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0 pointse59d134d8y ago0 comments

Hypocrisy is amazing in most of the world.

I was international student and met many at my university. It was mind boggling how almost everyone would celebrate their cultures' conquests & wars and at the same time call Western conquests evil and the worst thing.

It was also amazing how most of the Western students would agree that Western imperialism was horrible but never argue against glorification of other cultures horrible wars.

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9 comments · 3 top-level

sumedh8y ago· 3 in thread

I guess it's because of the timescales.

I am assuming the people who celebrate the wars of kings in their lands are more than 500 years old while Western colonialism sort of stopped just 50-100 years back.

So the Western atrocities are still fresh in the mind while people forget the 1000 year old atrocities.

roywiggins8y ago

For example, the crimes of the British during the Mau Mau rebellion are within living memory. And, importantly, the current British government is a successor to the one that oversaw those crimes.

vidarh8y ago

And conversely several African states have governments that either took part in the fight against colonialism personally, or are from families where family members fought the colonial powers.

E.g. when looking at Robert Mugabe's hostility towards Britain in particular (without wanting to justify his authoritarianism and violence) it is worth considering that he fought for independence, and though Britain as responsible for allowing Rhodesia to happen.

e59d134dOP8y ago

I guess this does make sense. I wish people stop glorifying violence distance past, recent past or present.

rbg2468y ago· 2 in thread

What Western conquests were seen as evil out of interest? You mean colonisation? Or other wars?

vidarh8y ago

To take a particularly bad one that relatively frequently comes up, consider the Congo Free State [1], which is considered bad enough by some still that a statue showing king Leopold II being celebrated by the Congolese was vandalised by someone chopping off the hand of one of the African characters to symbolise the history of chopping off the hands of those who refused to work the rubber plantations.

But the list is massive.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congo_Free_State

e59d134dOP8y ago

Colonizations, almost all of my friends from international communities had their countries colonized by Western powers. A lot of them still blame colonization for current problems in their countries.

freischwimmer8y ago· 1 in thread

Was horrible?

Are you forgetting about modern western imperialist adventures such as Iraq and Afghanistan, entering their 16th year? Where millions of civilians were and are still being killed, injured, displaced, tortured and all around stomped on in terms of human rights, led by some of the most powerful western nations in the world. These wars were cheered on by a good chunk of US and UK citizenry for years before they conveniently faded into the background.

http://www.psr.org/assets/pdfs/body-count.pdf

That's even ignoring the direct relations of these invasions to the more recent conflicts in Libya, Syria, and ISIS, the boogeymen armed and created by the same people who started these wars not long ago.

Western imperialism is alive and well.

valuearb8y ago

Pretty sure Afghanistan attacked the U.S. first.

And that western nations are supporting freedom fighters in Syria.

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9 comments · 3 top-level

sumedh8y ago· 3 in thread

I guess it's because of the timescales.

I am assuming the people who celebrate the wars of kings in their lands are more than 500 years old while Western colonialism sort of stopped just 50-100 years back.

So the Western atrocities are still fresh in the mind while people forget the 1000 year old atrocities.

roywiggins8y ago

For example, the crimes of the British during the Mau Mau rebellion are within living memory. And, importantly, the current British government is a successor to the one that oversaw those crimes.

vidarh8y ago

And conversely several African states have governments that either took part in the fight against colonialism personally, or are from families where family members fought the colonial powers.

e59d134dOP8y ago

I guess this does make sense. I wish people stop glorifying violence distance past, recent past or present.

rbg2468y ago· 2 in thread

What Western conquests were seen as evil out of interest? You mean colonisation? Or other wars?

vidarh8y ago

But the list is massive.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congo_Free_State

e59d134dOP8y ago

Colonizations, almost all of my friends from international communities had their countries colonized by Western powers. A lot of them still blame colonization for current problems in their countries.

freischwimmer8y ago· 1 in thread

Was horrible?

http://www.psr.org/assets/pdfs/body-count.pdf

Western imperialism is alive and well.

valuearb8y ago

Pretty sure Afghanistan attacked the U.S. first.

And that western nations are supporting freedom fighters in Syria.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse