My dude we all know what happened at Thermopylae. It is not a historical mystery. Xerxes stomped down the Greek forces, overran Boeotia, and then took Athens. Sorry if that upsets you but history does that sometimes. https://twitter.com/onelove1878/status/1313807358594875401

I mean SERIOUSLY? We all know the end result of Leonidas saying "OH YEAH WELL YOU JUST COME TAKE THESE WEAPONS" is that Leonidas, 300 Spartan citizens, 900 Spartan helots, and 400 Thespians got massacred by the Persian army after 3 days of fighting. The Thebans maybe surrendered.

Xerxes: Give me your weapons.

Leonidas: Come and take them.

Xerxes: lol ok

Another white dude just got touchy about me reporting the fact that Xerxes stomped all over Greek forces at Thermopylae.

I would like white dudes to consider maybe not identifying quite so heavily with doomed losers.

Seriously dude thinks I have an Achaemenid bias for reporting that after Leonidas said "COME ON IF YOU THINK YOU'RE HARD ENOUGH" Xerxes did, in fact, come on and prove he was more than hard enough. https://twitter.com/LeicsFox1509/status/1313813480202539008?s=19

Investing your identity in doomed losers from 2500 years ago is a bad idea. Seriously dudes Xerxes is right there, you could glorify a massively powerful winning army with a tactician who played the city-States of Greece like violins for *years*.

Ok fine that last tweet had some Achaemenid bias.

But quite frankly at this point I'm deeply suspicious of the political leanings of anyone who fetishizes the Spartans at Thermopylae so hard that they're upset by someone being irreverent about it.

Also history has a well known Achaemenid bias.

Aaaaaand another one. Like seriously, these white dudes see NOTHING funny about the fact that Xerxes was like "lol ok" and came and took them? https://twitter.com/ProfGoetsch/status/1313816015210524678?s=19

Also it was Leonidas, the 300, the 900 slaves he forced to be there, the 700ish Thespians, and the 400ish Thebans (who maybe surrendered and thus were obviously not down with Leo's bullshit)

Leonidas: COME AND HAVE A GO IF YOU THINK YOU'RE HARD ENOUGH

Thebans: oh fuck us who put this reckless son of a bitch in charge

The fact that 2500 years later there are dudes upset I'm being irreverent about Thermopylae is just wild. Like... 2500 years later is too soon for these jokers.

More disturbingly, they are not questioning the "great last stand in defense of western civilization" narrative, which is racist as fuck. Also they are not questioning the whole "dulce et decorum est pro patria mori" line of propaganda.

There's just huge piles of xenophobic, racist, militaristic propaganda relating to this battle they have swallowed wholesale and are now regurgitating in defense of their self-image as the masters of the world.