Hate Thread

[super_slicer]

Re: Hate Thread

I shave daily, and prefer to use a single-bladed razor. You should get these for him as a gift... trust me, revenge will be sweet.

 

[Nunu]

Re: Hate Thread

Now here's where the hate comes in, I have my own personal razor, along with my own personal blades for my own personal usage. I'm not the most squirmiest of people when it comes to hygiene, but I dislike gross stuff all the same, my middle aged bald brother needs an excessive amount of razor blades to keep his shiny bald head cleanly shaven, and when he runs out (Which is generally immediately), he will steal my razor/razorblades and start DECIMATING them.

Really? He destroys one tenth of your razors?

 

[Termite]

Re: Hate Thread

I thought 'decimate' meant to reduce to one tenth, not by one tenth.

 

[Chibichibi]

Re: Hate Thread

Just woke up to a "I might kill myself tonight, but I'm not sure yet" kind of message on my AIM.

FUCK YOU 2013. Why couldn't you have at least started with something nice for me!

I hate 2013 already :'D

 

[TheWeirdOne]

Re: Hate Thread

That sounds fantastic, and by fantastic I mean fucking fuckity fuck fuck FUCK.

 

[Chibichibi]

Re: Hate Thread

>.>

I BURIED A GOLDFISH TODAY.

FRED. FRED I WILL MISS YOU. YOUR BROTHERS GEORGE AND JOE WILL ALSO MISS YOU.


I hate fish funerals ;_; Reminds me of being a kid.

 

[Cappy]

Re: Hate Thread

Really? He destroys one tenth of your razors?

decimating present participle of dec·i·mate (Verb)
Kill, destroy, or remove a large percentage of.
Drastically reduce the strength or effectiveness of (something): "plant viruses that can decimate yields".

 

[ToxicShock]

Re: Hate Thread

That is incorrect. Or at least, is only the renewed definition.

It actually is to kill a tenth of, so yes it is remove 10%, not reduce to 10%

 

[Cappy]

Re: Hate Thread

That is incorrect. Or at least, is only the renewed definition.

It actually is to kill a tenth of, so yes it is remove 10%, not reduce to 10%

The context in which it is used has been changed to the point of it having an alternate meaning. I'm not incorrect in the way I use it, though I may have been if you'd corrected me a few years ago.

 

[Nunu]

Re: Hate Thread

The terms come from the roman use, where it was pretty much their last resort in punitive measures for a military force before just disbanding them. The order to decimate was given and each squad of ten men would draw straws and whoever got the short one was beaten to death by his friends. It's not pretty and they didn't do it often.

 

[Serifyn]

Re: Hate Thread

Imagine the horror you would feel drawing the short straw?

Seeing the relieved fates of your comrades around you as they prepare to beat you to death for their own survival, They close in with crude weapons; batons, cudgels and large stones, you step back dropping your unfortunate ticket as the terror overwhelms you, the group is unified now with a bloodthirsty look in their eyes, savage men who are trained to kill, crowding up and ensuring you don't try to escape.

You plea for them to get back, to spare you, but their training kicks in; killing comes easy to them because they are soldiers and though you were once their friend, you are now little more in this moment than a sacrifice to be made.

A stone is thrown hitting you in the jaw, you cry in agony as a flurry of clubs are brought down upon you, breaking your arm as you use it to shield yourself, you are beaten swiftly and ruthlessly, your head turned into bloody pulp by your former friends, who in a final act of kindness, ensure that your suffering is not prolonged.

Moment later, dropping their bloodied crude cudgels and stones to the cold dirt ground, the furor fades as remorse takes hold, a prayer is said for you and closer friends apologize to your mutilated corpse promising to take care of your family, the guilt is palpable, but the relief is stronger......better you than them.

 

[Termite]

Re: Hate Thread

I kinda hate Serifyn's post right there. I know he was trying to give the reader a sense of fear and betrayal as the man who drew his own death, but there's just something inherently wrong with that scenario. Soldiers are still people. They fight together, watching each other's back while also being forced to watch friends and comrades killed at their side. That builds a camaraderie that wouldn't suddenly devolve into blind bloodlust at the drop of a hat, not to someone in their own unit.

