No, why would you shoot these poor saps? Tie them to a tree and beat the shit out of them until pieces of their ribs get stuck in all of their organs.
I also constantly find Europeans that think they shouldn’t pay any reparations to African/South American/Caribbean countries because “the people that did it are long dead”, like their countries and institutions didn’t benefit a lot with the exploitation of the global south.
And still do by this day
Strange how ardent anticommunists often tend to be into things such as defending or downplaying European colonialism.
That’s what Gulags and other forms of re-education are for.
The “but their kings are the ones who sold them into slavery” has been the refrain of racist white guys who don’t think of themselves as racist. It really pisses me off because I don’t know enough to deboonk that talking point.
See my comment here.
Rodney also notes that millions of slaves were taken from Africa. The Europeans did not simply show up to find them all waiting on the shores. Africa had no need for this huge amount of slave labor, but the new colonies did, which is why they traded in slaves and not gold. Some African states that did enslave other groups, even before the Europeans, didn’t necessarily use them as labor but would integrate them as citizens.
Thanks a lot! I’ve heard Rodney’s book mentioned before, so I’ll definitely check it out.
If it’s true, that’s an argument that the African societies in question were deeply flawed not that euros should be morally absolved for chattel slavery.
I mean it is true that African groups were deeply involved in the slave trade but that doesn’t absolve Europeans at all because without a purchaser then there wouldn’t have been other groups involved in it either.
The Europeans coerced many African states into engaging in the slave trade when they were otherwise reluctant, for example by playing on existing social divisions to turn groups against each other, or by refusing to trade desired European goods for anything other than slaves. Any comrade here who is curious can read “How Europe Underdeveloped Africa” by Walter Rodney.
This is why I don’t believe in propaganda and manipulation or even zionists buy off politicians and blah blah blah. Left to their own devices, they come up with shit like this grassroots level. I am sure they heard it somewhere, but it only confirmed what they already believed in their hearts.
I mean, there is some level of propaganda and manipulation. To there isn’t at all sounds like it’s just human nature that people come up with the most racist shit. But we believe that people can change if the material conditions change. If we can change the environment these people are in, they won’t come up with such horrible stuff. Or at least, after a few generations they might not.
I think people mostly align to the system that advances their material interests. That’s why upper middle class suburbia produces a lot more reactionaries that fantasize about doing things from the saw movies to “home invaders” (we know what race they are in the fantasies). That’s why the tech sector went right wing, even a lot of minorities once they started making 300k plus after being “woke” earlier.
Edit: i am willing to entertain other theories for my observations but recent politics have made me cynical.
I would say it’s always some of both. Otherwise class traitors wouldn’t exist. And in the case of like white supremacy, that is going back generations in being established and normalized, and has yet to be dismantled on a system level in its strongest bases (such as the US). Colonialism goes even further back than the establishment of white supremacy, if I’m not mistaken, and that hasn’t been fully dismantled either, only in some regions.
That’s precisely my point. When Columbus landed on the shores of this hemisphere, there was no propaganda against the natives. He just somehow knew to call them “savages” etc. He knew right away that’s what he needed to do to justify taking their stuff and making them slaves.
There was inherent propaganda already in place from centuries of European warfare such as the Reconquista and some argument can be had that this sort of mindset came from wanting to emulate Rome and influenced by the massive continent-spanning religious institution that birthed from it. Roughly at around the same time, Europeans were beginning to “explore” Sub-Saharan Africa. There’s plenty of previous precedent that could have created “propaganda” in the mind of the settlers.
Ok, but then again that was also powered by material interests. I am over giving a cop out to people and saying oh poor little child was led by pied piper to be a racist freak.
This also stems from arrogance. Oh we are so smart to see through it, if only the rest of the population was as smart as us to break from the programming. If there are class traitors that can break from propaganda, there should be more of them especially after the recent genocide.
Nobody is saying that. If anything, they had the chance to see through these interests upon meeting a new culture and instead chose to exploit and destroy it. There is no “you have to give justification”. Never was. Instead, you have to recognize that people have precedent and reason for what they believe in. Even if it’s nonsensical as “I killed them because my dog told me too”. In the case I just quoted, it would tell you whoever said that is suffering mental distress rather than trying to think it’s a justification.
The programming is also very, very strong. Many of us weren’t communists or socialists originally. The effort to actually get there can be near insurmountable for some people especially when you take a look at the state of critical thinking, education and overall higher-learning in the global hegemon. For Europe, it’s tradition and clinging onto the ideals of dead and gone empires.
I would mostly agree. There are instances of class traitors among the bourgeoisie who have aided leftist causes. But perhaps there are other material forces at play for them too.
True, and that’s why those people are heroes. The fact that we even call them “class traitors” says that most people think along class lines.
Slave markets in Libya… hmm I wonder which country killed the previous multi decade leader throwing it into destabilization
Kinda hilariously ironic to bring that up when trying to deflect blame from Europeans for slavery
We would run out of people
