[dgellow]

It’s used as a common far-right/neo-fascist dog whistle, and to justify their ideology and actions. It’s vaguely based on the idea of cyclical history (which is of course not true), as presented by Oswald Spengler and others during the 20th century: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Decline_of_the_West

[luminaobscura]

I seriously think declaring something "far-right dog whistle" is a leftist dog whistle, signaling good progressives should oppose that something. After saying this, usually no serious arguments are given. Because they are not needed after declaring an idea the enemy.

Cycles in history is of course not "of course not true". in any complex system, there are oscillations. Most famous is economical boom and boost cycle.

Meme is not without merit. The reason we are able to discuss things like gender/race equity in marine corps promotions is precisely because these are good times. And this lack of focus may lead to bad times eventually.

[dgellow]

Cyclical history as theorized by Spengler and other is a fringe type of historical analysis rejected by historians. And it is actively used as a neo-fascist dog-whistle. That’s not a way to show my moral superiority, it’s what they do.

[snomad]

Is Spengler the only person describing cyclical history? Probably not since someone above your post mentioned

> Ibn Khaldun, 14th century Muslim scholar from Tunisia

[dgellow]

No, he’s not the only one. But he is a reason the meme is used as a dog whistle by the far-right, which is what I was talking about.

[R0b0t1]

Cyclical history isn't false. Population boom/bust cycles exist in humans just like they do in every other animal. Humans reach the carrying capacity of their environment and then reach out via war for more resources.

Ascribing any fixed time scale to the cycle is going to be fallacious as it depends on environmental factors.

[htfu]

Russia was hardly ever saturated and is now aging and depopulating. However false or not false it may be it clearly doesn't apply here.

[dgellow]

"Cyclical history" as theorized by Spengler and others during the 20th century is a whole set of bullshit. That's what my comments are explicitly about, I don't understand how people can miss this.

[an9n]

> rejected by historians

which historians? And why should we pay any attention to their consensus?

[api]

I agree that it's sort of a fashy dog whistle, but the concept of cyclic history did not originate with Spengler. This was probably the dominant view of the nature of time and history up until at least the last thousand years, maybe later.

[dgellow]

I don't think you should be downvoted for saying what you said, but I feel that you missed the point my comment was trying to make.

My point is: the dog whistle/modern meme is basically a reference to Spengler and others, because their ideologies align relatively well with the patchwork of neo-fascist ideas. That's what they hint to and promote. That's why I explicitly mentioned Spengler and the 20th century. Lot of other people developed some form of a cyclical history but that's not really relevant here.