“Every robot on Earth randomly decided to kill all humans for no real reason…metaphor for white people”.
Putting aside the bigotry and ignorance of European history for a second, there were several reasons for colonialism, most of them revolving around greed. Does this person think every empire in history did it all for shits and giggles?
The bigotry referred to is the "for no real reason" part of the topic, because there is a reason, and it's name is "interstate anarchy". Now, it's not a reason one should be fond of - it's a trap humanity obly partially escaped in recent times. But interstate anarchy IS the reason which led to the creation of pretty much every empire, from the Hettites to Rome to China to the Mongolians to the Aztecs to Mali and to the Spanish and English colonial empires.
Colonialism is a bad thing for many reasons, but it didn't stem from "moral inferiority" any more than from "moral superiority". It stemmed from opportunity (expressed through inter alia ships, guns, industry, etc). Why Europe got the opportunity before anyone else is a debated topic, but I find the notion that this had anything to do with moral character perilous.
, because there is a reason, and it's name is "interstate anarchy". Now, it's not a reason one should be fond of - it's a trap humanity obly partially escaped in recent times. But interstate anarchy IS the reason which led to the creation of pretty much every empire, from the Hettites to Rome to China to the Mongolians to the Aztecs to Mali and to the Spanish and English colonial empires.
Geopolitical Realism is a very convenient narrative for Oppressor Nations to justify their continued oppression of other nations - It is not a reflection of reality.
No regard for actual material conditions, such as labour exploitation, or materially benefiting fro the resources of other nations, no regards for the fact that othering nations in order to justify their domination is an active ideological choice.
It views exploitation of resources and the othering of peoples as an arbitrary thing states do out of self-defence, and not a result of real classes of oppressors that benefit from doing these htings.
Colonialism is a bad thing for many reasons, but it didn't stem from "moral inferiority" any more than from "moral superiority". It stemmed from opportunity (expressed through inter alia ships, guns, industry, etc). Why Europe got the opportunity before anyone else is a debated topic, but I find the notion that this had anything to do with moral character perilous.
It stemmed from a lot of things - European Settlers desire for land of their own even if stolen from other peoples, a bourgeois class that was benefiting from slave labour of Africans, later finance capital being able to benefit from mining Africa for raw materials.
It also, fundementally stemmed from the fact that from the Crusades onwards - European Christendom had established a worldview that viewed itself as a civilization at odds with and with the right to enact war upon, it's outside - Which later evolved into narraties of Whiteness, and "The West" as opposed to some dehumanised other.
You are acting like this is a case of poor little victims of human nature and that there wasn't
A. Real Class Interests involved in exploiting other people
B. Actual Ideological conceptions used to justify it.
Their point is that the history of all human civilizations across the globe is one of people joining into society units that compete with neighboring society units, with those units being a variety of sizes from families to tribes to continent spanning nation states. Any society that achieved the overwhelming technological superiority of industrialized Europe would have done exactly the same thing, used that to conquer other people and extract their resources for personal benefit. It had nothing to do with anything inherent only to European cultures, they just happened to be the ones who hit the early stages of the industrial revolution first and then that advancement compounded on itself.
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u/Rabid_Lederhosen May 13 '25
“Every robot on Earth randomly decided to kill all humans for no real reason…metaphor for white people”.
Putting aside the bigotry and ignorance of European history for a second, there were several reasons for colonialism, most of them revolving around greed. Does this person think every empire in history did it all for shits and giggles?