stackyFACTSIf you think modern political attack ads are toxic, the Romans practically invented the genre.
If you think modern political attack ads are toxic, the Romans practically invented the genre. Politicians heavily utilized graffiti and public poetry to ruthlessly mock their opponents. When Cicero ran against a rival, he delivered massive public speeches accusing his opponent of incest, horrific financial crimes, and throwing terrible dinner parties. It wasn't about policy; it was entirely about utterly destroying a rival's social standing with absolute slander.
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Imagine electing a senator by picking a name out of a hat. In ancient Athens, most government officials were completely shielded from democratic voting and…
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When you're going to rig an election, you might as well go all out and break the laws of mathematics. Charles D.B. King won the 1927 presidential election in…
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Taking over an entire sovereign nation usually requires a massive formal treaty, but lawmakers were heavily impatient. In 1898, pro-annexation politicians…
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You'd assume civilians would love heavily organized crime prevention, but they absolutely hated the idea. When Sir Robert Peel strictly established the…
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Political debates often get intensely heated, but 14th-century British lawmakers took it to an entirely literal extreme. The 'Statute Forbidding Bearing of…
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Before the Berne Convention, publishers freely pirated foreign books because local laws didn't apply across borders. To stop this glorious era of cheap…
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