2 votes

Topic deleted by author

7 comments

  1. Zarasophos
    Link
    No. I can recommend all of Chinua Achebe's work, especially the seminal Things Fall Apart, as a literary look on colonialism and its effects by an African author.

    No. I can recommend all of Chinua Achebe's work, especially the seminal Things Fall Apart, as a literary look on colonialism and its effects by an African author.

    6 votes
  2. [2]
    alyaza
    Link
    no, lol. it destabilized half the world and led to probably hundreds of millions of deaths including the extermination of entire groups of people like the taino. that alone basically negates every...

    no, lol. it destabilized half the world and led to probably hundreds of millions of deaths including the extermination of entire groups of people like the taino. that alone basically negates every benefit there ever was to western colonialism, which for the record have also almost exclusively gone to westerners and not anybody else.

    For example, without colonialism, the world would be much more divided because of greater isolation between nations.

    this in particular is egregious. how can you possibly make this claim given the state of africa and the middle east? western imperialism and continued exploitation is almost exclusively responsible for how the fate of africa in the post-colonial era has played out.

    5 votes
    1. cge
      Link Parent
      He can make that claim because this form of question doesn't want to look at a topic directly, but instead compare the topic to imagined alternative pasts. With the appropriate construction of a...

      this in particular is egregious. how can you possibly make this claim given the state of africa and the middle east? western imperialism and continued exploitation is almost exclusively responsible for how the fate of africa in the post-colonial era has played out

      He can make that claim because this form of question doesn't want to look at a topic directly, but instead compare the topic to imagined alternative pasts. With the appropriate construction of a sufficiently extreme hypothetical alternative past to compare to, Western colonialism can certainly be made "good" or "bad" by comparison, because the person making the argument is free to construct whatever alternative assists their particular argument. As such, I'd argue that the answer to the questions as posed is not no, or yes, but rather that the questions are fundamentally unanswerable and meaningless.

      I would also suggest that this style of question is intended, even if unconsciously so, to allow for arguments that attempt to support the insupportable. It is telling that the author immediately attempt to avoid the meaningful question, with only one answer that can have actual support, of whether Western colonialism was moral.

      1 vote
  3. [3]
    Quanttek
    Link
    No. Read Fanon's The Wretched of the Earth

    No. Read Fanon's The Wretched of the Earth

    3 votes
    1. [3]
      Comment deleted by author
      Link Parent
      1. [3]
        Comment deleted by author
        Link Parent
        1. [2]
          Whom
          Link Parent
          This post itself is far below the standard this website should hold itself to. Our vocal Breitbart follower here should leave instead. If we wouldn't entertain "Was the Holocaust a good thing...

          This post itself is far below the standard this website should hold itself to. Our vocal Breitbart follower here should leave instead.

          If we wouldn't entertain "Was the Holocaust a good thing overall??" then we shouldn't entertain this.

          7 votes
  4. Deimos
    Link
    This isn't a good topic, and is already going poorly.

    This isn't a good topic, and is already going poorly.

    3 votes