Explanation: “We should bring back the guillotine” or similar is a common internet quip in response to billionaires doing billionaire things, when in reality the guillotine was invented to provide equal and humane deaths to people of all classes, and from there it was always a tool of the state rather than the people. Not the best euphemism for “we should depose the bourgeoisie.” In fact plenty of Revolutionary justice folks were themselves offed by the guillotine during the Terror.

  • алсааас [she/they]@lemmy.dbzer0.comM
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    5 days ago

    I’d argue that it was involved in the class war between the ruling feudalist classes and the bourgeoisie; class struggle/war is a tale far older than capitalism or feudalism.

    • NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.ioOP
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      5 days ago

      That would’ve made it the most bloodless war in history then. Basically all aristocratic authority ceased to matter the moment the Estates General asserted itself as the National Assembly, and the abolition of feudalism in France happened in a night in the Assembly, with sometimes enthusiastic noble support. This understanding of the French Revolution is based more on myth than reality.