3 ms·

Comparing mercantile colonial Britain with USA of today is like comparing slavery to low-income job, they may look and feel the same from outside but there is a

Comparing mercantile colonial Britain with USA of today is like comparing slavery to low-income job, they may look and feel the same from outside but there is a world of difference.

jbarham 8y ago
Ironic comparison given that the British Empire banned slavery before the American Civil War.
- adventured 8y ago
  And did they abolish the still-existing consequences of their centuries-long slave trade? Have they paid trillions of dollars in reparations? It was easy for Britain to abolish their slave trade: it existed almost entirely on foreign soil. They could just walk away from their misdeeds and wash their hands of it. The consequences became a problem for someone else. The US dealt with the consequences of European slavery and it's still dealing with the consequences of European slavery. Europe isn't dealing with the consequences of their slavery, they've conveniently dodged that responsibility for hundreds of years. Hundreds of years before the US existed, the European empires were bringing slaves to North and South America. Even more slaves were taken to Latin America by the European empires than to the colonies of North America. If Western Europe today had to pay fair reparations for the slaves they took to the Americas and the slave trade generally, several major economies in Europe would instantly collapse.
jacobolus 8y ago
“Past empires were even worse” is not much consolation if the US uses its economic might to drive your country to ruin and your countrymen to unemployment and starvation, trains and arms paramilitary soldiers to come rape and massacre your neighbors, bombs your village to rubble, props up the autocratic military dictatorship ruling your country, etc. There are dozens of countries and millions of lives around the world which US military/foreign policy has left in ruins. Which is not to say that the US is any worse than other global powers, or that a world where the US was completely isolationist would necessarily be better. But its hardly the force for divine progress and prosperity that we Americans often pretend it is to ourselves.
29083011397778 8y ago
> They may look and feel the same from outside This isn't as comforting as you seem to think it is, when you're talking to people on the outside.
Pristina 8y ago
the good old "i only shot you once when all those people would have shot you 3 times" defense.

Comparing mercantile colonial Britain with USA of today is like comparing slavery to low-income job, they may look and feel the same from outside but there is a world of difference.

jbarham 8y ago

Ironic comparison given that the British Empire banned slavery before the American Civil War.

adventured 8y ago
And did they abolish the still-existing consequences of their centuries-long slave trade? Have they paid trillions of dollars in reparations? It was easy for Britain to abolish their slave trade: it existed almost entirely on foreign soil. They could just walk away from their misdeeds and wash their hands of it. The consequences became a problem for someone else. The US dealt with the consequences of European slavery and it's still dealing with the consequences of European slavery. Europe isn't dealing with the consequences of their slavery, they've conveniently dodged that responsibility for hundreds of years. Hundreds of years before the US existed, the European empires were bringing slaves to North and South America. Even more slaves were taken to Latin America by the European empires than to the colonies of North America. If Western Europe today had to pay fair reparations for the slaves they took to the Americas and the slave trade generally, several major economies in Europe would instantly collapse.

jacobolus 8y ago

“Past empires were even worse” is not much consolation if the US uses its economic might to drive your country to ruin and your countrymen to unemployment and starvation, trains and arms paramilitary soldiers to come rape and massacre your neighbors, bombs your village to rubble, props up the autocratic military dictatorship ruling your country, etc. There are dozens of countries and millions of lives around the world which US military/foreign policy has left in ruins. Which is not to say that the US is any worse than other global powers, or that a world where the US was completely isolationist would necessarily be better. But its hardly the force for divine progress and prosperity that we Americans often pretend it is to ourselves.

29083011397778 8y ago

> They may look and feel the same from outside This isn't as comforting as you seem to think it is, when you're talking to people on the outside.

Pristina 8y ago

the good old "i only shot you once when all those people would have shot you 3 times" defense.