The legacy of colonialism still lives on for the simple fact that the colonial institutions are yet mostly in place: European missionary schools, banana “republics”, colonial banks, unfair agreements between the Western powers and their ex colonies, and so forth. The local elites of the Global South play an intermediary role between the West and the Global South. They are first taught Western values and ideologies by prestigious Western institutes then sponsored and brought to power by either “international” financial institutes like the IMF and the World Bank or foreign political bureaus, in order to act in the service and interest of the West. Their entire pedagigical and political formation is brewed outside their respective nation and tailored in way that is suitable for the West to continue its hegemonic role in a more discrete manner.

And the cold war leaders you mentioned (Amin and Suharto) further prove my point, both being dictators that were propped up by the British colonial army and the United States, respectively, and both having led crackdowns against (leftist) native uprisings. (And please do not conflate historical personalities from different historical periods with their own specificities that cannot be liberally contrasted with the modern era.)

I say all of this not because of some ancient, historical hatred to the West, nor as an apologia for our corrupt, western-backed governments. This is just the reality we third world citizens are still experiencing to this day. To quote Michel-Rolph Trouillot:

Injustices made to previous generations should be redressed: they affect the descendants of the victims. But the focus on The Past often diverts us from the present injustices for which previous generations only set the foundations.

And yet you’re adamant on ignoring the demands of the Herero and Nama communities. As if your utilitarian nonsense can measure what good compensation for ethnic cleansing is.

The article clearly states that the Herero and Nama people, the ones who were victims of the genocide refused this settlement because it adds insult to injury (1 billion euros aid over a thirty year period).

Furthermore, from Wikipedia:

Negotiations between the German and Namibian governments led to a deal in 2021 in which the German government agreed to contribute 1.1 billion euros (USD$1.3 billion) in the form of ex gratia development aid, while rejecting any legal responsibility for the genocide.[129]

The deal was vocally rejected by most of the organizations representing Herero and Nama people, who had demanded their own right to negotiate directly with Germany over any settlement.[130] In 2023, the Landless People’s Movement and traditional leaders from the Herero and Nama communities sued in Namibian court to nullify the National Assembly’s resolution of approval for the settlement.[131] Although favorably contrasting the deal with more limited British and Dutch efforts at confronting past colonial crimes, German sociologist Henning Melber refers to the joint German–Namibian statement as “a soft version of denialism” that “offers no true reconciliation”.[130] International law expert Matthias Goldmann suggested that the deal may not have been as selfless as it initially appears, while it “seemingly confirms [Germany’s] civilizational superiority”.[132]

Edit: I should’ve clarified in my original comment what I meant with reluctance in acknowledged and compensation is failure to take actual accountability and pay out fair reparations, not merely bribing an African government and calling it a day. This is the same government that has sent billions in aid to Israel over the years.

That’s similar to what Sweden has been doing with the children of refugees.

Yes, and Canada and South America as well. They are simultaneously an extension and exacerbation of European imperialism.

The point is, there is rarely any acknowledgment to the colonial legacy nor to the continued subjugation of the third world by the West. Germany remains reluctant to formally acknowledge and compensate for the Herero genocide in its former African colony; Western museums still hold the many artefacts colonizers stole from other cultures; Canada and the USA commited many massacres against indeginous populations even throughout the 20th century through the residential school system, deplacement and expropriation; Romani populations deal with abhorrent discrimination in Europe, and so forth. Despite all that, your governments and people still have the nerve to claim virtue against the rest of the world, boasting about human rights when they’re the number one perpetrator of violations in the global south.

Old ways? France was removed by force from West Africa only a few years ago. European corporations still largely control the economies of their former colonies and some even outsource their labor to third world countries in order to avoid labor regulations in their respective countries.

Where did you source your information on Islam and the Caliphates from? Disney’s Aladdin? You don’t realize how much of our conception thereof is shaped by 18th and 19th century white supremacists pretending to be intellectuals.

How so? From the getgo, and even before its inception, Israel was designed to be a setller colonial project, resting on the myth that "no one occupies these lands” just like the United States, the British empire, Spain and Portugal justified conquering the entire American continent and massacring its native population to replace it with their own.

You could argue he was ignorant, but absolutely not right. Malcolm X was more aware of the ills of the Zionist project and he rightly condemned it.

“If you really enjoy accruing my capital as a wage slave, why would you want time away from it?”

Only through the proletarian revolution can we overthrow the capitalist mode of production, and so we should be diffusing social consciousness to the working class, and contribute to the mobilization of unions.

The human condition is dictated by the hegemonic system that is governing.

Monopoly™ the game is structually engineered so that players kill the competition and secure the entire board. Would playing by the game’s rules make me inherently a capitalist jerk? No, because they dictate my behaviour and not following them would put me outside the realm of the game (i.e. the system) resulting in my loss (decay).

If the capitalist system incentivizes me to outcompete others and hoard my wealth and, conversely, punishes me for my altruism; then, I am forced to play by the rules of such a system.

“Human nature” is much more complex to be reduced to just greed. This is what’s so cool about being humans, we are so malleable and can be many many things either at once or separately.

Edit: I want to give some concrete examples to what I’m saying. Initially, the Google leadership was skeptical about AI funding, because of privacy and environmental concerns. Yet, as rival competition grew they backpedaled because this would mean their spot as the strongest teck company would be usurped. The late hop into AI funding and development heavily impacted their prospects and they remain falling behind in this respect (source). Here, we have an exemplary case of how the system automatically punishes hood deeds and reinforces predatory and greedy acts.

It is important not to estrange the people, no matter how deluded they are. This is a product of the hegemonic order.

Hezbollah has political allies (including christians) which together amount(ed) to a majority.

See: https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/hezbollah-allies-win-62-seats-lebanon-parliament-losing-2018-majority-reuters-2022-05-17/

And it’s not Hamas which holds elections, but rather the Palestinian authority, presided by the leader of Fatah (opponent of Hamas) who has been impeding elections since 2006 because his party is losing popularity.

See: https://archive.ph/Jn4KJ

Where did you get your info from?

Mahmoud Abbas, president of Palestine and head of Fatah, was the one to suspend both legislative and presidential elections and not Hamas. In fact, the latter “strongly opposed the decision to call off elections” (npr.org).

Abbas’ party has been working closely with the Israeli authorities. His excuse was that “Israel refused to commit to allowing Palestinians to vote in Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem” (npr.org).

Some (quite convincingly) hypothesise that the suspension of the elections was aimed at preserving his presidency and salvage “his fractured Fatah party [which] was expected to suffer another embarrassing defeat to Hamas.” (apnews.com).

How can one expect the people to not fight if democracy can’t be exercised freely?

donations are not theft lol 😄

Hey I know you have “drama” with them but the PrivacyGuides community is solely centered around the concept of technical privacy, non-contextualized, and is agnostic to every other topuc. They’ve criticized (if not attacked) many FOSS projects but only from the lens of privacy and so I would understand their sometimes odd behavior. That being said, it would be unbiased of you to accuse them with such conspiracy theories.

On the other hand, I’m perplexed by the fact that they prominently use the spyware crap that Reddit is for communications.

Lemmy will never win such a race to the bottom. It should not.

Perhaps so. We sometimes get blinded by the desire to expand indefinitely, but I’m content with the current activity on lemmy and the slow yet sure growth.

I’m still researching what OS will be ideal for me when in the close future and it seems until now it’s ubuntu (or kubuntu), but I will make sure removing snap is the first thing to do.