 

[Cappy]

Re: Hate Thread

I'm sure there's an alternative punishment involving the entire squads demise as an alternative Termite. Though I agree, the description is a bit "cheese" in terms of empathy.

 

[White Oak]

Re: Hate Thread

I hate being promised a promotion for over a year and, when I finally reach the promotion date promised, them reneging and saying "Yeah... we didn't really MEAN it..."

 

[Serifyn]

Re: Hate Thread

I kinda hate Serifyn's post right there. I know he was trying to give the reader a sense of fear and betrayal as the man who drew his own death, but there's just something inherently wrong with that scenario. Soldiers are still people. They fight together, watching each other's back while also being forced to watch friends and comrades killed at their side. That builds a camaraderie that wouldn't suddenly devolve into blind bloodlust at the drop of a hat, not to someone in their own unit.

What alternative scenario do you envision? A somber event with apologies and goodbyes before the doomed soldier willingly accepts his death?

These are Roman soldiers who have killed and raped at the command of their superior, they were among the lowest class of roman; freed slaves, criminals or vagrant, if an honorable man existed amongst them, he surely would be outnumbered by his peers in such an event, furthermore, Decimation was implemented on failing units which were likely full of cowards, deserters and drunkards; the kind of people who would kill you in order to save themselves in a heartbeat.

Soldiers are still people.

I agree, which is why i wrote it in the way that i did, you say 'soldier are people' as if they are always capable and expected to commit good and righteous acts, truth be told, people are just as capable of horrific and terrible acts, especially given the circumstance.

 

[Nunu]

Re: Hate Thread

That is about as true as it is for most modern armies. They essentially took the excess population and created professional soldiers out of them, so predominantly farmers and the poor, people who want a way out of their lot in life through professional soldiering. They took these people and made soldiers out of them with proper military training and military training for roman's isn't what it was for most of the dark ages where you round up a mob and give them all your excess pointy sticks, it is proper training camps and discipline.

These people might generally have been from the lower rung of society but that doesn't make them bad people and once you have a squad that you go to war with, well there are plenty of veterans here who can attest to what that does to your sense of brotherhood.

 

[Serifyn]

Re: Hate Thread

I would very much enjoy an interpretation of 'decimation' where the person who has chosen the short straw willingly accepts their fate and says their tearful goodbyes before the subsequent and inevitable murder, im not arguing that there was no sense of brotherhood or camaraderie, i'm arguing that candidates for 'decimation' were cowards and deserters to begin with and that killing someone else for their own survival would have been an easy choice for them to make.

No modern soldier would be able to relate to anything like decimation, they would never be required to kill their comrades as a punishment for poor conduct, in fact, few people in our time could ever relate to such a horrible situation.

Life was so much different back then, violence, sex and brutality were commonplace and ignorance was not tolerated, especially in the military. the only things that kept an army intact were honor and fear. If you were ordered to kill, it was you or them. it didn't matter if it was the enemy, a civilian, a woman, a child or even your own comrade, to obey was your oath, your 'Sacramentum'.

There was little room for remorse, you simply became a killing machine.

 

[Nunu]

Re: Hate Thread

You seem to be misunderstanding how advanced rome was culturaly. I'm not saying they were a utopia or anything similarly ridiculous, but with an ordered military and judicial system things become a lot more like modern day life.

 

[Chibichibi]

Re: Hate Thread

I can write something when i get home. The wheels are turning already. I'm going to have to trawl through leaders of Rome though to get one I think is bad enough for this.

Also, I hate not having time to do things in the morning!

 

[Serifyn]

Re: Hate Thread

Regardless of how advanced you perceived roman society to be has little to no relation to the subject of how soldiers would react when faced with decimation.

Just because the Roman's used a judicial system doesn't mean they were any more civil than you or i, they murdered Caesar on the senate floor for Christ sakes and in much the same way as i had described. no apologies, no regrets, just a knife in the guts.

If the most civil and intelligent of roman's were willing to commit murder because they were being oppressed by a tyrant, think of what a common soldier would have done when it was his life on the line.