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Europeans like to pretend they're innocent, but they are the benefactors of most the damaging empires to have ever existed. They colonized nearly the entire world, extracting value from other cultures while destroying them. They pulled out once it was financially wise, keeping the wealth they extracted and leaving behind the destruction they created. They then blame everyone else for their issues while bragging about how awesome the EU is while overlooking that the EU is only possible due to the wealth they stole from everyone else. Europe likes to discuss that they had their social hardship discussing WWII, but the origin and impact of WWII there was internal to Europe. Had Europe been subject to colonization from elsewhere, it would be just as much a mess as other places. Look at the situation in former Soviet Pact countries that were practically colonized by Russia for maybe half a century. Now imagine if instead of half a century, it was hundreds of years and 5 times as brutal.
Fun fact: The term "colony" comes from Christopher Colombus' name, which is Spanish is Cristobal Colon. Even the term colonization derives from a European.
tl;dr: Europe got to where it is by destroying the rest of the world while blaming the rest of the world for their issues. Their critique of USA is merely a distraction from their own responsibility.
I don't think Columbus was the origin of the word "colony"
Yeah I think they're aware of colonisation
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NGL, it sounds like your describing Americans, sorry!
Which country did you live in?
American are a lot more willing to criticize our ruling regime and half of us talk about how us is doing crimes actively... We know where out daddies obtained their capital.
The same can't be said about Germans for example or French.
Russians?
You mean the French who criticize their government all day long for the past hundred years?
Germans? Germans talk about the Nazi crimes every other year in history class. They'll read at least two books in lit handling the Nazis and the fallout. They have holocaust memorials big and small in every city. German government is up Israel's ass because they're jews. Every video game that could even have a slight chance of glorifying Nazis is banned. When Coca Cola wanted to bring back Fanta like it was made "in the good old days" they conjured a huge shit storm, had to pull everything and issue an apology. Nazis are still being prosecuted and sentenced today. Every so often a new big book or movie is released to big media fanfare that deals with Nazi history.
Maybe you're talking about other colonisation efforts and genocides. They are also actively being acknowledged by government and media alike. They do get lost in this little war that completely shaped the whole world for the next 100 and probably more years.
Nazis are still being prosecuted and sentenced today.
The French love to riot and protest the govt. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_incidents_of_civil_unrest_in_France.
The British frequently review and criticise it's past actions https://www.jstor.org/stable/2637720
Of course, we also acknowledge the Norman and Roman invasions of Britain, but it happened so long ago we don't expect the Italians or French to apologise about it now..
The French run a neo colonial empire... Ask them about that. Or how they CFA franc regime operates although PR so bad I think they stopped stealing interest on deposit.
My apologies, I didn't know about this. https://hir.harvard.edu/true-sovereignty-the-cfa-franc-and-french-influence-in-west-and-central-africa/
The Macron-Ouattara announcement represents a needed reform. But it is just one of many that needs to happen. Going forward, the challenge will be to keep the benefits of the CFA franc monetary zone, namely a stable currency and low inflation, while transitioning to a new institutional system away from France. A monetary system that holds a former colonial power as the guarantor, regardless of announcements or agreements, will always ultimately fail to eradicate neocolonialism.
Are you talking about Overseas France? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overseas_France
Overseas regions have exactly the same status as France's mainland regions.
Seems similar to Puerto Rico, Samoa and the others https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Territories_of_the_United_States
Nah, overseas France voted to stay as part of France. After we got our asses kicked in the Algeria War we pretty much let go anyone who wanted to leave as a colony.
The thing is that for Africa special deals were made, which means that France still retains some vestiges of its former colonial power on Africa, which are abused by France at the detriment of African countries
Really though?
Saying that with a straight face while a outright fascist is coming into power and every us billionaire is stepping in line to kiss their ring while the working class is doing nothing of importance. USians must be the most submissive culture in the world while actually thinking it's the most revolutionary.
Some truth there but we also have Luigi...
