I refered to the republic as democracy to oversimplify the explanation, putting aside the pedantry.

And if you didn’t know what Rome’s war with Carthage was about, it was vying who will become the hegemon in the Mediterranean. Sorry you didn’t know history.

“The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts.”

Honestly, it was a long time coming. USA today is mirroring the fall of the Roman republic. People and its ruling elites became too complacent after their country became hegemons after emerging victorious from a major war. The ordinary folks became disillusioned with supposed democracy, and started to look for a strong man to get things done, by breaking the slow deliberation and bureaucracy, which only serves the oligarchs.

I didn’t think I would agree with conservatives, but they are right about a society becoming too decadent and losing its moral fibre.

Some people still believes tariff is good for them.

This is meme has a bad implied advise. You have to interact with your coworkers in so far as you build working relationship to trust each other, because teamwork and professionalism is required in most jobs. Also, building a work friendly relationship with coworkers will pay off when you want to get promotion or recognition, because you will get good word of mouth from colleagues and thus build a good reputation.

I understand where people are coming from with this, but one has to balance knowing when to recognise if your workmates can be trusted and become good friends, or knowing how to keep professional but friendly distance. Unless you work in an environment where teamwork has less importance, or you don’t plan to move up the corporate ladder which requires good reputation, or really don’t want to make friends with colleagues because they are toxic, then by all means be “rude”.