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  • Richard LittlerRichard_Littler@mastodon.social
    Oct 16, 2026, 6:19 AM

    Increasingly, after reading about the latest oligarch or billionaire tech-bros travesty, I find myself idly researching the cultural and social history of guillotines.

    Guillotine engraving
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Replies

  • Dan Patchdatn@xoxo.zone
    Oct 16, 2026, 6:21 AM

    @Richard_Littler get worried when you start searching on terms like "consumer-grade guillotine with silent motors and remote action"

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  • PoloniousmonkUair@autistics.life
    Oct 16, 2026, 8:13 AM

    @Richard_Littler

    They do make my fists itch. I'm not cool with killing 'em.

    Someone should erect giant, 100m tall replicas of them and install them places they'll be seen. I mean--buy the land and fight the town over it. Not just a drive by.

    I want them to see a guillotine every time they look out their window. Hell, they already do. That's why they're building bunkers.

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  • PoloniousmonkUair@autistics.life
    Oct 16, 2026, 10:18 AM

    @deep470 @Richard_Littler

    I had that idea with trumpie's ballroom. Just demo it and put the West Wing back up, but on a slab :)

    He can make psychotic social media posts on his nazi app all the way out.

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  • Koen Hufkens, PhDkoen_hufkens@mastodon.social
    Oct 16, 2026, 8:51 AM

    @Richard_Littler I'm reading "Empire of AI" by Karen Hao, and oh my.

    I've seen / read about much of this as I was into ML during the boom of it all. But the cultish stuff is just wild.

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  • Robert Beltonshiawase@mastodon.social
    Oct 16, 2026, 8:57 AM

    @Richard_Littler
    It's all very well until the reign of terror kicks in, a military dictator is proclaimed, a continent at war for over 10 years, and the monarchy restored 23 years after its initial abolition.
    The guillotine went on to be a hated tool of French colonial repression well into the 20th century.

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  • Chao-c'xChaos@f.cz
    Oct 16, 2026, 10:37 AM

    @Richard_Littler I would like to remind everyone, that during WW2, guillotines were favorite method of capital punishment by Nazi occupiers in some European countries.

    I know you have French revolution in your mind, but public executions are just bad idea. And have nothing to do with taxation.

    Taxing the ultra-rich is probably right thing to do, but it would have much better chance to succeed with different PR strategy. You are making easy target from yourself.

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  • Legit_SpaGHOULttiLegit_Spaghetti@mastodo.neoliber.al
    Oct 16, 2026, 1:44 PM

    @xChaos @Richard_Littler I've seen this take before, and it's a bad take. If dodging taxes was all the billionaires were doing, then I'd agree with you; just tax them appropriately and move on.

    However, the ultra rich are guilty of much worse crimes. They're killing millions of us so their bank accounts get fat. They're directly responsible for the climate catastrophe and the wholesale destruction of the only habitable planet in the universe we know of, and for that alone they deserve death.

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  • Chao-c'xChaos@f.cz
    Oct 16, 2026, 1:59 PM

    @Legit_Spaghetti well, yes and now. Ultra rich surf on the wave of bureaucracy, which enables killing milions, indirectly... but it is our aggregated consumption, which ultimately kills, and it would be the same with other ultra rich or even without ultra rich (because after all, it is aggregated consumption and not just individual excesses, which do harm)

    But ok, let's tax ultra rich. Or "eat them", because at least, it is obvious, that it is hyperbole and joke.

    But we in Europe decided to reject capital punishment as a whole. Not mentioning public capital punishment or capital punishment for non-violent crimes.

    And this is no small or limited commitment. Constitutions and human right declarations of many European states could be interpreted in a way, that mere promotion of capital punishment may be considered illegal here.

    And I am no "free speech absolutist" and I am not building Fediverse to allow promotion of capital punishment. Just find some nonviolent way to tax the ultra-rich, please (it may be good thing, in itself and discussing such political topics is what I am building Fediverse for).

    As for protecting vulnerable groups harmed by current policies, it is very good thing, but please choose better symbol.

    @Richard_Littler

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  • Paul_stilgarPaul_stilgar@mastodon.social
    Oct 16, 2026, 4:04 PM

    @Richard_Littler

    Fun fact the guillotine in 1791 was a progress and a sign of egalitarian process between nobles and peasants

    In 1791, the death penalty was maintained while abolishing torture:
    "The death penalty will consist in the simple deprivation of life, without it ever being able to be used any torture against the condemned".

    An instantaneous death is the only way to get a capital punishment without suffering.

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