USians must be the most submissive culture in the world while actually thinking it's the most revolutionary.
We have our bootlickers too. I never suggested revolutionary, but critical. Europeans have melt down at any criticism, Germans esp.
criticism of what? The superiority of EU culture? I'm not sure what kind of "meltdown" you've experienced.
American are a lot more willing to criticize our ruling regime and half of us talk about how us is doing crimes actively… We know where out daddies obtained their capital.
This describes all of us. Remember class solidarity !
They’re still arrogant as fuck and most of the world can’t stand Europeans.
lol and what utopia do you hail from? bet it's full of assholes and bastards too
I think that's the point. Every country/culture/society has its own problems and it is quite grating when individuals from various countries act like their country's problems aren't as bad as everyone else's or that their excuses are valid but no one else's is.
Sounds like America
I'm not European, but do go off
I guess Finland isn't European by your description then 🤷🏻♂️
The word colony comes from the Latin word colonia. I guess you could say the Romans were "European colonizers" but their socioeconomic systems were fundamentally different from modern Europe.
The rest of your comment is great, but it would have taken a five-second check on https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/colony to make sure you got your etymology right (which you didn't)
Had my Spanish brother in law over for the holidays. He says spanish schools teach that the spaniards were trying to civilize the natives and bring them a better life. And sure, some things went wrong, but that columbus should be seen as a hero. He strongly beleives it. I was floored. I thought that stuff was pretty settled. I showed him some info on the genocide of Hispanola, and he said he'd never seen that before, but that we cant judge what happened back then by todays standrads, and that the word genocide hadnt even been invented back then, and that method of conflict was normal back then.
There was a recent call in Barcelona to take down the Columbus statue, at least as early as 2016 (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/sep/27/call-to-topple-christopher-columbus-statue-from-its-barcelona-perch)
I live in Barcelona, and Colombus and colonization is definitely not a popular topic: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/oct/12/spain-leftist-columbus-day-celebrations
On the other hand, Spain can still be quite racist, football players being a good example (https://www.ft.com/content/6801c79a-6325-4a2a-9d5d-1d99b37920ab, https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20240610-fans-get-8-months-jail-for-racism-targeting-real-madrid-s-vinicius)
I'd say most of Europe is cognisant of this, and several countries have been doing special reparations, or asylum, or deals out of this guilt.
There's a sentiment though that reparations can't ever be enough, and as such there's an impasse. Europe is still living off of the stolen wealth (as all of society is), but has no real way to return that wealth, neither practically, sustainably, nor in a way that leads to a long term better life in the receiving country. We're working on it though.
To add a little tu cuoque, all of the international heavyweights have risen there on the backs of exploiting others, including throughout history. None of us are without blame.
We don't believe in generational sin, forced upon you because your grandparents did something bad either.
Lol the downvote brigade is here +11/-7 and on my other comment too, if I'm so wrong tell me why!
I will believe this when the British museum, the Louvre, etc are devoid of stolen (or very unfairly "purchased") artifacts from former colonies. Generational responsibility may not be a thing, but institutional abuses spanning centuries that persist into the current day absolutely are.
Fair enough, but it's quite far away from enslaving and murdering.
Edit: I see the difference between stealing versus raping, enslaving and murder. Not saying stealing is right, but there is more than a nuance to it lol.
Countries built their generational wealth on the backs of slaves though. Look at how, for instance, Belgium enriched itself though the horrific abuses in the Congo. While it's true that no one alive was directly responsible, they still benefit from it.
It's the trophies from the enslavement and murder. They didn't get to keep the people, but they did keep souvenirs.
Ignoring the past doesn't mean it didn't happen, or that it has no bearing on the present. "Somebody else did it so the generational inequity is fine actually" is a terrible argument.
Which is not what I said. At all.
Putting words in other peoples mouth is not as good as you think it is.
Your reply was a nonsequitur as well
In whzt way is it a non sequitur ?
It's not my job to educate you
Also, if you're going to correct my misspellings, don't misspell "what"