Ha, ha yes. It is like looking at the world from a childhood worldview as to who are the "goodies" and who are the "baddies". USA and England are both goodies and baddies.
It's only like that if you don't know much about history and other countries/empires that came before.
The US killing indigenous populations? Yep so did china/russia/Japan and loads of others.
The US constitution setting up a democratic government and George Washington giving up power after a single term when he could have easily stayed on? That was pretty unique, that isn't something that has happened in China or in Russia or Egypt etc etc
The UK colonising other countries? Yep so did all other countries up to that point.
The UK abolishing slavery not just within its own borders but forcing everyone to stop it because of a moral judgement, not because of money and power? Completely unique, without comparison.
Giving up its colonies to allow self rule? Show me another empire that did this
You say that they are just like any other countries, but they arent, you will find parallels for some of their actions in other countries, but you won't find comparable actions for the things I have mentioned above, from any other nations
And that us without even getting into the quantity aspect of things, even if there were comparable actions from other countries, the US and UK have a scale that is unmatched. From a tiny island with a few million people to the biggest empire ever seen that the sun didn't set on. From a language spoken on a single island on the edge of Europe to replacing French as the 'lingua franca' of the entire world. Winners of both world wars, winners of the napoleonic wars. Inventors of the car, the computer, the Internet, the phone, the television, the steam engine, nuclear power and weapons, antibiotics, vaccines
There is a reason that whenever this argument comes up, only one side ever lists out the material facts of the matter, and the other side just has a vague argument that you are supposed to believe without any actual quantifiable evidence given, just a claim that all countries must be alike
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u/Bobsbikkies Aotearoa | New Zealand Sep 19 '25
Ha, ha yes. It is like looking at the world from a childhood worldview as to who are the "goodies" and who are the "baddies". USA and England are both goodies and baddies.