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this post was submitted on 11 Aug 2026
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Showerthoughts
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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The most popular seem to be lighthearted clever little truths, hidden in daily life.
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- More dreams have been destroyed by alarm clocks than anything else
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The guillotine was primarily used against innocent commoners during the French Revolution, and the last guy guillotined was the guy who had been in charge of deciding who to guillotine next. If anything, the guillotine symbolizes the fact if you normalize political violence against your opponents then you also normalize it against yourself.
When political violence is normalized on one side already, why shouldn't the other fight back?
Because the cycle of violence always escalates and is ultimately self-defeating.
So defending yourself is self-defeating?
Interesting take...
No, that would be a most uncharitable interpretation of what I've been saying (and rather a loaded question.)
There's never been a successful revolution?
Violent revolutions have a huge risk of producing prolonged violence, authoritarianism, or other disastrous outcomes, even if they succeed in overthrowing the old regime.
On the other hand here are some successful non-violent revolutions: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colour_revolution
Nonviolent revolutions generally produce better institutional outcomes than violent ones (it's science).
Also watch out for selection bias - we tend to remember revolutions that became enormous historical events. Check out this table of pitiful forgotten revolutions and note how many "Suppression of the rebellion" there are: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_peasant_revolts
That depends on how you define success. It also depends on how you define revolution. If the French Revolution can be defined as ending when Napoleon crowned himself Emperor, then I think that qualifies as a failed revolution.
But there's been successful revolutions, so the cycle of violence does not always escalate.
The cycle will escalate until it is broken. How long it runs before it gets broken might be a useful part in defining "successful revolution": the successful ones break the cycle of violence as early as possible.
Violence is inescapable.
Do you eat food? That is an act of violence.
Not all acts of violence use physical force; not all uses of physical force are acts of violence.
Did the food consent to being harvested?
No, because no food can, other than arguably humans, but that's usually illegal.
I would count killing and eating an animal as a non-violent, physically forceful act, all else being equal. I realize that puts me at odds with many vegetarians and vegans, but in the context of violence against other human beings, I'm not sure what you're getting at.
Their political violence against us (their opponents) has always been normalized and it never led to what you said.
Yes yes. And Guy Fawkes was a religious nutter and completely unsuccessful at his goals.
Symbols change.
This seems fundamentally different because a mask of some guy does not itself contain information about what that guy was all about, but a guillotine is very unambiguously a machine for efficient and gruesome executions.
and what part of, "machine for efficient and gruesome executions" implies, "political violence between ruling factions and definitely not commoners rising up"?
It doesn't matter because the method is inherently a bad idea because
is just the truth whether or not anyone remembers it, and the symbol is inseparable from the method.
Sure that's a fair criticism, but it was a symbol of anger the common man had with the nobility. Political violence is already on our streets. ICE has murdered people in the street.
No. The last one was [this gent] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamida_Djandoubi), in 1977, for 'kidnapping, torture, and murder'.
The last guy guillotined *during the French Revolution
Ok, my bad then. But, anyway, that fact didn't ring a bell at all, and a quick web search doesn't get me anything, and it sounds a bit like a made up folk tale, honestly. So if you could get me some source on that last feller guillotined during the French Revolution it would be great.
Not sure if he was 100% the final person guillotined during the French revolution but I'm pretty sure they're referring to Robespierre. I thought he was pretty well known but idk maybe that's just because I watched a load of nerdy shit growing up.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maximilien_Robespierre
It's Maximilien Robespierre, head of the Committee of Public Safety during the Reign of Terror.
My point is less about him being the literal last person executed by guillotine, and more about his execution by guillotine marking the end of a period of mass executions by guillotine, largely because he had been the leading champion of mass executions by guillotine.
The last guy guillotined was a POS who deserved it
facts.