Yet received wisdom in the west is that it goes the other way round. Talk to the average westerner about global inequality and you almost always get some version of "We give them so much aid but the non-white brainpan is simply too predisposed towards sloth and corruption for it to work"

Meanwhile we westerners have ridiculously high thoughts of ourselves. Imperialism? Never heard of her, the reason we're rich is simply our superior Judeo-Christian protestant work ethic and our civilised values of free market liberal democracy. Sometimes this autofellation can take absurd forms, just this day I saw a serious news outlet claim that the fact that clothing shops have racks of clothes on the sidewalk outside the shop is somehow the result of an uniquely enviable level of trust and morality.

The average westerner lives in a completely alternate reality. They are no better than medieval peasants who believed that India/Abyssinia/Atlantis was populated by giants, headless people and mermaids.