: a rather exciting development.

Reply to

Arkady Martine | Dr. AnnaLinden Weller

Too young for She-Ra. Just the right age for David the Gnome.

Reply to

Pizza Las Vegas

It is entirely your fault that I just gave that song its one and a half billionth stream on defaultevilstreamingservice. I hope you're proud of yourself.

Reposted by

Rodney Mancuso

Once and for all: it is absolute bullshit to say ancient Greeks didn’t have blue. This idea has been debunked so many times it’s laughable. Ancient Origins article today: substack.com/home/post/p-... Kiwi Hellenist debunking it years ago: kiwihellenist.blogspot.com/2020/05/anci... stop with this.

Hidden Hue: Why Ancient Civilizations Failed to See the Color Blue?substack.com Historical evidence reveals that humans possess the remarkable ability to render certain physical appearances invisible if they do not focus on them, including something as fundamental as a color. Spe...

Reply to

GOLIKEHELLMACHINE

I'm reminded of people loudly arguing that Biden has all the legal authority needed to police the border. Which is (sort of) true, but completely ignores the fact that congress did not authorize the funds necessary for the sort of broad enforcement they're asking for.

Reply to

Shadow Hedgie 🌻

My understanding is that what started as esoteric academic debates eventually filtered into the population and hardened as a sort of identity or team affiliation, much like we see with so much of partisan politics today.

Reply to

Speculative Insight journal

It seems like a fairly clear line of argument, but I'm no lawyer so who knows.

Reply to

Speculative Insight journal

This would mitigate some recent very problematic developments in U.S. political culture, but runs squarely against the 1st Amendment as interpreted to prohibit the government from compelling speech.

Reposted by

Rodney Mancuso

Reply to

Proof of Burden

People who misinterpret what MLK was saying don't understand how much more expansive & absolute racial barriers to voting were in 1963. MLK understood non-violent protest was the only tool available to Black Americans at the time. King's "Give us the ballot speech" makes his thoughts clear.

Reply to

Abby

Lots of examples of this in later East Roman history. Dude thinks he has popular support to overthrow the sitting emperor. Goes with his retainers to proclaims himself from the steps of Hagia Sophia. Everyone points and laughs. Guards show up and he's a blind monk by the next week.

Reply to

Gaius (from Tribunate)

His first sentence indicates at least *some* understanding of the video's thesis. But instead of engaging with it, he rants about how much he dislikes your politics (or the strawman version he constructs). Ok... and? It's a giant non sequitur.

Reply to

lysandervino.bsky.social

Should elementary schools be allowed to make and enforce rules against students running in the halls?

Reply to

Gaius (from Tribunate)

Enjoyed the video, but I'm curious when you'd place the "stenographer vs. critical thinker" transition in professional history. That line caused some aggressive eyebrow raising.

Reply to

🍃Jam🐴 Comms Open!

Hamas apologists sometimes use that pic to support an argument that Israelis killed many of their own people at the festival. Ex-Twitter decided to attach a note concerning that claim to all posts including the picture.

Reply to

GOLIKEHELLMACHINE

"All good things must agree with one another and me." They want to enjoy the show, but that's not possible without interpreting away elements otherwise causing cognitive dissonance. The more invested they become in show the more they become invested in these wacky interpretations.

Reply to

Corey Rayburn Yung

This is true, but lack of subtlety or nuance are not unique to MAGA numbskulls. Textualism and originalism are often entirely dismissed as interpretive frameworks and anyone associated with them assumed to be naive or disingenuously consequentialist.

Behold - my fun little thread on curse tablets & the Corinthian temple complex of Demeter & Kore.

I had to read a gigantor archaeological site report for a material culture class. The curse tablets were the most fun part. One in particular had to have had an amazing story behind it.

Reply to

Abby

This was found in the large temple complex dedicated to Demeter and Kore halfway up the slope of the Acrocorinth. It was most likely destroyed by an earthquake at the very end of the 5th century, abandoned, and robbed to rebuild other structures.

Typo - end of the 4th. Wikipedia says it was attacked by Christian iconoclasts, and there's definitely evidence of ritual desecration, but I'm not convinced it was an organized attack as opposed to perhaps opportunism following the earthquake.

My personal theory is that team robbing stone to rebuild elsewhere felt uncomfortable around the semi-intact cult statues, removed their heads and tossed them down the central well to remove their supernatural power. (This was a common method of desecration in the ancient Med dating way back.)

The statue bodies and heads in the well had a lot of damage consistent with an earthquake *in addition* to being scored with pickaxes.

Reply to

Abby

I had to read a gigantor archaeological site report for a material culture class. The curse tablets were the most fun part. One in particular had to have had an amazing story behind it.

"I entrust and consign Karpime Babbia, weaver of garlands, to the Fates who exact justice, so that they may punish her acts of insolence, to Hermes of the Underworld, to Earth, to the children of Earth, so that they may overcome and completely destroy her soul and heart and her mind..."

"...and the wits of Karpime Babbia, weaver of garlands. I adjure you and I implore you and I pray to you, Hermes of the Underworld, that the mighty names of Ananke, Nebezapadaieisen[.]geibebeohera, make me fertile; that the mighty name, the one carrying compulsion..."

...which is not named recklessly unless in dire necessity, EUPHER, mighty name, make me fertile and destroy Karpime Babbia, weaver of garlands, from her head to her footprints with monthly destruction."

The tablet itself:

Reposted by

Rodney Mancuso

Not putting this guy on blast, and I realize this will sound really fucking weird to my followers because I usually never say this, but- Christ, this is a very White opinion. No, actually when your family or loved ones are struggling with addiction you *do* have an obligation to try and help.

Reply to

Alisha Diane Galloway

I had a 13 year old student who wanted to attend chess practice on weekends but had to go to work with his mom. They paid him less than minimum wage to help with some sort of pipe manufacturing. Gave the money directly to mom. She needed it to pay rent.

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Rodney Mancuso

Me: I teach college, my students are full grown adults, not “kids” & thus are collaborators in their learning. I am Guide On The Side, learning as much from them as they do from my material. Me, when a former student does well: THAT’S MY LITTLE BABY DUMPLING I’M SO PROUD OF YOU

Reply to

We Put the FBI Man Into the Medicine Lodge

Fascinating - thanks for sharing!