• @frippa
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      1111 months ago

      I’m uninitiated, what does Mao Bait mean?

      • @PolandIsAStateOfMind@lemmygrad.ml
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        11 months ago

        Crassus was the first known to history giant scummy landlord in the modern meaning of the word - he was the richest man in Roman Republic and he get to that wealth by aggressive concentration of land in the city and rent scumming. Especially the housing and he was also the biggest slumlord in history of Rome.

        His favourite trick which made him infamous was buying burning buildings. Fires were very common in Rome, and Crassus organized his own private firefighter squad (first one in european history), and being somewhat OCD type he was always on watch for fires, then he was taking his firefighters and go to the site, Then he looked for usually despairing owner of the burning building and offered to buy it right now for price that was pretty low but still higher than the price for burnt ruins or cost of rebuilding. And the price was falling as the fire progressed. The moment the owned decided to sell, Crassus would order his firefighters to start fighting fire (they were apparently pretty good at it).

        So he was the OG scum landlord even in meme meaning, so a premier bait for Mao.