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the moral relative concept that previous peoples' didn't know right-from-wrong is , as always, ridiculous. we're not talking about a bogus modern concept here,

by serf 2y ago

the moral relative concept that previous peoples' didn't know right-from-wrong is , as always, ridiculous. we're not talking about a bogus modern concept here, we're talking about cultural theft on a global scale -- and we're pretending that the British did so without ever realizing that stealing artifacts from other nations around the world is A Bad Thing, until of course they produced modern rules to apply to their cultural theft so that the world stage doesn't think too poorly of them (now that they're no longer the king of the world). Could it be that ancient peoples knew right-from-wrong but didn't care as long as it wasn't their shit disappearing, and as long as it wasn't their natives dying from foreign-borne disease during 'excavations'? As long as it was their museums profiting, and bolstering their professionals? And how can we presume all this shit is bogus theater in order to have it both ways? Well, how many artifacts has Britain given back to the world at large that they previously stole? It's really a shame that those British laws you mentioned don't have any kind of retroactive clauses -- but that might spur actual justice to occur; I'm sure certain law makers may wish to avoid that...

wordofx 2y ago
Again. When the British were going to a lot of countries. They didn’t “steal” a lot of stuff. It was traded. They were gifts. Or they found them and took them back. No one was kicking up a fuss, half the counties were full of locals who would be classified as primitive and had no concept of cultural heritage. Pretty much all countries are now governed in some form of another and have some laws protecting these things and/or preventing them from being removed from the country. Yes we can debate if the British should return a lot of this stuff. But that’s a completely different topic. But you cannot fly a single banner and call it 100% looting/stealing when that is not true.

by serf 2y ago

wordofx 2y ago

Again. When the British were going to a lot of countries. They didn’t “steal” a lot of stuff. It was traded. They were gifts. Or they found them and took them back. No one was kicking up a fuss, half the counties were full of locals who would be classified as primitive and had no concept of cultural heritage. Pretty much all countries are now governed in some form of another and have some laws protecting these things and/or preventing them from being removed from the country. Yes we can debate if the British should return a lot of this stuff. But that’s a completely different topic. But you cannot fly a single banner and call it 100% looting/stealing when that is not true.