For some context, this was a :reddit-logo: thread talking about old dnd settings and whether or not they should bring Kara-Tur back. There were plenty of shitty racist takes in the thread, but comparing the existence of christianity in europe to the brutality that african/asian/south american countries experienced during colonialism seemed especially bad.

    • hexaflexagonbear [he/him]
      ·
      3 years ago

      I think the comments in the OP just highlight a fundamental misunderstanding of colonialism, which is that it's a relic of the ancient past. Most people who are this dismissive think that colonization ended in 18th century at the latest. But really what set up our modern world is colonization by America and the European powers through the 19th and early 20th century.

      • Mardoniush [she/her]
        ·
        3 years ago

        I think we need to be clearer on "colonisation": which is a bunch of people showing up and forming a colony (which can in principle be morally neutral or even mutually beneficial, though generally not)

        Colonialism: which is establishing political Hegemony via forming colonies via migration and/or domination, which is something the Romans did.

        Empire, which is a political unit of many different cultures, often but not always dominated by one culture and often with a centralised government.

        And Imperialism, which most empires ironically didn't do, since it's a technical term relating to the operation of extractive capitalism in Colonialist hegemonies

        So you can have an Empire, that has a colony (say, a small trading port) but is neither colonialist (since it achieved empire via direct subjugation or federation with other cultures) or imperialist (Because it's a pre capitalist state)

    • Caitycat [she/her]
      ·
      3 years ago

      Oh definitely, I'm not saying Romans weren't colonizers or anything, I just think that trying to compare the colonization of europe over a thousand years ago and the colonization of a lot of other area by europe that basically still haven't ended seems pretty bad.

    • bombshell [none/use name]
      ·
      3 years ago

      It's wrong when whites do it to The Other. It's not wrong when The Other does it to whites. It's okay to be as political and biased as you want because everything is political anyway. Public debate is a war of ideas and non-rational means are acceptable. Rationality and logic hold no special status as means of inquiry, they are male, white, and western, they are not in the least universal human values.