3 ms·

The point the gentleman makes is well-reasoned, but I find it strange that he doesn't cite any of the 'facts that don't fit the anti-colonialist mindset', inste

by rudiv 6y ago

The point the gentleman makes is well-reasoned, but I find it strange that he doesn't cite any of the 'facts that don't fit the anti-colonialist mindset', instead settling for general observations that are hard to concretely dispute because of their general nature.

raziel2p 6y ago
Agreed, this seems like a bit of a clickbait title. I'm sure you'll find people that say they want colonialism to be taught in school as an exclusively bad thing, but you'll also find people wanting intelligent design to be taught alongside evolution.
- rvense 6y ago
  I'm starting to wonder if titles such as these are actually "clickbait". Maybe we could call them sharebait - they don't encourage reading and speculation as much as social media outrage for or against the overly simplified, purposefully controversial headline. I don't doubt that a lot of people will see this and think "See? We weren't so bad!" or "See? They don't care how bad we were!", whichever matches their preconceptions.
  - ewzimm 6y ago
    I still wonder why people don't get tired of reducing every discussion to "is x good or bad?" Why should everything need to be categorized in such a way, and why would this be the most important aspect of any analysis? It seems more likely that referring to a massive and complicated process in such a simple way will never be correct, and so these arguments can never be resolved, only recapitulated. The core argument in this article seems to be that multiple perspectives are necessary to understand colonialism and that many lower class people preferred colonial oppression to the oppression by their local elites. This is not related to whether or not colonialism was a net benefit to people. "But in a country like Nigeria, Britain’s largest African colony, feelings towards colonialism were more complicated. In his 1947 book Path to Nigerian Freedom, Obafemi Awolowo, considered one of Nigeria’s Founding Fathers for his role in the independence struggle, offered a frank assessment of the challenges in mobilising his compatriots against British rule at the time. 'Given a choice from among white officials, [Nigerian] chiefs and educated Nigerians as the principal rulers of the country, the illiterate man today would exercise his preference for the three in the order in which they are named. He is convinced, and has good reasons to be, that he can always get better treatment from the white man than he could hope to get from the chiefs and the educated elements,' Awolowo wrote."
- JabavuAdams 6y ago
  Intelligent design should be taught in school -- just not in science class, because it's not science. Fair game for a comparative religions course. Colonialism is history and should be taught in a history class -- with a wider set of perspectives than in the past.

by rudiv 6y ago

raziel2p 6y ago

Agreed, this seems like a bit of a clickbait title. I'm sure you'll find people that say they want colonialism to be taught in school as an exclusively bad thing, but you'll also find people wanting intelligent design to be taught alongside evolution.

rvense 6y ago
I'm starting to wonder if titles such as these are actually "clickbait". Maybe we could call them sharebait - they don't encourage reading and speculation as much as social media outrage for or against the overly simplified, purposefully controversial headline. I don't doubt that a lot of people will see this and think "See? We weren't so bad!" or "See? They don't care how bad we were!", whichever matches their preconceptions.
- ewzimm 6y ago
  I still wonder why people don't get tired of reducing every discussion to "is x good or bad?" Why should everything need to be categorized in such a way, and why would this be the most important aspect of any analysis? It seems more likely that referring to a massive and complicated process in such a simple way will never be correct, and so these arguments can never be resolved, only recapitulated. The core argument in this article seems to be that multiple perspectives are necessary to understand colonialism and that many lower class people preferred colonial oppression to the oppression by their local elites. This is not related to whether or not colonialism was a net benefit to people. "But in a country like Nigeria, Britain’s largest African colony, feelings towards colonialism were more complicated. In his 1947 book Path to Nigerian Freedom, Obafemi Awolowo, considered one of Nigeria’s Founding Fathers for his role in the independence struggle, offered a frank assessment of the challenges in mobilising his compatriots against British rule at the time. 'Given a choice from among white officials, [Nigerian] chiefs and educated Nigerians as the principal rulers of the country, the illiterate man today would exercise his preference for the three in the order in which they are named. He is convinced, and has good reasons to be, that he can always get better treatment from the white man than he could hope to get from the chiefs and the educated elements,' Awolowo wrote."
JabavuAdams 6y ago
Intelligent design should be taught in school -- just not in science class, because it's not science. Fair game for a comparative religions course. Colonialism is history and should be taught in a history class -- with a wider set of perspectives than in the past.